View from Hanging Rock Checkpoint
From Brent Eischen of Team Northern Lites!
The oldest mountain range in the continental US was the venue for the most recent Adventure Race for Team Northern Lites. This weekend’s team in the Uwharrie Mountains had a younger look as we lowered the median age from 42 to 35, switching out Dale and Charlie for Brent and Alex. This was Alex’s first big race and he should be awarded rookie honors for jumping into a 12 hour race for his initiation. At 27, he thought keeping up with a couple of 40 something’s would be no problem. HA!
The Panther was set as a 12 hour Rogaine format with 28 possible Control Points to find of which 3 were designated as mandatory (200 pts each). The remaining 25 CP’s were worth between 5 and 30 points depending on difficulty, distance, elevation, etc. The team that finished by the cut-off time with the most points wins (possible 1000 pts.). There were 18 teams racing the 12 hr course with an even split between all male and co-ed. The race began at 6:00 AM with a quick briefing then maps and passports were distributed. We plotted all 28 UTM’s, devised a quick strategy and were on the bikes departing for the first CP in 22 minutes. The plan was to pick up the 6 CP’s all down the East side of the park on the way to the first mandatory CP, Transition Area 1 (TA1). We snagged 5 with no problem and left the 6th to pick up on the way out. We dropped the bikes at TA1 and grabbed the canoe which already had our portage wheels attached. We opted for the 1.8 mile run with the canoe to the last possible put in point off the road thinking this would be much faster than being on a twisting, turning, shallow, Uwharrie River. It probably trimmed about 40 min off the canoe leg.
The portage wheels worked perfectly. This was the first time they had been used in competition. Alex designed and built a set of wheels that were lite, compact and strong enough to survive adventure racing portages. When expanded they measure 40” wide and can carry over 100 lbs. When collapsed in the boat they measure only 16”x16”x6” and weigh in at only 10 lbs. We might have to go into production and sell this competitive advantage to fund our AR habit……after a couple more races.
TA2 was easily located at the end of an uneventful paddle and then a short half mile up hill portage (yeah wheels!) to TA3, the final mandatory CP. The volunteers were just finishing setting up when we arrived a little earlier than they expected. Alex volunteered to do the high rope challenge and covered their course in surprising time. We were the first team to all 3 TA’s. This doesn’t mean much in a Rogaine format where you can achieve CP’s in any order but as part of our strategy I wanted to be off the water before the wind and boat waves picked up.
Transitioning to the running stage we tackled the entire center section of the course on foot. This choice could be debated but the bikes were now 5 miles away in the wrong direction and all the ORV and horse trails were going to be extremely rough. Of the bikers we saw, most were on foot pushing their bikes up the hills. The flip side is the down hills would have been much faster. The bikes would have also prevented me from making the one navigation error of the day that put us on a bushwhack that we were lucky to recover from. It cost us the 40 min advantage we earned on the portage. Standing on another unmarked trail checking the map, we saw our nearest competition (AdventureUS) come around the corner on the same trail heading where we wanted to go. The race was on.
We tucked in behind and out ran them to the next two CP’s creating some distance between the teams as we criss-crossed paths through the middle section. We ended up teaming up again later on in the run for the last couple of CP’s and on comparing notes we had secured one more CP than they did on the running section. Both teams slide down the hill from the highest point in the mountain range but we each chose different re-entrants. They beat us back to the bikes by a couple of minutes as they took what turned out to be the more direct slide. At the TA, in typical adventure racing spirit, Brent loaned them tools and parts to fix their damaged bike and we left the TA on our bikes about 1 min apart.
With the bulk of the course already accomplished and mainly bike accessible CP’s left, Brent lead the charge up the hills and on the trails encouraging us to 6 more CP’s. There was still the possibility of clearing the course before the cut-off time. This went up in smoke when Alex’s rear tube did the same. Poof, Brent jumped on it and put in the spare tube in record time. The only problem was the spare had more holes in it than the original. Patches didn’t hold. Our other spare was larger for Brent’s 29er. 29 inches of tube crammed into a 26 inch tire will actually hold air if treated gently. 20 minutes after the blowout we were rolling to the final 4 CP’s which all had to be achieved on foot. We were able to get 2 of the 4 and checked in at the finish line tired and hungry but pleased with our effort. Northern Lites covered 20 miles running on foot, 15 miles on the bike and 5 miles in the canoe for a race total of 40 miles, scoring an 988 out of a possible 1,000 points
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