Note
Equinox Traverse Day 1 -
Rode unmapped dirt road over a mountain, sometimes coinciding with mapped trails. Just stayed on road, no nav required, except having a general idea where we were on the mountain, and needing to go uphill. First flat tire on the descent, and after the fasted tire change I have ever seen, we rode the pavement to the reservoir. Paddled a long while in the lake in some rain, portaged 1 mile around a big dam, then quickly down the stream, but slowly over rocks. Slower over time as the canoe became leaky and filled with water from the whitewater, rain, and leaks. No bailer was available except a bike bottle, which I used to bail non-stop for 1 hour except to help paddle through rapids. Still just 30 minutes back after 7 hours and slowish paddle. Transition to long hike near Covington, saved 2 hours by bushwhacking to a road and walking it for 1+ hour instead of hiking a long trail around. Missed an attackpoint from the road, but hiked up Fore Mountain an easier way. Long, wet, faint-trail-following excercise in the dark down Fore Mountain. Took a nice bearing toward street lights below us in Covington and picked up trail we couldn't find before, down to bikes in first place, about 14 hours into the race.
Equinox Day 2-
Let 2 teams leave ahead of us as we prepared for 24 more hours. Easy but uphill road to the lake, but complete clusterf*ck trying to find trailhead up the ridge. Many teams coming together, riding back and forth and being confused, as map became useless, we try to follow hints given by course designer. New trail was supposed to tie into old trail that no longer connected to the road we were on. Impossible to follow blazes at night and see a very faint trail intersection you had to take. We make a 30 minute error ending up on wrong dirt path, but find the trail after dawn. Many teams went a long way around on roads, that generally ended up easier or faster than the direct trail up the ridge, that turned into the longest hike a bike ever. Ran out of water on the long hike a bike early that morning. Very fast Stony Run trail descent into Douthat, with more bike issues (flat tire), but only 30 minutes back starting the optional o-course 20 hours in.
Easy nav on the O-course, as team members have recently been to all these checkpoints in previous races. Basically needed to climb up high ridges on both sides of the park, using trails. First stop, however, was the visitor center to buy sodas and snacks. Took a bad route off Buckthorn knob, descended a steep hill instead of catching the trail higher, but thats what happens when you're too lazy to take a bearing and go by feel retracing your steps. Skipped 3 o-points and 15 hours bonus time to have a sit-down lunch at the Douthat Restaurant in order to have energy for 24 hours (but really only 8 more hours). Service was incredibly slow and we fall asleep outside waiting for food. As we quickly eat our burgers, we watch the fast lead team ride past on the road, undoubtedbly with all the o-points. No longer in contention because of the skipped points, we slowly get packed and continue, but immediately have a flat, with no means of inflation. Another 15 minutes solving that issue by riding back to another team eating lunch to borrow their pump.
We ride a long way out the park and up a long gravel climb to a saddle, then bushwhack up Sandy Gap trail, another hike a bike that was, incredibly, even worse than the earlier hike a bike. Trail was so overgrown and narrow, you are walking through bushes next to the path, pushing your bike up the path, trying not to slam you shin into your pedals or fall off the edge of the trail, sometimes carrying your bike over rocks and around huge fallen trees. Finally emerge on the road, and coast down to the rappel site. Amazingly, the lead / fast team pulls in behind us becuase they somehow made a 30-minute error on some easy roads (we never saw them). They run in and out, ignoring our attempted conversation with them.
Directions up the rappel site were horrible, so we hike straight up to the checkpoint instead. Glad we got there before dark, because it would be very confusing at night, following one of many unmarked trails to a cabin, to a trail (non-existent) to a field, to a trail (non-existent) to the switchbacks to the cliff. After an easy rappel, we help guide another team up as we hike back down. Back on bikes, about 3 more hours of flat or paved roads and we finish after 34 hours of racing. Shorter course than we expected, I had plenty of extra food, it was enjoyable because we took ourselves out of contention after 24 hours in favor of food / sustenance / ability to finish faster. Unfortunately, the extra energy we gained did not allow us to finish 15 hours faster as we had originally reasoned in our fatigued state during the race, but it was still a great course. Post race feed canceled so the first three teams that finish we all go to Applebees just before they closed, then we sleep in the gym.