Training Log Archive: JayXC

Fun night recapping the race with our friends in Portland who were gracious enough to put us up again on the way through.

C • Fun and FUNNY too! 2

Event: ROC - Mendon Ponds Park Regular Meet
 

Moose Mtn Trek cont'd

Indian Pond Mtn Bike

We decided to push on to the Dark Zone TA rather than rest at the lodge and we put just about every warm piece of gear on for the ride. We were a mess with everyone on the team continuing to take turns falling asleep while riding. It’s amazing how much concentration it took to stay awake and how short your attention span could be.

In our sleep deprived-state we fell for another black line trail goose chase delaying our arrival at the Dark Zone TA, finally getting there just before 9am Saturday. With the dark zone ending at 10:30am everyone was finally able to get a good hour of sleep before everything ramped up for the final day of racing.

Kennebec River rafting

We were shuttled to the Harris Dam put-in where teams left in 5 minute intervals. At this point we were 2 hours behind Raidlight and a few hours ahead of Osprey so there wasn’t a lot of effort put forward but the enjoyment was still very high. After the technical sections we dropped off our guide Victor and then paddled the remaining 8 miles to the Forks Campground with Erik at the helm.



(Osprey taking the wet line, love John's expression)

Trek to Dead River put-in

The next leg was a trek along the Dead River on the Maine Huts Ski Trial that we rode 2 years ago. By now both Erik and I are struggling with our feet and any distraction is a welcome event with the exception of the mosquitos which suck regardless of feet condition. We traveled the length of this leg with Towanda and shared a few stories along the way until we reached the put-in.

Dead River Packrafting

We inflated the rafts and launched and within seconds Mindy and Erik flip into the water. Fortunately we’re able to get them ashore to empty their boat and get moving again. The sun is out and we try to stay in it as much as possible while Dave hunts along shore for the first two CPs. This paddle was also just like I remembered it and we had a lot of fun ripping through the rapids but I was concerned that we would have to hike out of the gorge if Mindy went in again so that hung in the back of my mind. We had seen two other competitors struggling with hypothermic symptoms along this section. Fortunately that didn’t happen and we were able to punch CP C along with Osprey at the end of the rapids and from there it was just a bumpy paddle to the take-out.


(Team France punching through)

Forks Wilderness Mtn Bike

With renewed urgency given Osprey was right behind us our plan was to pack up the rafts as quickly as possible and take off in our wet clothes on the 12 mile ride to the finish. We informed the TA staff about the two wet paddlers upriver and they decided to take our packrafts for the rescue. We thought that was a great idea. The first part of the ride was uphill so we’d warm up along the way.

That’s what we intended to happen. What we did was we fell for a black line trail that went nowhere again. After an hour long out-and-back bushwhack we returned to the roads and ATV trails for the rest of the 4+ hour trip to the finish in freezing cold temperatures. We finally crossed the finish line at 12:12am Sunday morning happy to be on the full course in 9th place.

Abenaki Lost World Trekking

Ride to Greenville

In the TA we chose to get everything ready for the next leg and then a 30 minute nap. We anticipated we’d get stuck by the dark zone during Friday night but it had been around 60 hours since we had slept last so a nap sounded good and should have been enough to get us through to CP44. The Moosehead Lake paddle had been cancelled due to the conditions so we rode to Greenville for the Urban O-course. Given that we wouldn't see our personal bins for the remainder of the race we had to bring whatever we wanted later with us (packraft, PFD, Food, Shoes, lights, kitchen sink, etc). Our packs were huge.

Greenville Urban O-course

The O-course was relatively simple hitting the local tourist spots but our speed was severely hampered by my and now Erik’s feet. The highlight of the event was the crepes shack near the TA that made 4 top knotch burritos for us on our way out.

Moose Mtn Trek

The trek up Big Moose Mountain was very enjoyable and offered some great views along the way. As night approached I began to wonder if we were going to see any of the dark zone as our pace was very slow at this point. The approach to the summit has seen a ton of ranger work on the trail which resembled a giant staircase with all of the repositioned rocks. We intended to bushwhack off the opposite side but instead lucked out and found a trail which led straight to the Big Squaw Lodge.



The 2000’ descent took forever on the ski trail. As Erik said, anything other than skiing or mtn biking down a ski trail is a waste of elevation. It wasn’t until I went back out of the lodge to get our Bin 2 that I realized it was in the lower 40F’s.

Barren Range Mtn Bike cont'd

O-Relay

The O-Relay went well for each of us and provided some time off the clock to sort gear, sleep and eat pancakes which was great. Erik, Dave and I all have a decent amount of nav experience so we were looking forward to this section. Mindy was a relative new comer to a map and compass but with some focused training in MI and NY this spring she was able to make quick work of her leg and we ended up with the fastest time between CP18-CP20.

We also completed the Conservation portion of the event at this location which required each team to stack 100 pcs of split wood into a pile. It was here that I realized I could no longer pick on anyone for logging on AP ‘stacking wood’. At least we didn’t have to cut the grass.


(Harps showing off the 'guns')

100 Mile Wilderness Mtn Bike

We left the relay with Equilibre and ahead of DART and O-Canada. The remainder of the bike ride was relatively straight forward with the exception of a few beaver ponds we had to cross. What a mess of a road they can make. While riding I had not noticed how much the wind had picked up during the morning.

Abenaki Lost World Packraft/Trek

We arrived at the TA and prepared for the first packrafting leg of the race. We had been warned that this leg could take up to 24 hours so we made sure to bring plenty of food and batteries. As we were putting on it was obvious that the wind was going to be quite a challenge. Osprey was just minutes ahead of us and had just entering the wind in their rafts and they were struggling to make any forward progress.



(Peak Performance or Sweco rafting in the wind)


Our selection for rafts this year was the 2-person Alpacka Gnu which we could get up to around 2 km/hr in the wind/waves. We paddled the length of Third Roach Pond, walked the length of the shallow outlet creek, paddled the length of Second Roach Pond and its outlet creek with Equilibre where we both decided to trek to the next 2 CPs. This was the beginning of our nav/feet issues. We should have trekked across to First Roach Pond and put back on with the rafts but instead decided to walk around adding more time to our feet and extending our route in the process.

Abenaki Lost World trekking

On our long walk DART managed to close the gap behind us and they took out at CP32 right on our heels. Up until this point we had been traveling at a relatively conservative pace with excellent route choices and it was paying off. Teams would race by us only to be caught and passed later on while they were on a longer route.

When we arrived at the attackpoint for #4 Mountain my feet were starting to feel it. We started up the aggressive route option but decided against it and ended up adding more distance to get to the trail option.




Climbing up on the trail actually felt better on my feet however and I was optimistic they wouldn’t be an issue. On the way to CP34 O-Canada ran passed us like we were standing still and my feet were again becoming an issue.




The climb up to CP34 was initially pretty thick in a logged area but then we found a trail and made good progress catching Equilibre and O-Canada on the shoulder. The rest of the way up was very thick and a struggle with our big packs. We eventually found the summit but couldn’t find the CP finally realizing that we were on the center knob and that more bushwhacking was required to get to the correct knob. Once we punched we should have taken a short nap as we managed to get turned around on the way to CP35 and wasted about 45 minutes relocating.

The trek to CP35 will be one which competitors will shake their heads at for years to come. Our plan was to get to the ridge leading towards CP35 and hope for a mythical trail. Just as we were about to give up hope we ran into a ‘trail’ of pink and black ribbon heading the correct direction. We followed for about a km until it ran out just as DART caught us from behind. We continued to follow a herd path leading to CP35 wiggling in-out over-under very dense scrub the entire way. We covered the 3 km to the summit in 6 hours.



Once we punched the other side of the mountain seemed relatively tame and we descended very quickly ultimately hitting a logging road which led to the TA. This last 10 km lit up my feet and they were very painful approaching the TA.

Birches Resort O-course and CP1 Feeding Frenzy

After turning in our bins in the pouring rain we boarded buses for a 2 hour shuttle to Moosehead Lake for the start.

To spread out the field before jumping into the canoes Grant had a short o-course planned with 3 points on it and the points could be attained in any order. CP1 was located right before the put-in and as I’m sure Grant had planned nearly the entire field arrived at it at the same time and of course it had a green band around it indicating that everyone on each team had to punch it on their own wristband.



For the most part everyone handled it well and there were no punches thrown.

Moosehead Lake Crossing

The paddle across Moosehead Lake had some chop and I’m pretty sure on three different occasions our bow was only about 5 lbs lighter than what was required to completely submerge our canoe in an oncoming wave. We arrived as the 6th team at the Little Kineo Mtn take-out with Osprey and Columbia.

Little Kineo Summit and ropes relaxation

From the take-out we had to run up the mtn on the trail to the rappel. There was some urgency here as we were told there was 8 lines and to prevent any delay we wanted to be in the top 8. The view from the top was excellent and showed the entire race course for the next few day right in front of us.



Once we arrived it was a mess. The rope team was in disarray and only using 2-3 lines down. They were having trouble getting gear back up the mtn and this was limiting the number of teams that could go down. A system where 2 team members descended and then waited for the rappel gear just used to be pulled back up was put in place. This seemed to take forever. At least one team managed to confuse the rope team which allowed them to send down a 4 racers in a row without delay. Once at the bottom we had to boulder hop down to a road, punching CP4 on the way which I nearly missed.

North Bay Paddle

Kineo Mtn Summit

We put back in on the lake and paddled to Kineo Mtn for another summit climb while making a lap around the island. The view from the top of the firetower was excellent!



The descent down was pretty technical which forced you to watch your feet carefully and we ran right past CP9 forcing us to climb back up 100m to punch it seeing Equilibre and DART along the way.

Moosehead Lake Traverse

We put back in with DART and paddled with a nice tailwind where Dave explained his new ‘micro-rudder technique” for keeping the canoe straight. It’s supposedly perfected but I think it still needs some work.



(Mindy and Erik motoring into the TA)


We made it to the campground take-out just as the sun was setting and where the mosquitos had called in reinforcements.

Barren Range Mtn Bike

This leg looked to be long and had a ton of route choices. The most perplexing was the area between CP14 and CP15. They were relatively close on either side of a col but there wasn’t any trails connecting them.





(Map snippets courtesy of Breathe Magazine/Losdobos)

The best confirmed route all on roads added about 30 miles and had us off the map so it seemed obvious that the intended route was a bushwhack between the two.

We traveled with DART for a while and started playing a bit of leapfrog with them at each of the turns when alternating navigators would stop to check the maps. Eventually we made it to area for the bike bushwhack was to be but there didn’t seem to be an obvious route up. After a bit of messing around we picked the most-likely path and headed up but not too far into it the path it died and we were resigned to bike-whacking in very thick veg. The only consolation was that we were following some else’s tracks for the most-part. Eventually we hit the road on the other side as expected and the gravel road ride continued.

The rest of the ride through the night was a blur of gravel roads, large mud puddles and getting passed by and passing Equilibre, O-Canada and DART all the way to the stop at the O-Relay.

Event: Untamed New England Expedition Race
 

2014 Untamed New England Expedition Race with Mindy Fernando, Dave Lamb and Erik Grimm.

The course layout for this year’s race was handed out a week earlier so everyone had plenty of time to pack their bins and prepare their food. Fortunately we were completely ready upon arrival as we had a busy schedule once at the Forks.

It was quite an honor to be included as a panelist for the Adventure Racing Symposium with this international pool of athletes and for the most part I managed to not make a fool of myself. Is that really how I sound??? Emcee Dave Romilly may have a budding career as a game show host.



Link to actual video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcnhbuHrl68&feature...

Maps were handed out later in the evening and we were shown the Breathe Mag. Flyover video. What stuck out to me while watching it was the number of peaks we’d be going over and all the paddling. We were looking forward to it. We reviewed the maps, made route choices and distributed food and batteries to the appropriate bins prior to going to bed around midnight.