Discussion: WT Course guess ....

In an effort to minimize the hours I waste every year on this 'endeavour' I'm taking one quick shot at this and will do my best to avoid further speculation... ;-)

Start in or near McKellar... just because I have a feeling we're going north to start and it fits the drive distance that the RD's always lie about to get me off on the wrong foot.

First leg (7 km run) must be pretty runnable based on time estimates and ends around Balsam Rd and Kodiak Rd at the trail junction.

2nd leg (24 km bike) would run through Ahmic Forrest and Rock Barrens and ultimately end between Sequin and Spence Lake.

3rd leg (long Trek 20 km ) would go through Bear Lake Peatland Reserve and maybe even up and include Ryerson Forest Reserve

4th leg (long Bike 79 km) ride south to the Park to Park trail and ride it all the way back to G-BAy. End at Rose Point area.

5th leg (20 km Paddle) in G-Bay south past McLaren Isle and up into Spider Bay (Hoping for G-bay paddle even tho it will likely be dark for us... unless we are REALLY slow)

6th leg ( 7km 2.5-6hr WTF??! trek) Circuit or out and back trek to get back in boats. (this seems to be my weakest guess amongst a lot of weak assumptions :-) ).

7th leg (14 km Paddle to Grand Tapatoo) I'm really hoping I got at least the finish line right.

No chance I'm guessing at the podium... so many strong teams!!

Hmm.

That's not helpful! :-)

I sure hope not!

2x 150 m swims....put those both on the 6th leg (CPs/non TAs on "wrong" side of water body), that helps pad the trek time up, at least at my swimming speeds. Maybe we can use and abuse the ~50 m rule, park me on the opposite bank, and toss out teammates every 50 m, and have the final person paddle two boats to the flag. Reverse starting leg 7.

I'm thinking there's gotta be a river on the big trek that needs a swim and then a swim on the final trek?

I am trying to think of why that trek will be so slow.

Elevation?
Vegetation?
Swamp?
Swims?

The highest point in Parry Sound, the internet tells me, is 120 km away, so perhaps not that. I didn't have a good way to sort by steepness, and caltopo only has those 20 m intervals.

In my limited WT experience, vegetation hasn't been that bad, but we've had a freedom of travel which perhaps this leg doesn't offer. The worst a Michigan race ever gave us was 1.5 km/hour following an undeveloped impoundment shoreline with slow fight on rolling terrain.

Just <3 to just >1 kmph could be a lot of Ontario wilderness. :-(
Logistically it would make sense for this trek to start and end at the same spot to avoid shuttling boats and also as a potential section to drop for 'back half' teams.

If they are moving boats from leg 5 to 7 then that will pretty much squash my guesses above.

I can't imagine they'd move boats - that means vehicle access would which mean bin access not out of line, but no bins. Thankfully many of our local races have been bin free to give us great self-support practice for those long hauls.

Great point re: dropping the brutal trek for short course, hadn't even thought that far yet! Still trying to crunch numbers to get us through full course in 29:59! Third time's the charm!

"I am trying to think of why that trek will be so slow"

Probably because when I tested it with Bob I got lost a few times. Sorry.

Hammer was that during the day or night :) If you can average 2.5km/hrs at night trekking it would take you just under 3 hrs to complete at a minimum. Should be fun!