Training Log Archive: Bash

Our team took a few short spins on the sample race kayak. It's a sit-on-top so we'll be wet but it's more comfortable than the ones we used at the Apex Race, especially with the MEC kayak seats we brought (which attracted interest from Team Columbia Vidaraid).

The front seat probably wouldn't fit anyone over 5'8" so Wokitoki is stuck in the back for the whole race. Too bad because these boats hate going in a straight line so the stern paddler will be working extra hard. This isn't great for our team since I'm the most experienced in the stern but have the weakest upper body and flimsiest rotator cuff.

We tested our new Windpaddle sails and they should work well.

We got to see the wide range of weather that Patagonia is famous for - heavy rain in the morning followed by scorching sunshine and a clear, chilly evening.

We took the bus into the lovely mountain village of Villa Lo Angostura for lunch and food shopping. The only grocery store open on Sunday had very limited selection. I always eat crap when I race but this time it will be *really* crappy.

The nervous-making news for our team is that Wokitoki's freshly tuned-up bike is unrideable. It looks like the new chain won't work with the old rear cassette. He'll be on the bus to town tomorrow to hit the bike shop when it opens at 9 a.m. We are being transported to Race HQ in another town at noon, so time is tight.

Other than that, all is well. We went out for an even nicer dinner with MBR tonight. We're having a good time testing (very thoroughly) Argentinian red wines. Our Spanish is improving although we all lapse into French at times.

After dinner, I took apart my bike for the 3rd time in 5 days. It's become a very smooth process after all the practice!

Test ride in Villa Lo Angostura after rebuilding my bike. It's all good. Unfortunately, we have to take them apart again for transportation to Race HQ in Villa Traful on Monday. There is no bike shop in that small village so everyone is checking their bikes here post-flight.

One of the race kayaks is here. It's a pig, as we had already seen in the photos but our MEC kayak seats fit perfectly, and we've got foot straps so we can paddle using our core. We'll do a test paddle tomorrow. The lake outside our hotel is incredibly beautiful.

We saw MBR and they've gone to town now, then we're having dinner with them later. It's absolutely spectacular here; hopefully someone will post the photo of the view from our balcony. I'm eating Argentinian chocolate out here since we missed lunch. :) Only the glass of wine is missing but I'll fix that later.

Relaxed day of rest and preparation tomorrow then we move to Villa Traful on Monday to set up Central Camp and get the maps for Section 1. Weather forecast is near-perfect for the week.

All 8 Canadians got here safe, smiling and with their luggage. So far, things couldn't be better! :)

Made it to rainy Buenos Aires with 4 bikes and 5 big bags. We all slept on the flight from Miami except for Wokitoki. Now we're enjoying the results of our first Latin American snafu. We need to transfer to the domestic airport for our next flight, and our pre-booked " private minibus" is a full-sized bus. I thought it seemed expensive ($72 each) but the agent had all our baggage dimensions and chose this one. Hmm... In the meantime, we're all enjoying the comfort of 3 rows per person. :)

To do on the plane (Toronto - Miami - Buenos Aires - San Carlos de Bariloche):

1) Spanish lessons on the iPhone.

2) Learn lyrics to keep team awake during long night treks.

It's Tierra Viva time! The Milton Basement Racers go today and the Tree Huggers fly out tomorrow. I'm streamlining my luggage today, removing items previously thought essential until I weighed it all.

The race website is here. We've received no info about live coverage and there was no mention of GPS trackers in the race info but it is an ARWS event so I would expect something.

The Attackpoint discussion is here - often the best place to follow a race where Attackpointers are competing.

The race starts on Tuesday morning and the last teams finish on Sunday at 4 p.m. (They are an hour later than Toronto time.) The race consists of 4 sections, each of which starts and finishes at a Central Camp in the small resort village of Villa Traful, Argentina.

Each section can include any or all of the disciplines (trekking, mountain biking, big lake kayaking) and in some places, we will have the opportunity to make strategic decisions by doing disciplines - or CPs within a discipline - in the sequence of our choosing. We only get maps for one section at a time so it will be fun when we start getting sleepy.

I've just decided to leave my netbook behind due to high crime rates and high luggage volume. :) This means that I can't post photos to Attackpoint and can't upload any photos from my camera, only from my phone - which I'm supposed to avoid displaying in public. Double_Downon11 has graciously agreed to post any pics I send him to the main AP thread. I have no idea what kind of communications we will have. I know Simpy ordered a SIM card so at least one of us should be able to talk to the outside world before and after the race. If I have access, I will try to check e-mail, texts, Facebook stuff directed at me, my AP log and the Tierra Viva AP thread. However, that may very well not happen, and we will be in pre-race mode soon after arriving.

Wishing everyone a very happy first week of spring! :)

Snow has been falling all day so I promised myself a quick ski break in Palgrave West if I got enough things done. As always, everything is hitting the fan right before I go away. (E-mail: "Your credit card expired. We will be shutting down the Orienteering Ontario website." "No! I called you with the new expiry date two weeks ago!" "Right. You can ignore that e-mail.")

Beautiful ski in a winter wonderland with snowflakes swirling down. My skis were bricking up in the wet snow but any ski on the second day of spring is a special ski - especially since I was mountain biking dry single track in January this year. I'll be flying into autumn tomorrow, having just missed summer by a couple of days. Hard to wrap my mind around that.

Got my bike all set up for Tierra Viva then took it apart and packed it up. One of my bike travel rules is that I have to take it out and rebuild it at home, ride it, then pack it a 2nd time. This ensures that I have all the right tools and that it all feels familiar and easy at my destination.

Good thing I tried. I'd forgotten the crucial step of shimming my hydraulic disc brakes. Ugh. They'd both slammed shut and 'Bent was already in bed. Google suggested that most people should go to a bike shop rather than risk damaging the brakes. So much for my last minute pre-travel schedule. :(

When I woke up this morning, 'Bent announced that he'd fixed them. Yahoooo!! Thank you!! :)) I'm sure going to miss having him on our team. And just in general, of course. :)

I feel heartsick about the outpouring of Twitter support for the Steubenville boys who raped an unconscious girl at a party and were sentenced for their crime this week. How can these attitudes still exist in 2013? Mind blowing and really, really discouraging. Nice turn of phrase by the Globe writer.

A number of Tweeters rounded up here were convinced the girl brought it on herself by drinking too much, and that she should have been more thoughtful of the teenage boys around her before putting them in the apparently unfair and difficult position of having to rape her. “Be responsible for your actions ladies before your drunken decisions ruin innocent lives,” wrote @THEkayla_jeter. “They did what most people in their situation would have done,” said @zJosiah.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button...

For those of you running CCC this summer, you will be going around the east side of Mont Blanc from Courmayeur to Chamonix. In this video, Kilian Jornet takes the shortcut over the mountain. If you're wondering what the start line in the town of Courmayeur might look like, check out the beginning.

Damn you, Hansel and JayXC and your good ideas. As tonight's blizzard swept into Palgrave, I headed out to the yard for Test #4 of my Tierra Viva sleeping system, this time with my new -1C Marmot Cloudbreak 30 sleeping bag and the slightly thicker short sleeping pad that the guys on our team will be using. It was -2C, windy and snowy so it was a pretty good test for the worst Patagonia is likely to offer at this time of year - with the exception of rain, which won't be much fun in any bivy bag. I wasn't overly toasty but my hands were freezing by the time I got inside, and they warmed up after awhile, so it seems to work. At this point, I've probably spent more time testing my TV sleeping system than I will actually use it in the race!

'Bent is out tonight and I had a bootie call. Hingo and his 3-year-old son dropped by to borrow 'Bent's neoprene kayak booties for the race. ;)