TEAM thebackpacker.com 77hr Adventure ra ce

“Cool thanks!”

“I'm awed by the miles - great job!”

“Nige,
Yeah we can do that....just let me know when it's done. :)”

“Our Team Race pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/370161424iZxzlL


Ok let see if I can finally get my race report written up here

I raced under team CureLeukimia.com we ended up finishing in 17th place which we were all happy with we accomplished our goal of having fun and finishing the race with an awesome race team!!

For the start of the race my race partner Asher discovered that he had left his pack raft in the trailer just after our support person had left for the TA across the bay. So he started biking to the other side of the bay but luckily came across one of the race directors that was heading that way already and he succeeded in finding our support person and getting our packraft back to us before the race started. Race started with an easy ½ mile run to the bay to at which point we had to inflate our packrafts and start paddling. We made short work of inflating the rafts and getting into the water but shortly after starting the paddle Asher cuts his raft on some rocks. I grab his pack to take weight out of his raft and he keeps paddling away until he had to resort to swimming. He ends up holding onto the back of my raft while I paddle pulling him along. This was a slow process until I decided to call one of my other team mates over to me and I ended up hooking my feet into the rope at the back of the packraft so that two of us in unison were able to pull. This worked much better and we were finally able to start making ground and finished the paddle across the bay like this.
We quickly switched to bikes and got ready for a nice 65 mile bike leg. We dropped into a pace line and hammered away. About halfway into the bike leg I was starting to feel the heat and felt myself starting to slow down. I am normally one of the stronger bikers but that was not the case this day and I put myself on tow behind another bike. Shortly after going on tow I was watching the tire in front of me and not paying attention to the road and we came across a diagonal railroad track which my front tire was happy to follow allowing me to go fly over the handle bars, but don’t worry the asphalt broke my fall. No damage to the bike and minimal damage to me, we peddled on just at a slightly slower pace. We got a little confused on some of the two track roads but quickly got back on track and found our CP’s and the Zip line where we had a fun little zip across the river with our bikes attached. Then finally making to our first TA and some great food.
From There we left on foot for our 35 mile trek we got slightly lost on some of the two track roads due to some miss measuring our map between two points but quickly decided to find a known location to get us on track instead of wondering the endless two track roads. After knocking off the next couple of CP’s we came to the edge of Big Devil Swamp and what a swamp it was. That was some very slow and tough trekking going around, under and through an endless number of downed trees and dense brush. We eventually found our way to a marked property line that we followed till it ran us into the river. Noting that the next CP was supposed to be next to the river we ended up walking the river instead of fighting the swamp anymore. We found a number of other teams and more importantly found our CP a short distance up the river. We then made short work of pushing our way out of that Devils Swamp. On our way to our next set of CP we needed to Stop to take care of some developing foot problems(can you say blisters) I was lucky and only ended up with a couple of minor blisters but that can not be said for the rest of my team who would be fixing and refixing their feet the rest of the race. We finally made it to our bikes and a short 8 mile ride to our next TA and our first chance to Sleep. We sleep at this TA for about 2-3 Hours
After a nice nap we jumped in our canoes for a easy 49 mile paddle. No thinking was involved here so we just paddled along though one CP then onto our next TA where we arrive just as night was setting in. We probably had our slowest transition time here not counting sleep time. After a 2-3 hour TA(terrible) We eventually jumped on our bikes for a 18 mile sandy bike ride that quickly lead us to a bike drop and our Score-O Orienteering section. This ended up being perhaps the best navigation that we had done yet. We navigated to within 20 -30 feet of each CP and we were dead on with our terrain following the whole way. During this section thou my female teammate was getting hit hard with sleep deprivation and was having some interesting hallucinations and would fall asleep if stopped for more then 1 minute, so we decided 2/3 of the way though the course that we would have to take a 20 minute power nap before anyone of us could jump back on a bike we completed the Score-O course in about 6 hours getting all 5 CP’s then got in a well needed but quick 20 minute nap and that made all the difference for the short 10 mile bike ride to our next TA.
We again took about a 2 hour to sleep in this TA not realizing just how close to the finish we were. We loaded up with every piece of gear we owned (at least it seemed like it) for the next section we needed to carry climbing gear, bike helmet, paddles, packraft, PFD;s and of course food and water to make it to the next TA. This section started with a traverse across the river on ropes. After watching the team in front of us end up dragging through the water I asked the obvious question (Hey can you tighten that rope a little more?) They said no problem and we ended up with a nice dry traverse across the river. From there it was a strait forward but slightly marshy walk along some power lines to the Dam we again got to put our packrafts in the water. This section was by far the worst for me. We had a head wind the whole way across Cooke Damn pond for 5-7 miles. My shoulder was screaming at me the whole paddle across and to even pause to drink water caused the wind to visibly blow the raft backwards. During this section we realized that we were almost to the end and decided to go for it, and finish hard and fast. After getting out of those damn packrafts we just pulled the plugs put on our packs grabbed our paddles and ran the two miles to our next and final TA.
At this TA I was able to briefly see Joy and shout out a quick hello while running to our support vehicle which was just past them after a fast very fast TA we quickly jumped on our bikes for a fast and easy 10 mile bike ride quickly saying goodbye to Joy on the way out. We arrived at the canoe section just as night was fully setting in and quickly prepped the boats with mandatory glowsticks and jumped in and started paddling. Paddling was slow due to the darkness and hidden obstacles but we were consistent and paddled happily along until we started to note the waves coming in off Lake Huron. As we approached the break wall and the mouth of the Ausable river we were faced with some nice 2-3 foot rolling waves coming right at us. That woke everyone up especially my poor female racer BA with the front of the canoe much lighter it seemed to crash down hard into every wave. It was a hard wild and crazy paddle out the river and along the lake shore to the finish line. With sweet rolling off of all us from the intense hard paddle to finally get out of the water and onto that beach which we knew was just a short distance ahead. Finally we hit the beach and the finish line a little after 1:00am Sunday morning for a total race time of just over 66 hours. What a hell of a race and looking forward to doing it again.

Our next race will be a the LionHeart 24 hour race in south western PA. for any one looking to get into adventure racing my race partner BA and our support person Frank are both race directors for American Adventure Sports located in PA so please check them out they have a Training Academy to get you up to speed on any aspect of the sport. And put on some great races.
www.americanadventuresports.com”

“Great report Scott. It was nice to be able to cheer for you guys too. =)”

“Scott, great report!! Glad you had fun and congrats on your finish, very impressive. I still wanna have you guys over for some beers and BBQ sometime...”