2007 Adventure Rage

I wanted to participate in this race, but I could not find a partner. After much searching across the internet and contacting every Arer I know, I finally teamed up with Hilary. It was unknown how we would match up, but we both wanted to do the race.

We worked well plotting the maps and map wheeling all the distances. Once everything was laminated we could begin packing our bags and preparing for the race. The 4pm start gave us plenty of time for all tasks, even though it was still stressful knowing we were under the gun. The course seemed pretty straight forward, but the maps are old and the trails could be out of date. Only time would tell.

At the start we began biking for CP1. We followed our plan and headed north on a dirt road. About half the field continued on the paved road. Our first turn was supposed to be at the 7 mile mark, a road called Crooked. When we hit 7 miles there was a little sandy two-track trail. We were not 100% confident in the map wheel distance and there were no tracks in the sand, thus we headed further up the road. The next road we hit was not right so we continued north. About the 10 mile mark we hit another road that had bike tracks on it. We pressed forward hoping we hadn't screwed up totally. We eventually caught up to four other teams that were debating the current location. It turned out that we had ridden way too far north. Time to head south, but at least we knew where we were and where we had to go. Some riding down a sandy trail got us to CP1, in second to last place. It's a long race so we just pushed forward. As we headed to CP2 we learned that the map wheel and bike odometers were spot on, so we should trust the distances. As we approached the turn to CP2, two two-person teams flew right past it then a solo went on by. We made the turn and found it. Onto the single track. Nothing too difficult, but plenty of turns and tight trees. So tight that I hit one with my handle bars knocking me off the bike. I remounted my bike and continued riding. Shortly there after, I checked my odometer for our distance. It was gone. It must have fallen off when I hit the tree. Going back wasn't really an option and finding it would be difficult, so we had to rely on Hilary's odometer. We past one team on the single track. They were having cramping issues. The ride was about two miles shorter than we expected so we finished before it was dark. It was nice to be back on roads before the darkness engulfed the woods.

Now it was just a 12 mile road ride to the bike drop. We pushed hard and passed four riders. Not sure if they were one team or two. We then caught up to two other riders at the bike drop. A quick tranistion and we were into the canoes on the Au Sable river. Pitch black on a windy river with plenty of downed trees kept us on edge. It worked best for only Hilary to a light. She shined the way and told me where the hazards were located. We caught a two person team then a solo kayak. All was going well until we missed a turn. We saw some other racers above the beaver dam, so when Hilary tried to convince me that we were on the wrong side of the dam I wasn't listening. After some searching, the other team and we turned back, went over the dam, and found the right turn. A small sign pointing to the right said "Main Stream." If only it had a light on it. We past some teams running through the woods on the o-course. The paddle to the take out was still quite a ways. When we arrived I was concerned about how far those teams had already travelled on the o-course. Boks gave us our o-course map and we changed into dry, warm gear. It was 3am and we had to decide how many points we would try to get. The three northern points were indicated as the toughest, so we had to decide if it would be worth the time to try for them. We decided to skip them and headed straight south to CPD. It shouldn't be too hard, but it was pitch black. We ran around the woods looking for it, but eventually had to give up. Our options were to head back out of the woods and re-locate ourselves or to head west to the road and go for CPG. We opted for CPG. On the way we encountered Dirt Skirts looking for CPF. It didn't make sense how we would be anywhere near CPF, but we weren't really sure of anything at that point. We continued on to the road and down to an attack point on CPG. After one failed attempt, we relocated and tried again. This time we found the lake and CPG. Now south to CPH. We swapped the map back and forth as we each had ideas of where we were and how to find CPH. With good team work we eventually found it. Now south to CPI and the end of the o-course. This trek was much longer than anticipated and we still had to reach the summit of Skyline, the next TA.

We headed down from Skyline on our bikes with a relatively short ride to Houghton Lake. The saddle sores were slowing me down. Once there we were back into the canoes for another long paddle. Once on Houghton Lake, we were hit by a strong headwind. We would have to paddle into it for this entire leg. Many turns through the shallow reed lined river eventually led us to the open water. This little lake was full of lilly pads and tree stumps. Negotiating through it into a strong headwind was a bit of a challenge, but we made it with no serious problems. Luckily for us, the canoe leg was cut short here as the river below this point was too shallow to paddle. It was the best news I have ever heard. We would then bike to the original canoe drop and continue from there. This would be a fairly simple navigational ride all on roads, but quite a few miles. We hit the last two CPs without any problems. We just needed to get to the finish line. Hilary's knee was bugging her, so she was only pedalling with one leg. Given that, she was still going at a good pace. Not to mention I stopped abruptly when she was checking her odometer, just clipping me sending her to the ground. A bit of road rash on the knee but she knew we were close to finishing and pushed herself forward. The bike around the swamp cost us some time, but we finished in 27:30 hours. This and our three o-points gave us a first place finish in the 2-person coed division. We raced well together for having just met. Given our success, we will most likely be racing together again.