This week in dot watching: Cameco Cowboy Tough AR

ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
Not a good day it seems. Don't know details yet, just got service, but I was told they lost their paddles and their portage of their boats to next TA took long.e r than anticipated. My guess is they flipped in the water (heard it was a fast river with rocks) that's how they lost their paddles and lost their portage carts and had to carry them. I haven't checked yet, but I was told they're a bit far back now.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Not a good day it seems. Don't know details yet, just got service, but I was told they lost their paddles and their portage of their boats to next TA took long.e r than anticipated. My guess is they flipped in the water (heard it was a fast river with rocks) that's how they lost their paddles and lost their portage carts and had to carry them. I haven't checked yet, but I was told they're a bit far back now.

Well this is disappointing... Hope everyone is ok.
 

ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
All is well, team is good again. They did flip, it was Aaron's and Johns boat. They lost it down some rapids with their paddles and Aaron's pack which had his mandatory gear he had to carry at all times, not sure what that impact or penalty will be. Tough portage out where they had to pull out of a canyon then portage on railroad, portage cart kept losing wheels from railroad ties they wasted hour and a half having to keep fixing that. Due to getting behind from that, they could not the upcoming trek section and had to bike straight through to next TA. That added another 40 miles or so of biking. Team is looking good and strong today and they're pushing through trying to make up lost time and stay official til finish, although alaternate coursed.

Total mileage will end up being something like 315 on bike, on loaded bikes with packs, about 90-95 miles of paddling, and some trekking. Only some :)

They have maybe 70 ish more miles to bike to finish. Two optional trekking sections along the way, time permitting.

Finish cutoff is 12 noon tomorrow. One checkpoint lost for every minute late.

Thanks for all the trail mail!! I had a good laugh taping them on their team bins last night :)
 

qclabrat

Well-Known Member
good to hear everyone is safe, thanks for the update
I'm winded just thinking about their last 3 days
 

ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
I should have good service now. It's been a rough night, few teams are dropping just can't push any longer and concerned about distance and making the cutoff and it's been really really cold tonight. This has been the most depleted I've seen all teams. Of course there are two long nasty climbs up mountains between now and the finish too.

I should add though that yeaterday they were able to enjoy the ascent and rappel on a wall, so that was a plus!

You may have already seen if you've been watching dots, but the winning team did finish early last night. Incredibly impressive endurance and speed by these top teams. There's been this feud between Adventure Medical Kits and Tecnu, which has been REALLY interesting to see on course.

There have also been a lot of cows out on course. They're hilarious, they don't care one bit
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ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
That Swedish Armed Forces team was able to finish on 2 of their original bikes and then 2 borrowed bikes from racers who dropped and no longer needed theirs. They are the team that previously had the rear hub blow up issue at the beginning. Same thing happened to another team member this morning. Both bikes were the same new scalpel.
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Hey everyone. Thanks so much for following the race and for all the trail mail. It was awesome getting a morale boost during the race. Unfortunately the race was somewhat of a disaster after losing gear on the day 2 paddle. It went from an adventure race to just an adventure. Nonetheless I'll be working on some race write-ups with pics. Despite the disaster. We had a great time and really challenges ourselves. I'm a totally sleep deprived and broken human lol. I'll check back in after some rest
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm awaiting the writeup and hope it reads like a Sebastian Junger novel.

Glad you guys are OK. It's a good thing Aly is there to hangout at the hotel spa to relay info back to us.
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
alrighty...Im going to start recapping today. I am going to break up the recaps into race sections. its going to be impossible to recap the whole thing in one post, and nobody wants to read that much text. Ill also be including race photos from the photographers that were out there following the race. they did a really awesome job at capturing the feeling of the course out there.

Pre-Race:

once we checked in and got maps, it was go time. we poured over the race instructions and plotted a course to connect all of the tiny little checkpoint dots. the scale of this course was enormous. we are very used to working with 1:24000 scale maps for 24 hour races, but for this, many of the maps were 1:63330, which makes finding and reading details far more difficult, especially once you are out on the course.

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at the pre race meeting we got the full run down from the race director and had most of our questions answered. the course was planned at this point and we had to finish packing our gear bins
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the team was allowed to have 4 bins, we would see them at certain points throughout the race, so we had to strategically pack our food and extra clothing/supplies/gear based on when we would be seeing the bins. This planning part is actually difficult because you need to make estimates to account for your pace and position, 3.5 days in advance. we did the best we could and planned our gear accordingly in our mess of hotel rooms. once the bins are done, we could finally get dinner and get to sleep for the 6 am race start.
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5:30 am, and we all began lining up. the first leg was a 30 mile road/gravel ride to the canoe start. we would leave casper in a rolling peleton, being guided for the first 7 miles, then once on the open road the race would open up

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once the first 7 miles were done, the race opened up onto the roads and the pace skyrocketed. Holy crap. this is a 3.5 day race and i am maxed out on my gears working crazy hard....what is going on? Since we were headed into a massive paddle leg, we all figured we could push the pace of the first bike leg a bit because our legs would have plenty of time to recover. The lead teams broke off into a faster group early on, then the rest of us mortals took a few miles to figure things out, all while keeping the gears redlined.
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we found ourselves in a group with a few friends/teams and we all decided to work together to do what we could to catch the next fastest group, so 3 or 4 teams all formed a solid paceline and went full roadie, cycling through leads, we steadily gained and caught the next group. Its always fun to have good camaraderie with your competitors, because for many, the reality of adventure racing is that you are racing against the course, not other people. if you can beat the course, you will do really well.

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near the end of the bike leg we rode past a field with a bunch of horses in it. we were flying on the roads and the horses got all worked up and started galloping next to us, it was the ideal "wild west adventure race scene" every group that went past the horses, they would lap back around and run again.
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the horses also marked the end of the first 30 mile bike leg. Time for a quick transition and to pick a canoe that we would be sitting in for a looooooong time.

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axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Ok, Here goes Leg 2. This was a monster paddle leg. about 75 miles total. It was broken up in 3 spots by a team challenge, an urban orienteering course, and a normal foot orienteering course.

We made a quick transition from biking to boats and shoved off into the fast moving water. This past winter brought a ton of snow to the west, so the rivers were moving really well. This was both a blessing and a curse. on one hand, the river paddle would be faster than normal, on the other hand, fast moving water can be difficult to handle a heavy, loaded canoe in, as well as all of the rapids we would be seeing, would be even rougher.

The big yellow banana canoes that we were racing in were really comfortable. but they had a high center of gravity and were quite unstable. Trying to pilot them through even a class II rapid, while loaded up with gear was a difficult thing and required a lot of effort and skill.

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Nonetheless we cruised down the river and found our pace, along side another team of friends. We spotted bald eagles and lots of pelicans. The first section of the paddle was wide open spaces, comfortable breeze, and pleasant sun. we made it to the first challenge, which turned out to be at an old fort, where soldiers had to fill a water cistern with river water via walking a bucket up and down a hill, so thats what everyone in the team had to do.

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breaking up the paddle like this is actually nice, it gives your legs a chance to come back to life and get the blood flowing. Too often during a paddle i get numb legs and feet from sitting. We all dumped our buckets, got back into our boats and settled on back down the river. Our next stop was a nearby town where we had a short 4 point urban orienteering course. It consisted of a few historical markers, and a town bar, where everyone took a shot of whiskey

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And then back onto the boats..again. My arms are really starting to hurt. I am an OK paddler, but its not from training, just from doing lots of paddling during races. the top racers all train to paddle, and with a race like this, with over 90 miles of paddling, that makes a huge difference. We were doing alright and just kept chugging along with sore arms though. The scenery moved from wide open grasslands into steep walled canyons. It really was beautiful out there. a few more hours and we were at the takeout for the next orienteering course. this one not in the city.
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We spent some time climbing hills and rocks to get some points, where we had a view of the last section of the paddle. 20 more miles to finish, but the fast moving river emptied into a giant reservoir. We caught the beginning of the sunset as we finished the orienteering. Then onto the boats and into the night for the finishing paddle....sort of.
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we made our way into the massive lake. The night seemed calm, and the skies were getting clear, with a waxing gibbous moon. once the sun was down we didnt need our headlamps, the moon and stars gave enough light for us to navigate the lake by looking at the skyline of the hills around us against the night sky. We were tired, and quiet. still paddling with tired arms, moving along and mostly thinking back on day 1. We were moving well and would soon get off the paddle and hop onto the mountain bikes, we were all looking forward to that.

I thought about how fortunate of a human being I was during that time. I mean, it was a long day, and I was tired, and sore, felt like crap to be honest..but I got to choose to do this. To come out here and try something that i know is going to turn every last bit of me into mush. I know that there are people who feel crappy every day and cant help it, they might not have a choice, but i did...so no matter how i felt i wanted to appreciate where i was and what i was doing, and who i was with. A lot goes through your mind when you are paddling in the dark, on autopilot.

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The time approached midnight, and we were into the open center of the lake. When lakes get this big, they behave differently. almost like oceans. The high water this year changed the topography too. areas that should have been peninsulas, were flooded forests. We were at one of these points, surrounded by flooded trees, when the water started to change. All of a sudden ripples turned into waves, and we felt the breeze turn into a wind. The waves became whitecaps, and we realized that the lake had changed. We could no longer paddle gingerly and spend time reflecting. we had to act. Even though we were somewhat close to land, we couldnt paddle to the closest shore. That would put us parallel to the waves which would spell disaster. Capsizing in these boats in this lake at night is not something i wanted. There was some yelling between boats, but we quickly decided we needed to paddle into the wind and the waves and straight for the far shore. We saw some headlamps of the lead teams who were already on their mountainbikes, so we knew it was the right direction. we just had to get across the open water and land on the shore to wait for the wind to die down.

The adrenaline started to flow, and the pain in my arms was replaced with some new found energy. we took the whitecaps head on, in the pitch black. some waves crashed over the bow and we took on water little by little, each time the boat felt more and more unstable. We were at a tipping point about 20 minutes in, John had to bail the water out of the boat as i tried to keep us pointed into the waves. ever movement felt like we were going to capsize, but we kept it straight. More power, more paddling, I just kept thinking about how i didnt want to end up in the water, in the dark, so far from shore. The far side of the lake felt like it wasnt getting any closer, but we kept having to try. After at least 40 minutes of hard pushing we felt the shoreline coming close. the hills in front of us blocked the wind a bit and we were able to land the boat. There was water inside past my ankles. None of us were happy, but we were all relieved. That was hands down the most intense paddling i had ever done. The consequences were real, and we managed to get past them. Unfortunately we were still 4 KM away from the end of the paddle, but we all decided it was too dangerous to go back out. We emptied our boats and setup a small camp on shore...put on warm layers, ate some food, and decided to sleep for a few hours until the wind would die down. It howled at us through the night. I was laying on the forest floor, wrapped in my space blanket, looking at the trees above me swaying, thinking to myself "i hope i didnt just cheat death to get across that lake, just to have a tree crash on me here" but thankfully they stayed planted and the only thing that attacked me were the mosquitos.

after a few hours the winds died down a little, but mostly they changed direction. This let us get back onto the water and avoid the large waves that were keeping us from finishing the paddle. we eventually pulled into the marina to take the boats out, where we portaged up to where our bikes were held. Happy to be off the water and on to the next part of our adventure, right around sunrise.

the teams who were faster paddlers were able to avoid the wind event and got off of the lake before it turned. They all biked through the night and got a large time advantage. We were so close to getting off of the water, but just not close enough. We definitely made the right call though, as most teams who were with/behind us did. One team actually did sink in the middle of the lake. Their boat and equipment went straight to the bottom. they were able to grab their satellite tracker and call in an emergency rescue, but they were in the water for over an hour at night and were suffering from hypothermia. I cant imagine how scary that must have been. At this point it was better to be safe than to be taking risks to get further ahead in the race.
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Now we were off of the paddle and into transition to get onto our bikes. Transition areas are a good spot to eat food and re-hydrate, but its also easy to waste a lot of time here. We tried to make a point to be very efficient. we made it into transition at 5:40 am and were rolling out on our bikes just before 6.
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We had a time constraint to be back, and on the next paddle section by 10 AM, so we had our work cut out for us. This was a mountain bike orienteering section, with mostly technical single track riding. These were some quality IMBA trails. All of the climbing here was on steep switchbacks. The trails were chunky, reminding me of ringwood, just different type of rock, but with many sandy, flowing trails on the flatter areas. We were glad to be riding here during the day, the night time would definitely have made the riding less enjoyable, as we could pick good lines as well as enjoy the awesome views.
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We made our way up and down the canyon walls and explored almost every area of the park, but we unfortunately didnt have enough time to get every point, leaving only one out there. At this point, we should have stopped and re-assessed our plan to go on the next long, optional paddle, as most teams were opting to cut the paddle out and continue on another bike leg. But we were hoping to do as much of the full course as possible so we made a super fast transition and had to run with the canoes on portage wheels, 2 KM down to the canoe put in, at the bottom of the dam for the reservoir.
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we made it there at 9:59. Just in time. The dam was releasing, and the river was moving even faster than what we were on yesterday. These next 24 miles of paddling were going to be exciting.

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qclabrat

Well-Known Member
great write up Aaron, looking forward to the next segment
if you missed the 10AM, was it a disqualification or penalty?
also I must have missed your team members, are they all family?
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
so to clarify the time cutoff. if you got back before 10 AM you were allowed to go onto a longer course route which had more available points, after 10 AM you had to go on a shorter route which had fewer available points. In hindsight we were too close and should have cut the long part and made up points later in the race. we got a bit too tunnel visioned and forced ourselves to do too much i think.

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as far as team members...one is my older brother, who i started racing with years ago. The female on our team is a friend who we have raceed with before and met through racing, she is from NH. The 4th is a well known member of the AR community, and probably the most experienced out of us all. He was a last minute sub for our other teammate who couldnt make the race due to work commitments. So this was our first time meeting a racing with him, but it worked out great.
 
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