This week in dot watching: Cameco Cowboy Tough AR

ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
The blue dots on those tracking maps is your team's location every 10 minutes sent by the satellite tracking device (same thing that provided the live "dot watching"), right?
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
The blue dots on those tracking maps is your team's location every 10 minutes sent by the satellite tracking device (same thing that provided the live "dot watching"), right?
might be 10 or 15..im not sure...10 seems right though. but yeah..the trail of dots is our position through the course
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Excellent write up Aaron!

That lake crossing definitely sounded sketchy.

How was everyone matched up on your team? was it easy to keep everyone together? or did you have to wait up/chase alot?
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Leg #4, Paddle #2...the one where everything went wrong.

It is 10 AM on Friday, we are now 28 hours into the race. We are looking at about 25 miles of fast river paddling, and then can hop on our bikes to explore the rest of the course. This paddle starts at the exit of the dam for the reservoir we almost died on last night. The dam is currently releasing and the river is moving faster than yesterday. Also, all the water is coming out of the bottom of the reservoir, so its pretty cold. The skies are cloudy, and there is a solid breeze in the air. We push off into the river and are immediately moving into a nice solid class II rapid. Nothing to worry about, just keep it pointed straight and we make it through after a few cold splashes. I am feeling yesterdays paddling in my arms big time....but thankfully the speed of the river is doing most of the work for us.

paddle2.jpg


The miles flow by and after a few hours of small rapids and chilly water, we come into a steep walled canyon. The only other sign of humans is a train track on river right. every once in a while an enormous coal train rolls through under then canyon walls. We round a bend, and see a sizeable rapid in front of us. definitely going on class III. the right side of the river is looking alot smoother, though its funneling into the rapid, so we have to stay as far right as possible to get through this. Tamela and JD head through it first and make it through. Now its our turn. we line up and start in, but i can already feel we are a bit too far left. as we head down the line, the water pushes us quickly to the left and we move directly into a standing wave that comes over the side of our boat and fills it with water....shit..were going in!
paddle_3.jpg


The boat floods and we are being swept down river in the cold water. I see my dry bag, full of gear start to float away..."that should have been strapped in" i think to myself. I grab for it and my paddle. Then I hear yelling from the riverbank. JD and Tamela have pulled over and are screaming for us to swim to shore. I look down stream and there is a MASSIVE standing wave in the river we are headed for.

The race directors told us that the paddling would be class II...this is a class III+ rapid

another surge of adrenaline and John and I let go of the boat and our gear and swim to shore. "SWIM HARD! SWIM HARD!" is all i can hear. I am moving towards the rapid faster than i am moving towards the shore, but were making progress, we just cant let up. I really wish i was a better swimmer right about now...

i make it within feet of the shore and spot a large rock...I lunge for it but am swept past, a few more strokes and i can claw at the shoreline, finally getting purchase on some wet rocks and I drag the rest of myself out of the current. John sweeps past me and manages to grab the shoreline 10 or so feed downriver. we are safe.

I look down river in time to see our canoe in the main rapid, jammed up on its stern, sticking straight into the air. It tumbles for a bit longer through the rapid like a ragdoll. Boy, am i glad that im not still hanging onto that canoe. We crawl up the steep riverbank, up to the train tracks to get somewhere we can sit. I am in a stage of shock right now. I flop onto the rocks and just kind of lay there. after a few moments, John decides to walk down river to see if we can find the canoe or our gear. There was an eddy after the rapid, hopefully things got caught there.

John comes back. The canoe is jammed up in some rocks on the side of the river His drybag is shoved into the bow of the boat really well, so its still with the canoe as well as the portage wheels, which were strapped to the center seat. He also found an empty duffel bag in the eddy which we had used to keep our paddle gear in. everything else is gone.
rapid.png


I get my soaking wet self together and slop upriver on the train tracks towards Tamela and JD. They had just gotten their boat out of the water and are setting it up on the portage wheels. they werent chancing the next rapid at all.

we tell them the situation. we have no paddles. and I lost my backpack and mandatory gear

sidenote: Mandatory gear is required to be on racers at all times. it consists of: long sleeve pants and shirt, warm hat, rain jacket, water purification, hydration device (camelback bladder), space blanket, knife, lighter, first aid kit

We talk about our options. This train track will lead us straight to the transition area after about 7 or so miles. we can split up the paddles and have 1 paddle per boat. we can tow one of the boats...or we can continue down the train tracks with the portage wheels.

our big concern with getting back on the water is having more rapids like we just experienced. we are still in this canyon, and there is another very narrow canyon near the end of the paddle. the chances of hitting more rapids is high, and we would have even less control and power now that we are down 2 paddles. we decide its best to portage the boats down the active railway.

Since the canyon is narrow, the railway wasnt built with much room, so we are forced to roll down the center of the tracks, bouncing the carts over every railroad tie. The wind is howling. I am shivering, but at least we are making forward progress...no matter how slow. Every so often we have to stop to fix the wheels, as they get bounced around and loosen up. After a little while, we hear the tracks start to squeal..."GET OFF THE RAILS! TRAIN IS COMING!!" we pick up the boats and hop sideways off as far as we can go...about 6 feet. The huge coal train rolls on through and we wait for its many cars to go past. This is not my idea of fun.

Back on the tracks. Carts are bouncing, we are trudging. After much more walking and a few more train incidents. we make it to an open junction in the tracks at the end of the canyon. There is a crew of workers moving rocks from one pile to another pile with big machines. They look quite confused to see us.

"you guys trying to get into the water?"

"no, we flipped in a rapid and lost our paddles...we need to keep heading this way"

"well, there is a train tunnel down past there...you cant go through the tunnel"

None of us needed any convincing about that....nobody wanted to die in a train tunnel. we take out the map to look at our options, we also find that one of the cart wheels lost an axle nut and the wheel is falling off...shit.

it takes a while but we manage to find a spare nut from one of the workers trucks, get it on with a pair of pliers, and are able to get rolling again. We move 20 feet and the other side of the axle falls off!

seriously??? is this a joke??

time to fix the other side. but unfortunately our helpful worker friends had already left for the day. We spend the next bit of time searching around on the ground for any bits of wire or metal that we can use to get the axle set back up. After a while we give up and decide to stack both boats on one cart. Since we cant go through the tunnels, we are headed out onto the country roads for a 7 mile detour to get where we need to go. As we start out, a park ranger truck rolls in...we begin to prepare some kind of excuse and apology at the same time.

The ranger pops out of the truck, along with one of the event staff. Apparently they were watching our tracker and saw it stopped for a long time here. They were curious and worried, so the event staff asked the ranger for a ride over to check on us...isnt that nice =]. We explain the situation and that we area all physically OK, and want to remain in the race...we just need to get our boats 3 miles down the tracks to the transition area. The ranger also informs us that he has a whole bunch of nuts and bolts in the truck, and we can use them to fix our cart...awesome!

the icing on the cake is that there is an access road thats not on the map. It follows the train tracks and stays out of the tunnels, it heads straight into the campground to where we need to go. This is music to our ears. We can fix our cart and take the shortest route in! The course worker and ranger leave after we thank them and we roll on down the access road. no more bumpy railroad ties. Hello smooth gravel!

A few more miles of moving and talking with ourselves about our situation....we had one incident with a runaway boat cart, down a hill....but we made it to transition with our boats to the cheers of the course workers. They offered us bottled water and fun sized candy, and we see our bikes sitting there....the last ones left.

I mention the situation with having lost my mandatory gear. The worker calls the race director and we hear our options.

1. we can quit now and get a ride back

2. if we feel comfortable continuing with less gear, we can continue through the course, but there will be some form of penalty assigned later on

we sure as hell arent quitting.

we eat some candy. fill up water and switch up backpacks. I take tamela's pack, and she takes one of the small camelback bladders off of our PFD to bike with.

Friday at 5:50 PM, way behind the rest of the teams, we roll off on our bikes to continue the course.


....we should have skipped the paddle
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Excellent write up Aaron!

That lake crossing definitely sounded sketchy.

How was everyone matched up on your team? was it easy to keep everyone together? or did you have to wait up/chase alot?


we were all matched up pretty well. none of us are heroes but we can maintain an endurance pace. These races are more about progress than speed though. If you push too fast and hard, youre liable to make a mistake, which can cost a lot of time. The top teams will push very hard, but it pays to ease off a bit for us, keep things a bit calm, and be sure that we know where we are going and are maintaining ourselves well. Everyone goes through low times where they need a little help or a boost though, so working together as a team to help eachother and not just say "pedal harder" is important.
 

rayder

Active Member
P
Leg #4, Paddle #2...the one where everything went wrong.

It is 10 AM on Friday, we are now 28 hours into the race. We are looking at about 25 miles of fast river paddling, and then can hop on our bikes to explore the rest of the course. This paddle starts at the exit of the dam for the reservoir we almost died on last night. The dam is currently releasing and the river is moving faster than yesterday. Also, all the water is coming out of the bottom of the reservoir, so its pretty cold. The skies are cloudy, and there is a solid breeze in the air. We push off into the river and are immediately moving into a nice solid class II rapid. Nothing to worry about, just keep it pointed straight and we make it through after a few cold splashes. I am feeling yesterdays paddling in my arms big time....but thankfully the speed of the river is doing most of the work for us.

View attachment 38059

The miles flow by and after a few hours of small rapids and chilly water, we come into a steep walled canyon. The only other sign of humans is a train track on river right. every once in a while an enormous coal train rolls through under then canyon walls. We round a bend, and see a sizeable rapid in front of us. definitely going on class III. the right side of the river is looking alot smoother, though its funneling into the rapid, so we have to stay as far right as possible to get through this. Tamela and JD head through it first and make it through. Now its our turn. we line up and start in, but i can already feel we are a bit too far left. as we head down the line, the water pushes us quickly to the left and we move directly into a standing wave that comes over the side of our boat and fills it with water....shit..were going in!
View attachment 38060

The boat floods and we are being swept down river in the cold water. I see my dry bag, full of gear start to float away..."that should have been strapped in" i think to myself. I grab for it and my paddle. Then I hear yelling from the riverbank. JD and Tamela have pulled over and are screaming for us to swim to shore. I look down stream and there is a MASSIVE standing wave in the river we are headed for.

The race directors told us that the paddling would be class II...this is a class III+ rapid

another surge of adrenaline and John and I let go of the boat and our gear and swim to shore. "SWIM HARD! SWIM HARD!" is all i can hear. I am moving towards the rapid faster than i am moving towards the shore, but were making progress, we just cant let up. I really wish i was a better swimmer right about now...

i make it within feet of the shore and spot a large rock...I lunge for it but am swept past, a few more strokes and i can claw at the shoreline, finally getting purchase on some wet rocks and I drag the rest of myself out of the current. John sweeps past me and manages to grab the shoreline 10 or so feed downriver. we are safe.

I look down river in time to see our canoe in the main rapid, jammed up on its stern, sticking straight into the air. It tumbles for a bit longer through the rapid like a ragdoll. Boy, am i glad that im not still hanging onto that canoe. We crawl up the steep riverbank, up to the train tracks to get somewhere we can sit. I am in a stage of shock right now. I flop onto the rocks and just kind of lay there. after a few moments, John decides to walk down river to see if we can find the canoe or our gear. There was an eddy after the rapid, hopefully things got caught there.

John comes back. The canoe is jammed up in some rocks on the side of the river His drybag is shoved into the bow of the boat really well, so its still with the canoe as well as the portage wheels, which were strapped to the center seat. He also found an empty duffel bag in the eddy which we had used to keep our paddle gear in. everything else is gone.
View attachment 38061

I get my soaking wet self together and slop upriver on the train tracks towards Tamela and JD. They had just gotten their boat out of the water and are setting it up on the portage wheels. they werent chancing the next rapid at all.

we tell them the situation. we have no paddles. and I lost my backpack and mandatory gear

sidenote: Mandatory gear is required to be on racers at all times. it consists of: long sleeve pants and shirt, warm hat, rain jacket, water purification, hydration device (camelback bladder), space blanket, knife, lighter, first aid kit

We talk about our options. This train track will lead us straight to the transition area after about 7 or so miles. we can split up the paddles and have 1 paddle per boat. we can tow one of the boats...or we can continue down the train tracks with the portage wheels.

our big concern with getting back on the water is having more rapids like we just experienced. we are still in this canyon, and there is another very narrow canyon near the end of the paddle. the chances of hitting more rapids is high, and we would have even less control and power now that we are down 2 paddles. we decide its best to portage the boats down the active railway.

Since the canyon is narrow, the railway wasnt built with much room, so we are forced to roll down the center of the tracks, bouncing the carts over every railroad tie. The wind is howling. I am shivering, but at least we are making forward progress...no matter how slow. Every so often we have to stop to fix the wheels, as they get bounced around and loosen up. After a little while, we hear the tracks start to squeal..."GET OFF THE RAILS! TRAIN IS COMING!!" we pick up the boats and hop sideways off as far as we can go...about 6 feet. The huge coal train rolls on through and we wait for its many cars to go past. This is not my idea of fun.

Back on the tracks. Carts are bouncing, we are trudging. After much more walking and a few more train incidents. we make it to an open junction in the tracks at the end of the canyon. There is a crew of workers moving rocks from one pile to another pile with big machines. They look quite confused to see us.

"you guys trying to get into the water?"

"no, we flipped in a rapid and lost our paddles...we need to keep heading this way"

"well, there is a train tunnel down past there...you cant go through the tunnel"

None of us needed any convincing about that....nobody wanted to die in a train tunnel. we take out the map to look at our options, we also find that one of the cart wheels lost an axle nut and the wheel is falling off...shit.

it takes a while but we manage to find a spare nut from one of the workers trucks, get it on with a pair of pliers, and are able to get rolling again. We move 20 feet and the other side of the axle falls off!

seriously??? is this a joke??

time to fix the other side. but unfortunately our helpful worker friends had already left for the day. We spend the next bit of time searching around on the ground for any bits of wire or metal that we can use to get the axle set back up. After a while we give up and decide to stack both boats on one cart. Since we cant go through the tunnels, we are headed out onto the country roads for a 7 mile detour to get where we need to go. As we start out, a park ranger truck rolls in...we begin to prepare some kind of excuse and apology at the same time.

The ranger pops out of the truck, along with one of the event staff. Apparently they were watching our tracker and saw it stopped for a long time here. They were curious and worried, so the event staff asked the ranger for a ride over to check on us...isnt that nice =]. We explain the situation and that we area all physically OK, and want to remain in the race...we just need to get our boats 3 miles down the tracks to the transition area. The ranger also informs us that he has a whole bunch of nuts and bolts in the truck, and we can use them to fix our cart...awesome!

the icing on the cake is that there is an access road thats not on the map. It follows the train tracks and stays out of the tunnels, it heads straight into the campground to where we need to go. This is music to our ears. We can fix our cart and take the shortest route in! The course worker and ranger leave after we thank them and we roll on down the access road. no more bumpy railroad ties. Hello smooth gravel!

A few more miles of moving and talking with ourselves about our situation....we had one incident with a runaway boat cart, down a hill....but we made it to transition with our boats to the cheers of the course workers. They offered us bottled water and fun sized candy, and we see our bikes sitting there....the last ones left.

I mention the situation with having lost my mandatory gear. The worker calls the race director and we hear our options.

1. we can quit now and get a ride back

2. if we feel comfortable continuing with less gear, we can continue through the course, but there will be some form of penalty assigned later on

we sure as hell arent quitting.

we eat some candy. fill up water and switch up backpacks. I take tamela's pack, and she takes one of the small camelback bladders off of our PFD to bike with.

Friday at 5:50 PM, way behind the rest of the teams, we roll off on our bikes to continue the course.


....we should have skipped the paddle
awesome story
 

ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
Not to turn this recap into an Aaron and Aly show, but this had to have been one of the three toughest moments in the race on my side. Being part of race staff and also wanting best for you and team... from the outside looking in, and having the knowledge of how the race, certain legs, other teams were doing, several thought that exact thing as you were transitioning to go out on the last paddle. But there was nothing anyone could say or do, myself included. You guys had your plan and you raced your race you planned for!

There were teams that still planned for that last paddle but thought they just had to be at TA by 10am, not actually down to the water and on the water by 10am. Obviously when they got in later, they learned they won't make the 10am water cutoff and were forced to take alternate. Probably initially upset, but probably luckier in the long run.

Leg #4, Paddle #2...the one where everything went wrong.

It is 10 AM on Friday, we are now 28 hours into the race. We are looking at about 25 miles of fast river paddling, and then can hop on our bikes to explore the rest of the course. This paddle starts at the exit of the dam for the reservoir we almost died on last night. The dam is currently releasing and the river is moving faster than yesterday. Also, all the water is coming out of the bottom of the reservoir, so its pretty cold. The skies are cloudy, and there is a solid breeze in the air. We push off into the river and are immediately moving into a nice solid class II rapid. Nothing to worry about, just keep it pointed straight and we make it through after a few cold splashes. I am feeling yesterdays paddling in my arms big time....but thankfully the speed of the river is doing most of the work for us.

View attachment 38059

The miles flow by and after a few hours of small rapids and chilly water, we come into a steep walled canyon. The only other sign of humans is a train track on river right. every once in a while an enormous coal train rolls through under then canyon walls. We round a bend, and see a sizeable rapid in front of us. definitely going on class III. the right side of the river is looking alot smoother, though its funneling into the rapid, so we have to stay as far right as possible to get through this. Tamela and JD head through it first and make it through. Now its our turn. we line up and start in, but i can already feel we are a bit too far left. as we head down the line, the water pushes us quickly to the left and we move directly into a standing wave that comes over the side of our boat and fills it with water....shit..were going in!
View attachment 38060

The boat floods and we are being swept down river in the cold water. I see my dry bag, full of gear start to float away..."that should have been strapped in" i think to myself. I grab for it and my paddle. Then I hear yelling from the riverbank. JD and Tamela have pulled over and are screaming for us to swim to shore. I look down stream and there is a MASSIVE standing wave in the river we are headed for.

The race directors told us that the paddling would be class II...this is a class III+ rapid

another surge of adrenaline and John and I let go of the boat and our gear and swim to shore. "SWIM HARD! SWIM HARD!" is all i can hear. I am moving towards the rapid faster than i am moving towards the shore, but were making progress, we just cant let up. I really wish i was a better swimmer right about now...

i make it within feet of the shore and spot a large rock...I lunge for it but am swept past, a few more strokes and i can claw at the shoreline, finally getting purchase on some wet rocks and I drag the rest of myself out of the current. John sweeps past me and manages to grab the shoreline 10 or so feed downriver. we are safe.

I look down river in time to see our canoe in the main rapid, jammed up on its stern, sticking straight into the air. It tumbles for a bit longer through the rapid like a ragdoll. Boy, am i glad that im not still hanging onto that canoe. We crawl up the steep riverbank, up to the train tracks to get somewhere we can sit. I am in a stage of shock right now. I flop onto the rocks and just kind of lay there. after a few moments, John decides to walk down river to see if we can find the canoe or our gear. There was an eddy after the rapid, hopefully things got caught there.

John comes back. The canoe is jammed up in some rocks on the side of the river His drybag is shoved into the bow of the boat really well, so its still with the canoe as well as the portage wheels, which were strapped to the center seat. He also found an empty duffel bag in the eddy which we had used to keep our paddle gear in. everything else is gone.
View attachment 38061

I get my soaking wet self together and slop upriver on the train tracks towards Tamela and JD. They had just gotten their boat out of the water and are setting it up on the portage wheels. they werent chancing the next rapid at all.

we tell them the situation. we have no paddles. and I lost my backpack and mandatory gear

sidenote: Mandatory gear is required to be on racers at all times. it consists of: long sleeve pants and shirt, warm hat, rain jacket, water purification, hydration device (camelback bladder), space blanket, knife, lighter, first aid kit

We talk about our options. This train track will lead us straight to the transition area after about 7 or so miles. we can split up the paddles and have 1 paddle per boat. we can tow one of the boats...or we can continue down the train tracks with the portage wheels.

our big concern with getting back on the water is having more rapids like we just experienced. we are still in this canyon, and there is another very narrow canyon near the end of the paddle. the chances of hitting more rapids is high, and we would have even less control and power now that we are down 2 paddles. we decide its best to portage the boats down the active railway.

Since the canyon is narrow, the railway wasnt built with much room, so we are forced to roll down the center of the tracks, bouncing the carts over every railroad tie. The wind is howling. I am shivering, but at least we are making forward progress...no matter how slow. Every so often we have to stop to fix the wheels, as they get bounced around and loosen up. After a little while, we hear the tracks start to squeal..."GET OFF THE RAILS! TRAIN IS COMING!!" we pick up the boats and hop sideways off as far as we can go...about 6 feet. The huge coal train rolls on through and we wait for its many cars to go past. This is not my idea of fun.

Back on the tracks. Carts are bouncing, we are trudging. After much more walking and a few more train incidents. we make it to an open junction in the tracks at the end of the canyon. There is a crew of workers moving rocks from one pile to another pile with big machines. They look quite confused to see us.

"you guys trying to get into the water?"

"no, we flipped in a rapid and lost our paddles...we need to keep heading this way"

"well, there is a train tunnel down past there...you cant go through the tunnel"

None of us needed any convincing about that....nobody wanted to die in a train tunnel. we take out the map to look at our options, we also find that one of the cart wheels lost an axle nut and the wheel is falling off...shit.

it takes a while but we manage to find a spare nut from one of the workers trucks, get it on with a pair of pliers, and are able to get rolling again. We move 20 feet and the other side of the axle falls off!

seriously??? is this a joke??

time to fix the other side. but unfortunately our helpful worker friends had already left for the day. We spend the next bit of time searching around on the ground for any bits of wire or metal that we can use to get the axle set back up. After a while we give up and decide to stack both boats on one cart. Since we cant go through the tunnels, we are headed out onto the country roads for a 7 mile detour to get where we need to go. As we start out, a park ranger truck rolls in...we begin to prepare some kind of excuse and apology at the same time.

The ranger pops out of the truck, along with one of the event staff. Apparently they were watching our tracker and saw it stopped for a long time here. They were curious and worried, so the event staff asked the ranger for a ride over to check on us...isnt that nice =]. We explain the situation and that we area all physically OK, and want to remain in the race...we just need to get our boats 3 miles down the tracks to the transition area. The ranger also informs us that he has a whole bunch of nuts and bolts in the truck, and we can use them to fix our cart...awesome!

the icing on the cake is that there is an access road thats not on the map. It follows the train tracks and stays out of the tunnels, it heads straight into the campground to where we need to go. This is music to our ears. We can fix our cart and take the shortest route in! The course worker and ranger leave after we thank them and we roll on down the access road. no more bumpy railroad ties. Hello smooth gravel!

A few more miles of moving and talking with ourselves about our situation....we had one incident with a runaway boat cart, down a hill....but we made it to transition with our boats to the cheers of the course workers. They offered us bottled water and fun sized candy, and we see our bikes sitting there....the last ones left.

I mention the situation with having lost my mandatory gear. The worker calls the race director and we hear our options.

1. we can quit now and get a ride back

2. if we feel comfortable continuing with less gear, we can continue through the course, but there will be some form of penalty assigned later on

we sure as hell arent quitting.

we eat some candy. fill up water and switch up backpacks. I take tamela's pack, and she takes one of the small camelback bladders off of our PFD to bike with.

Friday at 5:50 PM, way behind the rest of the teams, we roll off on our bikes to continue the course.


....we should have skipped the paddle
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
The next section of the race, we started friday at 5:50 PM This was to be a 40+ mile bike ride, starting out on road and then turning to gravel. We rolled off and made our way northwest towards TA6 where we were supposed to drop our bikes and start a 12 mile trek over the mountains to TA7. As we rode, i think the race director realized we were a little far behind. he made the decision to cut out the trek for us, so he sent the TA6 crew to find us and let us know. This is why our tracks on the map show us adding another 30 or so miles to go around the mountains on the bikes to TA7.

I could blab on about every detail. but we rode on through the night and ended up taking a 30 min sleep at a boyscout camp. they were kind enough to give us some food as well. We arrived at the next TA at 7 AM. Im going to let some of the fantastic pictures do the talking for what its like to ride through wyoming. We arent in these, but they are of the course we were riding.

Bikes lined up at the TA
image-X3 (1).jpg

gotta make sure you punch at the TA
image-X3 (2).jpg

image-X3 (3).jpg

image-X3 (4).jpg

image-X3 (6).jpg

image-X3.jpg

image-X3 (5).jpg

image-X3 (7).jpg

160716cct-ta7-ta80363-X2.jpg

160716cct-ta7-ta80565-X2.jpg
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
hit the picture limit....it was a long ride, so im going to post more photos

160716cct-ta8-ta90128-X2.jpg

160716cct-ta7-ta80507-X2.jpg

Things get dark...youve got to check to make sure youre going the right way
160715cct-ta7-ta80212-X2.jpg

made it through the night. tired..but still moving forward even if you cant pedal for the moment
160716cct-ta7-ta80313-X2.jpg

bikeride.png


We pulled in to TA7. Our gear bins were there waiting for us, we could eat a bunch of food and get what we needed. What JD needed most at this point was sleep. he was dragging ass for the past few hours as we climbed into the mountains towards laramie peak. that dude can shut it down like a light switch. 2 seconds after he lays down he is snoring. thats impressive.

We arent quick here. we do what we need to and see whats next. more riding. maybe 30 or so miles to TA8 where we get to do a ropes course. thats something fun to look forwards to. Full bellies and feeling rested. we roll on out of TA7 and gravel grind our way towards 8.
 
Last edited:

Dominique

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This is such a crazy adventure... amazing that you guys can make your bodies go to that extreme.

Keep it coming... love the recaps
 

MissJR

not in the mood for your shenanigans
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@axcxnj i'm sure i've told you this before but i think you're completely nuts for doing these races... absolutely amazing but nuts :D
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Moving out of TA 7 at about 8 AM on saturday, most of the climbing in the area is over and we have 35 miles of rolling hills with some descending to do. Right now we are at 7950 ft of elevation. thats just about our high point for the race. If we had more time and were really in this race, we would have trekked to the top of laramie peak, at over 10,000 but its just not in the cards for us, the game has changed to crossing the finish line under our own power.

One thing i should mention here is just how dry and windy it is in wyoming. I really was not expecting it. @Delish mentioned it earlier in this thread, before my race to watch out for the wind...but holy crap. 90% of the time it felt like we were battling a headwind. when we had a crosswind, my frame bag acted like a sail, and i had to ride forwards and lean to the side at the same time to avoid being blown off of the road. Gravel miles are easy until you include wind like this.

the other factor is the dryness. I got my first nosebleed about now, the first of many. breathing through your nose made your sinuses dry out...but breathing through your mouth gave you cotton mouth in 10 seconds flat, to the point where you couldnt even speak or swallow food. the best option was to not breathe at all..but i could only do that for about 5 seconds at a time. At least the dryness prompted you to constantly sip water, but on more than one occasion we found ourselves out of water, with only a dirty stream to replenish our stores from...a stream that we were sharing with the cows....ugh...thank God for filters.
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but we roll on. we hop onto a road heading north and for the first time in our race we have the wind at our backs...it is literally blowing us up the hills...man this is nice! The miles roll by and we crest a hill to see hundreds and hundreds of cows..all over the damn place. It is an orchestra of mooing, with cows darting all over the road as they shit themselves. Its not a gravel road anymore, its a literal shit road. Turns out we happened upon a cow branding event. you could smell the burning cow in the air. We got through there quickly as we didnt want to get trampled by a scared cow.

this x 100
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Find the river crossing, make a right and ride 6k downhill to TA 8. Here we can access another bin and get our climbing/rappelling gear. We wont have much time for any other foot orienteering points, but we came all the way out here and packed gear to do a rappell, im doing a rappel!
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Before we rappel, we have to ascend the rope. This is the first time ive gotten to do this in a race. Its a fun experience. These rope sections are less about speed and racing, and more of a "lets put a fun adventure type thing in to break up the race" its much appreciated

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then we rappel
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all 4 of us get through this, which takes a little while, we try to keep out of the sun, but it is getting so hot..probably heading towards 95 degrees and i am really feeling the heat. I dunk my hat and arm warmers in a stream to try and cool myself off. I let everyone know that before we leave on the next bike leg, i need to take some time to eat and rehydrate otherwise im going to blow up. It doesnt help that we have to ride all uphill for a while to get out of here too.

@ajcourain is at the TA with other volunteers, so i get some food from my bin and some water and plop down next to her. Ive got to say. being able to see her at the race, during the race was an incredible boost and so comforting. It also helped that i knew she was having a lot of fun helping out, camping and driving big trucks around. We chatted and i ate and got my energy back. but at a certain point I knew we had to keep going. 4:30 PM comes around and its time to roll out. its still hot. hotter than ever it feels like. I have food in me, but i still have the potential to blow up on this climb...so i let everyone know we cant crush it and they let me set the pace on the uphill

onwards and upwards to TA9 we go, 45 miles away
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
ok, home stretch we are almost done here.

the next section of bike, to TA9 is 45 miles of rolling uphill riding. we are steadily moving along, but the wind is ever present. There is one descent down a ridge, maybe 2 miles long that all of us just cant get enough of. one of those sections where you have effortless riding and 5 star views, the sun had tucked behind the clouds and things just felt good. Put that experience away in the bank for later, its a good one.
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But what goes down must come up. the downhills feel great, but the uphills feel hard. This is probably one of the most picturesque areas of riding, but we arent able to enjoy it as much as we would like to because we are working hard on the climbs.
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Up and down, then back up, then back down. The scenery is good..but when does it get flat? we move from rocky outcroppings into a forest, and then the down part seems to stop for a while...its up for quite a while.
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sip water, eat, repeat
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as we exit the forest out into a high prarie, the sunset lights up the sky with a bright orange backdrop. above our heads though...things arent looking so pretty. There are low clouds, and they are dense and black. If a cloud could look evil...this would be the one
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in the distance we start seeing flashes in the cloud. uh oh. they are infrequent but ever present. after a little more riding, we see bolts connect to the ground. The strangest part about this is there was no thunder. Maybe i was tired...i dont know. but i wanted to know how far away the lightning was falling because we were directly under this cloud...but the absence of thunder made that quite difficult and put me on edge. John is currently really unhappy about this situation and lets it be known....but we all feel like we need to keep moving and just get through this. thankfully there is still a high hill above us...hopefully thats enough to keep us safe.

FLASH! BOOM! a bolt drops in the somewhat vicinity of us. not close enough that we were in direct danger...but it was enough for john to say "fuck this" and turn around and ride the other way. None of us were thinking that clearly...but i wasnt so sure that turning back was any safer than moving forward....we were still under the cloud. Tamela and JD take a pause and I chase john down the hill. I catch him and talk some sense into moving though the storm. getting out is the safest way. Thankfully the storm seems to be moving in the opposite direction we are. so in 10 minutes we are at the edges of the cloud. The night sky is out above us and we feel a bit safer. John has a flat tire....time to change it

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the team is rolling again and the the night has fallen. The electrical storm brought cold air and wind with it, and we find ourselves on a long, very cold descent.
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about a mile off in the distance we can see the faint glow of a box truck. Theres our TA9. its windy, i am cold (remember, i have no more clothing or jacket because everything is in the river)

we check into the TA and find Aly there with the truck. She was supposed to go to TA10, but they got called to 9. This area is a wide open plane, with the cold wind piercing through. We need to eat some food, rehydrate, and look over the next section of maps. Its a long way to TA10, with a shit ton of climbing near the end. The box truck offers the only shelter from the wind. we climb into the back to find a half dozen racers who look dead, piled up under space blankets. This seems more like a morgue than a transition area....everyone has a bad feeling and doesnt want to stay here long, we eat practically the last of our food, i drink the rest of my water and we talk about the route out of here. Its going to be tough. I dont have enough food or water for the next section, but we dont have much of a choice, we have to keep going. A few racers who decided to drop out here are kind enough to give me water. Thank you so much.....this is huge!

we have 60+ miles to go to finish this race, and just about 12 hours to do so. I know that math seems easy...but this far into a race, we know its going to be cutting it close. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation is no joke...and the weather right now is unpleasant to say the least. But as long as i can keep moving I know ill be warm enough.

12 AM on sunday we roll out of TA9, I say bye to Aly and we head into the last section of the race.
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
i am determined to finish this today

last leg of the race...the adventure is far from over.

Before the race started, when planning maps, we had a decision to make here. there are 2 routes that cut across this area, one stays on the main road, climbs a bit more and is 3-4 KM longer. The other cuts off onto doubletrack, has less climbing and is shorter. While planning, we checked out the roads/trails on google earth and the trails seemed like a great, straight forward option. no problemo.

We turn off of the road onto the doubletrack and get a boost of a tailwind behind us. we are zooming down this trail. I have to use all of my brainpower to stay upright and not crash as we ride, but John is monitoring our mileage and keeping an eye on the map to know where we are going. 7 KM later we have to slow down and look for where the trail descents a short bluff and continues through a valley. All of us are tired, all of us are sleep deprived...i think at this point everyone's decision making skills were impaired. I wish i knew what exactly happened, i dont remember it well, but it had something to do with a locked gated. We got confused and turned around and went back and forth for quite a while

now i am shivering pretty good. we are lost. its pitch black out and we cant figure out where we are and what direction we need to go. we are wandering and that is bad...it only gets you more lost. Even though the clock is ticking, JD calls us all to rest and wait until light. Its too cold right now and hypothermia is a real possibility. We find a rock outcropping that shelters us from the wind and make a dog pile under 3 shredded space blankets. The ground is cold, the air is cold. We just lay down and shiver for a few hours until the light breaks. If i had to pick out one low point of our race..this would be it. we wont be able to make TA10 now...we will have to cut out the last mandatory checkpoint and go straight to the finish line in order to be on time. It is what it is....

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Back at race HQ, people are watching our dot do stupid things. After the race the RD would ask us who had the relative that we all went and visited in the middle of nowhere for a few hours. Nothing like adding insult to injury lol.

but sure enough, the sun rises....it always does. we try to figure things out and eventually make it back to the main road. good...lets finish this.

This next section was my favorite gravel grinding of the whole race. we had a 10 mile descent through mountains, cliffs and canyons. green trees and red rocks..all sorts of animals. it was incredible. If we had pushed through the night, we would have done this ride in the dark and not seen anything....so we are at least thankful to enjoy this bit of riding.

the descent finishes and we are getting close. one more big ass climb to go. a little bit over 2000 ft to get over casper mountain.
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it seems like the moment we start climbing, the sun turns on full blast. holy hell..this must be what its like to meet satan. its hot and we are grinding away. knees ache, asses hurt. head down and grind.
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we are all out of water. we keep moving and grinding for what seems like forever. once again like a lighthouse to a lost ship, we can see a box truck at the crest of the hill. Its not the top of the climb..but its almost over from there. we push to get to the truck. Its @ajcourain . she sees us and rolls down the window

Hows it going guys??

Water...do you have any water?

we get a few bottles of the lifesaving stuff each. we all quench our thirst and then fill up our bottles. we are saved!
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one last climb....right up over Casper mountain then its all downhill to get home.

We say goodbye to aly and she peels out up the dirt mountain road in her giant truck, leaving us in a comical cloud of dust.
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alright guys...lets bring it home. a little longer and we crest casper mountain. now we have 3000 foot screaming downhill. Brakes are smoking around corners but we can taste the finish line. no pedaling. just tuck and go!
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we seem to catch all of the green lights and at 11:45 we cross the finish line.

we are unranked...our race fell apart. but we moved through as much of the course as we could through only our own power and we didnt drop out even though we had every reason and opportunity to. this one was a learning experience..but none of us are ashamed of what we did out there.
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oh yeah...we stopped and got ice cream cones just before we crossed the finish line too =]
 

axcxnj

Hipster Keys
Roll the credits!

JD Eskelson. last minute sub, badass army dude who ate anything he found on the ground
Superpower: having an almost endless supply of old weird race food. at one point he pulled out a ziploc bag of salmon roe....WTF????
Weakness: gets grumpy when hes tired
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Tamela Swan
never complains...always works hard and always has salty snacks to share
Superpower: talking....she literally never shut up the whole race. its amazing i dont understand how someone can talk that much and not die
Weakness: cant paddle and talk at the same time....she just decided to talk
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John Courain
Superpower: Navigation. he kept us on track. always had one eye on the map and another eye....somewhere else, i dont know.
weakness: lightning storms
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Your Narrator: Aaron Courain
Strengths: Losing all his shit in the river
Weakness: yes
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Unfortunately theres no picture..But @ajcourain needs to be mentioned here and seriously thanked. she was always at the back of my mind during this race and an incredible boost whenever i got to see her. She worked hard to volunteer for days and slept probably less than we did. Volunteers who help to put on races are seriously underappreciated on the regular..and she deserves so much thanks and recognition from me.

thanks for reading guys. hope you enjoyed the stories.
 

MissJR

not in the mood for your shenanigans
Team MTBNJ Halter's
"Superpower: talking....she literally never shut up the whole race. its amazing i dont understand how someone can talk that much and not die"

Um. Have you meet Utah?
 

ajcourain

Retired from burrito Shiffering
"Superpower: talking....she literally never shut up the whole race. its amazing i dont understand how someone can talk that much and not die"

Um. Have you meet Utah?
Utah x 1,000, if you can believe that. Even the other team member JD was maybe Utah x 200. Tamela and JD shared a hotel room before and after, pretty sure they didn't actually sleep ever but rather just talked through the night and shared stories with one another :) amazing people. It does take a unique breed with high energy, and perhaps a few screws loose, to tackle something like this race anyway.
 
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