Discussion: 2022 Wilderness Traverse

Course layout is up:

Leg #1 – Prologue Trek 1km 10-20 minutes
Leg #2 – Mountain Bike 38km 2.5 - 4.5 hours
Leg #3 – Trek 23km 5-10 hours
Leg #4 – Paddle & Portage 33km 5-8 hours
Leg #5 – Trek 7km 1.5-4 hours
Leg #6 – Paddle & Portage 10km 1.5 - 2.5 hours
Leg #7 – Mountain Bike 61km 4 - 7 hours

(Portaging is a dozen totaling 7 km.)

Short course #1 (Explorer) has a 17 km bike replace the 61 km of Leg #7 on the Expedition version. Short course #2 (Challenge) skips the Leg #5 trek-off-the-boat and also shortens the final bike as in short course #1.

Should be fun!

Looking forward to seeing you on Aug. 20-21, Mr. W! It will be so nice to have our U.S. racers back.

This will be one of the largest WT events ever - currently 63 teams of three or four, ranging from ARWS winners to first timers who watched EcoChallenge. (Am I worried? Maybe a little.)

We’ll be in one of the nicest race HQs I’ve worked in - the local theatre in Parry Sound. Our HQ room has floor to ceiling windows facing the water and the bike finish line. We can take catnaps in the actors’ dressing rooms. We’re right downtown so coffee and food will be easy to find for once. Sure, I’m going to miss wearing my down jacket at the computer and avoiding bird poop when I roll out my sleeping bag but I’ll get used to it.

We’ve ordered excellent weather (well, we’re crossing our fingers) and we’ve lined up an experienced team of dot watchers, photographers and videographers. Live Coverage will mostly be on our website and Facebook page. Please comment on our Facebook posts at 2:30 am - it gets lonely.
https://www.wildernesstraverse.com

How much fog do you have planned for that overnight paddle? I know my flat water full visibility paddling pace, but haven't done extensive testing on "how do I get out of this bay??" level mist.

Also, good deal on the accommodations!

Glad you were able to get accomms - your US dollars go a long way up here! Parry Sound is super popular in August so if anyone left it too late... they probably left it too late.

It wouldn't be very entertaining for the dot watchers if you all have good visibility on the overnight paddle so I have my fingers crossed for lots of fog. At least the fog will mean the water is warmer than the air for your swim. :)

I see I perhaps worded that in a not ideal fashion - I was excited for you to have a deluxe HQ setup!

Ah... I really do! We'll be able to cheer you across the finish line right outside the HQ window and we'll have a gorgeous water view the rest of the time. I'm excited about real food nearby too. :)

Any word on iron levels on the remote trek off the boat?

Pretty sure your compasses will just point in random directions as usual in that part of Ontario. :)

Oh man. Can't wait to see that happen! ;)

@Bash, will we learn about cutoff times Friday night? Also, will we get team numbers on Friday as well? And, since you have great accommodations, maybe you can paddle out with a latte around 2am. :D

Glad to be back, and plan to bring tasty treats again for the volunteer crew.

I can't wait to see you too! You guys always spoil the volunteers - way too nice.

I'm afraid I don't have an espresso maker for the lattes but I can give you team numbers now:

- Great Lakes AR is Team #5.
- Lost Arrow Sports is Team #50.

You will learn the intermediate cutoff times on Saturday at 7 am when the maps and instructions are handed out. Bob is good with course estimates so the intermediate cut-offs should give teams a realistic chance to make it to the finish before the 30-hour cut-off. We have three different courses - Expedition, Explorers and Challenge - and I'm expecting a good finish rate for the Challenge course.

finish rate for the Challenge course

I am kicking kicking kicking myself for not finding a way to finish the full pull in 2013, when I speculate the course was either easier, or people were hardier, given the move from 150 km and 16:xx winning times to more 22 hr / 175 km, which if you ratio from superheroes to normal people, does not leave a lot of wiggle room!

The shift last year to three WT courses allowed us to challenge ARWS winning teams as much as we challenge strong intermediate teams. The winners actually had to race all through the night like everyone else, which - as you know - affects the experience a lot. As it turned out, only one team finished the Expedition course last year. I anticipate a slightly higher rate this year.

Distances can't really be compared from year to year. More than half the distance comes from the bike legs, which can be on paved roads, nice backcountry trails or mucky, hike-a-bike snowmobile trails that make you shake your fist at Bob. The estimated times can be compared, though. I'm guessing we'll see our first team finish around 21 hours but it's impossible to be sure. There is always someone who surprises us, chooses a novel route and flies through transitions. With more teams on the course at the same time than we've ever had, it should be very competitive at the front and should also inspire people to compete with their peers throughout the pack.

All fair of course! Good point on the bike terrain differences, we've had 10-12 hour races locally with 50-60 miles of biking, which on some previous WT editions, for extremely normal folks is like an 8-12 hour bike leg in your terrain!

Speaking of the competitive teams, what are the predictions?!

The defending champs are Peaks & Trails Running Series, a team that includes:
- Scott Ford from Bob's 2nd place EcoChallenge team
- Bob's super-fit wife Shannon Miller
- Experienced expedition racer Harper Forbes
- Talented multisport racer Jack Van Dorp

Team Bend Racing includes Alex Provost and Karine Corbeil, two members of the Bend Racing team that won Expedition Canada.

Team Attack from Above - Chris Laughren, Chad Spence, Julie Parent and Tom Martin - are also very experienced. Chris, Chad and Julie raced AR Croatia this spring with Harper from the Peaks & Trails team. They've been on the podium at WT a bunch of times.

Team Raid Pulse - Yannick Huneault, Stefanie Bishop, Jean-Francois Seguin and TBD - includes past WT champions.

And those are just the first 4 teams on our list of 63 teams! I haven't looked further down the list to see who is racing with whom this year but there are a lot of strong racers registered. I'm not ready to make predictions other than an exciting race!

Hey Barb - total rookie here.... Any chance you can share the team numbers for:

Worst Pace Scenario
Smith Happens
Curious Georgians

We'd love to start marking our bins and gear. Hopefully there's enough room left over for plenty of cheeseburgers...

Here's hoping the weather holds out for the weekend!

Sure thing. It's posted on the website now although Bob is still making tweaks since we're in the final week where injury/illness often affects the team/racer list. That won't affect your team numbers. Enjoy your cheeseburgers and I'll look forward to cheering on the locals!
https://www.wildernesstraverse.com/single-post/202...

Good luck to all WT racers and welcome to the amazing wilderness and terrain on the doorstep of Parry Sound.

Quick tips from a Hamiltonian adventure runner/racer recently turned Parry Sounder:

Consider booking reservations for restaurants in advance as many of the town restaurants have been very busy recently.

Trestle Brewery is excellent and have a fantastic patio. The flight deck also has a great patio and is close to the event centre. Also downtown is Turtle Jacks and Boston pizza.

Speaking of Boston, for those that are Bruins fans the Bobby Orr museum is attached to the event centre ;-)

If you have extra time then take in the Fire Tower at Tower Museum and get a nice view over the downtown and event centre (especially at sunset).

Best swimming: Salt Dock and rugged trail. Also Town beach and Nobel beach.

Fan of Bruce Cockburn? He has a concert at the WT event centre on Monday evening.

And (shameless plug) please come back to Parry Sound in 2023 to our ChallengeTheShield.ca 6-hour races!

Reasons to visit Parry Sound are always welcome!

Race Coverage is live!
https://www.wildernesstraverse.com/2022

Thanks for an amazing weekend as always! Congrats to everyone who made it around some portion!!

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who came to WT and experienced some of Ontario's wild backcountry. Our racers were a friendly, enthusiastic bunch. I had a busy, sleepless weekend at HQ but it was mostly enjoyable problem solving with a great group of people.

The leaderboard is now official at the link above. There has been lots of posting on our Facebook page in the past few days and there will be more added to our Race Coverage page in the coming days and weeks.

See you next year, I hope!

Also many thanks to the numerous volunteers, with an extra nod to the broth providers at #9!

I'm married to one of them and good friends of the others so I'll pass that along. :) That was definitely the best CP to volunteer at. I was jealous!

I recognized Bent for sure. I had guesses as to the broth distributor, swearing I’ve seen her on your log, but couldn’t pin it down in my addled state.

The Purveyor of Fine Broth was Attackpoint's own Coach LD. You're right - she's been featured on my log many times. Her husband, Goose on AP (but he moved to Strava), was also there. Depending on what time you visited, you may also have seen an 11-year-old lady who is sometimes called Weeanimal on AP.