Discussion: 2023 Endless Mountains AR

Course schematic and logistics planner is now available: https://www.endlessmountainsar.com/news/emar-2023-...

(And for Lite race: https://www.endlessmountainsar.com/news/emar-lite-...)

Division: Premier, ARWS - Mixed Gender


101 - ADVENTURE ADDICTS RACING
Michelle Faucher, Paul Morris, Chip Dodd, Brenda Carlson

102 - ADVENTURE ENABLERS
Mary Foster, Meg Hammond, Sam Prestidge, Brent Russell

103 - BEND RACING
Alex Provost, Daniel Staudigel, Karine Corbeil, Jean-Yves Dionne

104 - BONES ADVENTURE
Roy Malone, James Galipeau, Mari Chandler, Jesse Tubb

105 - CHECKPOINT ZERO
Shane Hagerman, Susan Alderman, Michele Hobson, Chris Von Ins

106 - GOALS ARA MASTERS
Bruce Kuo, Val Hardin, Ron Eaglin, Diana Driscoll

107 - MOONHOWLERS
Brian Minard, Blaire Bingham, Kylee Ormesher, Doug Silk
​
108 - NO COMPLAINTS
Doug Ritzert, Amanda Bohley, Jennifer DeBruyn, Brandon Hopkins

109 - ONLY MOSTLY LOST
Jess Evans, Jason Schaefer, Owen Steele, Jim Benton

110 - RIB MOUNTAIN RACING
Tim Buchholz, Anna Nummelin, Jarrod Shoemaker, Joel Ford

111 - SALOMON CANADA
Pete Cameron, Angus Doughty, Scott Ford, Leanne Mueller

112 - TEAM VISIT PENTICTON - BC WILD
Nathalie Long, Jeff Sherstobitoff, Peter Watson, Loic Letailleur

113 - TEXAS PRIDE
Paul Ryan, Matt Deylius, Kim Stewart

114 - UNTAMED NEW ENGLAND/VERT
Dave Lamb, Jason Urckfitz, Alyssa Godesky, Matt Cymanski

115 - WILDLINGS
Barbara Niess-May, John Price, Chad Denlinger, Cody Bush

116 - 5060 ADVENTURE
Shari Hymes, Pete Spagnoli, JD Eskelson, Brian Eason

117 - BLUEBOLT/ROCKHOP
TBD

118 - WHO DIS
Lori Eich, Jason Goodrick, Amanda Heisey-Gallagher, Megan Nettuno

119 - TEAM THISABILITY ADVENTURE RACING
TBD


Division: All-Female (non-ARWS)
301 - BIPOLAR
Kate Matthews, Mary Scheerer

302 - UBUNTU
Megan Moir, Donna Boots, Olga Huber, Alyson Courain



Division: All-Male (non-ARWS)
401 - BLAZING PADDLES
Tom Ambrose, Clifton Charles

402 - CHAOS REQUIRED
Rick Keilty, David Farley, Matt Palumbo, John Farley

403 - EDGE OF THE WILD
Brian McLeod, Jason Avis

405 - UP HILL BOTH WAYS
David Brydson, Matt Reynolds, Shane Stapleton

404 - TRUST THE COMPASS
Jared Krefski, Jason Madey, Kristian Randt, Jason Glenn

406 - ADVENTURE ENABLERS/ENABLED TRACKING
TBD

407 - EPIC NAV
C.J. Meidlinger, Dennis Race

408 - 3ROC AR
Jason Miller, Kevin Tucker, TBD, TBD

409 - SKILLS OPTIONAL RACING
Dan Szilier, Kevin Sevinsky, Mark Costner



Division: Mixed Gender (non ARWS)
201 - GUNG HO
Jay Zech, Penny Zech, Kevin Lint

202 - NERDQUIST
TBD

203 - REV3 ENDURANCE
TBD

205 - THE NORTHSTAR
Dellvenna Hambling, Paul Merchak, Steve Hambling

206 - TWO THORNS AND TENDERFOOT
Brooke Carmichael, Martin Carmichael

Teams to watch: https://www.sleepmonsters.com/races.php?article_id...

Great article!

Just so it's handy in this discussion, here is the Live Tracking link.
https://live.enabledtracking.com/endlessmountains2...

Cool statistics from Abiperk:

"For anyone interested in these sorts of things, a friend asked me this morning about the average age of racers at next week's Endless Mountains Adventure Race. The answer: 47.11.

Out of 110 participants, sixteen are 60 or over and twenty are under 40.

In the Lite race, the average is 45.21."

So you need to grow into Expedition length races, apparently!

Bummer that Untamed/VERT is out. Due to injury which I believe is Alyssa's meniscus tear per her social media. The VERT side has been fun to watch grow into a very competitive team and the Untamed side always brings experience, grit, and great nav.

Course flyover: https://www.facebook.com/rootstockracing/videos/35...

Maps and route book will go up tomorrow.

Course preview:

https://www.endlessmountainsar.com/news/the-2023-e...

Great course description - thanks for keeping us posted. I’m excited to watch!

My cheering seems to be working as of 8 pm on Day 1. :)

1) Bend Racing (75% Canadian)
2) Bones (25% Canadian)
3) Salomon Canada (100%)
4) Visit Penticton BC Wild (100%, I think?)

Team Salomon Canada includes a close friend who is a first-time expedition racer and just celebrated a milestone birthday, so I'm sending a few extra cheers Angus Doughty's way. Lookin' good!

@Bash, Owen from Only Mostly Lost and Jenn from No Complaints are also Canadian!

I know Owen well - I should have continued reading down the leaderboard. Great job, Canucks! :)

Honourable mention goes to Rib Mountain Racing, which has somehow made it into the top seven without the benefit of a single Canadian (as far as I know). ;)

@Bash: Rib Mtn is at least partly Wisconsinites, which is almost the same as Canucks.

uh oh. Salomon Canada just punched CP16 and then took the wrong valley + trail North. We'll see how long it takes them to catch the error.

And Bend taking an interesting route to B12, wonder if they planned to take the trail up the valley to the left and it either looked bad or wasn’t there so now they will go the long way around on the road. Seems like taking the road up the valley to the west would have been more direct.

Yeah, I saw that Bend situation, too. It seemed less troubling as it's more like a viable alternative route.

I general, I think we can safely say that darkness is impacting nav. for these teams at the pointy end. And, if it's impacting them...it's certain to play games with the mid-pack and short course teams.

Considering the extra miles that Bend will be putting in to get B12 using their route and the usual leaders-not-knowing-anything-about-the-teams-behind-them situation, their confidence about their position after they punch B12 will likely be a bit shaken. I can imagine discussions after leaving the CP about if the hard-to-see bike tracks in the dirt/mud are fresh enough to be other teams. They will know their placing for sure once they get to the ropes, but for a short while, I think there will be some added juice in their legs and uncertainty in their heads.

Salomon Canada lost their 2nd place to Bones and is now roughly 30 mins behind them in third with Rib Mtn mere minutes behind.

In other news, the other Canadian team (Visit Penticton) is currently making the same parallel error as Salomon.

Rats, I went and did something else for a while and look what happened to my Canadians!

Looks like even the top teams had some bobbles in the bike nav overnight. Biggest of all was Bones, who did indeed forget B12 on a little side route. After completing the rock climbing trek, they went back and will need to work their way up through the pack.

Now Bend has made it to TA2 with a big lead. Rib just moved into 2nd after some exploring in the area of 21. Salomon and Penticton are still near 21 in a tight battle for 3rd.

Bones route certainly didn’t cost them much as they are firmly in second still. Moving fast on the major roads. Still don’t know the split from them to Bend, but Bend is about 4hr30m up on the 3rd-5th pack.

Bend had a bit of trouble in the dark last night towards the end of that ride, the other teams will get to finish those points in the daylight, will be interesting to see if they struggle there as well.

Bones is shown in 2nd at 22 due to geofencing but they seem to have passed 22 and then returned to pick it up. Their dot is a little old so they are probably battling Penticton for 3rd place now. Rib is still in 2nd. Salomon is a short distance behind in 5th.

There was only 18 minutes between 2nd and 5th place at CP22 (assuming that Bones' arrival time is incorrect due to geofencing, as it appears to be). In a 5-day race, that's pretty much neck and neck. Bend is well ahead of the chase group - about 1/3 of the way through Stage C, the Pine Gorge trek. I'm looking forward to photos of the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania".

Yeah, Rib and Penticton may have benefited from Bones’ mistake at 22 there as they arrived at the trouble spot right as bones was returning and then cruised through without trouble. Solomon was a little late to the party though and looks to be struggling now.

Penticton looks to have missed the turn down to 23, hopefully they can correct quickly.

Ouch, Solomon still stuck at 22, Penticton meanwhile has found their way off that ridge and is back on track. Bones through ta2 with Bend about 4hrs ahead. Rib hopefully leaving ta2 soon as they have been there quite a while.

It's hard to tell whether Salomon Canada got 22 but they're moving on. Like Bones, they were credited with 22 through a geofencing inaccuracy when they first approached it 2.5 hours ago. I thought they'd punched it but they obviously hadn't. They are now in 5th place, not far behind Penticton, who made an error on their way to 23.

Multiple teams got confused in the area of 22, which looks like it should be simple but obviously isn't! Looking at the race maps, there are several trails in that area and maybe there are other small streams too.

Bend is about 60% of the way through the Stage C trek. Bones is in the early part of the trek in 2nd place.

3rd place Rib just started the trek after a longer transition.

6th place No Complaints has passed the Bermuda Triangle of CP22, seemingly without any issues.

The Wildlings include longtime Attackpointer Work4Justice and Ontario racer John Price. They're on the Blue Run Rocks trek (the 2nd trek off the Stage B bike) in 11th place. Their route from the start of the race looks solid. They've had a couple of nav bobbles but no worse than the lead teams. Great job!

Penticton stopped tracking 2 hours ago near CP24 with a "No Mobile Signal" message. It's an unusual time to stop but other teams have been tracking nearby so it may be a nap break. If so, Salomon and No Complaints have moved into 4th and 5th respectively, arriving at TA2 close together.

The geofencing hasn't given CP26 to 2nd place Bones or 3rd place Rib. Although their tracks don't go there, it seems very likely that they punched it after TA2. Bend's track went there and they got credit.

In a Facebook video, Roy Malone of Bones confirmed that Bones *planned* to hit B12 after the ropes trek because they figured it meant less elevation gain. So their brilliant "recovery" and return to 2nd place was part of the plan.

Ah, so this is why teams had trouble at 22:

"As sun rose on day 2, Bend had continued to extend their lead through stage 2, executing a clean, efficient race and setting a blistering pace, foiled only by pea-soup fog at CP22. “Without the ability to see,” said Bend’s Dan Staudigal, we were reluctant to commit too far down the creek. It turned out, after several attacks, that we were right where we thought we were. We just needed to go a little bit further.”

The bobble didn’t slow them down for long. They were the first team to arrive at TA2, overlooking the Pine Creek Gorge at Colton Point State Park. After a swift transition – less than 20 minutes in total, they headed toward Stage 3, presented by Garmin, appropriately named “The Grand.”

See the Sleepmonsters report for more info on the first 24 hours of racing.
https://www.sleepmonsters.com/races.php?article_id...

Behind the scenes with RDs Brent and Abby:
https://www.sungazette.com/news/outdoors/2023/06/a...

Nice!

Bend has found the final CP on the Stage C trek and will make their way a few kilometres to TA3. They've been trekking for 8 hours now.

Rib has passed Bones in the Gorge and moved into 2nd place. The two teams may have met each other near CP32. Rib is currently being credited with one more CP than Bones but that is almost certainly a geofencing issue. That said, if Bones passes Rib, they won't move up the leaderboard until that can be checked.

Salomon Canada started the Stage C trek in 4th place half an hour ago with No Complaints a short distance behind.

Penticton has not tracked since their tracker lost mobile signal near CP24 four hours ago. I hope everyone is OK.

Bend reached TA3 at 16:33, a little more than 9 hours after they started trekking. It doesn't look like they've slept yet. It's still 4 hours to sunset. There's a chance of rain and possible thunderstorms this afternoon and tonight. Here's where we are in the race:

"This section ends at Rattlesnake Rock, where teams will retrieve their bikes and head out on Stage D, presented by the Clinton County Visitors Bureau.

During this relatively short ride, racers can let their feet recover and put their navigational chops to work, as they explore the beautiful Cedar Run Valley on their way to the Cedar Run CCC Camp, which operated from 1933 to 1941. There, under the direction of Lieutenant J. Wickerling, workers were tasked with planting trees, fighting forest fires, and building miles of roads and trails in Tioga State Forest, the great outdoors serving as a salve to the pains of the Great Depression.

From the camp in Leetonia, mapwork will get interesting, with a variety of feasible routes connecting to the old rail grade that serves as part of the Midnight Madness bike race. Dot-watching should be exciting for this part of the stage, which ends at TA 3 in Ole Bull State Park. Here, racers will be treated to hot food as they prepare for the Stage E, presented by the Lumber Heritage Region, the crux of the race."

Rib and Bones hit C01 less than 3 minutes apart.

Oh! Penticton's tracker suddenly popped up after almost 6 hours. They are a short distance behind Bones in 4th.

My guess is Bend tries to get through this bike and onto the next trek before getting some good sleep. They have built a pretty good lead now but won’t know by how much. If anything they think Bones is closer than they are as they would have seen at least their bikes at the climb TA, not knowing that bones had skipped b12 at that point. Hopefully the trackers of the chase teams improve as they climb up out of that canyon.

Yes! And good point re Bend's perception of their lead.

I'm glad to see Penticton's tracker again. There's a tight 3-way race for 2nd and the 5th and 6th place teams aren't far behind them. Anything can happen when teams start sleeping.

Both Bones and Penticton are credited with fewer CPs than they've probably visited so the leaderboard may get a little squirrelly until that gets fixed. (Unless they actually *did* miss any CPs.)

Salomon Canada (5th) is currently about 2 hours behind Penticton (4th). Salomon is about 1 hour ahead of No Complaints (6th), who arrived at TA2 less than 10 minutes after they did.

Speaking of TA2, it's a party there now - 8 teams!

From ARWS Facebook: "Race Director Brent Freedland says that we should keep an eye on the navigation decisions made by teams to get from CP35 to D1 as there are 3-4 logical routes (and other less logical routes) that teams may take."

It looks like Bones has moved past Rib into 2nd place.

Bend is now riding between CP35 and D1 - the interesting nav section Brent talked about above.

Wow, if you check the race maps, you'll see what Brent means. If you haven't done it yet, you can get them by clicking on the "i" for "information" icon in the upper left corner of the live tracking page.

Bend arrived at TA4 around 9:30 pm, about 40 minutes after sunset. This is Ole Bull State Park where hot food is available as racers prepare for the Stage E trek, the crux of the race. It seems like a great spot to sleep. Stage D took Bend 5 hours, counting their time at TA3. No other team has finished Stage C.

Stage E "brings racers into the remote and rugged Hammersley Wild Area, which encompasses more than 30,000 acres of remote forest and earns the distinction as the state’s largest area without a road. Hammersley was last culled in 1900; today it is lush with second growth forest, rocky ridgelines, and ambling creeks, including the fourteen-mile Cross Fork tributary, home to one of the biggest rattlesnake roundups in the country. Not to worry, though: the snake-hunters will be long gone by the time Endless Mountains racers pass through. The 2023 roundup took place while racers were checking in last Sunday…

This massive stage – projected to take top teams upwards of thirty hours – ends at Kettle Creek State Park, the best spot for elk encounters on this year’s course (especially for short-course teams that might elect to approach the next transition area from the north, along Kettle Creek Rd).

Encompassing the middle third of the course, Stage E will likely shake up the race for a number of teams. The trek is roughly broken into thirds; the middle of the stage is rogaine in nature, with more linear routes on the front and back ends. Teams will have to strategize how many of the optional checkpoints to commit to, and many may find themselves going for 24-36 hours without seeing another person. How teams cope with sleep strategy, fatigue, nutrition, and sore feet will be a more significant factor than the 40+ miles and extended stretches of bushwhacking that they will encounter."

Hopefully Rib isn’t still stuck looking for c04, which it seems took them quite a while. Their tracker hasn’t updated in over an hour so they could be nearing the TA by now. Penticton has made up some good ground and seems to be right back in the pack, not sure what happened to drop Bones back.
Solomon is getting back in there as well and even No Complaints is close to getting into the top 5 if anyone slips up.

Rib just reappeared after a very tough time at C04! Rib and Penticton are approaching C05 from different directions and it looks like Rib will get there first and claim 2nd place.

Bones is still back at C04 in 4th (although their dot is 30 minutes old so maybe not). It looks like they had a smaller issue there. Penticton went directly in and out.

Salomon is about 1 km from C04 so they are back in it.

Bend has been in TA now about 1hr40m so they are likely getting some sleep, although their last ping was an hour ago so they could be out on the trek.
Penticton hasn’t updated in an hour, and bones over an hour so hard to say where they are.

Looks like we are down to 8 full course teams by my count, Bend, Rib, Penticton, Bones, Salomon, No Complaints, Adventure Addicts, and Checkpoint Zero. The leaderboard didn’t credit checkpoint zero with some cp’s but their track seems to go to all of them.

I like Checkpoint Zero’s bold approach to CP 7, technically they didn’t go on the off limits road as both their crossings look like they were underpasses. Doesn’t look like it helped them much but it was creative. It certainly was not the directors intended route though.

I was thinking that Only Mostly Lost might be on the list of full course teams but they got off-track looking for B11 and it doesn't appear that they made it there.

Three of the four teams in 2nd to 5th place have no cell signal right now so we'll have to be patient until they get to TA3. It looks like it will be Rib, Penticton, Bones and Salomon in that order - still close enough together for anything to happen in a race this long. No Complaints is in 6th, then there is a gap.

Wow, bend finished that stage, slept and ate, transitioned and is now out on foot and i don’t think anyone has made it to the TA a full stage back yet. They are crushing.

Penticton with a strange move after C05, a 9km route on roads with more elevation to avoid a 700m bushwack.

Plus they still had to bushwack around 700m down from c05 to get to the road, i don’t get it.

Looking at the race map, my best guess is that someone made a sleepy choice to follow the creek downstream to the road, then realized their error.

Unlike Bend, Penticton bushwhacked over the spur to the west of the creek and dropped down into the valley above C05. Maybe they had a bad experience with cliffy terrain and decided not to risk the other side of the creek? For sure, it will be a post-race story to share!

It looks like Salomon found C04 after some exploration. Their gap back to No Complaints has shrunk.

Rib has arrived at TA3 in 2nd place. Bones will probably arrive next in 3rd but they haven't tracked for 2 hours. Then Penticton, Salomon and No Complaints.

Meanwhile back in the mangroves, the Wildlings are sleeping at TA2, solidly in the midpack.

Brent said Salomon never found c04 so they are no longer full course, too bad as they were having a great race.
Not sure what Bend is up to now, maybe just passed the ridge and didn’t realize it till too late.

I suspect Bend is trying to eliminate vertical.

I guess Bend doing 39 as an out and back is only about 3.5k on flat trail. Saves elevation and bushwhacking at the end. Probably a smart move.

I’m guessing rib left their bikes down at the road and got d01 on foot.

No complaints has been spot on with their nav, not moving the fastest but not making mistakes. They look well poised to keep moving up if they keep racing smart.

It will be interesting to see where bones shows up again, they left ta3 in 2nd about 9hrs after Bend.

Penticton just got to TA4, 12hr30m after Bend.

Bones showed up at ta4, but tracker still not really working.

Bones finally showed up, tracking right behind Penticton on the Trek.

Do we know for sure that Bones and Penticton are full course? I'd thought the leaderboard would be updated to include their missing points after their passports were checked at two TAs. (Assuming there's a way to check during the race.)

I think Brent would have mentioned it in one of his updates today if they were not. He specifically said Salomon missed a point moving no complaints into 5th, if bones or penticton were not full course no complaints would be 3rd or 4th.

Makes sense - I haven't been able to follow closely this morning. Bummer about Salomon. I'd assumed they were continuing because they'd found C04 while not tracking well, but apparently their track told the whole story. They're still doing really well and we're very proud of our local team!

From the ground - Bend, Rib, Penticton, Bones, and No Complaints are still full course. We aren't sure about CP0, but will find out when they arrive in TA3 (it looks like they've tracked through all of the points on the tracker). Salomon is the best of the rest of the field.

Prepping for my contributions to tonight's TDZ live podcast...

SLEEP. Who has slept so far. Where. How long. Top 5 teams.
--Bend - slept at TA4, late Tuesday night. Per Lebn, they got an awesome recharge here and no other teams came in during that time. What a confidence booster. Estimated 3hr sleep?
--Rib - slept at TA3 under a truck, early Wednesday morning. Estimated 3-4hr.
--Bones - did not sleep at TA3
--Penticton - did not sleep at TA3, likely slept at TA4 about 2 hours Wednesday morning.
--No Complaints - may have slept in the vicinity of C5? lots of pings in that area but it just may have been slow travel in the reentrant.

Also any other questions you have or stories you want to highlight, please post here! Golive is about 6:30 EST.

I'm calling the group of CPs on Stage E the "Cornucopia of CPs" aka E1-E12.

I like Bend's route through the Cornucopia so far. Getting 39 early is going to give them a long trek on a trail out after bopping down to get E10. We'll see what the other teams do through here.

Bend was in TA4 almost 3 hours, so I am guessing more like 2hrs of sleep as they still had to pack their bikes and transition and likely took advantage of the hot food offered there.
Bend has had the advantage of getting through some of the trickier nav sections during the day, it will be interesting to see how teams do on the rogaine section of this trek at night.

No Complaints continues to do really well, nav just as good as Bend just moving a bit slower. I like the creative ditch bikes and hike up to D01 route as well. I imagine they got some good sleep last night at TA3 and could still move up if some of those lead teams struggle, especially as they will likely be pushing on less sleep.

It’s too bad bones is off the radar again, they keep running in stealth mode.
Last we saw of Bones they were a bit off course but correcting which should give Penticton a bit of breathing room and a chance for Rib to close the gap a bit. I would guess Rib got more sleep than the other two and may fare better tonight as teams get sleepy.

Wondering why the green line of travel between CP 37 and 38 is shown initially cutting the corner westward from 37? There is a trail running through there on the maps but gains/loses 800 ft compared to the flat road - can't imagine there will be anyone electing that route. Maybe there was a CP in there that was removed?

Oh! Bones just pinged! They overshot a turn between 37 and 38 and now may have overshot the correct reentrant attack up to 38/Elk Lick Knob.

@Silky, No Complaints took a long sleep - sounded like maybe even longer than they had intended.

@Lebn, I'm SO excited to get over to TA4 for the food truck. Here is the menu:

Main choose 1
* Two Beef Tacos Ground Beef, Lettuce, Cheese, Taco Sauce, & Pico
* BIRRIA TRIO Mexican French Dip Roasted Pork & Cheese dipped in our Beef Broth
* Chicken Quesadilla Mojo Crillo Marintated Chicken, Cheese & Pepper Blend w/ a side of Pico
* Grilled Tempeh Bowl Corn Salsa, Guacamole, Beans, Pico de Gallo, & Spanish Rice
Sides - Choose 1
* Fresh Cut Fries
* Chips & Pico de Gallo (Chunky Tomato Salsa)
* Mexican Street Corn Cup
Sweet Treat: Churros fried dough dusted w/ cinnamon & sugar
Beverages: Lemonade (5 gallon jug with cups on a side table outside the truck) & Bottled Water

YUM, is it too late to register for the race? :)

Yes I would like the chicken quesadilla, the grilled tempeh bowl, all of the sides, AND one of those whoopie pies from the finish line

Ooooo a nice tracker upgrade - short course teams are now green. And some other color coding for unofficial, dropped mandatories, and retired teams

Very nice!

Also, the leaderboard has been reorganized really nicely so we don't need to do as much guessing!

"I like the creative ditch bikes and hike up to D01 route as well."

This isn't always allowed. In the AR I help organize, bikes are mandatory gear during the bike stage so they can't be dropped unless it's specifically permitted in the instructions.

Bend continues to put on a master class. They've finished the rogaine portion of the monster trek and are in the final stretch of mandatory controls between 40 and 41. It was thought that the fastest team might finish this section in just under 30 hours. Bend has been out there since about 12:20 am, almost 18.5 hours.

Penticton is moving along solidly in 2nd place. Like Bend (and unlike the "green line"), they're getting 39 before their rogaine of optional CPs.

Rib is in 3rd, about an hour behind.

Bones is in 4th and hit 38 (Elk Lick Knob) about 15 minutes after Rib.

The leaderboard shows them as full course teams, which appears to be accurate, but all of these teams need their points updated since that's how the leaderboard is sorted. This happened because their trackers weren't tracking when they visited certain CPs.

As someone who manages trackers for an adventure race, I commend Bend on apparently placing their tracker in a terrific location on their pack! Three of them have done our race multiple times and have been forced to listen to my instructions each time, so I guess I'll take credit for training them well, lol.

No Complaints (5th) is just starting the monster trek.

Rib did not pick up 39 before starting the optional rogaine CPs, so we'll get a chance to see how those two route choices play out.

Bend only has two CPs to go before they trek in to TA5. It looks like they'll come in well under 30 hours - maybe 26-ish hours. Other than some messing around at Elk Lick Knob in the dark last night, their nav looks really clean. Bien joué, Alex!

Very different route choices by Rib and Penticton on the rogaine section of the monster trek.

Penticton went directly from E05 to E06 and is now heading west to E11.

Rib has so far followed the same route as Bend (other than leaving 39 to the end). So they've done E05, E08, E09, E12, E11. Now they're heading east toward E06 as Penticton heads west toward E11. A good chunk of the route is off-trail so they may not see each other - but they might see headlamps and they might even meet.

At this point, Rib is in 2nd place because they've visited more CPs. It's looking very possible that they'll hold that position even though they need to pick up 39 after the rogaine - unlike Penticton, who went there first.

Bones hasn't tracked for 5 hours. It would be fun to see what they're doing in the rogaine. :(

3rocAR are doing rogaine CPs and they skipped E02 at the start. Salomon is the next team into the rogaine and they chose to get 39 first.

Lots of teams are on the early part of the monster trek including No Complaints (5th), Only Mostly Lost, The Wildlings, Adventure Addicts, 5060 Adventure, ThisAbility, Adventure Enablers and Goals ARA Masters. Checkpoint Zero (6th) is at TA4.

Penticton actually went from E06 to E09 and E08. They made good time because they could follow a trail most of the way. Their route choice could pay off.

I think Bend is sleeping near the road after punching E14. Seems like they are at a house.

Agreed. They've been there almost 2.5 hours so I'd expect some motion soon.

Salomon got 39 and is skipping all the rogaine CPs. They're more than halfway to 40 now. The cut-off at TA5 is Friday at 2 pm so they had time for the rogaine. If everyone were feeling good, that's not a decision this team would make. They're moving and navigating well after a good rest at TA4 so it doesn't look like anything too serious is wrong. I'd guess that someone isn't feeling 100% - maybe bad blisters, chafing, nausea or knee pain - so they're going to focus on finishing the mandatory parts of the course.

As expected, Bend is on the move!

Penticton is not far behind Rib now in the vicinity of E10, and they will pull ahead when Rib has to head east to get 39. Their route choices were good. They were leading by about an hour before the rogaine started and it remains to be seen whether they'll increase their gap.

Both teams are due for some sleep. They both slept at TA3 last night and started the Stage D bike around sunrise. It looks like Rib slept a couple hours longer though. Neither team slept at TA4.

Oh no, Salomon has turned south on a road to head out to the main road instead of continuing to 40. :(

Unless they missed that really obvious turn West to CP40...I think Salomon is headed to TA5. They did pause at the area of the turn, but chose to head South instead of West. This adds fuel to your hunch that something is not going well for them.

Yes, I think they're abandoning the race.

~2am: Rib is sleeping in the vicinity of E7. Penticton is still moving, but I suspect they'll bed down somewhere soon as well.

Bend got to TA5 under 28 hrs including a nice sleep break. They've started the Stage F bike leg.

Salomon turned off the race course around midnight and hiked 5-6 km south toward the main road. They spent several hours at the Forrest H. Duttlinger Natural Area, apparently in some kind of shelter. At sunrise, they started the long trek north to rejoin the race course and they're almost back. There must be quite a story!

Bones popped up in the rogaine ahead of the other top teams but they had left 39 to the end and now they haven't tracked for 1.5 hrs so we don't know how long that took them. Near the end of the rogaine, it looks like Rib stopped for a long sleep (4-4.5 hrs) and Penticton stopped for a shorter sleep (2.5-3 hrs). It’s not clear who is 2nd vs. 3rd but Rib is 4th now.

No Complaints (5th) is approaching the rogaine after sleeping on the race course for a few hours. Checkpoint Zero (6th) had a good sleep at TA4 and has started the monster trek. These are the only other full course teams on the leaderboard now.

When Salomon rejoined the race course, they turned west toward 40 instead of east toward the rogaine. Amazingly, if they’d headed toward the rogaine, they might still have the same overall ranking (7th) as last night when they left the course. Expedition races are crazy things!

Salomon is at 40. 3rocAR picked up 3 rogaine CPs at the north end of the rogaine course, then headed way down to 39 to pick up the mandatory CPs leading to TA5. Only Mostly Lost is also past 39 so they’re skipping the rogaine too. Adventure Enablers/Enabled Tracking will be the next highly placed short course team to approach the rogaine. At the moment, Salomon is still the “best of the rest” on the short course (7th overall), even after their big detour.

No Complaints skipped the optional/Cornucopia CPs on the Stage E rogaine, taking them off the full course.

EDIT - no they didn’t! They just got 39 and then turned back north, hopefully going to get those optional. Go team!!

Rib (4th) and No Complaints (5th) hit CP39 at almost the same time. Rib has completed the rogaine and will now follow the mandatory CPs to TA5. No Complaints is at a decision point. Will they head up and do the rogaine?

Yes, they just updated and they’re going to do the rogaine. Great stuff!

Hmm, will be interesting to see how Bend finishes the bike rogaine, can’t make sense yet of them leaving f12 for later.

I think Bones needs to take some lessons from Bend regarding tracker placement. Their tracking has been consistently poor, whereas Bend’s has been pretty great all race.

At their current pace, Checkpoint Zero (6th) will be hard pressed to stay on the full course. Of course they don’t know this, but they may have the same ranking at TA5 whether or not they do the rogaine.

Adventure Enablers/Enabled Tracking has chosen to skip the rogaine. They are 8th overall and could have moved ahead of Salomon if they’d completed some of the rogaine. At this point, tomorrow’s 2 pm cut-off is looming - and the race book made it clear that reaching that cut-off won’t guarantee enough time to finish the remaining mandatory CPs before the course closes. There are a couple of short course teams who still could attempt part of the rogaine but I suspect they won’t.

Good points, Lebnjay! I’m thinking Bend may have left F12 to the end to reduce elevation gain even though it means extra distance. We’ll know soon.

Bones popped up again, just behind Salomon and with a good lead on Rib, although their tracker is 30m stale. Still no sign of Penticton, but i think they will be close to bones. Bones got going a bit earlier this morning but penticton didn’t have to go get 39

Looks like cp0 missed the turn up to 38 as a few teams have, hopefully they correct soon

Bend is certainly preserving elevation on that bike o, I wonder if that was their original plotted route or if it has been modified to conserve tired legs, especially with their comfortable lead. They probably don’t know exactly how far out front they are must have a sense at this point that they are doing very well.

Top 5 are all tracking again, order is Bend, Bones, Penticton, Rib, No Complaints.
Bend passed cp40 about 14 hours before Bones. I’d say there is ~1.5hrs between bones and Pentiction, and around the same between penticton and Rib.

Yay, tracking!

Bend left TA4 shortly after midnight, about 10 hours before the group of chasing teams arrived. For sure, they would expect any teams close behind them to sleep and eat at TA4, so they would know they had a lead of a few hours.

It can be difficult to prevent information from slipping out at TAs. Sometimes a well-meaning but excited volunteer compliments a team's performance and gives something away. Or the team overhears a conversation during a visit of several hours. So Bend may know a little more.

But they may not!

Salomon has chosen to go for some more optional CPs after 41. They're heading toward E13 and will presumably go to E14/15/16 enroute to the TA.

Bones will probably catch Salomon soon on the way to E13. James of Bones is a good friend and former teammate of some of the Salomon racers, so that will boost spirits.

Saving F12 only saved about 50ft of climbing but added about 2k of extra riding.

Not sure if the suggested route is suggesting a 400m bikewhack to leave the trails though which might not be preferable. Plus the forest may be clear (which from the pictures it looks like it is, almost rideable) but that's not something the teams will know for sure or not when they have to make their plan. That being said they still could have gotten F12 earlier and skipped the bikewhack. The distance saved would just have been less (1k). I probably would have gotten F12 and then found the best way down to the road

Bend is through the bike maze now, on their way to F15. It looks pretty straightforward from here to TA6, where they start paddling.

Ouch! Checkpoint Zero blew past their turn between 37 and 38, going 4-5 km in the wrong direction. They caught their error and they're almost back to their turn now.

No Complaints (5th) is making their way around the rogaine and just hit E05. If they go the same speed as Bend, they'll make it to TA5 at 4 am. Even if they don't go the same speed as Bend, they should be OK with tomorrow's 2 pm cut-off. The cut-off is to *depart* TA5 and the description suggests that leaving earlier would be a very good idea:

"Gives you time to bypass CPs on Stage F, paddle, and bypass CPs on Stage H. Maybe…? That’s a lot of optional CPs skipped, and you would likely have to drop five mandatory points…"

Looks like there's a party happening on Trek E currently, there are 12+ teams spread-out in the ~5kms between CP39-40.

Most teams with time for any rogaining have passed CP39 without turning back to enter the rogaine in the northeast corner where the top 5 teams entered. BUT Adventure Enablers/Enabled Tracking just turned around and headed more than 1 km back to a turn-off they'd passed south of 39. They're now heading toward E04 and should have time to get several other rogaine CPs along a side loop on their way to 40. Nice plan. This could move them ahead of Salomon into 7th.

CP0 has some tough decisions coming up. They're still on the full course but from their current position, it took Bend 23 hours to reach TA5. CP0 has just over 26 hours until the cut-off to depart TA5.

@Awentz, it does look fun! A lot of those people are friends so they're probably sharing some stories.

Bend has just ridden into TA6. Time for a relaxing paddle:

"On their thirty-mile journey [along the West Branch Susquehanna], they will pass under the Hyner Hanglide Launch, where lucky teams may see adventurers of a different sort sailing overhead. They will also paddle by the Red Hill archaeological site, where in 1993 paleontologists excavated fossils dating back 365 million years. While there are no checkpoints along the way, giving teams a break from some unrelenting navigation, the real challenge will be contending with fatigue. If teams have managed their sleep well leading up to this stage, they should enjoy the steadily moving river paddle. If they didn’t, this relatively straightforward stage could become a nightmare of a different sort, as racers contend with prehistoric hallucinations on their approach into Lock Haven and the final transition of the race."

Bend is in to TA6. They’ll get to avoid some sleepy paddling and get the paddle done during the daylight. They might try to push through the night and finish the bike without sleeping since they will be so close but falling asleep on the bike could necessitate some rest.

The paddle is estimated to take 8-12 hours and the final stage is an 8-12 hour bike ride. I agree that a nap would be a good idea!

Another wrinkle: On the final bike section, Bend will probably hit the rolling dark zone that prevents them from visiting H4 and H5 using the trail system north of 44. They will need to follow a mandatory route into Williamsport, then they can backtrack to visit ALT44 to earn 2 points. This alternate CP is only available during the dark zone, which lifts at 5:45 am at CP44. After that, it will be a short ride in to the finish.

Rib (4th) is moving well now. Their split from 40 to 41 was 1:52 compared to 2:43 for Penticton (3rd). Rib was 50 minutes behind Penticton at 41.

There has been no happy reunion between Salomon and Bones because they're moving almost the same speed so Bones hasn't caught up!

Bend is doing ~7k/hr, at that pace it should take them ~5 more hrs.

It appears that No Complaints (5th) has started dropping optional CPs on the rogaine.

Checkpoint Zero (6th) seems to be having trouble finding the flag on Elk Lick Knob. That's one of the few places where Bend spent extra time wandering so it must be tricky.

Team Adventure Enablers/Enabled Tracking picked up 2 or 3 rogaine CPs on their side loop into the southern rogaine CPs. Their track doesn't show any sign of the climb to E04, which I assumed would be part of the plan. The other two (E07 and E10) would be much less time consuming so it may not be a tracking anomaly. They've now turned south toward 40, away from the rogaine.

AE/ET were 2 points behind Salomon (7th) when they started the monster trek, so they've either made it even up to this point on the course or they may be 1 point ahead when they get to TA5. This assumes that they go for the 4 optional CPs near the end of the leg - the ones that Salomon is picking up now. Salomon is about to arrive at their 3rd optional CP. So we've got a race, even though neither team knows it!

Nope - I take it back. No Complaints has backtracked to get E11. They're not dropping CPs yet.

The party is around CP40 now: Adventure Enablers (mixed team), Wildlings, 5060 Adventure, Goals ARA Masters, Adventure Addicts and ThisAbility all within a few hundred meters of each other. Fun! They're all doing well and should have no trouble making the cut-off.

Lots of teams have passed by the turn-off south of 39 but no one else has attempted the little south rogaine side loop that Adventure Enablers/Enabled Tracking is doing. At this stage, I don't think anyone else will detour into the rogaine, with the possible exception of CP0 if they decide not to attempt the northern rogaine CPs. CP0 has moved on from Elk Lick Knob after finding the CP - or so it appears. Next stop: either a rogaine CP or CP39.

Salomon has reached TA5 - the 2nd team to get there but not on the full course. Maybe we'll find out what happened last night!

Bones (2nd) is about 45-50 minutes behind Salomon, heading for E16. It looks like Rib and Penticton (battling for 3rd) may be together at E15 about 45-50 minutes behind Bones.

From what I understand, Salomon accidentally dropped that low then realized that sleep was needed ASAP. They slept under a truck for a bit before undoing their error. So despite what we thought, they were never planning on dropping out.

Wow, thanks for the update!

No Complaints has just started their trek from E04 to E10 to get the final rogaine CP. Awesome work to stay on the full course.

No other team visited E10 last so there is no direct comparison. It looks like it might take No Complaints about 12 hours to finish the trek and stay on the full course in 5th place. That would get them into TA5 around 4 am, which should give them plenty of time to finish the whole course if they're feeling good.

Just as we reach the suspenseful moment when we'll find out what 6th place CP0 is going to do... their tracker lost its mobile signal. Stay tuned!

There will be updates to the rankings to account for penalties:

"We've had a few questions about time penalties on Stage B and C. On each of these stages, there were sections that challenged racers with relatively unique skillsets - on Stage B, top-roping, and on Stage C, letterboxing, where teams are required to use a series of written clues to navigate between unmapped CPs. We didn't want teams to be penalized in the standings for missing these mandatory points, so instead teams incurred a 45-minute time penalty for any ropes route they were unable to complete and a 1-hour penalty for any letterbox CP they were unable to find. You'll see the penalty noted on the tracking page at the designated point. At this point, we have tabulated climbing penalties. We are aiming to get letterboxing penalties up by evening."

Bash, I'm in TA with Salomon and they send their love!

Aww, please send love back from me and from all their concerned fans. :) Tell them they created CONTROVERSY!!! (You have to say it that way - particularly to Pete.)

CP0 just pinged from CP39. Will they go north to the rogaine or do a south loop or go straight to the finish or...?

Appears that CP0 is skipping the cornucopia of optional CPs. They are moving South after punching CP39. If this holds, they will drop out of the Full Course ranking.

Oooo perhaps Rib is sneaking into 3rd past Penticton. Both were at E15 within 15 minutes of each other (Rib 15:43 and Penticton 16:00) but Rib dropped lower earlier to hit E16 and now some extremely nice handrails to get into TA5.

Penticton will need to backtrack a bit west to pick up E16 and then can head in.

Bones pinged TA5 at 16:38

For reference Bend pinged TA5 at 04:00.

Seems Bones has done well on the Stage E trek, entering it in 3rd and coming out in 2nd. Well done!

Tuesday:
Bend TA4 21:33

Wednesday times:
Penticton TA4 9:55
Bones TA4 10:10
Rib TA4 10:30

Great work by all three of those teams for continuing their back-and-forth battle for most of the race! It's exciting for us to watch and of course, *everyone* loves to sprint in the final days of an expedition race.

Unofficial Team Who Dis is the only team in the rogaine right now, having more fun than the other teams because they didn't need to get any mandatory CPs so they went around on the road to reach the rogaine section. I'll bet they're getting some great nav training and making lemonade out of this experience.

Bend is about 10 km from TA7 at 17:30.

Salomon has started riding through the maze of optional bike CPs on Stage F.

Penticton (4th) just hit E16 more than 40 minutes after Rib (3rd).

Bones and 3rocAR are both heading for the bike maze now, but Rib won't be lonely in TA5. They'll be there with Epic Nav and the ever-entertaining Nerdquist.

All - thanks for all the updates and analytics. It's been a great race to watch so far.

Endless Mountains is a fun race to watch!

Not so.

I wanted to watch you race, JayXC. :(

So did I.

I wonder if any racers are having problems with the air quality because of the Canadian wildfires. The air quality index is quite high up there right now.

Congrats to Bend, incredible race!

Second place race: I think Rib stopped for a long 4-5 hour sleep around E7 last night. Penticton may have stopped there for around 3 hours. I couldn't tell if Bones stopped because of their poor tracking signal. Other than taking turns napping while paddling, I doubt any of these teams vying for second can afford another sleep. They should be finished in less than 24 hours from now, so they will have to push and hope that their sleep from last night will be enough.

The "battle" between OML (Only Mostly Lost) and AE/ET (Adventure Enablers/Enabled Tracking) is legit...though its likely they have no idea it's on. They keep swapping which optional points to drop and which ones to bag. I think AE/ET is going to regret not scaling the slope up to E4 as they walked directly below it. They were so close to it, and, with it, they'd end up one point ahead of OML: although nearly matched on time. Instead, it's going to be a dead heat, with OML perhaps a short bit ahead on time. We'll see for sure when they get to TA5.

fuzzy: one oddity is that Bend may have no idea how close the other "racing for 2nd" teams really are. And with Rib and Penticton fully aware of each other (recently passed each other and nearly in TA5 together), those two will be pushing hard against each other, all the while catching up with Bones if they're moving just a touch less hastily without the known threat of competition on their backs or in their sights. If any of these three has sleep in the bank, that's probably the decider. It's going to a fun one that comes down to the wire I think.

Bend is arriving at TA7 now, about 7 hours after they arrived at TA6, transitioned and started their river cruise.

Rib is entering the bike maze in 3rd place. Penticton is at TA5.

Bones and Salomon are taking slightly different routes through the maze.

Minor detail about the tracking: it looks like F9's geofence is just a touch too large and able to pick up teams if their tracker pings on the road below to the West as they approach the bike-O'-gaine. Noticed this when it picked up Rib on the road when it's very clear they haven't yet actually been to the CP.

No Complaints (5th) is back to the main route after their rogaine, heading west toward 40. Checkpoint Zero (6th) is a short distance behind them but not so close that they'll meet. Probably just as well - could you imagine the conversation? "You mean we DIDN'T have to do that entire rogaine to hang on to 5th place?!?!" :)

ThisAbility took an adventurous (long) route to CP41 and, along the way, decided to grab another optional. Perhaps it'll matter in the end.

Just recognizing that the OML v. AE/ET battle I highlighted is maybe a bit less heated: they're in different team classifications.

I believe that Bones took a 90 minute sleep last night on the trek, according to Jesse (the caveat being that I'm also operating in zombie mode and could have misremembered the entire conversation).

Re: smoke - I don't want to speak for everyone here but I haven't noticed it at all except for some extra haze in the distance. I doubt it's having a significant impact on racers.

I've been comparing AE/ET to Salomon, knowing that they're not in the same category. I know both teams will care!

CP0 has reversed direction between CP39 and 40. Maybe they've found a nice place for a nap? There's another hour of daylight left so I'm not sure.

Just a short break, I guess. They’re at CP40 now.

On the East side of the bike-O'-gaine it looks like Bones and Rib will pass each other as their chosen routes through the maze intersect. It will be very interesting to see how this changes their pace on the upcoming roads to TA6.

Given how many teams (I count six or about 20 bikes and lighting systems) are currently in the bike-O' maze and the darkness and the openness of the forest in the area of this ORV park, I'm sure teams are seeing each other's lights as everyone crisscrosses the ridges and valleys. It would be fun to be perched on a high spot and watching the mayhem along with the tracking dots so I can tell who's lights are whose.

That's an amazing image! I hope someone's getting video of this.

Bend is biking on the final Stage H. They'll be finishing some time overnight. Amazing performance. It must be all the Canadians on their team. :)

No Complaints has left the full course. They will not be trekking to E13/14/15/16 on the way to TA5. They will remain in 5th place.

Unfortunately, it looks like No Complaints have decided to go short course and have turned south instead of heading toward E13. :( It was fun watching them go for it!

I like Rib's route assuming they took the suggested exit but they turned around and look to be exiting via the trail backtracking past the CP the just passed.

That being said if the trails are fast going around might be just as fast as it's all downhill.

I would have enjoyed watching DML and Jay as well!

Well, there we have it: No Complaints has apparently opted to skip the last set of 4 optional CPs on the mega trek. That leaves us with 4 fully-ranked teams. They will drop below Salomon in the overall ranking temporarily (I think). If they pick up all the remaining optional CPs, however, they will move above Salomon who skipped the cornucopia of 12 optional CPs earlier on the trek, where No Complaints punched them all.

So, big picture, the overall ranking likely remains unchanged for No Complaints, but they will switch to the Short Course category.

Bash and fuzzy beat me to the punch. Also, I fixed the Bones not Bend problem in a prior post.

What problem? I didn't mention any problem. ;)

Tricky details around F15 have slowed Bones down a bit...sort of a bobble, I guess. Seems they've nailed it now, but if Rib can get it efficiently, they are likely to come blazing up behind Bones at the raft put-in.

mayer22, Their maps don't have the road heading down the southside of the hill from F14. We can see this on the sat images, but they probably aren't certain that a road exists there. Because of their backtracking after F14 (Bones did this also,) I don't really understand whey Bones and Rib went for F8 after F06. I think Bend had the best route through here.

Meanwhile back in the mangroves, Team Bluebolt/Rockhop got spirited south down Hammersley Road on their way to 40, probably following Salomon's footprints. They turned around much sooner, though. (Couldn't resist - I know you guys will be reading this!)

CP0 had trouble at that same corner. It looks like it could be tricky in the dark. They are making their way cross-country from 40 to 41.

I didn't even see the road on the aerial. I was assuming it was a shwack down the hill. The forest looks pretty clear though from the CP pictures and satellite. Sure would be nice if they new something was there.

If CP0 drops the final four optional CPs, which seems likely, they will move to 7th and Salomon will move to 6th.

As Conman explained better than I did, No Complaints will be behind Salomon temporarily but if their bikes keep rolling and their packrafts remain inflated, they will almost certainly finish in 5th place.

Is it possible that Rib missed F13 on their first attempt and is now making another effort?

Looks like it, yup.

Also, it looks like the two Adventure Enablers teams have formed a super-team coming out of TA5.

The party is now at TA5 with some of the best short course teams: Wildlings, ThisAbility, 5060, Only Mostly Lost, Adventure Addicts, Nerdquist, Goals ARA Masters and The Northstar. They will have time to finish the course and this will probably be their last sleep.

Rib just hit F13.

Salomon is at TA6 preparing to paddle. Also in the TA are two other short course teams that have hit all the mandatory CPs: Ubuntu and Chaos Required.

I hadn't looked this up before so maybe I'm not the only one:

A perfect race would be 45 mandatory CPs + 62 optional CPs = 107 points.
There are 16 pts on the Stage F bike after the monster trek, all of them optional - the bike maze.
There are no points available on the Stage G packraft leg.
There are 9 points on the final Stage H bike leg - 4 mandatory, 5 optional.

So for teams scrambling to move up the rankings, opportunities are running out.

Penticton seems to have hit a wall before punching F13, their last CP in the Bike-O'-gaine. I believe they have collectively tipped over in the dirt and are sleeping about 300m away from it.

On that note, it seems that 3Roc is doing circles around Penticton in the vicinity of F13 without finding it...they need to be circling more to the SE. This CP must have something tricky about it...probably because of the darkness. Rib also fumbled a bit in this area.

So, Rib has officially caught Bones at TA6. Not sure if Bones is sleeping before the paddle, but they have been there for ~80 mins, quite a bit longer than I expected they'd take for this transition. Granted, this is about the longest type of transition for this race: Bike >> Packraft; it involves an unusual amount of gear shuffling in addition to fueling and caring for their bodies...in the dark.

Lo and behold, ~5 mins after Rib arrived, Bones was in the water paddling away. I bet Bones was in part pleased to have a bead on Rib's location, but also displeased that they spent so much time in transition that it gave Rib a brief sight of them and put adrenaline in their veins.

Now, Penticton is circling in the same area as 3Roc. Probably couldn't sleep with the other team bumping around them. Eventually one of them will find F13, right?

The two AE teams have split up again and both of them seem to be having Nav. issues on the first few bike-O'-gaine CPs. Or, they are sleeping fitfully.

As I wrote the above Penticton found their mark. Whew! I hope 3Roc saw them and can stop their circling, too.

I think 3Roc did follow (or lead) the way to F13. Either that or they gave up. They are on their way to TA6 now. However, Penticton went nearly to F15 and then turned back. No idea what's going on here, but it's a bit worrisome. Perhaps they are just relocating? Sleepmonsters? Time will have to tell.

In other news, it appears that Rib was in and out of TA6 in under 40 mins. And, now Bones looks to be doing donuts in the river a few km after put in. Why would they turn upstream? So, Rib is coming right up on them and will be in their vicinity within the next 20 mins if they don't get moving DOWNstream.

I think the only people involved in this race who aren't showing signs of getting loopy (me included) are the Bend Racers...and maybe not even all of them. I'm going to bed and will miss their finish, but look forward to catching up come morning.

Amazing job Bend, and amazing to see Bones and Rib so close, going to be exciting. Unfortunately it looks like Penticton left their tracker behind for the paddle as it drove to TA7.

That’s a penalty so it’s unfortunate for the team too.

Bones and Rib are arriving at TA7 together around 8 am. It’s a bike race now.

There’s a nice Facebook Live video of Bend’s finish around 6:20 am. They didn’t know how much of a lead they had so the volunteers did a great job of keeping that quiet! They said they slept a lot on the last paddle and stopped for 20 minutes on the final bike too. Alex and Dan were navigating together and described it as “unrelenting”, which is apparently the same word Lars used when Bend won last year. They agreed that they wouldn’t want to be solo navigators in this race, which is a big compliment to the RDs.

Bend put on a master class out there. Congratulations on an incredibly well planned and executed race!

I wonder what happened to cause Bones to travel back upstream for a bit last night?

That must have been quite the battle on the water last night between Rib and Bones - painful, but fun.

Based on their paddle, I'm guessing Bones is behind on sleep. I hope they can stay safe on this last bike and avoid any crashes. This is going to be an exciting finish.

Re: Bones’ out and back - Mari forgot her 12-pack of Mountain Dew.

Just kidding - Mari never forgets anything!

Everyone else had a sleep last night, it seems. The bike maze is buzzing now and teams are cruising down the river. There are still two teams in the final part of the monster trek. They can leave TA5 up to 2 pm.

From Rib’s FB - Rib came into TA 5 looking great!! They got a 4 hour sleep on the long trek so they are planning to push thru to the finish- left their sleep stuff in the bin! Feet are in rough shape but they are feeling strong - spot on nav and have caught up to where they hoped to be at this TA. Bones left just before they arrived and BC came in after they left! They are an awesome team - taking care of eachother- quick transition and on the bikes now!

That explains how well they’ve been doing since then!

Bones’ track shows multiple out-and-backs. I’m wondering if the other packraft was having issues. Or maybe it was a shallower section where they had to carry boats? The team member with the tracker seems to have been going back and forth, possibly to help teammates.

No Complaints has visited enough CPs to move into their rightful 5th place position - the best placed team who skipped optional CPs. CP0 didn’t do the final four optional CPs on the monster trek so they will not catch Salomon, who should stay in 6th. Salomon is currently on the river.

Salomon’s big detour on Hammersley Rd. in the monster trek happened *after* they had already trekked past the rogaine. They’ve picked up all the optional CPs since then. So they have executed their plan (except for C04) and this is where they would have finished without the detour - just a bit sooner. Great job, especially with a first-time expedition racer in my age category. :)

I wonder if Bones strange paddling was an issue with the dual trackers. Often we carry a satellite tracker and a cellular tracker. Maybe one boat had one and the other boat had the other and the software was messing up a bit.

Uh oh, where is Bones going? Lack of sleep catching up to them?

That’s not going to help them in their effort to catch Rib

And they’ve started to correct, that’s gotta hurt though. Will be tough to come back from.

Still a lot of biking left though.

Rib’s bigger sleeps earlier seems to be paying off, that have been moving faster and were able to catch back up, and are now making fewer mistakes.

Rib pinged TA7 at 8:14 and CP42 at 10:09.
Bones was at TA7 8:26. Looking forward to the CP42 ping to see how they're doing now.

Oh jeez... just took one last look at the Bones' track and now they're climbing up the next gap instead of staying low to 42. Is it possible that 42 is behind a map fold and they are going to 43 instead???

OK Bones is back on track to 42 after some bonus climb and likely head-scratching.

We also have not seen Penticton's tracker emerge from TA7 so that means they could still be paddling?

Looks like that mistake cost Bones ~2hrs, will be hard to make that up on this ~8hr bike leg.
Penticton may be serving their 2hr penalty at TA7, if not i would expect to see them biking son.

Bones back 2hr14m on Rib at 42. Update from arws says Penticton is still on the water.

Couple observations:

Rib is currently taking a creative way to 44, I think they are going to try to climb up to the ridgetop on Sulphur Springs Rd/PA554 and then backtrack just a bit to the CP. Probably a more gradual climb for their surely tired legs.

When I was pondering Rib's route choice, I thought we maybe can't quite say yet if it's truly creative because there has only been one team though - the winners Bend Racing. ALL of the short course teams are behind these top 2 full course teams, and most are still paddling. Have there been any holds at TA7 for short course teams or are the full course teams really that much quicker? If so - just another illustrative point that the top teams are seriously fast.

Also - Penticton is on the move now on the final bike leg!

Silky: Rib also chose earlier on this leg to ride through a pair of gaps in the ridges across the route which I think influenced their decision about which way was most efficient to get up onto the final ridge for CP44. Seems to me like a domino effect of one choice that seemed efficient leading to the next choice and so on.

I'd also say that I think it appropriate to hold Chaos Required at CP44 or 45 until at least Bones and perhaps also Penticton can get to the finish.

Rib is just riding to the optional H04/05 controls in the trail system north of CP44 - the first team to go there. Bend rode through there during the dark zone and had to visit ALT44 instead. Rib will ride into Williamsport soon. What a great race! Rib was steady and consistent, and they seemed to sleep more than others in the top four, which paid off. Well done.

Dark Zone procedures just dropped (again) at CP44. Seems that there are going to be a lot of teams taking either the alternate route or just skipping the optional CPs here. While there will be time for a few teams further back to get to the non-alt optionals (I think), it's noteworthy to me that only 4 teams have reached them at this point and at least 15 teams (by my rough estimation) will miss them tonight unless they sleep. It's a bummer to have such a complex set of points that will see so few racers.

Minor aside, literally: No Complaints is at McDonald's in Lock Haven as they prep for the final cycling leg. Oh, and ThisAbility was at KFC for a while but has just moved on.

Adventure Addicts Racing spent a good 2 hours at Wendy’s. What is there on the Wendy’s menu that takes 2 hours to eat? Nodding off over their food, most likely.

Three Wendy's frosties (seems like a reasonable amount four+ days into a race, right?) sucked through a straw could easily take an hour to drink/eat. Then you've got fries, a couple burgers, all preceded by about 20 mins to wash your hands in the bathroom. Just sayin'

Appears that the party crew (GOALS + 5060) is about to pass Penticton going in opposite directions on the ridge top near CP44. Hope the interchange gives Penticton a burst of energy and some smiles for the last several kms to the finish...they seem to be really dragging getting up that road grade to the ridge. Would sure be spectacular to have a live camera feed up there to document the moment.

On that note, the volunteer(s) up at CP44 have quite the job...hours upon hours with only sporadic visitors and now the GOALS/5060 party bus has arrived and there's a steady stream of teams to follow throughout the night. I hope they got their sleep in sometime during the day.

Oops! Bipolar is 500m from the finish and just bypassed it apparently happily riding along the river path.

Re: racers eating in Lock Haven - many teams came off the paddle a bit confused about a lack of food provided at the prior TA. We had ~10 teams ask about where they could find restaurants. Glad they got some good food before the final ride!

Feel very bad for saying it, but Trust the Compass is not living up to their name sake right now in the hunt for the turn TO THE EAST after getting through the Bald Eagle Mtn gap. The spaghetti they've drawn on the tracking map is making me dizzy. I sure hope they find another team and move on in the correct direction soon. They even went in the right direction for about 20 minutes, but inexplicably turned back.

Oh, geez. ThisAbility is now in the same trap as Trust...or maybe they are rescuing them?

Digging a bit thru other teams' tracks, it seems that Adv Enablers (not AE/ET) also made this detour West for a while. They recovered relatively promptly, however.

Ouch! That's painful to watch.

Another painful moment: Epic Nav just bombed down off the big final ridge before reaching CP44. However, they went down the South side. Now they must go back over it (or around it) just to get to the finish. Never mind if they want to punch any remaining CPs. Ugh.

Oh man. They've noticed their error and started back up.

It appears that ThisAbility and Trust have connected (at least briefly), but they don't seem to have the situation figured out. Maybe they will see CP0's lights and seek help from them as they come through the gap?

Almost SCREAMING AT MY SCREEN! Now CP0 has taken the ill-advised detour. GAHHHH!

Well, it seems the Day 5 sleepmonsters are currently haunting North Central PA.

Is No Complaints consciously choosing to skip H2? That seems nuts given the work they've done so far and how close they were to it about 15 minutes ago, but maybe they need to wrap it up?

Oh...maybe they are correcting. Fingers crossed!

On the brighter side, it is great to see so many (nearly all) of the remaining short course teams choosing to collect all the optional CPs on the last stage.

The finish line is hopping! Seems like Trust the Compass and CP0 will make it on time. Bluebolt is cutting it close but can make it if they fly here. Thisability is ...further afield.

They're all in! Exciting at the end as a few teams cut it close, including Thisability who made the smart choice to come in later but still get the mandatory point that they had left, thereby staying ranked ahead of all teams who dropped mandatories.

This finish really showed the wide range of emotions for teams, 2 in the span of a few minutes that really stuck with me. Trust the Compass has us all laughing as they (relative expedition newbies) circled the quad trying to find a way to reach the finish line. They had family present and everyone was super excited for them. Only a few minutes later CP0 came across, and the emotions were high as they had finally finished what had obviously been a very tough race for them, done in memory of their wonderful teammate Peter. Both beautiful moments, something that only adventure racing can provide.

Thanks for sharing that. :)

Just caught up on this thread on the way to Faroe! Love all the analysis here! Thanks everyone for the kind words. We are glad people enjoyed show! We had a blast, thanks again for Abby, Brent and their team, awesome race! We will be back next time!

Congrats! Have a great race (again).

some BTS content

https://ardarkzone.com/2023/08/09/dark-zone-76-abb...