Training Log Archive: JayXC

Trek 2 cont'd

Another quick TA and we're back onto a short stretch of a road ride to the next 4x4 trailhead. The rain and darkness made the going a little slower but it was still a fun ride with longer rideable sections. Hansel traveled well with his singlespeed set-up. I nearly made another nav mistake towards the end by turning right instead of left onto the paved road but fortunately caught it before any more damage could be done.

C • Congrats! 14

With quite a buffer between 2nd and 4th place we enjoyed the last paddle back into Bala as the sun was coming up finishing 3rd overall and 2nd place Co-ed.

Thanks to Bob GStix and Bash for putting together a great course as well as all of the volunteers and vetters. I think this course ranks as my most-favorite 24 hour course I've ever raced on. Tons of route choices on the treks all off-trail, excellent paddling and rideable mtn biking off-road where it should be.

Folks who are tired of racing in the same areas of the east coast should give this race a serious look next year. I doubt you'll regret it.

I'm looking forward to the chance of bringing Bob the Beaver to NY next year, at least for a little while ;-) .

Event: Wilderness Traverse
 

2012 Wilderness Traverse with Carbon, Goose and Hansel.

Run to boats with paddle gear. Kevlar boats with yokes in an AR, unheard of...wish more RD's could pull it off.

A short carry to the water with the boats and we were off with the lead. Quite a unique area to paddle in with long, narrow lakes separated by small channels and portages that was a lot of fun. Managed one screw up at CP 1 at the end of the second portage and didn't punch the control. Realized the mistake 8 minutes later and turned around paddling against a whole fleet of boats wondering what we were doing. Unfortunately the control wasn't placed yet but we had to travel back to hit the OK button on the spot anyways. Silly mental error on my part.

The remainder of the paddle was spent passing boats in the short stretches of open water between beaver dams. Quite the civil engineers those things. Apologize to anyone we might have nudged along the way.

Fun trek on Canadian Shield which I'd heard so much about. Excellent navigation by Hansel and route finding by Goose made this section go by very quick with Carbon and I just following along trying not to get in the way. Luck was with us as we found a beaver dam to cross on everytime we approached a body of water with the exception of the crossing right after CP 5 (ahead of Snowpants) and the crossing under the rr bridge which we swam.

We arrived at the TA with Snowpants still transitioning which ramped up our urgency.

Onto the bikes and I'm back on nav. We hammered the short stretch of road to the trailhead for the snowmobile/4x4 trails. The trails were a lot of fun and reminded me of Moab with all of the exposed rock. Just north of Big Chute I made another error and we turned off of the intended route for a 45+ minute boondoggle. I should have taken the time to orient the map and verify the direction rather than just trusting the town sign at the intersection. Stupid.

Within minutes of getting back on the correct route Hansel bent his derailleur into his spokes. We tried to bend his hanger back into place but inevitably ended up turning his bike into a singlespeed. One of the links must have still been bent as within a few miles of the TA the chain broke and we towed him in on the road. This TA was a little longer than the others as we chose to repair the chain again before heading out. I was somewhat surprised that more teams had not passed us and we were still in 5th place.

Despite the setbacks my teammates never seemed to let it bother them and the urgency of travel never dropped which is a testament to their competitive nature.

With the temps dropping the next leg was going to be interesting with 5 swims. Fortunately only the first and second required swimming and the reminder of them could be waded across. Hansel continued to navigate well and we made good time all night moving up to third place.