The Old Man Can Still Run
From a email of April 19th 2007
Last week the Arrowtown Promotion committee staged the first "Fox's Trot".
A race from Arrowtown, over Big Hill, down the 8 Mile, to return via the Macetown Road.
This was staged May 31 - the day before winter arrives officially but someone forgot to tell Heuy and the day before the tops got a good dusting of snow, with the forecast for the day - "rain, heavy at times - but clearing. A sunny afternoon expected"
Luckily the rain did it's thing before the 11 o'clock start and the field of 80 or so participants skipped away from the start line in cool overcast conditions.
Bruce McLeod - NZ orienteering Champ lead out. He was never to be challenged. A short run brings you to the start of the Big Hill track and from there to the saddle it's up all the wa, with only some respite when the runners traverse a water race for about a 1 km.
Yours truly managed to cross the saddle in about 7th place, with the Merrell's doing good work on the slippery track on the way up. They more than paid for themselves on the other side. With runners slipping and sliding in the 5cm of snow covered tussocks. I used their grip and some old skiing skills and hammered in and advantage. This took me into 5th place. Below the snow line the steep slippery track added to the advantage that the Merrell's were working for me and I continued to put space between me and the following runners.
From the 8 mile it's still the good part of some 12kms or so back into Arrowtown, and now the focus changes to chasing the runners in front, and slowly I reel one back in, only to have Andrew Town of Wanaka go past like a steam train. (He was late starting due to snow and chain problems ion the Crown Range and had worked his way through the entire field to finally finsih in 2nd place. A pity he was not on the line to give Bruce a run for his money)
The last river crossing proved a test with tired legs but by now the end was in sight and right on the button of 2hrs (1.59.21) I crossed the line in 5th place. Ahead of the fastest woman, and 1st Vet overall.
Thanks to the Merrell's. they are still getting hammered everyday as I prepare to race with the above mentioned Bruce in a 12 hr orienteering race up near ChCh on the 28th of this month.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Eco-Challenge 1995
From: Ian Adamson
Subject: Eco-Challenge: A racers view - v.long
Date: Fri, 12 May 95 16:14:00 MDT
It took me a while, but here is a run down on the Eco-Challenge from a participants point of view.
Team Eco-internet (formed and trained on the net - yes we have very strong fingers); Robert Nagel (IR/MA, ultra subscriber), Kathleen Judice (VT), Rod Hislop (AUS), Andrew Hislop (AUS), Jo Risk (AUS/CO), John Howard (NZ), Ian Adamson (AUS/CO) and Angie Guistina (CO) made up our team and support. As with the majority of teams, we were plagued with injury, Rod came all the way from Australia but didn't start due to severe
patella chrondomalacia, so John substituted (a fine strapping fellow he is too, not to mention winner of Southern Traverse and 2 time winner of Raid Gauloise).
DAY 1
The dawn start was spectacular, with 250 people and 150 horsed mass starting on grazing land and funnelling quickly onto a dirt road. 25 miles of “ride and tie" (3 horses between a team of 5) through baking desert rapidly spread the teams out to between 4 and 8 hours by the next transition point. Team Eco-Internet (TEI) started conservatively with a race strategy gleaned from
"ultra" to start slowly and taper off. Unfortunately one of our horses thought it was supposed to swap and ride us once we had finished riding it, and in the process landed a hefty blow to my groin, which left a nice hose shoe imprint on my inner thigh and abdomen.
Undaunted by our little sojourn in the desert, we cruised in to the first transition point in 7th place, and had a fast change over to our rather heavy packs (wetsuite, food, water, clothing for 3 days) before heading down the San Rafael River into the Black Box Canyons. We were about an hour down on the leaders, but quickly ate back the lead to be in front by 4 pm. The
terrain for this 20 mile section included continual river crossings interspersed with boulder hopping, sandy washes and thin scrub trails. The second half narrowed down to steep, narrow, dark water filled canyons with several very cold swims, pools and car sized boulders.
A compulsory dark zone caught us out before we could get through the lower canyon, so we had a very cold and windy 6 hour kip until 4 am (Wed) when we headed of again with the other 5 teams that had arrived during the night,
Southern Traverse (NZ), Swiss Army Brands (SAB) (FR/US), Hewlett Packard (FR/US), and Gold's Gym (FR/CA) and Nike (CA). Sleeping with minimal gear is interesting. We used garbage bags and space blankets from our emergency equipment to stay warm and spooned together for shared warmth. This is definitely in the spirit of TEAM, since you have to roll over simultaneously, or loose that valuable warmth! Kathleen was particularly susceptible to the cold, so we sandwiched her with two guys a side. I wonder
how her husband took her sleeping with 4 strange men at once!
DAY 2
The next canyon leg through the Lower Black Box started with 6 teams head lamps bobbing though the early dark hours across the river and around the adjoining 4WD track. Southern Traverse and TEI lead the charge and were soon ahead of the other 4 teams, who appeared to leave the trail and disappear across the river. By first sun, TEI was 1st into checkpoint (CP) 5, closely
followed by Southern Traverse and Swiss Army. Another 4 hours of river wading, boulder hopping and pushing through extremely thick flood plain scrub followed to CP6, where teams were again closely bunched.
This was the start of a very long and difficult "run" totalling 95 miles though the San Rafael Desert. Most teams hiked with 30+ lb packs to carry enough food water and clothing. One of the difficult aspects of this race was the 1:100,000 scale maps which made the navigation difficult enough that virtually every team got lost at some point on this leg and in the paddle on
Lake Powell. TEI managed to loose an hour with an error between CP6 and CP7 by trying to make a direct compass course rather than follow a circuitous 4WD road. We ended up on a butte with 100 ft cliffs down to the CP, and slipped from being within sight of Southern traverse to an hour back and 3rd
to Hewlett Packard.
The course from CP6 ascended 2,000 ft to the San Rafael Swell through Black Dragon Wash, and was a desert in every sense of the word. There was no water available for another 30 miles, and the temperatures soared from below
freezing at night to over 100 during the day. TEI's luck was running out with Andrew suffering from a crippling knee injury and Kathleen from exhaustion and dangerous hypothermia in the cold of early morning. Other teams were also suffering. Nike, a couple of hours behind, were also carrying a knee injury, and most individuals had advanced blisters and abrasions on their feet, a condition the race doctors were calling "hamburger feet".
DAY 3
By dawn on day 3, the top 6 teams were well into the desert and had run out of water. There was a permanent water source at "well spring" about 5 miles short of CP8, where the teams were pushing hard to reach. Southern Traverse passed through early morning, followed by Swiss Army and Nike. TEI and Hewlett Packard shared water and the well, but found it to be tainted by a dead animal. Although we used liberal quantities of iodine and purification tablets, diarrhea upset stomachs was still a problem. Injury, exhaustion and lack of food and good water forced a safety call at CP8 for TEI, with Andrew and Kathleen withdrawing and leaving John, Robert and I to make a dash for
CPs9, 10 and 11, the next Team assistance point. We were now 11 hours down on Southern traverse, but then ran the flats and downs through some exceedingly difficult and confusing terrain to catch Swiss Army by CP9, Southern Traverse by CP10 and Nike by CP11.
In fact Southern Traverse had made a navigational error in the afternoon and made a large detour back into the canyon country. Swiss army took a long rest at CP9 trying to recover from dehydration and exhaustion, and Nike had taken the lead by pushing on slowly with an injured knee (sounds familiar!).
TEI came in to CP9 as Nike left at about 10 pm, then took off in pursuit 20 minutes later, fed and watered. We finally caught them stumbling through the desert just after CP10 in the early hours of the morning, in the featureless flat lands and sand dunes leading to Assistance Point 2 at Jeffrey Well.
DAY 4
By 3 am we were within about 4 miles of AP2, with the other top teams spread out in the desert behind us. Navigation was proving tough, with no moon or stars, and endless stretches of dunes and knee high desert scrub to
negotiate. At this stage we took a tactical break so we could rest up and wait for dawn. Nike didn't rest, and woke us up at 5 am as they literally walked over us. They had been following our footsteps, and in turn had been followed by Hewlett Packard watching their headlamps weave through the desert obstacles.
We arrived at AP2 an hour up on HP and Nike who had made slow progress through the sand and scrub. Our trusty support crew of Angie and Jo were waiting at the ready, diathermic lances and cold pizza at the ready. In an amazing frenzy of activity we were stripped of suppurating sox and shoes and bundled up in warm sleeping bags. After several days of near uninterrupted
progression, our metabolisms plummeted within minutes of stopping to extreme lows, dragging down body temperature. We had only two hours sleep in the last 55 hours, but with the sunshine and activity were quite awake and alert.
Cameras and microphones crowded our busy camp as we were fed, massaged, feet attended to, maps studied for the next section and had our climbing gear and GT mt. bikes organized. 30 minutes later and we were back on our feet checking equipment, flares, smoke bombs, first aid, climbing rope, jumars, etriers, daisy chaind, carrabinas, harnesses, food, water, clothing, maps
(we had left a bunch behind at AP1), bike spares, inner tubes..... Finally on our bikes for the ride to Horseshoe Canyon and 22,000 ft of climbing rope!
John is a champion mtb'er and Rob is a champion duathlete, so our pace was pretty fierce for the 30 miles of hard packed dirt road to the turn off to the canyon. We averaged about 38km/h for this section with a fast rolling pace line, then made the slow sandy climb to the top of Horseshoe.
A mile walk to the canyon rim provided the most spectacular views down to the river in the canyon floor with 500ft overhangs and vertical faces stepping down 1200 ft. The ropes coarse was unbelievable. A 450ft overhanging rappel, than a 180 ft vertical and overhanging jumar ascent, a 100 ft tyrolyan bridge, another short ascent, several more bridges and rappels and finally the valley floor. For John and I this was just breathtaking and we have some 35 years climbing experience between us, including Patagonia, the Himalayas, Yosemite, the European Alps.... It took us nearly 3 hours of pretty solid climbing to be the only team to make the dark out cut off, which gave us a 24 hour lead over the next group of teams.
Knowing we were now unchallenged, we took an unhurried lunch break and made our way off down the canyon towards the Green River. Horseshoe Canyon is a magical nature land with literally *hundreds* of mountain lion prints, Big
Horn Sheep, deer and bear tracks lacing the sandy river flood plain. The going was quite difficult since the canyon sides are shear and the undergrowth is extremely dense and in places impenetrable. After about 6 miles the canyon joined into the Green River canyon, where the coarse crossed the river (with the help of a rubber duckie) and continued another 6 miles skirting the canyon side and river edge through dense bushes and rock
slides to Mineral Bottom and the next AP.
By this stage our feet were quite painful from blisters and cuts caused by continually damp and chafing footwear, so it was a relief to be starting on a water section with open sandals. Since moving water was a dark out section, we could rest up for the evening and get our first good nights sleep. John distinguished himself by haranguing the river guides for
information and to make sure they would be ready first thing in the morning, i.e. an hour before dawn. After a magnificent candle lit dinner, replete with candelabras, fine Australian red wine and Vivaldi, we set our watches for 4 am and turned in.
DAY 5
4:30 a.m. It's cold and clear with mud under foot from overnight rains. We do our packing and gear checking routine on a ground sheet at our camp site, load the truck and jog the mile to the raft. Michele our guide is waiting with the raft on the river bank along with a plethora of TV cameras and event officials. It is quite confusing with the blinding white lights and bombardment of questions, however our ever competent support crew has our packs and food ready to load in the raft. We don life jackets and with whistles, car horns and shouts of good luck head off into the oily black of the swollen river.
Andrew and Kathleen have re-joined us for this section since it is a “null zone" in the national park - no racing allowed. Any team taking more than 48 hours however, will have the additional time added to their race time, so we stroke our solidly for the 56 mile stretch to Spanish Bottom. Little do
we know at the time, but we were the only team to paddle this section. All other teams are motored down with empty boats to help them make the cut offs.
A large front had rapidly moved in by midday causing strong gusty winds and black clouds. Unfortunately it was something of a headwind (although the river loops back on itself, so there is the opportunity to sail some stretches!). We coasted in to the Spanish Bottom mid afternoon to the delight of the crew manning this point. They had been waiting for several days, expecting up to a dozen teams, but had to make do with our jolly crew.
We made the most of an afternoon off before tackling Cataract Canyon, by eating (something like 10,000 calories each!!) and fishing for catfish in the river. Michele had a wonderful method that consisted of throwing bread onto the water and then trying to clout the fish with a spade as they made a hasty retreat back into the murky depths. Fortunately for the fish, our skill and reaction level was lacking and they ended up well fed indeed.
DAY 6
We squander the opportunity of making up another day on rest of the field by sleeping in and making a leisurely departure at 11 am down the much hyped Cataract, or Cat as the boatmen called it. In big water there are 26 rapids over 13 miles, with 3 story haystacks and 16 man raft swallowing stoppers. We are in a heavily loaded 6 man raft, so it was fortunate the water was
only moderate, the biggest waves cresting only 10 ft. Having a strong paddling crew and superb guide helped us through the waves and we arrived on lake Powell unscathed in time for a late lunch (does it sound like we were always eating? It's true, we were!). We later found out that the rest of the teams went through unladen and half the rafts capsized!
We paddled on down the final 20 odd miles to the next section and arrived at CP14 just in time to start the ropes, but since they were not completely set, took it easy and enjoy the evening with our new found friends and some cold beers we had saved!
DAY 7
The next section was a 1200 ft jumar ascent out of Lake Powell up Sheep Canyon set by Jay (who had done the first ropes course) and was equally spectacular. We started up at the 8 am opening time, and made good progress to arrive at the top in just over an hour and a half. After a quick bite to eat, photographs and check in at CP14, we tool off at a slow run for CP's15
and 16, the top of the notorious Whites Canyon and Black Hole.
This was another desert section, with open plains and packed dirt surface, and progress was swift as we were keen to make the Hole before the dark out. We arrived at the supposed location of CP15 at the top of Fortknocker Canyon to find it vacant, so proceeded to CP16 with haste.
Imagine our surprise as we ran down the track into Whites Canyon to be met by one of the Eco-Challenge Mitsubishi Montero's and some friendly faces telling us we had just run a leg that was now deleted from the course! Apparently the other teams didn't look like being capable making it through, so we took the advice of the organizers and had a 4x4 leg back down to Lake
Powell and the start of the final canoe paddle to the finish.
After several hours at AP4 waiting on a decision by the race committee to let us continue, or wait for the next few teams, we packed our bags and glided off in the late afternoon sun towards Bullfrog Marina and the finish, 50 miles away. CP18 was not yet set, so we carried on towards CP19. The storms that had been following us down the Colorado River finally caught us
as night fell, and we spent the next several hours battling headwinds and fatigue. Finally exhaustion got the better of us, and we found a small rock ledge to shelter on and rest a couple of hours.
We awoke before dawn to the crash of thunder and flashes of brilliant lightening bolts that lit up the cliffs and low hanging clouds around us like a Frankenstein movie set. CP19 wasn't set yet either, so rather than sit in the rain, we got moving and clawed our way along the cliffs that line
the lake, to try and catch some shelter from the wind and biting rain. At times we could barely see the bow of the boat, as we crashed through waves and rain squalls. At one stage we pulled into the base of a cliff and clung like rock climbers to the sheer wall as 50 knot winds lashed us with spray we bounced against the wall in the swell. These same winds turned over a 75
ft house boat that evening, and had campers tents uprooted and bowled across the desert!
By first light the wind had abated a little and we were able to make better progress to round the corner to the finish at 8 am, finally landing in 7 days 1 hour and 30 some minutes. Our trusty support crew, Angie welcomed us "home" to a row of 50 empty houseboats awaiting a flood of teams over the next few days.
AND IN CONCLUSION...
What did we eat? Lots of Powerbars, Fig Newtons and Gatoraid. We got mighty sick of the same stuff after a few days, and ended up with sandwiches, cold pizza, beef Stroganoff and pene pasta in zip-lok bags, rice, bananas, candy bars, lemonade,...... If it was portable, edible and different, we would eat it!
Footwear: We mainly wore Hi-Tec boots and water sandals, but even with 1 size too big found swelling feet a problem. The last 4 days I wore exclusively water sandals, even for the climbing and running!
Clothing: EMS provided us with T-shirts, hats, thermal and gortex wear which was absolutely invaluable. Everything we carried was light weight, including cut down T-shirts and stripped day packs (from Jansport).
Cammelbak's inside our day packs provided a drinking system, and seemed to be almost universally used by the US teams.
And lastly, we did tread lightly. In fact the racing teams and support crews left "minus" mess of the environment (clean up), while some un-named government departments, in their infinite wisdom, tore around the wilderness in dozens of 4x4's observing the rest of us walking established trails with soft soled shoes! Packing out our poop was a messy chore, but did prove the worth of the old Zip-lok bag! I just don't understand how triple zip-loks and a garbage bag still lets the smell out!!
Ian Adamson
iana@tps.com
Subject: Eco-Challenge: A racers view - v.long
Date: Fri, 12 May 95 16:14:00 MDT
It took me a while, but here is a run down on the Eco-Challenge from a participants point of view.
Team Eco-internet (formed and trained on the net - yes we have very strong fingers); Robert Nagel (IR/MA, ultra subscriber), Kathleen Judice (VT), Rod Hislop (AUS), Andrew Hislop (AUS), Jo Risk (AUS/CO), John Howard (NZ), Ian Adamson (AUS/CO) and Angie Guistina (CO) made up our team and support. As with the majority of teams, we were plagued with injury, Rod came all the way from Australia but didn't start due to severe
patella chrondomalacia, so John substituted (a fine strapping fellow he is too, not to mention winner of Southern Traverse and 2 time winner of Raid Gauloise).
DAY 1
The dawn start was spectacular, with 250 people and 150 horsed mass starting on grazing land and funnelling quickly onto a dirt road. 25 miles of “ride and tie" (3 horses between a team of 5) through baking desert rapidly spread the teams out to between 4 and 8 hours by the next transition point. Team Eco-Internet (TEI) started conservatively with a race strategy gleaned from
"ultra" to start slowly and taper off. Unfortunately one of our horses thought it was supposed to swap and ride us once we had finished riding it, and in the process landed a hefty blow to my groin, which left a nice hose shoe imprint on my inner thigh and abdomen.
Undaunted by our little sojourn in the desert, we cruised in to the first transition point in 7th place, and had a fast change over to our rather heavy packs (wetsuite, food, water, clothing for 3 days) before heading down the San Rafael River into the Black Box Canyons. We were about an hour down on the leaders, but quickly ate back the lead to be in front by 4 pm. The
terrain for this 20 mile section included continual river crossings interspersed with boulder hopping, sandy washes and thin scrub trails. The second half narrowed down to steep, narrow, dark water filled canyons with several very cold swims, pools and car sized boulders.
A compulsory dark zone caught us out before we could get through the lower canyon, so we had a very cold and windy 6 hour kip until 4 am (Wed) when we headed of again with the other 5 teams that had arrived during the night,
Southern Traverse (NZ), Swiss Army Brands (SAB) (FR/US), Hewlett Packard (FR/US), and Gold's Gym (FR/CA) and Nike (CA). Sleeping with minimal gear is interesting. We used garbage bags and space blankets from our emergency equipment to stay warm and spooned together for shared warmth. This is definitely in the spirit of TEAM, since you have to roll over simultaneously, or loose that valuable warmth! Kathleen was particularly susceptible to the cold, so we sandwiched her with two guys a side. I wonder
how her husband took her sleeping with 4 strange men at once!
DAY 2
The next canyon leg through the Lower Black Box started with 6 teams head lamps bobbing though the early dark hours across the river and around the adjoining 4WD track. Southern Traverse and TEI lead the charge and were soon ahead of the other 4 teams, who appeared to leave the trail and disappear across the river. By first sun, TEI was 1st into checkpoint (CP) 5, closely
followed by Southern Traverse and Swiss Army. Another 4 hours of river wading, boulder hopping and pushing through extremely thick flood plain scrub followed to CP6, where teams were again closely bunched.
This was the start of a very long and difficult "run" totalling 95 miles though the San Rafael Desert. Most teams hiked with 30+ lb packs to carry enough food water and clothing. One of the difficult aspects of this race was the 1:100,000 scale maps which made the navigation difficult enough that virtually every team got lost at some point on this leg and in the paddle on
Lake Powell. TEI managed to loose an hour with an error between CP6 and CP7 by trying to make a direct compass course rather than follow a circuitous 4WD road. We ended up on a butte with 100 ft cliffs down to the CP, and slipped from being within sight of Southern traverse to an hour back and 3rd
to Hewlett Packard.
The course from CP6 ascended 2,000 ft to the San Rafael Swell through Black Dragon Wash, and was a desert in every sense of the word. There was no water available for another 30 miles, and the temperatures soared from below
freezing at night to over 100 during the day. TEI's luck was running out with Andrew suffering from a crippling knee injury and Kathleen from exhaustion and dangerous hypothermia in the cold of early morning. Other teams were also suffering. Nike, a couple of hours behind, were also carrying a knee injury, and most individuals had advanced blisters and abrasions on their feet, a condition the race doctors were calling "hamburger feet".
DAY 3
By dawn on day 3, the top 6 teams were well into the desert and had run out of water. There was a permanent water source at "well spring" about 5 miles short of CP8, where the teams were pushing hard to reach. Southern Traverse passed through early morning, followed by Swiss Army and Nike. TEI and Hewlett Packard shared water and the well, but found it to be tainted by a dead animal. Although we used liberal quantities of iodine and purification tablets, diarrhea upset stomachs was still a problem. Injury, exhaustion and lack of food and good water forced a safety call at CP8 for TEI, with Andrew and Kathleen withdrawing and leaving John, Robert and I to make a dash for
CPs9, 10 and 11, the next Team assistance point. We were now 11 hours down on Southern traverse, but then ran the flats and downs through some exceedingly difficult and confusing terrain to catch Swiss Army by CP9, Southern Traverse by CP10 and Nike by CP11.
In fact Southern Traverse had made a navigational error in the afternoon and made a large detour back into the canyon country. Swiss army took a long rest at CP9 trying to recover from dehydration and exhaustion, and Nike had taken the lead by pushing on slowly with an injured knee (sounds familiar!).
TEI came in to CP9 as Nike left at about 10 pm, then took off in pursuit 20 minutes later, fed and watered. We finally caught them stumbling through the desert just after CP10 in the early hours of the morning, in the featureless flat lands and sand dunes leading to Assistance Point 2 at Jeffrey Well.
DAY 4
By 3 am we were within about 4 miles of AP2, with the other top teams spread out in the desert behind us. Navigation was proving tough, with no moon or stars, and endless stretches of dunes and knee high desert scrub to
negotiate. At this stage we took a tactical break so we could rest up and wait for dawn. Nike didn't rest, and woke us up at 5 am as they literally walked over us. They had been following our footsteps, and in turn had been followed by Hewlett Packard watching their headlamps weave through the desert obstacles.
We arrived at AP2 an hour up on HP and Nike who had made slow progress through the sand and scrub. Our trusty support crew of Angie and Jo were waiting at the ready, diathermic lances and cold pizza at the ready. In an amazing frenzy of activity we were stripped of suppurating sox and shoes and bundled up in warm sleeping bags. After several days of near uninterrupted
progression, our metabolisms plummeted within minutes of stopping to extreme lows, dragging down body temperature. We had only two hours sleep in the last 55 hours, but with the sunshine and activity were quite awake and alert.
Cameras and microphones crowded our busy camp as we were fed, massaged, feet attended to, maps studied for the next section and had our climbing gear and GT mt. bikes organized. 30 minutes later and we were back on our feet checking equipment, flares, smoke bombs, first aid, climbing rope, jumars, etriers, daisy chaind, carrabinas, harnesses, food, water, clothing, maps
(we had left a bunch behind at AP1), bike spares, inner tubes..... Finally on our bikes for the ride to Horseshoe Canyon and 22,000 ft of climbing rope!
John is a champion mtb'er and Rob is a champion duathlete, so our pace was pretty fierce for the 30 miles of hard packed dirt road to the turn off to the canyon. We averaged about 38km/h for this section with a fast rolling pace line, then made the slow sandy climb to the top of Horseshoe.
A mile walk to the canyon rim provided the most spectacular views down to the river in the canyon floor with 500ft overhangs and vertical faces stepping down 1200 ft. The ropes coarse was unbelievable. A 450ft overhanging rappel, than a 180 ft vertical and overhanging jumar ascent, a 100 ft tyrolyan bridge, another short ascent, several more bridges and rappels and finally the valley floor. For John and I this was just breathtaking and we have some 35 years climbing experience between us, including Patagonia, the Himalayas, Yosemite, the European Alps.... It took us nearly 3 hours of pretty solid climbing to be the only team to make the dark out cut off, which gave us a 24 hour lead over the next group of teams.
Knowing we were now unchallenged, we took an unhurried lunch break and made our way off down the canyon towards the Green River. Horseshoe Canyon is a magical nature land with literally *hundreds* of mountain lion prints, Big
Horn Sheep, deer and bear tracks lacing the sandy river flood plain. The going was quite difficult since the canyon sides are shear and the undergrowth is extremely dense and in places impenetrable. After about 6 miles the canyon joined into the Green River canyon, where the coarse crossed the river (with the help of a rubber duckie) and continued another 6 miles skirting the canyon side and river edge through dense bushes and rock
slides to Mineral Bottom and the next AP.
By this stage our feet were quite painful from blisters and cuts caused by continually damp and chafing footwear, so it was a relief to be starting on a water section with open sandals. Since moving water was a dark out section, we could rest up for the evening and get our first good nights sleep. John distinguished himself by haranguing the river guides for
information and to make sure they would be ready first thing in the morning, i.e. an hour before dawn. After a magnificent candle lit dinner, replete with candelabras, fine Australian red wine and Vivaldi, we set our watches for 4 am and turned in.
DAY 5
4:30 a.m. It's cold and clear with mud under foot from overnight rains. We do our packing and gear checking routine on a ground sheet at our camp site, load the truck and jog the mile to the raft. Michele our guide is waiting with the raft on the river bank along with a plethora of TV cameras and event officials. It is quite confusing with the blinding white lights and bombardment of questions, however our ever competent support crew has our packs and food ready to load in the raft. We don life jackets and with whistles, car horns and shouts of good luck head off into the oily black of the swollen river.
Andrew and Kathleen have re-joined us for this section since it is a “null zone" in the national park - no racing allowed. Any team taking more than 48 hours however, will have the additional time added to their race time, so we stroke our solidly for the 56 mile stretch to Spanish Bottom. Little do
we know at the time, but we were the only team to paddle this section. All other teams are motored down with empty boats to help them make the cut offs.
A large front had rapidly moved in by midday causing strong gusty winds and black clouds. Unfortunately it was something of a headwind (although the river loops back on itself, so there is the opportunity to sail some stretches!). We coasted in to the Spanish Bottom mid afternoon to the delight of the crew manning this point. They had been waiting for several days, expecting up to a dozen teams, but had to make do with our jolly crew.
We made the most of an afternoon off before tackling Cataract Canyon, by eating (something like 10,000 calories each!!) and fishing for catfish in the river. Michele had a wonderful method that consisted of throwing bread onto the water and then trying to clout the fish with a spade as they made a hasty retreat back into the murky depths. Fortunately for the fish, our skill and reaction level was lacking and they ended up well fed indeed.
DAY 6
We squander the opportunity of making up another day on rest of the field by sleeping in and making a leisurely departure at 11 am down the much hyped Cataract, or Cat as the boatmen called it. In big water there are 26 rapids over 13 miles, with 3 story haystacks and 16 man raft swallowing stoppers. We are in a heavily loaded 6 man raft, so it was fortunate the water was
only moderate, the biggest waves cresting only 10 ft. Having a strong paddling crew and superb guide helped us through the waves and we arrived on lake Powell unscathed in time for a late lunch (does it sound like we were always eating? It's true, we were!). We later found out that the rest of the teams went through unladen and half the rafts capsized!
We paddled on down the final 20 odd miles to the next section and arrived at CP14 just in time to start the ropes, but since they were not completely set, took it easy and enjoy the evening with our new found friends and some cold beers we had saved!
DAY 7
The next section was a 1200 ft jumar ascent out of Lake Powell up Sheep Canyon set by Jay (who had done the first ropes course) and was equally spectacular. We started up at the 8 am opening time, and made good progress to arrive at the top in just over an hour and a half. After a quick bite to eat, photographs and check in at CP14, we tool off at a slow run for CP's15
and 16, the top of the notorious Whites Canyon and Black Hole.
This was another desert section, with open plains and packed dirt surface, and progress was swift as we were keen to make the Hole before the dark out. We arrived at the supposed location of CP15 at the top of Fortknocker Canyon to find it vacant, so proceeded to CP16 with haste.
Imagine our surprise as we ran down the track into Whites Canyon to be met by one of the Eco-Challenge Mitsubishi Montero's and some friendly faces telling us we had just run a leg that was now deleted from the course! Apparently the other teams didn't look like being capable making it through, so we took the advice of the organizers and had a 4x4 leg back down to Lake
Powell and the start of the final canoe paddle to the finish.
After several hours at AP4 waiting on a decision by the race committee to let us continue, or wait for the next few teams, we packed our bags and glided off in the late afternoon sun towards Bullfrog Marina and the finish, 50 miles away. CP18 was not yet set, so we carried on towards CP19. The storms that had been following us down the Colorado River finally caught us
as night fell, and we spent the next several hours battling headwinds and fatigue. Finally exhaustion got the better of us, and we found a small rock ledge to shelter on and rest a couple of hours.
We awoke before dawn to the crash of thunder and flashes of brilliant lightening bolts that lit up the cliffs and low hanging clouds around us like a Frankenstein movie set. CP19 wasn't set yet either, so rather than sit in the rain, we got moving and clawed our way along the cliffs that line
the lake, to try and catch some shelter from the wind and biting rain. At times we could barely see the bow of the boat, as we crashed through waves and rain squalls. At one stage we pulled into the base of a cliff and clung like rock climbers to the sheer wall as 50 knot winds lashed us with spray we bounced against the wall in the swell. These same winds turned over a 75
ft house boat that evening, and had campers tents uprooted and bowled across the desert!
By first light the wind had abated a little and we were able to make better progress to round the corner to the finish at 8 am, finally landing in 7 days 1 hour and 30 some minutes. Our trusty support crew, Angie welcomed us "home" to a row of 50 empty houseboats awaiting a flood of teams over the next few days.
AND IN CONCLUSION...
What did we eat? Lots of Powerbars, Fig Newtons and Gatoraid. We got mighty sick of the same stuff after a few days, and ended up with sandwiches, cold pizza, beef Stroganoff and pene pasta in zip-lok bags, rice, bananas, candy bars, lemonade,...... If it was portable, edible and different, we would eat it!
Footwear: We mainly wore Hi-Tec boots and water sandals, but even with 1 size too big found swelling feet a problem. The last 4 days I wore exclusively water sandals, even for the climbing and running!
Clothing: EMS provided us with T-shirts, hats, thermal and gortex wear which was absolutely invaluable. Everything we carried was light weight, including cut down T-shirts and stripped day packs (from Jansport).
Cammelbak's inside our day packs provided a drinking system, and seemed to be almost universally used by the US teams.
And lastly, we did tread lightly. In fact the racing teams and support crews left "minus" mess of the environment (clean up), while some un-named government departments, in their infinite wisdom, tore around the wilderness in dozens of 4x4's observing the rest of us walking established trails with soft soled shoes! Packing out our poop was a messy chore, but did prove the worth of the old Zip-lok bag! I just don't understand how triple zip-loks and a garbage bag still lets the smell out!!
Ian Adamson
iana@tps.com
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