AR World Champs- Shoalhaven, Australia with Nathalie Long,
James Galipeau and navigator Todd Nowack. As a Canadian living in Australia he
would be a perfect addition for this race.
After a week of screwing around with gear and bins I was
happy to get them turning in just before the maps distribution. To limit any
influence from Google maps we would get maps while locked in a conference room
3 hours before transferring to the start. We quickly outlined our route on the
2 sets of (38) A4 maps for the race.
The race would start with a Lemans start to the kayak in
Jervis Bay with James and Nat in the SCR ski and Todd and I in the sit-on-top
kayak. After clearing the initial mayhem we settled in around 25th place. Todd
and I were not as fast as the surfski so we set up the tow which worked well as
we paddled east towards the distant points. Approaching each of these points
was tricky as there were waves breaking on shoals all around them.
We swapped paddling positions after each of the first 4
points trying to find a set-up with equal boat speeds between the two boats but
none of them seemed to work well. We seemed to fade a little towards the end
and were happy to get to the take out when we did. We were joined by a few
surfacing dolphins just as we got there.
Going into this race we knew quick transitions were going to
be important so additional focus would be required. It paid off early as we
passed Tecnu in transition here.
This trek had a little of everything- Sandy beaches,
coasteering and powerline running with awesome views as we traveled to the
second paddle leg.
Somewhere along the way I managed to knock my head pretty
hard on a low hanging branch as I jumped up on a ledge and momentarily saw a
few early stars.
With another fast TA we were off on another relatively short
leg as dusk settled in. We finally found a paddler combination which seemed to
work well with James and I in the 3 person sit-on-top drafting off Nat and Todd
in the surfski.
Next up would be some tough jeep trail riding with steep
climbs and long, fast descents over never-ending water bars which were a lot of
fun. We spent most of the night riding with Tecnu and caught a glimpse of Bones
at the Pointer Gap Lookout.
The 'highlight' of the ride was the mandatory flagged
hike-a-bike down from Florence Head which required multiple sketchy climbs and
descents carrying our bikes. Despite the tough terrain we made solid progress
and avoided the back-ups those deeper in the field would see here.
The second trek was the first real section of the race. We continued
south along the coast and had our first swim of the event through a tidal pool.
James, Nat and I decided to strip down and put everything in a dry bag for the
crossing. Todd thought he could make it and just carried his shoes. Halfway
across he realized his mistake and decided he could just throw his shoes to
keep them dry. He skipped the first one across. The second one made it cleanly
but the socks stuffed in it ejected part way across and I had to jump back in
to save them from becoming shark food.
While we were goofing around we could see Tecnu and RADY'S
chasing us down in the distance.
Just prior to heading west for the inland controls we
stopped to tape some toes and then ran into Legendary Randy and a bunch of
kangaroos.
CP17 was our first mistake of the race. We decided to attack
it from the road instead of trying to find the jeep trail which went closer to
the point. As we descended down a reentrant expecting to find a stream
intersection we saw RADY'S in a reentrant heading the direction we expected the
point to be in.
With the distraction we failed to keep track of our position
on the map and talked ourselves into wandering around looking for it.
Eventually cooler heads prevailed and we decided to re-attack from the jeep
trail to the north. Once relocated we walked straight to the point. Looking at
the GPS track it appears we just didn't walk up the second reentrant far
enough.
We arrived at the Clyde River paddle with about 2 hours of
flood tide to paddle up river with so we wasted no time getting onto the water
despite that fact that we were starting to need some sleep.
We had the Czech team just in front of us and tried to chase
them down but sleepmonsters were an issue and we lost focus. We hooked up the
tow which helped to keep everyone awake and eventually we made it to the
takeout. We changed, built the bikes and then headed off to the tents in the TA
for an hour of sleep.
We knew this next leg was going to be tough given it had
over 5000' of climbing according to the logistics map. We realized this very
quickly as within the first 10k we had two significant bike pushes uphill. Not
long after that the rain started and the temps dropped. Compounding this was a
missed turn which forced a 3k backtrack. The rain wasn't bad on the long climbs
but it made the long descents very cold and I was happy to have rain pants in
the bag to put on.
The rain eventually stopped just before sunrise and the heat
of the day started to dry out our clothing as we approached the TA. With the
next trekking section heading out on the same road we were riding in on we
passed Merrell and Columbia as they were heading out just minutes ahead of us.
This next trek was going to be a tough one with a lot of
climbing early in the sun. In theory it was just following the trail through
the Budawang Range and for the first 15k that was the case as we went up and
through the pass below the Castle. There was multiple stream crossings to
re-fill water which made the heat a little easier to deal with through the
Monolith valley.
It was pretty amazing that I could be so cold just a few
hours before in the rain and then wishing for clouds to hide the sun as we
climbed up in the heat.
We spent most of the morning and afternoon changing places
back and forth with the Czech team. once through the pass the trail become much
tougher to follow and it took both Todd and I following along on our maps to
stay on the route as we summited Mt. Tarin, Mt. Haighton and Sturgiss Mountain.
Around dusk we made our second mistake. We had just punched
CP29 on a small hill. We dropped off the NE side of it by mistake instead of
the NW. We hit a creek which we were expecting but there was no trail running
along side of it. It took us about 90 minutes to figure out our mistake and
correct it.
The remainder of the trek was in a valley and the trail and
terrain improved as we went. Unfortunately our feet were starting to feel the
distance and by the time we made it into the TA Nat, Todd and I were suffering
with each step.
We were (over)due for some sleep when we arrived at the TA.
We changed, built our bikes and then took another hour of sleep. For some
reason the TA tents had not made it to the TA but it wasn't raining and my bivy
sack was sufficiently warm.
We awoke just as the sun came up and set out on the next leg
which would be a road bike ride to the caving. We traveled along well and made
it to the next TA quicker than expected despite the headwind.
When we arrived at the Caving TA the only thing we could do
was change into trekking shoes. We would have 5 hours off the clock to punch
controls in 5 of 6 caves. Our hope was that we could get all 5 punched and then
bank some sleep off the clock. Unfortunately we made a slight mistake going to
one of the caves and the rest of the caving was slower than anticipated and we
used all 5 hours to complete the stage.
The caves we went into were legit! I thought it would be a
somewhat contrived event but each one had difficult and unique features to get
through.
The most time-consuming cave had a feature called the
Flattener which was about 15m long, 10m wide and just tall enough for one
person to squeeze through on their stomach using your toes and fingertips to
propel you though. Not a good place for someone with a fear of tight spaces.
Once back to the TA we packed up the bikes and loaded up the
packs for the next packrafting leg.
In my mind the next three legs were going to be the toughest
of the race.
We left the TA loaded down with the packrafts, paddles,
pfd's and our bivy sacks knowing that we would not be able to paddle on the
river given the dark zone for paddling at 8pm. Before we could paddle we had to
punch CP36 on a slot canyon which led to the Shoalhaven River where the
packrafting would occur. We made the decision to drop our non-mandatory gear,
hike down to CP36 and punch, hike back up and then take the land route to the
put-in. Our thinking was that the slot canyon could be a significant time suck
if there was a lot of climbing required with our heavy packs.
When we finally hit the river we saw a few teams camped
waiting for the paddle dark zone to lift and river left looked good for some
trekking. We were able to cover around 8k before stopping for some sleep.
When we woke we continued along river left for a few more
kms until we were cliffed out. We stripped down and swam across to the other
side but then were able to continue to trek on river right until the 5am dark
zone lift passing Sweco along the way as they slept.
Once we put on the rapids were pretty fun but shallow and we
scrapped bottom quite a few times. Near the end Todd and I broached a rock and
flipped in which was kind of comical. Sighting in the am looking straight into
the rising sun was so difficult. Unfortunately we hung up on another rock and
put a hole in the floor of the Gnu which we were able to fix with some
Leukotape.
The flat portion of the paddle towards the end went pretty
fast given the huge tailwind we were getting and we paddled into the dam TA in
the morning sun.
We felt pretty good heading into the TA and just needed to
grab more food and h2o.
We portaged down around the dam to the put in and set off
with sunny skies. Unfortunately that didn't last too long and soon after we
were in a few nasty downpours getting completely soaked. The rapids were marked
on the map but it became tough to distinguish which rapids were worthy of
mapping and which were not. Fortunately we did portage around the two rapids
which presented some unsafe conditions.
At one point we had decided that we had made it past the
mandatory portage rapid 50 and had also passed the next CP. After a paddle up
river to where we thought it was we discovered (with the help of Merrell) that
we were still up river of rapid 50 and needed to continue further down river.
Once past rapid 50 it was obvious that we were now out of
the rapids as the water suddenly stopped flowing and our progress slowed.
Temperatures continued to drop as we paddled on the river and the sun set. We
made slow progress from here on as some struggled with sleep dep. and being
cold. I ended up taking the map from Todd as he was very sleepy/low on
calories. I was concerned that he wasn't able to pay enough attention and we
might end up heading the wrong way.
As we approached the take-out in town the skies opened up
again just as we were about to get off the river which made for a very cold
exit. Fortunately there was a boathouse with showers at the TA and Nathalie was
able to warm up along with the help of a dehydrated meal.
The original plan was to get an hour of sleep but as we were
getting into dry clothes the rain stopped so we built our bikes and prepared to
head out.
The last bike leg had about the same amount of climbing as
the 2nd leg but over twice the distance and the hope was that it would be much
more rideable and it proved to be so. Unfortunately we were all struggling with
sleepiness so within the first 20k we decided to lay down for a 45 minute sleep
which helped a ton and was just enough to get us to the finish.
It was a very cold night but we kept making forward progress
and eventually daylight came and with it much warmer temps. There was
definitely an eagerness to get to the finish driving the team.
As we approached the final TA we made a slight nav mistake
which allowed 2 teams to pass us. When we arrived at the TA there was 3 teams
there and Eastwind had just left.
Not exactly the finish we wanted but we certainly weren't
going to waste the opportunity to pass some teams. We made our way out onto the
beach and could see four teams ahead of us. We ran hard and were quick through
the two swims and Todd made some great route choices. We passed all of the
teams but Eastwind who despite our efforts still seemed to have a 1k lead on
us.
As we approached the last CP we saw Eastwind's cameraman and
he asked us if we had seen his team. We couldn't believe we had passed them
along the way but didn't stick around to wonder how.
We continued to run all
the way to the finish expecting to see them come around each corner ahead of us
but it wasn't to be and we finished a few minutes ahead of them in 21st place.
Race Summary:
Thursday - 12:31pm
- Kayak 5:14:00 35.0 km
Thursday - 5:45pm
- Trek 2:03:00 14.0 km
Thursday –
7:48pm - Kayak 1:44:00 13.0 km
Thursday –
9:32pm - Mtn Bike 9:09:00 95.0 km
Friday – 6:41am - Trek 9:23:00 38.0 km
Friday – 4:04pm
- Kayak 6:24:00 37.0 km
Friday –
10:28pm – Mtn Bike 9:17:00 + 1 hour sleep 58.0 km
Saturday – 8:45am
- Trek 19:30:00 35.0 km
Sunday – 4:15am
- Mtn Bike 5:48:00 + 1 hour sleep 70.0
km
Sunday – 10:02am
- Trek (Caving) 5:00:00 5.0 km
Sunday – 3:02pm
- Trek & Packrafting 18:20:00 + 2 hours sleep 48.0 km
Monday – 11:22am
- Kayak 11:44:00 56.0 km
Monday – 11:06pm
- Mtn Bike 11:16:00 + 45 min sleep 99.0 km
Tuesday –
11:27pm - Trek 2:33:00 18.0 km
Tuesday - 2:00pm - Finish
Total: 121 hours 29 minutes (5 nights)
Sleep: 4 hours 45 minutes
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