Trouble at the Raid International Gaspésie

Our latest adventure had us traveling to Eastern Canada for the Raid International Gaspésie stage race. We knew going in that this 3.5 day race would not be a typical race for us for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we rarely race in stage races, mainly because there are few of them around. But because this would be a stage race instead of a continuous race, we knew the pace of the race would be much higher - something that didn't necessarily favour us going into the race. Second, we knew that this race wouldn't likely have a lot of tough navigation as it was designed as much as a "multi-sport" race as an adventure race. While this provided for an excellent mix of athletes, again, we knew that this would favour some of our competitors. Third, and most importantly, we knew this would not be a typical race because of the beautiful region where we were racing and the knowledge that the race organizers would take us to some of the most beautiful and rugged places. 

For this race, we had three of our usual team members: Stephan Meyer, Nathalie Long, and James Galipeau, but had to scramble in the months leading up to the race to find a 4th person when one of our regulars was no longer able to do the race. Luckily Bruno Haché, an Acadian adventure racer was able to step in and join us for the race. His navigation skills and local knowledge were both an asset to the team for the race.

The first day of the race was a prologue, which consisted of a run on the beach, a bike along the beach and then on roads and trails, a trekking loop on the mountain (with a waterfall CP and a ropes section) a ride back down to the beach, and then a short paddle to the finish. This was an extremely fast day with the overall winners of the day finishing in just over 2 hours. Our team had a decent day on the course, mixed in with a few spots where we lost some valuable time, but all in all we were still in good shape, sitting in 4th in our category at the end of the day. 

Day One of the race had us starting with a short trek section to spread the teams out before getting into the canoes for a paddle down the Cascapedia River. Then after a fast-moving river crossing, it was a trek with a Tyrolean traverse along the way followed by a very fast bike section. At the end of the bike section two team members had to swim across the river once again to retrieve the canoes and bring them back to the other shore where teams would have to put their bikes in the boats and paddle to the finish line. Overall it was another decent day for the team, despite some challenges, which included Bruno getting a leg cramp just as he and James set off on the swim across the fast-moving (freezing!) river to get the boats. Nathalie also twisted her ankle during a trek through slippery rocks in a stream, and one of our canoes capsized in a rapid with 2 of our bikes attached to it at the start of the final paddling section. But we recovered well from each of these setbacks and managed to move up to third place in our category at the end of the first full day of racing. The evening after the day's racing was also pretty amazing as we were hosted by the Mic Mac tribe on their land. We were treated to a spectacular display of traditional drumming and dance, as well as fresh salmon with maple syrup smoked on cedar planks inside hollowed out tree trunks. To cap off the night, there was an amazing display of the Northern Lights.

Day Two would unfortunately barely get started for our team before we ran into serious trouble. The race started off with a paddle section, and for our team, this was also where our race ended. It was a very cool morning that had left a frost on the ground and made for some chilly sleeping (or not sleeping!) the night before. Nathalie had been battling a pretty nasty chest cold that started up just before the race, and the cold, rain, and camping of the previous 3 days was certainly not helping things. We started out pushing pretty hard and trying to manage the "bumper boat" craziness that always comes with a mass paddle start. The plan was for our team to use a tow rope to help us to move faster, but this proved to be very difficult for the first part of the paddle with all of the boat traffic seemingly moving in all directions.Once we finally were able to get our boats attached, it was full steam ahead and we pushed very hard to try and make up some lost ground. Unfortunately this exacerbated Nathalie's chest cold and set off an exercise-induced asthma attack less than 1km from the end of the paddling section. The combination of the stress and chaos of the race combined with the anxiety caused by the asthma attack then caused her to hyperventilate, which immediately got the attention of a few thoughtful teams who stopped to make sure everything was ok, as well as a boat with a camera crew on board. It appeared that Nathalie was getting everything under control and the team began to paddle again to try and get to the transition area. But once again her breathing became very difficult, so her boat pulled to the shore so that she could walk the remaining 300 metres to the TA. She was met half way by a crew of medical staff and other onlookers who immediately tried to help restore her breathing to normal. While the medical team was excellent, it seems that having having so many people in close range created more anxiety and unfortunately Nathalie wasn't able to get her breathing back to normal on her own. So she was taken by ambulance to the hospital (despite her pleas to be unbuckled so that she could keep racing!) where she was warmed up and monitored for a brief time before being released. While she was feeling better, the trip to the hospital meant the end of the race for our team. Nat said this is the worst chest cold she's ever had and it actually got worse the following night - she said she's not sure if she could have continued to race hard on the following day even if the team had been allowed to continue. Stephan however did manage to race on the final day with the team from Costa Rica after one of their team mates had to withdraw from the race as well.

Obviously this was not the result that any of us had hoped for, but we can say that we raced hard for the whole time that we were out there on the course. We all agree that a team mate's health is far more important than any race result and we are all happy that Nathalie didn't suffer any lasting effects from the incident (except for the chest cold that doesn't seem to want to go away!). We are all keenly aware of the dangers that we subject ourselves to when we choose to do an adventure race, and we don't take these risks lightly. So when a serious situation does occur, it reminds us how fortunate we are to be able to race hard and to finish most of the races that we enter. And it's also a very big comfort to know that our fellow competitors care enough to stop their race in order to offer a helping hand when something does go wrong.  

All we can say in the end is that the race course, the region, the organization, and the medical response were all outstanding - and we can't wait to come back again to take care of some unfinished business...

Here is a video recap of the race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVFwnKAc7lE

James

 

         

Untamed New England Expedition race-10th overall

Back at another Untamed with James (Relentless) and John (threeputt) with new addition to the team Natalie (Frenchie). Check in, maps, all went fast with minimal checks, pre-plotted maps. A++ for Grant and team making this part of the race lead-up pain free. 

 

Race start was using some iffy maps for a prologue rogaine foot section. Kept a good pace with the lead teams and got off around 7th onto the boats. With Nat being a strong paddler we were able to get ahead of a few teams catching up to Columbia tied for 3rd into the run to Little Kineo. This was key as getting to the ropes was crucial since the backlog kept teams waiting hours. Even though we were fourth team in, we still waited near 20mins as only a few ropes were being used. Not sure why RD’s still put these things in races?!?!? 

 

Of the rappel we navigated to the closest road and ran back down to the canoes, paddled to Kineo Island obtaining two more CP’s, the last of which was a little tricky. Raidlight passed us during the run but then missed the last CP, asking us if we found it after we already had nabbed it… ughhh… uncomfortable… I played the ‘I don’t speak French’ card but unfortunately on this team that card doesn’t play well since Nat had already spoken French with them at the ropes and we eventually told them we found it back where it was. They shouldn’t have asked us but what can you do when asked… 

 

Back in the boats we paddled to the first TA which we reached in good time and were given some nice chili by Good To-Go sponsors. Transition out and onto the bikes where eventually Sweco catches and passes us through the night. The nav goes well but our pace isn’t very fast; perhaps we are still recovering from hammering the run/paddle for the first 8 hours. We hit the bike bushwhack and aren’t one of the fortunate ones who find a trail; we just whack for an hour or some; pretty miserable going. 

Eventually we pop out to see Clinique has also passed us as they found a good trail. We continue to move on the bike, albeit fairly slow and by the time we get near the Orienteering section at Gorman Chairback lodge John’s feeling rough. We re-strategize our order slightly so John can get some rest while Nat does the short/hard, James the long/easy, me the long/hard and pass over to John for short/easy at which point he’s feeling tip top again. We try to get some sleep but no one gets anything more than a few mins – we are still only 24 hours into the race. Pancakes and Kool-Aid are awesome. After we all finish our o-sections we make short order of the wood stacking and are off on the ‘monster’ bike again. 

 

We continue to ride along without any nav issues and make it to the (dreaded) Abenaki Lost World. We inflate our packrafts and immediately it’s apparent that John and I have not practiced our layout in our newly purchased $800US Alpacka. While we’re stumbling along the shore, we’re passed by Clinique and MadAthlete teams who blaze along with their $1500 Alpackas that have about twice the hull speed of ours. Eventually we settle into our uncomfortable positions while trying to manage the high winds on Third Roach Pond. The winds are brutal and we have to paddle straight into them at maybe 2km/hr. It’s painfully slow and sucks. We deflate and bushwhack after looking with no avail for the stream connecting Second and Third Roach Ponds. Back on water at Second Roach Pond and even more headwind. By the time we hit the CP on the lake Nat is near hypothermic and we make the decision to abandon the packrafts as we don’t feel safe in the high winds, cold water and no signs of a safety boat. We make for the south shore where we deflate and pack up while hiking the trail around the lake. It’s nice to be warm and hiking again but the time it takes transition isn’t pretty and we soon realize we probably should have just sucked it up and paddled the lake. We lose a lot of time here I suspect and we even flub the peninsula CP on Second Roach Pond as I assumed it was on the very end instead of the middle. O-store.ca passes us here and told us they just decided to run most of it vs packraft. 

We trek on and arrive at the final CP before the First Roach Pond crossing. It’s night and the wind is back up, it feels extremely unsafe again with no safety boats and us crashing into high waves. We eventually make the crossing and are happy to be done with the packrafting (for now). 

After taking a little while to change and eat we head out to start the big trek. It’s night number two so we decide we should take our first rest of the race. The temperature is cold, we can see our breath, feels like 5C or so. We cram into the ‘cozy’ tent, set the alarm for 1:45 time of sleep and roll around cold and uncomfortable. I think we all maybe got 20 minutes? Maybe an hour? Who knows but it wasn’t quality sleep. 

We are now on the big trek and hike up the first mountain taking all roads/trails to play it safe and manage the first one without any issues. Had a terrible route to the next CP taking the ridegeline instead of descending to the parallel trail, I have no idea why I marked that; stupid. It’s now daylight of Day 3 and we take the ridgeline to the trail and make our way to the second mountain top which ends up OK. One final mountain and we’re done, right? We are thinking about our free sleep at the rafting already, however, the last trek CP is ABSOLUTE SHIT, the worst I’ve experienced. About 4? 5? 6? Hours of painfully slow whacking through tightly packed spruce trees, ripping away at our skin, packs and clothing. We lose an hour trying to make sense of a flagged trail near the saddle near the summit praying to the Abenaki gods that this trail will take us to our CP but it just meanders around. When we finally are near the summit we run into a cameraman who was about to turn around to his car, frustrated and beaten by the bushwhack but he follows us up to the mountain CP (see us on the Untamed Youtube at 5mins into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-yWb0lrLYM&list=U...) with John highlighting how lovely the last CP was. Like most teams we were without water for all of this section from the last mountain (maybe 8 hours). 

Thankfully there was a trail leading down out of the CP (it was glorious not to have to bushwhack down) and we slowly made our way back to the TA. We moved slow on this easy (but buggy) road trek, a section we probably should have ran but were feeling pretty beat down by the trek and very dehydrated and hungry. My feet were starting to blister as per usual even though I felt like I took good care of them. On the plus side we actually didn’t think many other teams would have fought that hard for the last CP; alas we underestimated our AR colleagues and learned we just maintained our position near 10th spot. Was demoralizing to hear how fast Benoit on o-store.ca did the trek in, less than half our time although we did sleep. 

When we got to the TA we learned the paddle was cancelled. Even though it seemed to be our strongest discipline I was happy to hear we’d be biking to the next CP. My chafed butt wasn’t enjoying though. Perhaps I should mtn bike a few times before doing an expedition race to get my ‘body’ adapted... Regardless it was much quicker and we arrived at the urban o-section in Greenville quickly. We did a run/walk for most of the section and were able to order a delicious meat-lovers pizza just before the shop closed. We washed it down with coke and ice-cream sandwiches are were off again to start the ascent up Moose Mountain range. We took a 5 minute nap on good trail then found a nice buggy marsh to do another 20-min nap; not very well executed. The climb up went well for us and eventually we made it down the other side to the ski area where the long descent was painful on our sore feet. 

At the ski lodge TA we plotted a few more CPs. I knew one these would not be as easy as it seemed because the last Untamed we did in 2010 Grant threw a knuckleball in for the last bike where the trails weren’t on the map or were not matching. After our best nap of the race - 20 mins on the side of the road in the glorious hot sun - we got the first CP on Indian Pond with ease so I figured the next one would be the tricky one, which it was. However, we played it relatively safe and didn’t try to force any routes, stuck to our bearings and make sure I knew exactly where we were on the map. It proved successful as we nailed the CP with relative ease and finally picked up our bike speed pacelining to the rafting put-in. 

 

The rafting was fun, a lot of big water and eventually some lesser class rapids which we guided on our own. At The Forks we transitioned to the final trek/packraft section. Like many others have reported, this section was a slog; the bugs were bad and the little trek just seemed to go on and on. Eventually we made it to the area where the CP was, descended down to the river and inflated our packrafts. Earlier we made the decision John and I would packraft on our own because fitting the both of us in the Alpacka just didn’t work well so John braved his $80 Canadian Tire Sevylor while I took the pimped Alpacka. Nat and James stayed in their NRS. We pushed off and were thrown into the rapids immediately. It was a white knuckle ride and we were trying to navigate while staying afloat. John was a rockstar in the Sevylor where he had to pull over after each rapid and dump his boat but was having a lot of fun. Meanwhile on the river it was carnage with hypothermic teams littered along the shoreline. We pulled over with MadAthlete to help ActiveSteve get warm at one point but had to leave (him with his able team) as fear of our teammates getting hypothermic was also a concern. As for the checkpoints - for some reason the CPs were hidden in the forest; personally not sure why as this was a packraft section and along the water would have been more appropriate. Each CP took several times getting out checking, etc as there wasn’t any distinguishable features to go off on the map. 
There was a portage featured along the map which we planned to take but no sign and apparently we went down the rapids of concern. No safety guides along the river either pointing out appropriate lines or helping stranded packrafters. Maybe I’m not as comfortable in whitewater as many but it just didn’t seem very safe and I was very happy to get out luckily just before sunset. I couldn’t believe while taking out I saw teams trekking up to the packraft put-in – at night!!?!? We took out a few kms from the take-out as we hoped to get warm running it in to the TA, however, I just got eaten alive by bugs by the side of the road while trying to change into warm clothes and fend off yet another bout of shivering and hyperthermia in the race. 

The last TA featured us biking up to a mountain top CP before going to the finish line. I set up a conservative route using a ‘black-line’ which at this point of the race could have been a trail, doubletrack or road; it didn’t seem consistent. But this one had a road name so I thought it was a safe bet for us. It wasn’t too bad although I think it was slower than the obvious recommended route on a brown line but I didn’t want to take any chances. Once at the final CP we descended down the brown trail line directly to the finish line which thankfully went the way marked on the map. We made it after 4 long tough days! 

It was just before midnight, I was praying the kitchen was still open – it was – apparently all night!!! BEST FINISH LINE SPOT EVER. We immediately ordered chili nachos, 4 lbs of wings and burger/fries for everyone while drinking awesome free beer and chatting with our fellow competitors. Eventually our eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer and we crashed to our cabin. 

Final results have us marked as 10th which is fair given the level of competition. We could have done a bit better had we managed the packrafting/big trek a bit better but also could have fared worse had we made any big nav mistakes. The team worked well together although the dynamic and usual strengths of our team changed; racing with a ‘couple’ (Nat and James) and not being as fast on our feet as usual (but being better paddlers was nice). 

Next up is Wilderness Traverse - can’t wait for such a short race!

Harper