Sunday Sep 30 |
 | Paddling (kayak) race 2:30:00 [3] * 16.5 mi (9:05 / mi) | |
| spiked:1/1c |
| Race restart into the kayaks at 8 AM. Brian and Dave were allowed to finish the course, and they had a ton of energy to record the fastest paddle time. Rick and I performed quite respectably, leading the main pack and finishing 5th fastest. The top section of the river was slow, but the bottom half had several rapids, including one II with big waves (but not enough manuevers required to make it a III). Right in the middle of it I got dyslexic and told Rick "LEFT" when I meant "RIGHT" - so we bounced up on a 3 ft wave, nearly flipped, went broadside, then my paddle decided to come unscrewed and the blade twisted - but Rick got us straightened out with one mighty stroke and we finished the rapid as fast as anyone else. Fun way to finish the race, especially since we had some good sleep. (Although I heard some teams had their support crew driver them back to Red Cliffs to sleep in comfy beds that night. Not sure how fair that is?) |
Saturday Sep 29 |
| MTB (technical) race 2:00:00 [3] ** 9.0 mi (13:19 / mi) +500m 7:04 / km | |
| spiked:1/1c |
| Took a turnoff from the gravel onto the Kokopelli Trail. This is where GH made a wrong turn in last year's race, so Dave was prepared and we found the correct route. Eventually we came out on La Sal Loop Road and took a quick descent to the TA (elev. 7700 ft) |
| Orienteering race (ROGAINE) 17:00:00 [3] ** 17.0 mi (1:00:00 / mi) +1600m 28:51 / km | |
| spiked:6/6c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2007, gray) |
| Score-O section in the La Sal mountains. Mark's ankle was really hurting, and Rozzi was "exhausted" (her words) but they decided to go right away anyway. Dave and I planned a loop that would allow us to bail out easily if things got tough, but could still get us a respectable 6 of 8 checkpoints. (One of the two we skipped was on top of a 12.3+ mountain with no marked trail, and the other was as far from the TA as possible, with a 3-mile, 1500 vertical foot dogleg). By staying slow and steady we managed them all, everyone made it and noone had more than a mild headache.
Going from 21 to 17, we took a bushwhack route up one side of a ridge, which was a good choice - because the other side (descent route) was an 800 foot-high talus field. Plus, Rick bonked at the top and we had to help him down. But we got some beautiful pictures since the sun was out much of the times and the aspens were golden.
Arrived back at the TA at 7:30 PM, a half hour before the score-O cutoff. On the way down the jeep road, the skies opened up and pelted us with graupel (look it up!)
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| Miscellaneous race (transition/sleep) 3:00:00 [0] *** | |
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| As the weather got progressively colder and snowier, we bundled into the van and discussed things. The next section was Kokopelli into Fisher Valley, then a jeep trail to Dewey Bridge. From PQ last year, Mark and I knew what to expect and it was NOT a 4.5-5.5 hour bike like the volunteers "estimated." Given the terrain and weather, I estimated 12-15 hours for us (it turns out the very fastest team took 6 hours during the day, and we would have had to ride it at night in rapidly deteriorating conditions.) At this point Mark decided to drop and Rozzi went with him - if we had been forced to do that section, we wouldn't have made the paddle cutoff at 10 AM the next morning and been DNFed. Brian, Rick, and I decided to go on anyway after a couple of hours of sleep.
So... a few minutes later Mark wakes us up and says that they've cut short the section. Apparently some teams were on the way to the Kokopelli trail, encountered four inches of snow, turned around and came back. The race director rerouted all remaining teams to ride down the paved road to Red Cliffs and along the river to Dewey Bridge where there would be a race restart the next morning. There were even some teams still in the mountains and they were busy trying to contact them.
So the three of us had a nice long ride down to Dewey, where we slept in the van until 7 AM the next morning. |
| MTB (road) race 2:00:00 [2] 34.0 mi (3:32 / mi) | |
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| Ride from La Sals down Castleton to 128 to Dewey Bridge, mostly downhill except along the river. The weather got nicer as we descended, and we got a great view of Castle Rock silhoutted against the rising moon. |
Friday Sep 28 |
| MTB (technical) race 11:45:00 [3] *** 17.0 mi (41:28 / mi) +500m 23:37 / km | |
| spiked:2/2c |
| Out to 313, then back along the Gemini Bridges trail for some technical biking, then to Gold Bar Rim for even more technical biking, then to Golden Spike for insane biking. All at night, might I add. We had about 20 minutes of navigational mistakes, since it's hard to see the trails up there. But the weather was wonderful. Sunrise came as we were coming down the Poison Spider trail, and we got a fresh batch of thorns on the way downs. Yet more tire changing. I had one thorn in my back tire, three in my front and refused to take them out - but they sealed well enough to get me back to the TA and leave the bikes with our capable support crew.
It was interesting to do these trails again, in a more lucid state than in PQ. I was able to figure out some map issues that have perplexed me for over a year. |
| Paddling (kayak) 1:30:00 [3] * 6.5 mi (13:50 / mi) | |
| spiked:2/2c |
| After TA, back in the kayaks for a paddle down to Jackson Hole. Since we ran late on Poison Spider, we decided to skip the Pritchett Canyon trek, take the time penalties, and continue so as to make the mountain cutoff. We punched 8 and 11, then went downstream another mile and took out at the Potash boat ramp. |
| Hiking race 1:30:00 [2] * 6.5 mi (13:50 / mi) | |
| spiked:1/1c shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2007, gray) |
| Hike back along the road to the TA at Gold Bar CG. This was kind of a "gimme" leg, but at least we had to carry all our paddle gear. |
| MTB (road) 1:30:00 [3] ** 23.0 mi (3:54 / mi) +400m 2:18 / km | |
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| Back onto bikes, along the road back into Moab and up Sand Flats road past the Slickrock trailhead until the road became gravel. Brian pointed out the famous "brick shithouse" from last year's race. |
| MTB (road) 4:00:00 [3] * 12.0 mi (20:00 / mi) +600m 10:45 / km | |
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| Biked a ways up Sand Flats in 2-p tows. I pulled Rozzi, Dave pulled Mark, and Brian pulled Rick. We stopped near sunset to eat dinner and get our first sleep of the race. Unfortunately it was very windy and my space blanket didn't want to burrito. Finally got it under control and slept quite well on a bare patch of rock. |
| Miscellaneous (transition/sleep) 3:45:00 [0] | |
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Thursday Sep 27 |
| Note | |
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| Moab Xstream Expedition (3 day) |
| Paddling (kayak) race 6:00:00 [3] * 30.0 mi (11:59 / mi) | |
| spiked:1/1c |
| Moab XStream Expedition race, nominally as a 2PO with Rick, but practically as a full six Gnome Hunters. Started at Red Cliffs Lodge on the Colorado river and immediately ran down to the boat launch below White Rapids and got in a nice inflatable. Above the 191 bridge, the river was moving fast and had several rapids of class I-II. Below the bridge, it was slow and sluggish and we had to work for ourselves. Looped around Poison Spider and took out at the Gold Bar campground around middle of the pack, but only about 3 minutes behind the 4P team. |
| Trail Run race 1:30:00 [3] ** 1.5 mi (1:00:00 / mi) +400m 20:23 / km | |
| shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3D (2007, gray) |
| Climbed up the footpath from TA towards Corona Arch and Bow Tie Arch. Arrived at the Via Ferrata, put on ropes gear, and clipped into a traverse line to scramble up the side of the arch onto the top. We continued along the base of a sheer cliff until we got onto more rolling sandstone knobs about 500 meters away. Unclipped and ran the sandstone over to the top of the rappel site. After the rappel, back down the trail to the TA. |
| Ropes race 45:00 [1] | |
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| 220 foot free-hanging rappel into a natural amphitheater. Includes traverse time as well (had to wait to pass anchors) |
| Miscellaneous race (transition) 35:00 [3] | |
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| Slow transition. It's hard to get 6 people in order. |
| MTB (technical) 3:10:00 [3] ** 9.0 mi (21:06 / mi) +780m 10:20 / km | |
| spiked:1/1c |
| Short road ride up to the base of Long Canyon, and then a punishing ascent out of the Colorado river valley. It got dark as we walked, and we ended up having to hike-a-bike up the steep, rocky, sandy road. Includes time to change two tires thanks to those f****g thorns. Also, Rozzi almost fell off a cliff. |