Sunday May 25 |
 | Miscellaneous (TA/sleep) 2:30:00 [0] | |
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| Slept for a bit over 2 hours, and got rained on shortly after we laid down. I didn't sleep well and got about 20 min, then wandered around looking for someplace to get out of the wind, then laid down for another 20 min, repeat a couple times. I didn't get much sleep but wasn't that cold. The others slept solid and lost a lot of heat despite the space blankets and bags. They all collected to the beep of their alarms, but were shivering violently and still lethargic. So I got them to put on all the clothes they had and literally run in circles around the parking lot while cramming food in their mouths. After 5-10 minutes they had all stopped shivering, so things were good. We decided to go for 2-3 of the O point and then continue on the bikes. |
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| C • Congrats! 1 |
| Orienteering 2:00:00 [2] *** | |
| 2c |
| Two points on the bluffs and ravines at Standing Cedars. I helped Dave to navigate, trying to elicit answers and plans from him rather than just saying what to do - since this is supposed to be practice and skills improvement for all of us. We were plenty warm by the time it was done. |
| MTB (road) 5:00:00 [3] 30.0 mi (10:00 / mi) | |
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| Bike to the Peltier Lake TA, including a stop at Somerset Landing and a very interesting river crossing. Spent a fair amount of time off the bikes, hence the uncharacteristically slow speed (even taking into account fatigue.) I shortened up the bike route a bit to stay on schedule. |
| Miscellaneous 1:30:00 [0] | |
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| We were so early to the TA that we had to wait for Mark and Chris to show up. Took the opportunity to rest some more. |
| Paddling (kayak) 7:00:00 [3] 20.0 mi (21:00 / mi) | |
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| Mark and Liz joined us for a inflatable trip down Rice Creek. First half was slow and lazy through George Watch Lake, the golf course, Marshan Lake, Rice Lake, and Baldwin Lake. Took out at CR-I and did a 2 mile portage to Long Lake park. It was a hot day with storms brewing, and we were quite a sight walking through a residental neighborhood in Mounds View with big orange kayaks on our heads.
After putting into the creek and paddling through Long Lake (just as the tornado sirens went off), we darted into lower Rice Creek and hit the fast water. After a couple of bad lines and rock encounters, Rick and I agreed that I would call out insrtuctions a little more aggressively (I was in front). It turned into a crash course in fast water paddling and we ended up 100x better by the end. One memorable moment happened when we got stuck on a rocky rapid (due to boat trim). It was fast but shallow, so I put a foot and a paddle out to brace to boat and told Rick to put a foot out to release weight from the stuck spot. Right as we were in the middle of doing this, a cloudburst hit. We actually pulled the rain jackets out of our bags with one foot in the water, then freed ourselves and ducked into an eddy just below to wait out the rain - not only was it nearly impossible to see, but my glasses made it even harder. The rain let up 5 minutes later and we continued on. The other two boats had taken shelter, and they sent Liz running across people's back yards in the rain to try to check that we were OK. We signalled OK and paddled up to join them.
After going through several miles of fast water with frequent rapids and rock, through a culvert with a 2 foot standing wave at the end, and a portage around a dam, we arrived at the mouth of the creek and paddled a mile down the Mississippi to the finish. Good weekend! |
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| C • paddle 2 |
| Hiking (portage) 1:00:00 [2] 2.25 mi (26:39 / mi) | |
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| Portage time on Sunday afternoon. Mark, Rick and I carried the boats on our shoulder. Rozzi, Liz and Dave split the packs and paddles. |
Saturday May 24 |
| Hiking 14:30:00 [2] *** 23.0 mi (37:49 / mi) | |
| 7c |
| Got one more CP on the WI side near the end of Evergreen Ave, then we had to packraft across the river to the swampy upper part of WRSP. Successfully rafted across in the predawn light - me and Brian in one 2p, Dave and Rozzi in another 2p, Rick in the solo. Inflate was pretty easy, only about 10 min. We had brought 3 halves of a kayak paddle to use canoe-style, the rafts were spinny but a quick stroke change kept them going.
After arriving at the MN side, we decided to cache the packrafts, go get the CP about a mile away, then come back to the rafts and float down to the next CP instead of slogging through the swamp. As race director, I okayed the plan since we were running late at this point. The trek was still wild - about 2 miles out and back through successive bands of knee deep, muddy swamps with occasional high spots filled with wildflowers. Finally made it to Goose Creek, crossed to the other side and pulled the CP, then backtracked and floated down the river to CP 5 at the mouth of Goose Creek.
After that, it was a long hike in WRSP to get four more points in the main area of the park, ending up at the far SE corner near the canoe campsite. There was a little stream coming out into the river, and there we got the last CP and got ready to packraft a second time over to Spangler's Landing. We could see our support crew waving to us from the other side.
Unfortunately, in mid afternoon it was windy from the SE (directly against us) and the river had some pretty decent waves, as well as a good current. We decided the best way to approach it would be to barge up all three boats with the lightest one downriver - that was Dave and Rozzi with Dave handling one paddle. Rick was in the solo in the middle holding the boats together, and Brian and I on the upstream side with two paddles. We managed to make good progress without getting spun around; Dave and Brian were paddling with all their might and I was partly paddling, partly steering to correct for the waves and wind. Dave and Rozzi would periodically have to lean and try to ride up over a wave - some of them 2 feet high, but luckily rolling instead of breaking. Once we got 2/3 of the way across we knew it was good. Even though we had taken on water, it wasn't enough to endanger the crossing. Headed into TA at about 4 PM. |
| Paddling (kayak) (packrafts) 1:30:00 [2] 2.5 mi (35:59 / mi) | |
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| Packrafting time during the last section. |
| Miscellaneous 2:30:00 [0] | |
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| TA time plus about an hour of sleep before heading out on the bikes. |
| MTB (road) 1:30:00 [3] 14.0 mi (6:26 / mi) | |
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| Road bike down to the main highway, up the hill, and back down through St. Croix Falls and into the back entrance of the state park. Ditched our bikes at the parking lot and walked up to the ropes section that Mark had set for us. |
| Ropes 1:30:00 [1] | |
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| 90 foot rappel, followed by an equal ascent with one anchor passing. All four had to go down, then go up. At the end, Mark gave us a surprise orienteering map (well, it wasn't a surprise to me). |
| MTB (road) 2:30:00 [3] 18.0 mi (8:20 / mi) | |
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| Bike to collect some more checkpoints on the way to the O section. Dave asked me to navigate for a while. Went down CR-S, through Osceola, and up onto Ridge Rd. On the way down there, we could see thunderstorms brewing all around us. Saw plenty of lightning, some of it within 5 miles which was enough to get me concerned about being on the bikes. However, we only got spit on a couple times and made it to the parking area around midnight. This is where we decided to sleep for a couple hours and then go do however much of the O section we felt like. |
Friday May 23 |
| Note | |
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| 3-day PQ practice race |
| Paddling (kayak) 10:00:00 [3] 41.0 mi (14:38 / mi) | |
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| Start of this year's practice event. Went up to Twin Bridges landing near Mora with 6 people and 6 solo kayaks. Paddled down the Snake River, protaged the Cross Lake Dam, and did the last 6 miles in St. Croix to Raspberry Landing. Fun warmup paddle on the flatwater section and a little more excitement on the lower part. Rick had his first fast water "dunking" and Mark and I swooped in to for the rescue. |
| Miscellaneous (TA) 1:00:00 [0] | |
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| 1 hour TA time at Raspberry Landing, to prepare for the trek with packrafts. |
| Hiking 4:00:00 [2] *** 6.0 mi (39:59 / mi) | |
| 2c |
| Started at the Benson Brook trailhead and went south, finding and pulling 3 CPs I set last weekend. Since I knew the locations, Dave was navigating, and together with the sketchy trail mapping on USGS and the dark, we were pretty slow on this section. |
Wednesday May 21 |
| MTB (technical) 1:20:00 [3] 12.7 mi (6:18 / mi) | |
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| Some loops at Wirth with a big group, a little back and forth between the start and the parking lot upped the mileage. 3rd lap set a new PR on the north loop - 14:02. |
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| C • 14:02!...very impressive! 1 |