A week after the Deschutes River Trip was the Bend 30 Hour Fall Adventure Race . Jason, the race director and main instigator, convinced me to stay to race. Kyle, Stephanie, and Corinne let me race with them to form team "Snack Attack". Once Stephanie and Corinne joined Kyle and me in Bend we put together all of the stuff we thought we would need. This required trips to REI, the grocery store, and Wal-Mart as well as borrowing items from locals (thanks everyone). I suppose that with enough races you would eventually have a pretty good idea of what was required, but we had a lot of questions. Most of the unknowns weren't for things we would use regularly, but for things like bike repair tools and knowing how cold we would get (would we be getting wet packrafting in the middle of the night?)
After the pre-race meeting the night before we got together to pack up our food and bags. Of course things felt a lot heavier than we had hoped. It also turned out that we would need to take our packrafts with us for all of the treks which added to the bulk and weight. I tried to get to sleep early, but I think I did more tossing and turning than sleeping.
The morning of race day we got up early. Kyle and Steph were driving their bikes and our packs and bin to the start and Corinne and I would bike. It was cool and overcast - with a bit of a threat of rain. The ride wasn't far though and was mostly downhill. There we took off our pedals (for easier bike transport), ate some breakfast, and looked at our maps and race rules. Soon we loaded onto the bus which would take us to the actual race start. As we drove SW out of town into the mountains it started raining. Fortunately by the time we got to the actual starting point it had stopped. We got out, shouldered our packs, and listened to some last words of encouragement and advice from Jason before the countdown and start at 8 am. Everyone set off at some variation of jog to shuffle to fast walk. Soon we slowed to re-arrange a few packs. It was a dirt road to the first checkpoint (CP-1) where we were probably in the last 1/3 but then soon we were crossing an old burn area and slowed to a walk to maneuver around downed trees and scrubby growth.
After CP-2 we left the burned area and moved down fisherman trails along the river. Then past CP-4 on a bridge we cut over towards Crane Lake. We hoped to be able to cut across the corner where the creek entered the lake so we waded across and then encountered swampy conditions with lots of logs strewn about. We inflated the packrafts on a beaver lodge and set out onto the lake. This was pretty frustrating with a strong and gusty headwind. Especially for the women who were in the front of the rafts and getting a lot of waves in the face. We could see other teams having trouble with the wind too, in fact I saw some going backwards despite paddling. We dodged a lot of dead trees poking out of the water and headed to the shore. There we deflated the rafts and started walking through the knee to thigh deep grass. Sometimes things were squishy underfoot but for the most part it was much easier, warmer, and faster than paddling was.
There were a few little streams to cross and thickets and swamps to dodge, but mostly we just walked between the shore and the trees to CP-5 / Transition Area 1 (TA-1). Here we were to transition from trekking/packrafting to mountain biking. We swapped out gear and re-loaded up food and prepared for the next leg when we discovered a problem. We were short one set of bicycle pedals. It took a bunch of phone calls and a few changes of plans but eventually Jason came by and we swiped the pedals off of his bike and were back on our way. It was nice to get a bit of a break and dry our feet, but it was still a bit early in the race to really need it and we went from somewhere in the second half to near the very back of the pack.
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We biked off and almost immediately took a wrong turn (although we didn't realize it at the time). The road we planned to take was overgrown and possibly decommissioned, so maybe it wasn't such a wrong turn after all, but we did go a bit farther to get to the trail and CP-6 than we planned. We were the last group to get to CP-7 which involved a cold swim to get to the CP. Only one team member had to do it and Kyle stepped up and took one for the team as well as bringing the point back to the shore for the volunteers staffing this location (to save them from having to go get it). Here I will take a moment to mention how great all the volunteers were. It was wonderful to get welcomed to a CP or TA with a smile by friends (many of the volunteers had been on the Deschutes River trip). The only real problem was that it was hard to leave quickly.
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From CP-7 we bushwhacked through the woods towards another bike trail. This was a little frustrating since we had to go around or over numerous downed trees. We also didn't really know how long this would take so it seemed endless. In reality it took about 45 minutes before we hit the singletrack trail. Although the bikewhacking was not easy, it saved us from a long bike ride around on trails and washboarded roads. This trail started out a little bit uphill but was mostly rolling with a lot of descending near the end. Partway down that we met up with a team who had both broken their derailleur and lost their chain tool. We thought we had a chain tool, but it turned out we had 2 hex sets and no chain tool. oops.
We continued on to CP-8 and there made the wise choice not to even try to do the pro option which involved a long bike-hike up to the top of a mountain among other things. Had we not had the pedal issue we might have gone for the pro option, which would have been a mistake. The trail we were on gradually deteriorated as more and more trees were down across it. We passed one guy who decided to turn around and take another route when he lost the trail in a blowdown. The first largish blowdown area was a pain, but it was easy to follow the trail under the logs. The second big one was more cryptic, but we found the trail just as I was thinking about dropping the bikes to go search for it. From there it was pretty easy to follow although there were plenty of logs and branches across the trail. When we hit the gravel road we practiced riding in a pace line.
We got to CP-9 just as it was getting dark and a lovely full moon rose to the east. From there we cut across a field and had to wade a creek to get to the campground/road on the other side (just when my feet were getting fully dry). The guy camped right there wasn't particularly happy with us as we weren't the first or the last to pass that way. We weren't very close to his camp and didn't stop to explain that we were part of the Johnson family reunion on a scavenger hunt (that was our story to decrease friction with various other users).
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From there it was a pretty mellow bike ride to CP-10. Much of it was even on pavement. There we had an O-course. O = Orienteering. This one had 4 checkpoints out on the lava. This is where I messed up. It wasn't just me, but I should have done a better job of navigating. We went to the first one fairly easily. My years of talus scrambling in the Sierra and elsewhere served me well for moving on the treacherous aa lava. That didn't mean the others could though, and I should have modified the plan accordingly. Then we thought we had gone farther than we had and started looking for the next one. It didn't help that the topography where we were sort of matched where we thought we were. So we (I) wasted a lot of time looking around for the checkpoint that wasn't any where near where we were and eventually bailed across the lava and back to CP-10. At least our team was able to provide contrast to another team who were at one of the checkpoints and complaining about things. One guy was able to point to our headlights out on the lava and say "at least we aren't in their shoes". Back at CP-10 we were told we were behind enough we could ride north on the adjacent road (previously off route). This was our first change of route (used to keep all the teams moving along and a real headache for the race director in trying to come up with final rankings but much better for the teams in that it allowed us to keep going instead of just having to stop 1/2 way through). The ride on the pavement was pretty quick but the long dirt road felt endless to me. I think I was also starting to get a little disconnected and thought we were going uphill the whole time even though we were more or less biking along a lake shore. In my defense it was past midnight and I had been up and mostly moving since before 5:30 am.
At TA-2 we transitioned from bikes to trekking/paddling gear. It was pretty chilly and there was a cool breeze. Erik et al. at the transition had some wonderful ramen soup for us though. It really hit the spot. We did not have the fastest transition, but we did manage to get things done and eat and pack our paddling gear and take off (and store carefully) the bike pedals. Then team Yahoos pulled in and we had a mini impromptu dance party before we headed off. Here Kyle was fully in charge of the navigating and he was on top of things. We hiked up the road about the right length of time, then cut towards the lake. When we hit the shore we did a quick assessment and turned left and walked out the peninsula right to CP-11. I zipped ahead to punch it and returned to the shore to plan our next move. Meanwhile another team walked past on the shore and missed the CP and kept going. We contemplated saying something but decided only if they asked.
CP-11 was on a peninsula in a big lake and the next place we had to get to was across the lake and a few miles to the North. We decided to head to the end of the peninsula so we could boat more closely downwind and also be closer to the far shore in case the waves picked up or the wind shifted. We set off and then tried to cut across to the other side of the peninsula. After a few minutes of walking it was clear that the lake was lower than in the map. We sort of diagonaled across the now dry (and covered with grass, bushes, and willows) lake bed figuring we'd find water eventually. At some point we decided to cut straight towards the butte we had to get around to the next point. As we hiked along here it started to rain and I put on my raincoat. It wasn't really raining hard enough to need it, but it was hard enough that if it kept up or rained any harder I would have been all wet. There were a few willow thickets to go around and it started getting muddy for a while (up to ankle deep squishy mud) but then things firmed up and soon we were cutting through a campground and onto the road to the next CP. This was a section where we passed and/or gained a bunch of time on other teams. Some tried to follow the shore to CP-11 (in reality there were 2 lakes, one by TA-2 and one by CP-11) or couldn't find CP-11, or backtracked very far to avoid the big lake (that wasn't there).
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At CP-12 we inflated the rafts and prepared for a 10 mile or so paddle down the river. We had heard no whitewater, but with two people in the rafts even mild waves could be interesting and cold. As we cast off to head down the river I turned off my headlamp. I think it was around5:15 am. Since we had a ways to go and weren't in a crazy hurry and it was cold, Kyle and I paddled and Stephanie and Corinne got to ride (using their hand paddles would have been very cold). The gentle rocking of the paddling and the current soon lulled them to sleep. At one point Stephanie and Kyle thought it looked like I was paddling a dead body down the river a-la "weekend with Bernie" as Corinne was propped up on her backpack with her head leaned over to the side. The paddling felt more tiring than it should have to me until I realized my paddle wasn't feathered. After I fixed that the paddling was easier and less water dripped into the boat. It was quite pleasant paddling with a strong current but no real waves and a quiet sunrise. Unfortunately there was no great color, it just got lighter under the overcast skies. After about an hour the team of two that got to CP-12 just before we cast off passed us. They had Advanced Elements inflatable kayaks and were paddling a lot harder than we were. Still it took a long time before they were out of sight in front of us and we caught them at the take-out/CP-13 and were briefly ahead of them on the road as we walked a more direct path.
The next leg was along dirt roads for the most part. It drizzled a bit more. We cut off just a bit early and had to walk along the side of Falls Creek to CP-14 at the bridge. The trail went up and down a bit and we had to step over some logs. Although this wasn't too hard, it was a lot harder than just walking along a road and my legs let me know. Falls Creek was super clear and icy cold spring water. After another mini-reunion at the CP with Dana and Glenn we were told we could just walk the trail to the next CP rather than paddling. Since it looked like a fair bit of manouvering around logs in the shallow river we opted to walk. Although the trail was straightforward, it took a while longer than we expected to get to CP-15. Since there was a lake and a road just past the CP there was no way we could overshoot so we just kept going and eventually found it. From there we were back on roads again for a bit. Here Stephanie mentioned she'd be happy to paddle a while to give her foot a rest, so Kyle took her pack. Of course she immediately wanted it back and had to argue at him for a while to get it.
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We walked for a while before turning off on a much smaller road towards CP-16. When we saw Chip and Laura's car we knew we were close. CP-16 was set up on a slackline between 2 peaks on a butte. There was a line for your feet as well as a line for your hands (and an OSHA approved safety harness connected to the upper line). I strapped myself in and went out for the CP. I leaned back and forth a few times in mock terror for amusement and then on the way back walked a few steps on just the slackline. Once again we had to say goodbye to another mini-reunion and head off to TA-3.
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At TA-3 there was another O-course, but we didn't have time for that. In fact we were instructed to bike straight back on roads instead of taking a much more interesting and fun (but slower) mountain bike trail. We were also told we wouldn't be packrafting big eddy rapid. This was a bummer as we had been looking forward to that with a mix of excitement and trepidation. We transitioned back to bikes and got on our way in the rain. Luckily that didn't last and soon we were biking along on dry pavement. That also didn't last and we were onto washboarded dirt roads. At least it was mostly downhill and we made pretty good time, sometimes in a pace line. We made it back to the end at 3:21 (the official finish time was 3). From there we went to the brew pub that would be hosting the finishing ceremonies. When I took off my damp sox my feet were a bit macerated. There was one wrinkle on the edge of the ball of my foot that was deep enough to feel like a blister. It felt good to sit down and dry my feet.
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Here we ate and caught up with other teams and heard various stories of wandering around in the dark, running big eddy clean in scout packrafts or flipping and swimming and so on. There was also a pretty good pile of swag distributed to the teams. The Yogaslackers team finished first somewhere around 25 hours (with the pro course too). Tecnu, Quest, and Castelli also finished the full course. In general I feel pretty good about our race. The pedal snafu probably kept us from trying to do the pro course which was a good thing and then other than just not being all that fast the only other real problem we had was in the lava field orienteering which was pretty bad, but we didn't let it stop us. For the most part we were smiling and laughing all day (both days? - things get a little murky when you don't sleep). Nobody bonked or had a meltdown and we are still all friends. It was also good to see how much faster we would have to go to compete at the upper levels (a lot).
According to the preliminary results we came in 7th out of 9 teams that finished under their own power and a total of 16 teams that started. This includes teams from 1 to 4 people with either one gender or mixed.
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Thanks a lot to Jason and the rest of the crew that put this race on. It was a good challenge but never felt impossible. It was also great to see the volunteers at the CPs and TAs and of course the food, drinks, and encouragement were much appreciated. I'd also like to thank my team. I really enjoyed racing with you and appreciated wanting to push it a bit but not getting too worked up when things didn't go so well or we weren't going very fast. In addition all of the other racers were fun to see out on the course and to talk about things afterwards.
Here are a few external links. I don't know how long they will remain viable or if you need to log in or join the group to see them.
Bend Adventure Racing facebook page