Sleep deprivation, altitude, fresh air, competitive and adventurous spirit, along with great teammates and the high is better then any drug.  This was the Gold Rush Mother load, 2011.

The 2011 race was the only World Adventure Racing Championship in the United States and only 1 of 2 in North America.  The course was designed and put on by Adrian Craine and Mark Richardson along with a long list of out standing volunteers.  It was a trans-Sierra-Nevada crossing, starting in the Historic town of Bridgeport and ending in the equally Historic town of Columbia on the Western slopes near Sonora.  In between were 10,000 foot peaks, bush whacks, rocky climbs plus a great ropes course.

 Angle Garbarino and I had talked about doing this race last year but didn’t solidify a team till early this year.  And what a strong team.  First, Angel is super strong, has a great attitude and is a generally wonderful person.  We were very luck to pick up JD Eskelson.  He has had some great results in major races, has raced for years and this year did both Raid the North, Expedition Idaho and climbed Mount Witney the day before showing up to the race.  In other words, he’s a monster.  Our 3rd male was Garrett Bean, attacking his first expedition length race.  Strong on both the bike and run, he had a natural knack for the type of endurance that this type of event requires.

 We ran under the team name of the Breakouts.  Both Angel and Garrett are in their mid 20’s, and JD is in his late 40’s.  At 51, I was certainly the old man in the group and clearly the weakest link.  By many standards that made this a pretty good team.  However, going in, I was very concerned about my bothersome IT band and an achy knee.  My bike riding had been concerning and the heat often gives me trouble.  But I never drop out and get stronger as the race goes on.  At least that’s what I told everybody so they wouldn’t be too concerned with a slow start.

 We got through check in with out event and participated in the somewhat lame prolong.  We had to have one team mate run around a field, one ride a bike then all 3 had to carry a team mate the full circumference.  I was a bit fun, but totally established that we were at elevation by driving up the heart rate from normal to red line instantly.

 We got the maps and plotted the course.  There would be only 4 transition areas.  The lay out was as follows: A 1 mile run through Bridgeport, then a short 12 mile ride to Twin Lakes to take a 1K swim.  Then we would start on a 25 mile trek topping over a 10,000 foot peak.  This would lead to a 70 mile ride up and over the ridge of the Sierra Nevada’s.  After the bike would be a longer trek leading to a ropes course.  Up to this point all of the CP’s were mandatory.  After the ropes there would be numerous optional check point.  After completing the long trek (distance depending on the number of options the team got but would be between 28 and 60 miles) we had a long bike (40 to 100 miles) down to the Stanislaus River.  Once on the river there was a paddle with options and finish with a short bike ride to Columbia.  This type of course has long legs, requires good planning, sleeping on the trail and heavy packs.

 The race started at 8 am with a quick run around town to spread things a bit.  The run took us through a muddy boggy creek.  Then we jumped on the bikes and raced at over 20 mph to Twin Lakes.  The front of the group was bunched in a peloton with our team just a few minutes back.  We were riding so fast, I was just on the edge of redlining right away.  The 12 miles along with our transition into wetsuits took us under an hour and the swim including peeling off the wet suits took 47 minutes.  We started out on the trek as the day began to warm up.

 This is where the race really started - a 24+ mile trek.  First we had to climb several hundred feet up to a ridge to the first CP.  We moved steadily to the ridge then started running.  This is where I needed to step up my game.  I’m not a big fan of running anymore but to keep up with Garrett and JD, that was what I needed to do.  We ran to CP 3 then did a 180 and started working our way down the ridge toward CP 4.  We had a bit of trouble finding 4 just because we had not gone as far as we throughout we had (typical AR mistake).  The team just kept running and I did my best to keep up.  My real problem was that running aggravates my IT band and once that goes I’m in a world of hurt.  I would go as long as I could till I could feel the knee (where the pain manifests) start to come, then would back off to a fast trek till it would subside.  Once it loosened a bit, I could run again.  This was how it went for hours.

The first several miles were relatively flat with rolling hills.  We kept pushing and I struggled to keep up as the day got hotter.  Finally we turned to start up the trail towards the first major peak.  I was probably the only one who was glad to be climbing so I wouldn’t have to run. Up till now we had been moving north.  We turned west heading for Rickey Peak.  JD had me on tow and Garrett had Angel on tow.  We just kept grinding up.  By mid afternoon we reached the summit and learned that we were in 11th.  I think we were surprised that we were that far back given how hard we had pushed. 

 The downhill off of the peak almost broke me.  Rough downhill just kills my IT band and this was no exception.  I hobbled down and fortunately the grade was reduced for the remained of the decent.  That plus some strong vitamin I.  In any event we keep pushing, cutting cross county.  We caught Racing with Giants and another team and we just pushed down the hill heading to Highway 395.  Just before we got to the Highway we caught up to Perdidos.  We crossed the road, did the quick climb to CP 5 and the short jog to ACP1.  We got to our crew just as the sun was setting.  The trek took us about 9 hours and 34 mins.

 We had the greatest crew - Club 111.  Nikki and Scott were completely into helping us with great food, encouragement and support.  We ate better then any other team out there and everything was as ready as it could be.  At the after race party they won the best crew award - well deserved.

 Just as we arrived at the ACP (Assisted Check Point) team TMT was just leaving.  Perdidos had a quick transition and left about a 1/2 hour before us. Starting this 70 mile bike ride just after dark and after a 54 min TA I think we though it would be a long but fairly uneventful ride.  I didn’t appreciate that right out of the gate we would start climbing.  I was put on tow right away and pretty much stayed that way all night.  We pushed hard and moved steady north over a series of pretty steep climbs towards Little Antelope Valley.  Then we crossed 395 again and began back south ascending up Mill Canyon.  For a long way this was a good dirt road with a steady upward pitch.  I was successfully being towed along.  At one point JD took my pack while Garret towed me.  I was happy for the help but distressed that I was being such an anchor.  At some point along the way we hit an intersection and choose the road that headed more directly up the hill.  There were several sets of bike tracks so we felt good about this.    This road was not on the map but that is not unusual for these kinds of maps.  After climbing for a while the road ended and we found both Perdidos and TMT poundering where to go.  In the end we all wound up bike whacking in different directions.  We tried to contour along for a while until it became clear that that would take forever.  So we dropped down till we finally found the trail - a mostly ridable single track.  We followed that along, riding and pushing as necessary until we came out on to a double track.  We followed that double track for a while.  Just as it ended we heard voices.  We were sure that we were at the CP.  We started up what appeared to be a trail when we ran into team TMT coming down with a second team.  They said that they had been bush whacking around there and it didn’t go any where.  Even though we knew that the CP was above us we followed them back down to where we first got on the double track - down about 200 feet.

It was around 3 am at this point and it was clear that no one, including us knew where to go.  So we decided to lie down and sleep for an hour till sun rise.  We heard the other teams moving around for a little bit then I fell asleep.  At sun rise we woke and now we could triangulate off the surrounding mountains.  Now we were pretty sure where we were and headed back up the double track.  This time we found the small trail going off diagonally.  We pushed the bikes up the trail and it opened up  to a road with several port-a-potties.  Looking at the map, CP 8 was on a road and the clue was next to a port-a-pottie.   We knew the ones at the intersection were not right.  According to the map it would be about 500 meters from the intersection.  Close to that distance was another set of toilets.  Long story short, we were pretty certain that this was the right place even though the flag wasn’t there.  2 of the toilets had been knocked over so we figured the flag had been taken.  We searched around and then decided that we were right, took a picture and off we went.  After the race, I looked at the satellite and realized that we were on the opposite end of the meadow and that CP was not on a road at all.  We were faked out by the road on the map rather then relying on the more permanent features.

In any event, we continued on.  There was a ton more of climbing.  Up and over several 9200 foot passes.  It was quite unexpected as we hadn’t really gone over the maps that carefully and kind of expected that after CP 8 it was going to be mostly down hill.  It took us several hours of climbing up and over the numerous ridges before we finally hit Highway 108.  Another climb up to Sonora Pass then a bomber down hill for about 14 miles to the Danelle Resort to the 2nd ACP.

 We hit the ACP late morning.  Our crew was ready with good food and cold drinks.  We got our selves ready as fast as we could, got some foot care, packed up and took off.  It was after noon when we hit the trail, loaded down with climbing gear.

 The first part of the trek was hot and I was struggling with the heat.  We caught Racing with Giants within the first hour and trekked with them for a while.  We had to cross a couple of streams.  At one point they stopped and we continued on.  Shortly after that we caught up to team Mojo.  We were all heading for Eagle Peak a 10000 foot climb.  We had been warned not to go up the east side as it was all cliffs.  Again the map showed a trail that went around the south side of the mountain.  This trail wasn’t there.  We followed a trail as far as we could then went cross country toward the mountain.  JD found a saddle that we could get up and it took us very close to the peak.  We saved a great deal of time with this move.  We got to the summit around 6 pm and made good time to the next CP - 10. getting there before dark.  We were of good spirits and making good time at this point.  The next CP was the ropes.  We took a shortcut , cutting cross country as we headed towards the ropes course.  At this point we had to make a decision as to whether we sleep before or after the ropes course.  I urged that we sleep before so that we would be fresh for the climb and that after the climb we would be too pumped up.  Everyone agreed and about 20 minutes from the climb site we lay down.  We over slept by about 20 minutes but we were quickly up and heading to the cliffs.

When we got to the ropes we were told that 3 teams were currently on the course. The ropes course was both hard, scary and epic.  We started with a short low angle repel then continued down to the first jumar - about 100 feet of fairly technical ascending.   Then over to the first large repel - about 600 feet.  With it being pitch black I couldn’t see anything outside my head lamp - which wasn’t much.  It was rapping into the abyss.

After the first long repel we had to scrabble around the foot of the cliffs and find the red rope to jumar up.  This was a single rope for everyone.  At one point there were 7 of us on the rope at the same time.  The second jumar was about 500 feet (maybe more) of generally low angle climbing with several ledges that we had to negotiate.  It was hard work and slow going but we got to the top.  Then we had another 600 foot repel into the blackness with a nice overhang.  The second repel was much easier then the first as the rope fed much easier.  After the repel we had to scrabble back around the cliff then climb up to the CP.  The climb was a bit dicy and required some serious scrabbling.  At one point we needed to use the 30 feet of rope we were required to carry to get Angel passed a tricky ledge.  The whole ropes course took us 4 hours and 15 minutes and we finished just as the sun was coming up.

We made really good time down the mountain heading to Pinecrest Lake.  We were followed by a camera man and eventually outran him.  Once we got to CP 13 we were free to start hitting the optionals.  We decide that we would get 13A at the foot bridge.  Once we hit that, after some long discussion we decided that we would be more efficient getting optionals on the bike so headed straight to Strawberry and the 3rd ACP.

 When we got to Strawberry we were pleasantly surprised by several things.  Only 4 teams were ahead of us and all of the teams had only gotten 13A and no other optionals.  We also surprised our crew by coming in so early in the morning.  They weren’t completely ready but got food and gear ready in no time.  While we were prepping and going over the maps for the next leg Perdido came in.  It was clear they were disappointed to see us already in the TA and getting ready to leave..

 With over 24 hours left in the race we wanted to try to clear the bike course.  The ride started with a quick peddle to CP 15 which was the start of a cool single track section which would lead to the flume trail.  I have ridden this section before so took the lead.  I was feeling better then I had the entire race and rode the section with some urgency.  We got some good video.  Then on to the flume with the numerous sections of walking over the flume itself, which Angel didn’t like very much.  This took us to CP 16 which was at a PG&E substation. From there we went to CP 16E - an out and back climb up to a communications site.  We came back down and then dropped down almost all the way to Beardsley Lake. Picked up CP 16F and started the ride back up.  About 1/2 way up it began to rain.  Then it rained hard with thunder and lighting.  By the time we got back to the PG&E station it was coming down pretty hard.  We sought shelter in their  “house”, and put on some rain gear.  About this time TMT came by.  They were soaked and didn’t look too happy.

 As the rain let up we headed to CP16D finding that without too much trouble.  Then on to CP 16G which was on a small peak.  We got there just as it was getting dark.  We were moving well, I was ridding strong and we were very encouraged with the time we were making.  We headed down the hill heading to CP 16B, which was on the rail road grade.  According to the map, there was a trail that would get us across the South Fork of the Stanslaus River.  We didn’t find that.  We wound up going across some locals land, and then wading the bikes across the stream.  We had taken our shoes off and the crossing was very painful on our extremely tender feet.  We were told that on the other side was an old trail.  Where we came out it wasn’t much of a trail and I was pretty concerned but within 50 meters it opened up and we were on our way.  A couple of quick misdirection’s and finally we were on the grade and riding.  I had expected it to climb more but it was just a steady low angle grade.  It seemed to go on for ever and we were really getting tired.  We road on and on and finally found the CP in a washout.  We took a 20 minute nap and then back on the bikes to grab the last optional CP 16A.  (CP 16C had been removed by the race management.)

 We were going to attack CP 16A from above and bushwhack down to it.  We got to the right place and spent and hour looking for it in the dark.  Finally, discouraged we had to move on.  Long story short, the CP was misplaced (The race management had marked it in two different locations on the master maps.) As a result most of the teams didn’t find it.  You would only find it if you rode the length of the rail road grade.

 From the CP 16A location it was a long ride to CP 17 through a maze of old dirt roads.  I wasn’t navigating so I’m not really sure how we got there but we wound up in a location called Star Ridge and Jupiter.  According to the map you could get through but it was now all private property and closed off.  We were with another team at this point and we got re-routed  through Italian Bar which required another big climb.  I remember I had to really work hard to stay up with the group or I would have been left behind.  We continued on for a while till it became necessary to stop and sleep again.  JD especially was asleep at the wheel but we were all fighting sleep monsters.  I was very concerned at this point that we would not make the 2 pm final cut off but we had to stop or someone would have gotten hurt. 

 We over slept a bit but around 5 am we were back on the bikes and moving forward.  One last long climb out of Rose Creek and we got to CP 17 just as the sun was coming up.  There were Pepsi’s and pizza.  This really lifted our spirits and the caffeine really helped.  From CP 17 there was still some climbing to do, especially out of Knight Creek but we rode and pushed and just keep moving.  Finally we were at the last high point and had a long, windy ride down to the Stanislaus River.  Angel’s and JD’s brakes were pretty shot so we had to take it easy but by 7:30 - 8 am or so we were in our TA and getting ready for the last push.  At this point I was certain that we would make the cut off.  The only question was whether we could get an optional on the paddle.  After looking at the maps we figured it would take an additional 2 hours to get a single optional and that would be cutting it too close so we opted to go directly to CP 19 then the finish.  We had a great plate of pasta for breakfast then jumped in the boats.  The paddle was uneventful.  We passed one team and at the take out was TMT and DART.  We carried our boats up the ramp, jumped on the bikes and started the short, but up hill ride to Columbia.  The ride (about 5 miles) took us about 40 or so minutes.  We dropped the bike, had to do a run around the town and crossed the finish line at 11:40am.  We had cleared the bike , got the same amount of optionals on the trek and the lead teams.  Only three (3) other teams cleared the bike course and got optionals on the kayak.  We finished ahead of Pordido on time.

Now the politics began.  If we got credit for CP 8 we were in 4th.  If not, we had missed a mandatory and would be moved back to 10th.  Not withstanding my best arguments we were not given credit for CP 8, but were for CP 16A.  So officially we were 10th.  I was very disappointed in that but over time came to realize that we did miss the CP - apparently everyone else found it.  The important thing was that we put in a great effort, had a great time and really worked well as a team.

 I have never been pushed so hard and had so much fun in the process.  Every race has it’s memories but this is certainly one of my favorites.

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