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April 19, 2006
Cal Eco #1 Auburn
Dirty Avocados finish 9th in Auburn Cal Eco Adventure
This past weekend, the Dirty Avocados raced in the first event in thisyear's Cal Eco Adventure Series, put on in Auburn, California by California Sports Marketing. Despite incredible amounts of rain both before and after the race, the weather held to make for a perfect racing weekend.
Auburn's location above the American River canyon and its trails connecting the surrounding areas make it a fantastic, challenging location for an adventure race. It seems as though every trail begins or ends at the top of a massive climb, and this year's course exploited that fact for incredible views and thigh-burning ascents.
The Dirty Avocados turned out in snazzy new jerseys for the midday start at Granite Beach in the Folsom State Recreation Area, ready for the challenges of the first race put on by Dan Barger in a couple years. During the pre-race briefing, Dan made it clear that the race would be a real challenge, but would reward participants with incredible views and real adventure among the hills and canyons of the American River.
The race began with a short orienteering section, in which teams could choose to get any two of four checkpoints set in the Granite Beach area of Folsom SRA. There followed a short paddle across the west arm of Folsom Lake, another short navigation section in the Peninsula Campground, and then a longer paddle up the North Fork of Folsom Lake. Due to the recent rains, the North Fork was full of logs and branches.
Following a quick transition out of the boats, the race continued up the Pioneer Express Trail to Auburn, where teams had the choice to continue on foot or take their mountain bikes. The downside of taking bikes was a restriction on riding some portions of the trails up out of the Confluence area heading up to Cool. Despite this restriction, most teams elected to take bikes, and push them up that long climb out of the canyon.
Once on top, the race progressed into a challenging navigation section, sort of orienteering in an adventure racing style. Checkpoints spread all over the Olmstead Loop area ensured that every racer got to see the region around Cool in detail.
Following the navigation section, the race transitioned back to running, along the Western States trail, down to the Middle Fork of the American River, and back to the Confluence area. A quick mountain bike ride up and around a portion of Auburn SRA, and then back to foot travel for the final few miles climbing up the Western States trail to the finish in Auburn.
The Dirty Avocados fielded two 4-person coed teams in this event. The Pits (Brian Schmitz, Will Gilmore, Jennifer Stilwell, Kent Hoxsey) and The Skins (Adam Armijo, Craig Leidholm, Linda McLean, Donato Polignone). The Dirty Avocados would like to thank CSM Events and all the volunteers for putting on a great race, and look forward to the next installment in the Cal Eco Series at Kernville.
Posted by kent at April 19, 2006 03:48 PM
