Rattlesnake Lake to Lake Washington through the Issaquah Alps

Rattlesnake Lake to Lake Washington via Rattlesnake Ridge, Tiger Mountain, Squak Mountain, and Cougar Mountain. March 6, 2010

7,300 ft elevation gain and 8,500 ft of elevation drop. 38.5 miles. 11.5 hours. See below for route description. Maps below that

I could not keep up with Peteris, Christi or Gena going up Cougar Mountain. My energy levels were marginal, and my left knee was not bending fully. When I walked, my energy levels rose and my knee felt better, but every time I tried to run, no matter how slow, aching pain expanded through the knee joint. We had been on our route for 9 hours, and despite passing hikers along the ascending trail, I was cursing my fitness level while wondering if I could/should get to our goal. Psychologically, it is very tough to think of holding the others back, and not finishing. The negative thoughts permeated through my body causing even greater drops in energy. How can I get through the next 8 miles?

These outings start with an idea. Sitting in the comfort of my reading chair, running a pleasant trail or during a moment of quiet there is a flash of inspiration: "it would be classic, possibly epic". Whatever the outing, I only need to look as far as my adventure racing teammates (Peteris and Christi from Team Verve) to find enthusiastic companions. In reality, Rattlesnake Lake to Lake Washington is not as far, or as much elevation change, compared to many other things I have already done. The route seemed like good early-season training. Unfortunately, having two sequential injuries, first a broken rib and then a dislocated thumb, put the physical demands/physical fitness ratio up two notches.

Team Verve, with the late edition of Gena, started as dawn brightened on Rattlesnake Lake. Our first stop was for photos at sunrise at the edge of a precipice overlooking the valley.
Two hours later, Peteris was remarking about the blood on my legs from Blackberries, Devil's club, and other thorny bushes that slashed bare flesh. We had taken a "short cut" to the power line trail on the north side of Rattlesnake Ridge. Despite the old trail sign that was driven into the ground at the end of an abandoned logging road, there wasn't a trace of any path through the thick brush. With an attitude that befits adventure racers, and other stubborn types, we just followed the terrain, looking for weakness in the thorny barriers.

Sorry for jumping ahead in quantum leaps. The trend these days is to keep stories short.

"Can I help you?" "This is all private land" "Didn't you see the no trespassing signs?" said the elderly man from the pickup truck.

Oops! Bad navigation choice. Maybe we should be on the OTHER side of the river.

Further down the road, on Tiger Mountain.It wouldn't be an adventure run if we didn't make some off-trail route choices. Ferns, big trees and yellow Douglas violets were close up and personal when we stepped off roads. The old growth forest floor was easy to wander through. One off-trail choice started and finished on an unmarked, unmapped trail. I always said that when you take an intuitive route, it has probably been used many times before. Christi and Peteris are accustomed to my penchant for wandering. Gena, new to the group, was an accomplished adventure racer, climber and mountain runner who just naturally followed any route put in front of him.

Trying to keep up to the group coming down from West Tiger 3 was hard work. Going up Squak hurt. Coming down the other side of Squak hurt more.

"That's Scott" Christi shouted.

A random single-engine plane flew overhead.

Scott, Christi’s husband had promised to fly his light plane over our route as a sign of support for his wife and our group's outing. On this beautiful spring day, there were as many single engine planes flying over us as there were boats on Lake Washington I'm sure. Christi was sure that one of those planes was Scott's, and it was very cool to think he was up in the sky above us, enjoying the view far beyond what we could see.

Gena motored up the Cougar Wilderness Cliffs Trail, and I got dropped from the pack. On top of Cougar Mountain, I told the others to go ahead without me. I telephoned Lisa to pick me up at Redtown parking lot, 6 miles short of our original goal. This seemed like the end of a tough but fun day.

But I didn't want to quit. Telling the others to go ahead was the best thing for me. I just settled in to a slow, knee-saving rhythm. The micromiles just ticked away. The miles down Coal Creek were very long miles that day, but I kept telling myself to enjoy the mulch covered trail as it paralleled the creek, threading through residential areas towards the lake. I had run the trail before when I was fresh, and it went by in a flash compared to this day.

I re-phoned Lisa to pick me up at Newcastle Beach on Lake Washington.

The last 400 meters was along the paved bike path, where I felt a little out-of-place and grubby compared with families strolling along in the afternoon sun.

A happy reunion with teammates, a picture, and we were done.

Route description
We started at Rattlesnake Lake off highway I-90, exit 32. The sign says Ironhorse trail. Go south on 436 avenue which becomes Cedar Falls. The gate closes at dusk so use the parking lot outside.

There are many other points of entry or exit to this route depending on your goals and needs. There are bailout points if necessary. Cell phone coverage is good. Most of the trail intersections are well signed but I would recommend the Green Trails maps.

Travel up past Rattlesnake Point, but make sure you stop at the viewpoints for photos. Continue along the Rattlesnake Ridge trail until the power lines on the northwest side. I would not recommend the unmaintained trail marked on the Green Trails map. It is truly unmaintained. Follow the power line southwest towards highway 18. Don’t be concerned about the loosing the short trail detour from the power line at a steep section. It is really tough to find. Just go to the left (south) into the old growth forest and bushwhack down.

Continue down the power line under highway 18 where you reach Raging River and cross at the logs. Follow the power line to Deep creek and cross on logs. Follow the power lines to forest road 1000 and go north.

Just north of Trout Hatchery creek where the road hooks to the northeast, we bushwhacked due east to Silent Swamp trail through old growth forest (no need to get into logged areas). Go north on road 5500 until Spring Fork Creek and then there is an old trail that goes to the second switchback of the Preston Railroad trail. Then East Tiger Trail to Upper Bootleg trail followed by West Tiger 1,2 and 3. Getting tired yet. Steeply descend Section trail to High School trail (where we had a water cache). On a hot day, you would want to have water earlier. Turn left at the berm and left at the parking lot.

Cross at the light and go left (South) to the Sycamore residential area and turn into it. Follow Sycamore Drive and Hillside drive upwards. Look for the trail on the right. Follow Sycamore entry trail towards Central Pk. of Squak. There is a short right-left on Phil’s trail, and a short right on the road to the peak (ugly view). Continue past the towers and you will see a trail to the right. Take this portion of the Central Peak trail to the West Connector trail and down to highway 900.

Squak Connector trail - Cougar Wilderness Cliffs to Wilderness Peak - Wilderness peak trail to Shy Bear Trail - Fred’s Railroad trail - Quarry trail - Coal Creek Falls trail - Cave Hole trail – Red Town Trail

At Red Town Parking Lot, cross the highway to Coal Creek Trail. Parallel Coal Creek for the 2.3 miles to the trailhead parking lot. At Coal Creek Parkway go right up the road for about 0.25 miles. Cross at the light then get on the next trail. Follow the trail down to the I-405. Go right to the light and cross the road so that you go under the I-405. Turn onto the bike pathway, go right for about ¼ mile. You will see Newcastle Beach Park on the right. Put your feet into the water of Lake Washington.

Mt Tiger training

Michael Turk joined me and Christi for an optimistic training. Optimistic - since in the 20k straight line route, the first 3 were covered with a speed of 1km/h.
Two maps follow: one is plain with the route set, the other has black regions, so that you have to take a bearing and follow through.
For the maps: I added some trails and newer roads, but there are still some more. CP2 - there is a new road there. The same about CP4. From CP4 to CP5 - there is a new road which we mistook for the trail in the map. Good training. There are small ribbons on CPs 1-4. CP5 - there is no distinct top.

We went to CP5 and then followed the MTB trails to the top and then ran down. Took around 4:30 in total.

US Adventure Racing National Finals – October 23 - 24, 2009

Pilot Point, Texas

Transcript of the Team Verve

Post-race Interview

Interviewer: This is Doug Long of radio KVRV with a special report with Team Verve at Lantana Lodge.

Interviewer: 25 hours and 31 minutes; 16th place overall out of 67 starting teams; Congratulations on the US National Finals this weekend. That's a long time to race in a very competitive field. The first thing that must come to most people's mind is why do you do these races? Have you ever considered that golf is only 4 hours?

Christi: Why does one do races like this? Well, probably for the same reasons people golf - challenge, to see if you "can", to be outdoors with good people, to have fun, and to try to get better than you were last time.

Peteris: It’s trying to answer the question - how far can I go? Then, how fast can I go far.

Murray: All of those, but also, these races give a whole different perspective on being outdoors, especially at night.


Interviewer: Tell us about the course. What were the highlights for you?

Christi: My favorite highlight during the race was singing "help" with Peteris while we were paddling. It was hard to steer our boat and Murray was working his ass off not only to keep us going straight, but he was also working hard at coaching both me and Peteris. He finally just started asking for "help" with steering, which made me want to sing the classic Beatles song. Peteris sang with me. It was great.

Peteris: There was an old country road somewhat similar to those rails to trails trails, just a bit worse. We rode our bikes during the night at a great speed with very low lights. Awesome!

Then, another time, just before dawn, we came to the checkpoint which was in water - that one was pretty cool as well. I would even say cold and wet.

Murray: I agree. The course was not very pretty, but the mud and high water gave an extra sense of being extreme that we enjoy. I was disappointed they had to shorten the course because of the flooding. That is what made this course so interesting.

Interviewer: Were there times when you thought you might not finish, or where you were struggling?

Murray: I think the word “struggle” is a good one. But I don’t ever think there was a time we weren’t confident that we would get through. In the canoe, there were 30 mph gusts coming at us from the side. It was a struggle, but I was more concerned about our forward speed compared to whether we could do it. We were so focused on time that Christi even told me I shouldn’t be filling up my water bottle. This race, I drank less than half of what I normally would for a race

Christi: We had lots of equipment problems. The first was when Peteris could not find his bike shoes, but he can talk about that. The next time was when my headlamp went out and billowed smoke. The other time was when my bike chain would not go around the sprocket without catching due to the level of mud that had built up on the derailleur and brakes. I was pretty sure equipment was going to be our downfall in this race. But then, Peteris pulled two extra headlamps out of his pack - awesome.

We also had a hard time with three-inch long thorns, briars and other "sharps" piercing our skin and clothes. At one point Murray had to stop and pull a spike out of his foot. He wanted us to see why we were waiting and flashed the thorn in his hand covered in blood.

The final struggle was when we had to get a point on an "earthen dam" that was under water. Wading up to our knees was ok, but when I slipped into chest high water, I was sure I was going to freeze for the rest of the race … and I did. Although, I guess for Peteris this is what he called a highlight.

Peteris: Hey, we also lost our clue sheet. So sometimes we did not know the exact rules. With regards shoes - it is both good and bad - I put my shoes somewhere near my bike before the first bushwhacking session. Once we come back, they are gone. The first word was of four letters from me, then Murray says: "Peter!" and I start apologizing. We look around, but the shoes are gone. So what can I do - let's just ride with my running shoes as in the old days back in Latvia. Although then I did not have SPDs. I question some teams if they want to sell me their shoes, but there are no volunteers. At start/finish TA we figure out the shoes have been found, but I still never got them during the race. After the race I got the Dave Boyd award for good spirit shown. I guess I did not express my emotions too loud then. And I got a Merrell shoe gift card.

Interviewer: As a team, when were you really competitive with the best?

Peteris: I think we were pretty good. All we were missing was some experience. The rest - we were as good as the third place team.

Christi: Our team continues to improve, but this was not our best race. We made mistakes that moved us down the pack, but we ended up doing ok.

Murray: Our fitness and stamina are excellent, especially Christi. I would say she is the real backbone of the team. Typically, I start breaking down in the middle of a race, and she pushes my pace. Also, when Peteris is navigating well, it’s like magic. The checkpoint just appears directly in front of us.

Interviewer: You were in 6th place at one point, then dropped to 16th. What happened?

Christi: We had some navigation difficulties that moved us down. Every time we spent time off route, we knew we were moving down the finishing places. There were lots of good teams, and the times were close. Every minute counted in this race. More than we are used to.

Peteris: I'm blaming lack of sleep in the nights before.

Murray: The course was very flat, so there were very few landmarks to use for navigation compared to what we practiced on. I think we needed to change our strategy out there, but that is difficult in a race.

Interviewer: Any really dramatic moments out on the course?

Murray: Well, I liked the time I was riding down a muddy slope and I turned my head to warn Christi and Peteris about a washout in the road. I turned around to shout, and my wheel dropped right into it. So I went over my handle bars. You can only laugh about that sort of things.

Christi: Only a few that will remain "off the record"

Interviewer: What's next for Team Verve?

Peteris: Offseason! Beer belly growing. Also, planning the next season. I'm thinking of increasing the team size to around 6 people, but that is still under a question.

Murray: Yeah, it is the offseason and time for some less intense stuff, but I need to get in shape to keep up with these guys. We also need to work on our technical skills, ironing out some of the minutes and seconds that push us down in the rankings.

Christi: I am off to Peru for a vacation that includes climbing three peaks over 18000 feet and a mountain biking trip to Macchu Picchu. I will think about what to do about racing next year while I am there.

Interviewer: Thanks for speaking with us and congratulations again. Back to you Bob

Bob: Thanks, Doug. Now back to music with Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony.

Big Tahoma Rogaine

This was my first Rogaine. None of my friends have a clue what a rogaine is. They all think it somehow relates to men's hair tonic. My understanding of a rogaine is that you run around finding checkpoints that are all worth a different number of points. The goal is to grab as many points as possible in the allotted time. We had 24 hours and our ultimate goal was to get them all.

Of course, this goal came after we stated our original goal of "training for nationals" without injuring Peteris' knee further. We spent a great deal of our conversation during the race on Peteris' knee. It hurt him the entire 24 hours with a few exceptions. We walked much of the route because of this. By the time we were 6 hours into the race, I was pretty sure we would not get all the points we were hoping for, and I felt fine about that. We have an obligation to keep Peteris healthy.

Usually I am the first one to opt to go back to camp and sleep. This race was different. Toward the end of the race, probably the last 3 hours of the 24 hours, I felt more determined than ever to go past the hash house and get the two points we opted to skip on our way out.

Mari and Kyle "Militant Hippies" were racing beside us the final 6 or so check points. They are definitely faster than we are and I was convinced they had more points than we did. It's funny how I always assume we are the losers in these situations. We have only been racing together one year, and I have only been in 3 other 24 hour races. A novice at best.

Peteris was SO in his element. His micro navigation blows my F______ mind. How can anyone see that much detail in a squiggly line? I get the macro navigation, but once we leave the main road or trail and head to the micro area, I am useless. This is the first race that I have carried a map the entire time. It was great to be actively helping with the navigation, but I do have a lot to learn. I hope Peteris will continue to teach me, as he is amazing and is certainly why we were able to get all of the check points.

Our first bushwack was up to the Hut. We cut up a ridge that was easy traveling. We were pretty psyched that the off-trail travel was so easy and clear. We cruised straight up to the hut with no trouble at all. Hooray! Bushwacks were going to be the way to win the race - and sure enough they were. Our team is pretty fond of bushwacking and Murray is always happiest when we are off trail. This worked to our advantage for sure.

We did spend a lot of time on logging roads during the race. It would seem this was the "easy" part of the race. We were thankful for the off-trail travel. It made the race much more exciting. Our bushwack up to CP 64 was amazing. We went up one ridge which led to another ridge. We spread out along the final ridge so we were sure to see the welcoming reflective tape on the CP. Peteris told us when he thought we were close, and sure enough - we walked straight to the point. I spotted it first (which I find exciting) and was super surprised at how easily we arrived at our destination.

After CP64 we "waded" through soaking wet huckleberry bushes. We were shortly soaked and were out in the wind. This ended up being the coldest part of the race. I was hording my warm clothes for the "middle of the night", so didn't put them on because I was sure it would be colder yet. I was wrong. I did break out my hand warmers and we passed them between us. Murray had fig bars and date bars that he shared. They were so delicious and made us feel warmer. We kept moving, eventually got out of the wind, dried out, and didn't get that cold again.

We went on to many, many more check points before being slowed down at number 40, which we never found. We targeted it from three directions and finally gave up (in agreement) and moved on. In hindsight, we probably should not have doubted our location as much as we did, because Eric had put the point on the wrong place on the map. It was his error, not ours.

About 3am Murray started to slow down. He was hurting. I knew he would spring back, as he always does; I just was not sure when. We talked him into giving his pack to Peteris - and Peteris dropped his pack. Murray's Fig Newtons were weighing him down a bit, so I ate three to help lighten the load. The least I could do. We had one more 100 point CP, next to another 50 pointer to get and we really needed it to finish strong. Peteris made the trek quick and painless and when the 50 pointer was easier than it looked on the map, Murray came back to life.

Now, all we had to do was get through the last 15k and then the 2 CP's past the finish line. We were lucky to run back into Militant Hippies at this point. They seemed to be "racing" against us. Being the fiercely competitive spirits that we are, their presence breathed new energy into us and we ran almost all of the final 15k back to the hash house. I kept thinking in my brain "I don't think I can run any more" but then I would think "yes, I can, it's only 3 (2, 1) more hours and we have already done 20 (21, 22, 23)" and then I would just keep on moving.
We finally lost the Militant Hippies. I couldn't believe how good it felt to actually pass by the Hash House (finish line) to get our last two check points. We walked the steep hills with plenty of time to spare before the 24 hour deadline. We chatted away about our training plans for the rest of October leading to finals. Peteris promised not to run too much and I promised to train on paddling once my wrist feels better. Murray just stated that he was going to continue his program as usual. We talked about where we want to finish in Nationals in order to feel good. I am glad we are not putting too much pressure.

We walked back to the hash house and turned in our passport. Eric told us he was surprised we finished all of the points and then told us we were the only team to do so. What a great feeling.


The Stats: 97km or 58.2 miles, 15000 feet elevation gain, 23.50 hours.
See the route

Big Tahoma

Team Verve @ Big Tahoma - Christi Masi, Murray Maitland, Peteris Ledins
Report by Peteris Ledins

In short - we did great! And now the details.

Route planning gave us 85 km which increased to 95 during the race. I had planned some 2 more bushwacking sessions we opted out of (see km 61 to 64km and also 47.5 to around 52), but any way the global estimate of 95 and then measuring 97 on a digital map is a very good result.
The increase from 85 to 95 was mostly caused by very short planning time of less than an hour. The backwards measuring of distance was created with numbers like this: 10, 20, 30.., 80, 90, 90, ... 120, 120, 130.... 160 - together 80 km + 4km of appendix at the end. (Once you figure out the route, you try to measure distances from different points in the route. This way you always know how much is left and whether you have to cut something short and how much. I was using 20cm unit string to measure distance of our route, so 10 is actually 20cm, or 5km at the 25k:1 scale. Double counting is bad.) Christi and Murray made fun of my numbers during the route: "It was already half half an hour ago," etc.
Opponents - 3 teams stronger than the rest - Maxim and Gena (M&G) all male team and then two co-ed teams, one being Militant Hippies, including Mari Chandler and Kyle Peter; the other one had O' Team Canada member Louise Oram. I was mostly concerned about Kyle and Mari, especially when I saw how fast M&G left the hash house after the start, I did not have illusions for catching them. After all - training race, painful knee (I took 800 mg of vitamin-I at 8 and then at 16 hours).
How did we do? Christi was as strong as usual, never tired during all race. I and Murray had our weaker spots. I had trouble around 8th hour when I tried to figure out whether to give up and save my knee or eat some ibuprofen and continue. I did not navigate for a while and we managed to make some small error, which did not cost too much as our plan was to go further and then come back, so we got a second try for the CP. Sometime later I was also floating a bit. I had regular weak cramps, but I guess it was good for navigating. Murray seemed to suffer close to the end of the race, but the very last run up the hill was perfect for him. We beat all hour estimates.
Our route, highlights (see map to follow the kilometers) - from km 5 up, CP20 to 68 - a lucky bushwack, steep, but good - some 18 minutes. CP30 to CP52 (from km 14), misery bushwack. G&M had taken the small creek bed at once. I took it for the last 100 meters; Murray and Christi went all the way on the side of the creek. Christi fell on some slippery branches hitting her shoulder on a stump really bad. Thankfully now she says that her feet hurt and that's about it. We bushwacked to 54 and back from it (km 17), very nice and open forest there.
Km 26-27, around the Yurt - getting colder. When running away from the Yurt, freezing. But found a money clip - full of credit cards etc. Turns out it belonged to a fellow racer Cliff whom I talked to after the race. I remembered about the credit cards when I was driving home.The best bushwack was the first one during the night - to CP 64, km 46-47. Very precise up to CP. Then getting wet in the huckleberries and freezing on top of the mountain.We wasted an hour on 40 (the only CP misplaced), did not find it and went for the next.Starting from Water 1 (around km 71) we were feeling short on time. Started to be aggressive on our routes. No mistakes except a bit of bad bad bushwacking where forest was trying to turn us back around 47: we could not find the trail for a while. After taking it we went back to road. Once we got to 59 we had ~3 hours 30 to go and a bit more then 15k left, so we ran a lot (at that time it is a lot). The last interesting bushwack - around km 90 down to road. We clearly did it a fast manner.
How did our opponents do? We saw lots of Militant Hippies - first time around CP27/36/54 and then every two hours or so. Our general direction was very the same with them, but some choices were very different - when we first met them I could not figure out what they were doing. It seemed that they were going for 52, but then came back for 27. However, they did not seem to go for 54, so I assumed they had taken it. The next big route difference was getting up to 64/51. They chose to go around - 31/39/50, while we did 49/31/56 then up to 64 by bushwacking. I believe we beat them on this choice - they were moving faster on this choice, but somehow after all of it we came out almost together to Water 1. They earned an hour on our playing around 40 which they chose not to even try. For 47 - they passed it at first and then came back after doing the NW loop. I saw them coming out of the small road leading to 47. From then we felt like it was a battle between us and them. We believed they had taken already everything but what was yet to be taken by us; we convinced to run just because of the possible tie. 28, they catch us. 34, we take almost together. We choose to bushwack, they go around. 57, we think we are in front, we don't see them. 24 - we see them 300 meters behind. We push. I ask Murray, what happens if you sprint for the finish after 23 hours of activity? We get to hash house in good time. And we still have some left to take 26 and 46. We take it, we come back. And turns out - we are the only team with all CPs.
Other opponents - we saw two veteran guys who were very optimizing their weight - they dropped their packs on each out and back CP. Robin and Cliff looked rather fast in the company of some Darci who was a first time rogainer. I also enjoyed seeing some clearly non-competitive teams - having their picnics or just fun in the woods. M&G had trouble with some of CPs and did not do too well after all.
Funny episode - when seeing Militant Hippies I always made some comments on their route choice or running style with the exception being after CP40 - when we are coming out of it and they are running by, asking "how was 40?" Rogaining rules say you are not supposed to spread such information and especially in this situation I had no intention of saying anything, so I replied with "OK".
Thanks - they go to Eric Bone for setting up a rogaining in Washington; Seattle Running Company and all other sponsors of the race.
BTW - venue was very impressive especially when the clouds went away - RAINIER is FANTASTIC.
Useful information - results will be here. Christi already wrote about her experiences here.

Tell me who are your friends and I'll tell you who are you

This is a pretty awesome news feed from my facebook friends, right after Trioba.

Trioba 24+ hour race report

Trioba 24+ Hour Adventure Race, Northwest of Plain Washington
Team Verve
Featuring Peteris Ledins, Captain and Navigator
Christi Masi, Ian Hoag and Murray Maitland

The race awards were only an hour ago, and the drive home was already feeling very long. Dust from the trails was irritating my eyes, but I didn't want to close them longer than a blink. The fingers of my hand slapped across my 2-day old bristles that cover my face. A stinging, tingle spreads out and then stimulates a minor adrenalin rush that in turn, causes my brain neurons to fire a little quicker. Singing loudly works better to keep me awake, but there isn't anything but advertisements and slow ballads on the radio. Despite the fact that they call the 27-hour effort that I had finished an "Adventure Race", driving is by far more dangerous. I ponder whether I should stop and have a quick nap, but instead I stop in Sultan and eat four McDonald's Hamburgers.

Thinking back, there are so many brain-memory stored images about the last two days, it is hard to keep them from leaping to the surface. The last leg of the race on mountain bikes alone was 30 miles with 4000ft of descent. Who knows how many feet of uphill we did. That leg, if considered by itself, was grueling. Not to mention the other 3 legs of the race. Swollen tendons on my right hand, an aching left knee, and a vague all-encompassing fatigue are minor short-lived, physical souvenirs of the effort, but the mental images are much more important and longer lived. Since nobody on our team brought a camera, let me use words to describe what these mental images, filled with colorful scenery, people and emotions, look and feel like.

The race director, Glenn Rogers, had added many nice touches to the race. A racer could see these through the entire event. For example, instead of disposable plastic bags we received our pre-race stuff in reusable, Fred Meyer bags. However, fate gave a twist to the race that I don't think Glenn expected.

The race started at midnight, which for those unaccustomed to adventure racing might seem a little odd. For me, all I wanted to do was start the race, so midnight was perfect. All week long, leading up to the race I had a mild cold. My normal activities had been huge efforts. I wanted to shake off the cobwebs, and get into race mode. Sleeping the night before a race is never very easy anyway, so we may as well be out enjoying the night.

After a short cycle to Wenatchee Lake, we carried and dragged our heavy, plastic, two-person kayaks to the boat ramp and started paddling. Immediately, I got into the rhythm following Peteris’ lead. The race director made a good choice to have us paddle at night. The lake was absolutely calm and quiet except for the other teams. Overhead the stars were brilliant. It seemed like we were out in the wilderness despite the homes along the shore. None of the teams had good boats, so it was a level playing field with our tubs, and despite our mediocre style, we soon overtook teams, one by one until we were in the lead. Not for long, but enough to hope for good things to come.

The first major climb on the mountain bikes was about 3000ft into the Cougar Mountain area. The first two thirds went by quickly, partly because of the spectacular sunrise. Golden clouds were surrounded by deep and lighter blue colors. I have never seen anything like it. After 35+ years of being in the outdoors, how many more new things will I see, and in my own back yard too.

Christi rode her mountain bike close to the back of my mountain bike and reached to grab a loop suspended from a retractable dog leash that was taped under my bike seat. She hooked the loop over the middle of her handle bars. It was my turn to help her a little. Five-minutes each. It was only a small amount of extra weight, but the effect was important. All of us were working just as hard as the others. Together, working as a team, we were more efficient. As we went over a bump, the towing line broke. A quick fix and we go again. Eventually, the wide gravel and dirt road became a single lane trail. At that point, towing was out of the question, but Christi kept up the pace.

The hill started to take a toll on my left knee, then my hands. Time became meaningless to me. I just keep going. I’m sure the race results will have our splits that people will analyze. Whether the hill took two hours or four, who knows? I just tried to keep on the fine line between efficiently moving forward and over-extending myself.

Little errors started to show up when we start to get tired. Ian forgot his helmet at a checkpoint, and had to go back for it. Since we are particularly worried about the race rules, we all go back to stay within the specified distance of each other.

The sun shone over the gold meadow as we switched from bike shoes to running shoes. Even though we were 40 minutes behind the two lead teams, there was huge optimism. The trekking-orienteer section is supposed to be our strongest discipline relative to the other teams. Volunteers cheer as we run off to catch the other teams. Unfortunately, we ran in the wrong direction and faced the humbling moment of running back past the volunteers the other way.

Twelve hours into the race, and the top three, four-person teams were within a few minutes of each other. A little while later, on a long descent off a ridge, and we saw the first place, four-person team, “Checkpoint Zero” right ahead of us. At 4:15 pm, 16 hours into the race, as we put back on our bike shoes, they were only 3 minutes ahead. Then the race got tough.

At first, the mountain bike single track along the Mad River Trail was exactly what the race organizers advertised. It was phenomenal! Spectacular color and scenery surrounded a perfectly groomed and packed trail. But then, as the sun set, we pushed our bikes uphill. The kilometers/hour seemed to grind to a halt. Estimating the arrival time at the next checkpoint became so depressing that I just turned my odometer off. Off course, you always reach the crest, and ride the downhill and get to the next checkpoint. But we had lost valuable time compared with Checkpoint zero.

The last section of the race, from checkpoint 19 through 29, became the crux of the race even though the race director had not planned it that way. Glenn had told us that it would be fast downhill with easy to spot checkpoints along the way. The truth was that the last section was nothing like that at all. We struggled with uphill after uphill. Maybe if our legs were fresh we might have ridden all of it, but after 24 hours, we walked uphill after uphill. Ian suffered and Peteris groaned. Christi helped to keep us going.

The checkpoints were very difficult to find. Navigation was made harder by the fast down hill sections where all Peteris could do was watch the trail not the map. To add to the difficulty, the maps were not all that accurate regarding the bends and turns. Just by luck, we found all of them until the last one. Then, we tried, and tried, but couldn’t find number 29.

How do you feel when you’ve been out for 26 hours and your position on the podium is decided not by time, but by the number of checkpoints that you find? Our capacity for clear decision making was impaired to say the least. Peteris and Christi argue while Ian and I tried to mediate. Actually, I think I chose Christi’s side. Finally, after going forward and backward on the trail we gave up, hoping that the checkpoint is actually missing for some reason. It is amazing how the high points and comical moments of the day are shattered by something like this. My favorite stunt of the day was showing how you didn’t need to stop, if you could hang really far back off your mountain bike when you needed to…. Oh… sorry, I forgot this is a family channel.

Three o’clock in the morning and we finished. Twenty-seven hours of racing, and I felt good. Walking out of the hall, there was nobody else around. The night was dark except for the stars as befitted a new moon. I picked my mountain bike up off the ground. “You know, I think we really bonded on this trip” I said to my bike “You did well out there.” I think I was getting a little punchy, since I really meant what I said.