The Dirty Avocados sent a strong team to the Big Blue 24 hour race on August 1^st.  Angel Garbarino, Brian Schmitz and Mike Chastaine made up the threesome with high hopes of getting on the podium.  There was a very good field present including ARnav, True Grit as well as several strong two man teams.

                We got the maps about an hour before the start and saw that the race was a series of checkpoints which we would bike and trek too.  There would not be a separate bike and run section.  Virtually every CP was on a mountain peak so there would be a lot of climbing.  The CP’s were spread out over a large area with no obvious route.   There was a “central” gear drop at Marlette lake.    In reality it was out of the way and not a place you wanted to go more than once. Given the almost unlimited route choices, I suspect that every team took a different route.

                The race started with a paddle across the lake.  We had a strong paddle in our triple kayak covering the distance in 3:15  – about 4 minutes behind ARnav and about 7 minutes ahead of Tim Kuenster and Kent Ryochuck.

                A quick transition to jump on the bike but plans changed.  We had planned on riding up to Spooner Lake along highway 28, get 2 CP’s on the way and then do the orienteering course.   The O course would not open till early afternoon so we figured we had time to get the CP’s and hit the O course in the daylight.  However the highway was closed due to some kind of damage so we had to reroute our plans on the fly.  We did get the first CP (15) on Highway 28, then back tracked to Tunnel Creek. We moved along at a good pace, climbing up tunnel creek and locating each CP after some trekking.   This race required a great deal of cross country navigating.   We would ride to the location we thought was the best access then change into running shoes and hoof it up the mountain to grab the check point.   We got 3 (7200 feet) then 4 (about 8700 feet).  We accessed 6 (8300 feet) off of the Flume Trail.  We jumped off the trail and climbed 600 feet straight up to the peak, then right back down.

                Around early afternoon I was running out of water.  We needed to get our lights for the evening and to get more food to carry us  through the night.  This required that we go to the gear drop which dictated our route a bit and the reason we were on the Flume trail.  We got our stuff and headed off.  We were checking off the CP’s quickly and felt like we were in good shape. 

                After the gear drop we climbed up to Marlette Peak and to CP5 (8600 feet).  We missed the intersection but got a bit of help from Kent and Tim.  At this point I knew we were in pretty good shape and had a shot at getting all the CP’s.

                After 5 we dropped down from Herlan Peak and ran into True Grit.  CP 7 looked like it could be accessed from the trail that we were on but they were having a terrible time finding it and had given up.  Given that information, it looked like it would be easier to access from below, so we continued down the hill, found the reentrant and headed up.  At this location was Tirobe who had just gotten the CP.  True Grit followed us up and we got the CP with little trouble.  From here, it was along the Red House flume trail to Red House for the only easy CP (8) on the whole course.

As we rode to Red House darkness fell.  We were feeling pretty good about things although I had been dragging going up some of the climbs.  At Red House we were still with True Grit.  The next two CP’s were 9 (7740) and 10 (8200) These CP’s were on opposite ends of a ridge so we parked the bikes in the middle and obtained both CP’s by running across the ridge.  True Grit picked a different route. As it was getting dark we could see that a storm was rolling in.  By the time we got back to the bike it was starting to rain a bit.  The rain got harder and the thunder and lightning came in.  For a while it was right on top of us and we sought shelter under a tree.   While we were sitting under the tree, True Grit rolled by heading for the next CP – 11 (8200 feet).  We were concerned about going up to the next summit and wanted to wait it out.  Fortunately, the storm passed through quickly and we were able to get on our way.  We slogged up to 11, which was on the west face of some cliffs and after climbing around for a bit with True Grit we found the flag.

                The next 2 CPS, 12 (8982) and 13 (8992)  were near the top of Snow Valley Summit.  This was a long climb up to 9200 feet.  I was feeling pretty low at this point and the hike-a-bike was killing me.  It took a while to get to the junction next to the summit.  We were leap frogging with True Grit on the hike a bike up.  We both headed toward 12 together, and after some searching found it.  We took off in a slightly different direction back then True Grit and soon we were apart.  We wondered along and before I knew it were heading South, a direction I didn’t want to go.  It was pitch black out but I could see the lights from North Shore so was able to obtain a bearing.  Somehow we had walked over the main road we were looking for.  We turned and climbed up the slope, hoping to find the towers on the summit of Snow Valley.  We found them and then got a bearing.  Here, however, is where we had a brain fart.  Instead of just turning around and heading south to the next CP, which was only about ¾ of a mile away, we headed north down the road towards our bikes.  Once we got to our bikes we decided to skip 13 and 14 and head to the O course.  We had some weird logic about being able to get more points on the O course.  It was about 4 am at this point and our thinking was obviously less then clear.  As it turned out, True Grit got 13 and 14 before heading to the O course.  This was the difference between 1^st and 2^nd.  Now, several weeks later I still don’t know why we did it, except that we were tired and lost focus for a minute. 

                In any event, we did the long ride down Snow Valley and to Spooner Lake.  When we got to Spooner, it was still dark.  Todd told us that the O course was very difficult in the dark and suggested that we go get 16 in the mean time.  We took his advise and heading down the road to 16.  This CP, was on Deadman Point and turned out to be very difficult.  As we were hiking around trying to get to the summit with the CP, we became concerned that we would not make the 9:00 cut off.  The penalty for being late was very steep, so we turned around empty handed and went back to Spooner and the O course.  We got 2 CPs on the O course and headed to the finish for 2^nd in the co-ed  behind True Grit and 5^th overall behind 3 two man teams.

                Over all it was a good effort and we worked well as a team.  We had a 4 am hiccup which cost us, but otherwise the navigation was strong.   We were a little disappointed in ourselves for making a silly mistake but overall were happy with our performance.  We are looking forward to the Tahoe Big Blue.

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