[RACE REPORT; Mike Chastaine]
For me it was exciting to be returning to Moab for the 2006 Moab Expedition race. The 2005 version had been shorted after about 40 hours due to a storm that dropped 2 feet of snow in the La Sal Mountains. That storm was accompanied by very scary lightening, hail, and rain. I figured that there was no way this could happen again. I returned to Moab on a Mission to complete the entire course.
To my good fortune I was adopted by the Dirty Avocados. After some preliminary meetings and work outs, I felt like we had a good fit. I was very excited to be racing with Jen, Will and Brian and was extremely optimistic at our chances to do well.
After much discussion and the fact that we couldn’t find a crew, we decided to do the race unsupported. This reduced our logistical concerns. In the end, however, being unsupported was made significantly more difficult by the weather.
The race was set to start Thursday evening at 7 pm. We left California on Tuesday morning. I had strongly encouraged taking a more leisurely travel so that we didn’t get to Moab tired. As the race was set up, we will have been up for 12 or so hours before the race even started. If we showed up tired, we would really be in the hole. Our game plan was to go through the first night and day then get a sleep on the second night. We were unsure how this would manifest it’s self but we figured we would hit a TA sometime that night and get an hour or two of sleep.
We arrived on Wednesday and took a short ride at the famous Slick rock. After driving 800 miles I wanted to test the bikes and get some blood pumping. It was a good thing that we did, as Brian’s bike needed a new derailleur. On the other side, Slick rock is a very technical place to ride and is different then almost any other type of riding. I have ridden there a couple of times so knew what to expect. Will, Jen and Brian had not, so when they saw the extremely steep down hills and tight turns near cliffs, I think that they were a little unnerved. After ridding the practice loop, they adjusted and I think everyone enjoyed the ride. We made a quick trip to the bike shop and a very gracious mechanic at Slick Rock Bikes got Brian’s bike up and running.
We spent an uneventful night at the Red Cliffs Lodge, going over gear and discussing possible race plans. We had to be out of the room by 11 in the morning, so we were going to be stuck, just hanging around till the 1:00 check in time. After breakfast, we hung around in the lobby as teams began to show up. I spent some time talking to other teams and just meeting people. Teams came from all over the country and Canada. It was nice to be racing new teams, rather then the local teams we normally race against.
The weather report showed that a storm was going to be passing through. However, nothing in the report made the storm seem like a big deal. A little rain never hurt any one and I wasn’t too concerned about it. Little did we know how big this storm really was or the impact it was going to have on the race.
At 1:00 we got our maps and Will and I quickly set down to plot the points. Many of the CP’s and TA’s were in the same location as last year. Although the course was set up differently, we would be going to many of the same places, Gold Bar, Gemini Bridges, Poison Spider, and Warner Lake. The general lay out of the course was as follows. We would ride our bikes up into the La Sals and do a rogaine style trek. We were not given the UTM’s for CP1 and 2 until 6:30 pm and would pick up the map for the trek at CP2. After the trek we would ride back to Red Cliffs to start the paddle. The trick here was that we could not get on the river before 7 am (daylight) and had to be on the river by 11 am. We were told numerous times that we might have to miss CP’s on the trek in order to make the cut off. There would be a 2 hour penalty for each missed CP on the trek.
We would paddle about 25 miles to Gold Bar (same location as last year) then do a rappel. This was to be followed by a long bike ride up Long Canyon to Gemini Bridges, through Golden Spike and Poison Spider (same course PQ went through and the opposite direction we did last year) then back to Gold Bar. From there we would jump in the kayak for a 5 mile paddle. We would then do a 6-7 mile trek, climbing Jacobs ladder and back to the boat. A short 1 mile paddle to cross the river, then run/trek/walk back to Gold Bar with our paddles and PFDs (about 6 miles) From there it was a long (60+ mile ride) back into the La Sals and down Onion Creek back to the river. Another 10+ mile trek and then the final 28 mile paddle to the finish.
There were various cut off along the way. Will Newcomber (race director) told us that he only expected 10% of the teams to finish the entire course. He told us that he had set up the course so that everyone would be able to finish a shorten version even if we missed cut offs. We had come to do the entire course. However, with the projection that only 2 or 3 teams would do so and looking at the cut off times, I knew that we would really be pressed to make the later cut offs. I kept this information to myself and just figured that we needed to press hard and see how things worked out.
Before starting the race we all agreed that we needed to make sure we were on the river as close to 7 am as we could so that we could beat the later cut offs. The gun went off and we started the 4000 foot climb up Castleton Valley to the La Sals. This was the first time that we had ridden together as a team so it took a little work to get our rhythm. We did some towing and settled into a pace that worked for us. We could see the long line of racers and their lights coming up the mountain. The weather was good and it was not yet raining but I could tell the storm was coming.
We rode on the paved road to CP1 and then cut over on a fire ride the rest of the way to CP2. It was rocky and technical in a few places but we just kept pushing on. We were back and forth with several teams but it was way too early to be concerned about our placing or what other teams were doing. Finally, after about 3 hours we got to CP2, just has Jen’s rear tire flatted. She quickly set to doing the repair as I checked in with the staff. About this time it began to rain. I got the map and quickly plotted the CP’s for the rogaine. We were at 7800 and were going to have to go to at least 11,000 feet. It was clear to me that we would not have time to get all 8 CP’s but I wanted to get 5. No teams got all 8 and only 2 teams got 7 CP’s. 4 of the CPs were in an obvious circle. The other 4 branched out like a bicycle spoke. We choose to go clock wise although about ½ of the teams went counter clock wise.
As soon as we left the TA/CP2 – the rain started to come down hard. It poured pretty much the entire trek. We climbed as fast as we could given the pouring rain and altitude. Jen was suffering from the altitude but showed real grit and determination. She never once complained and actually seemed to get stronger as the trek went on. Brian towed her up the mountain while Will and I were keeping a close eye on the maps to make sure we were going the right way. We got to the first CP without any problems (beyond what climbing 2000 feet in 2 miles in the pouring rain causes) and headed for the next CP in our route. This CP was in a saddle and at around 11,000. We, along with several other teams, had trouble finding the right trail. A number of teams, including us, took a parallel trial up the mountain side. Here we were trekking over snow and scree. At one point the trail took a clear easterly course. This was great but we needed to go west. After scratching our heads for a few minutes we determined that we were on the wrong trail we tried to bushwhack across the mountain to the correct trail. The first spot we tried was too steep and sketchy. We then dropped down a hundred or so feet and cut into the woods. We finally got some good luck and ran right into the trail. This really lifted everyone’s spirits and we were able to quickly find the CP. We met up with a team from Texas at the CP. We started running down hill and made real good time all the way to CP10. CP10 was manned with a fire. I got a hot cup of tea and we headed off to CP4 – 800 foot elevation loss and gain. Despite the strong wind and constant rain we made good time through CP 4 and 5 and got back to our bikes. Now a quick 4000 foot decent on bikes back to the river.
After the long decent, we were all pretty cold. Jen especially was frozen to the bone. We got out the jet boils and heated up some water to get some warm liquid into her. I made some cup of noodles and got some thing to eat. This is where being unsupported was a real drag. Our boxes were up in the upper parking lot, exposed to the elements. The only shelter was about 50 meters down a stair case. We would grab gear and then run down to the overhang/picnic area to change, cook and eat. This was very inconvenient and slow. It took us about an hour to get out of this TA. Even with this delay we were the 4th team on to the river.
The river was swollen and running fast. It just kept raining. There were waterfalls coming off the cliffs in a way that I’m sure no one had ever seen before. It was beautiful, but I knew that the trails were going to be a mess. The good news for us was the river was moving fast. The bad news was that Will and Jen were having trouble keeping their kayak going straight. For some reason, it kept pulling right. I could tell this was very frustrating for them. Brian and I would paddle ahead, and then wait for them to catch up. In hindsight, we should have switched boats. Never the less, we actually made good time, doing the 25 mile paddle in 4 hours and 45 minutes.
As we paddled, Jen was getting colder and colder. I could see that she was shivering. When we pulled out of the river there was a micro burst of rain. It just came down in buckets. This was just want we needed, more rain. This got me shivering also. Here is where we lost focus. Again our gear was out in the open exposed to the rain and wind. My only criticism of the race management was their failure to provide some kind of shelter. It turned out that they had a large tent that they later erected. That should have been put up right away. I know we were unsupported, but being exposed like that put us at a real disadvantage. The upshot was we got involved in moving our extremely heavy boxes (full of gear, food and water) over to a picnic overhand, pulling gear out, only to be told that we had to move our gear out from under the overhang because someone might want to use the area. We were caught up in trying to get warm, organize our gear and just busy work. Before we knew it an hour and ½ had slipped by. I am normally very focused in the TA. This usually results in very quick transitions. I felt that it was important to move through the TA quickly in this race. It was my job on this team to get in and out of the TA. The cold and rain really threw me off my game in this area. We weren’t any warmer, just slower. Finally we got our heads back into the game and headed up for the rappel.
As usual the rappel is the highlight. Even though it was pouring rain, the climb to the rappel and the decent it self were super cool. We went off the backside of an arch with a waterfall (that isn’t suppose to be there) pouring down the rock right behind us. The trickiest part was the climb. Even thought the rock is very grippy , with all that water running down it, it was a little unnerving.
When we got back to Gold Bar from the rappel we were told that the race was put on hold. The roads that use to go up Long Canyon had been destroyed and the conditions had become dangerous. Of course, as soon as they said that the sun came out. It was hard to believe, with the sun shining that we could not go on. Then I would look around and see 8 or 9 waterfalls pouring off the rocks and knew the trails had to be in real sorry shape.
At 3:30 we were told that we would meet at 6:30 and be given new instructions. We were also told that the 2nd and 3rd kayak and trek had already been cancelled. So it was clear to me that we would be riding back to the La Sals. During our 3 hours, with the sun shining, we tried to dry out gear. I had only 1 dry shirt left. We ate, hydrated and sat around tying to get gear cleaned up or dried out.
At the 6:30 we were told that at 7pm we could proceed by bike to CP 25 – high in the La Sals up the Kokopelli’s trail. We took off with several other teams right at 7. We quickly joined into a pace line and powered along for several miles. The speed was a bit too fast so we fell off and settled into a more comfortable pace. At this point the weather was good with a full moon. We rolled through the town of Moab and started up Sand Flat hill. All of a sudden there was a loud noise like a cannon going off. Shortly after that the wind picked up and all at once the rain started with a microburst. Jen and I were together. We stopped to put on our rain gear. It was raining so hard that we got soaked before we could get everything on. I’ve never seen in rain so hard so quickly. For the remainder of the night it rained on and off with high winds. At points the wind was so strong it would actually push us up the hill. As we slogged along the moon would come out and we would get beautiful views of canyons and spires. Then the clouds would roll back in and the rain would start again.
The Kokopelli trail out of Moab is a fire road for many miles. Along the way there was lighting – so close some times that it caused us to stop and take shelter till it looked like it was clear. After many miles we turned off on single track. This began a long hike a bike. The trail was too rutted, wet and/or steep to ride most of the time. As we went along the trail got more and more muddy. Soon the bikes were covered with mud, the wheels wouldn’t turn and the bikes weighed so much I could lift the bike over my shoulder. From this point on we were moving extremely slow. It took us about 2 hours to drag our muddy bikes the last 2 miles to CP25.
When we finally got to the CP we were told that the race was over, all of the other CP’s were closed and we were to straight back to Red Cliffs. This was very disappointing but at this point, not really a surprise. I figured that Onion Creek would be a mess and closed. This would have closed CP 26. I had hoped that the trek and last paddle were still available. As it turned out, the TA’s for those disciplines had simply washed away.
After knocking as much mud off of our bikes and getting the brakes to work we headed down the mountain. Another long cold decent and we arrived back at Red Cliffs at 5:42 am. It was still raining.
After only 35 or so hours of racing we were done. I was very proud of how the team performed and everyone continued on in such adverse conditions. They called this the Storm of the Century. It was certainly the worst conditions I had ever raced in.
Officially, we finished 10th in the 4 person Co-ed. I am certain that had the race continued we would have moved up. We needed sleep but we were still strong and as soon as the sun came up, I’m sure we would have been fine. As it turned out the next day was sunny and warm. A beautiful day for a trek and a paddle.
Mike Chastaine
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