*** with inline comments by Adam for the second DA team racing Oakridge. ***

I came to Oakridge to do the 24 hour adventure race with the goal of having fun. I always enjoy racing an training with Melissa and was looking forward to racing with Mike. As I expected we worked well together and had a great time. I actually brought my family along and made a 9 day vacation out of the event.

Prior to the start we were driven about an hour up some dirt roads. This was a bummer because my family wouldn’t see the start of the race. We got out of the cars and were instantly swarmed with very hungry mosquitoes. The race started on time at 10:00am with a run from the start to June Lake where we were given maps and route instructions. I am no speedster on foot, nor is Melissa, and this type of start favors the fleet afoot. Melissa hooked up the tow line from my pack as soon as we started ascending. I was chugging along towing Melissa uphill with my calves screaming all the way to the lake. We were among the last teams to get there. We picked up the maps and route instructions. The route instructions made it clear that once we were on the “Middle Fork Trail” we had to remain on it until CP4 or face disqualification. We took the time to plot all the CPs we were given before we left because it is my belief that overall it was faster than spreading out the maps several times on the course. We left June Lake with only 2 or three teams behind us. We jogged back down the trail we’d run up. I contemplated a bushwhack down 200+ feet to the fire road along the way but passed up the opportunity without communicating it to my teammates. This was the first of several times in the race that I rushed nav decisions. I think we could have saved significant time there, a missed opportunity. I wasn’t on my “A” game the whole race. I also struggled with the 1: 63.360 scale map with mainly because the numbers labeling the trails were hard to interpret and sometimes obscured details. Anyway, we jogged/trekked back to the start and up to our bike to start the bike leg. We were probably about 20 minutes behind our DA compatriots at that point and I didn’t expect to see them again until after the bike leg because I’d heard Jen is a bad ass mountain biker and they all descend pretty well.

Mike and Melissa both crashed fairly early on the first bike leg, a 6 hour mostly downhill single track extravaganza. Mike landed hard on his ribs. His seat was broken and he had to MacGuiver it with some zip ties, and he also soon discovered that he couldn’t shift and was in a small cog. Melissa’s fall resulted in an small cut/scrape on the thigh which left a trail of blood…I think she did it to look tough. At CP2 Mike and I were trying to figure out why his bike wouldn’t shift. As we were following the cable back from the derailleur looking for damage a guy from the race staff asked if the cracked shifter was a problem….yep, that was it. Mike and I moved his derailleur so he was using a larger cog and he had a single speed rear end for the rest of the race. We hurried along our way when I became the next victim of the bike leg. As the trail skirted the banks of the Middle Fork Willamette River I ducked my head through some overhanging leaves and was struck across the bridge of my nose by an unseen fir branch. I noticed it was bleeding but didn’t think it was a problem until the blood started dripping all over my map board. We stopped to patch it up and Melissa fashioned what must have been the most ridiculous looking band aid ever. Soon after that we came upon the other DAs, much to my surprise.

*** Adam - Mark, Mike and Melissa came upon us as we were just off the trail trying to screw A-Bombs hub back together with an allen wrench. This would be an issue that would plague us until we reached our TA bins. ***

We rolled along together with them to CP3 where one person on each team had to swim in the river to climb a cargo net and read a number off of a suspended water bottle. I didn’t hesitate and went right down, got my instructions, and jumped in. The MTB Shoes got a little tangled in the net but overall it was quick, painless, and refreshing. I dripped back up to the bike, refolded the maps, and as soon as DP arrived both DA teams continued rolling together to CP4 where we arrived without notable incident.

*** Adam - At CP3 we noticed a team sitting on the curb, almost as if they were given a “time out”. Turns out they were caught and penalized for taking the road and not the Middle Fork Trail as the directions clearly stated and the race director reiterated at the start of the race. To my amazement, that same team seemed to have a problem following instructions and ended up taking the road again later in the race. Apparently they were supposed to be DQd, but don’t think that happened. ***

At CP4 we received the next set of CPs and race instructions that would get us through a short trek, the paddle, and main trek of the race. Across the top of these route instructions was written, “Travel on Roads is Prohibited”. We were also told that several teams had missed CP5

CP5 was at the downstream tip of an island in the river just upstream from Hills Creek Reservoir. Both DA teams and another 2 person Coed team quickly found it together then hiked cross country to the start of the kayak leg.

*** Adam - We had to cross a couple waist high streams to access the point and the route to the TA. ***

Here we had access to our gear box for the first time in the race, seven hours or so from when we started. I also found a note of encouragement from my kids in the pocket of my kayak skirt. We got into the water a little ahead of the other DA’s and paddled to the optional kayak portage.

*** Adam - Thank god for kayak wheels! We used the wheels to roll our beasts of boats down to the river edge. We contemplated putting the boats in early to avoid the portage to the further point we could on big, cumbersome rocks and boulders. Mark and his team decided to enter the water early but it looked very shallow. We decided to wait a few minutes to see if they made it through and follow their line. They made I and we followed in suit. ***

Here is where our interpretation of the phrase “Travel on Roads is Prohibited” backfired on us. Portaging the kayaks here would have been a huge effort and was not feasible. There were scattered kayaks all along the banks of the lake. We hopped out and crossed a road. CP6a was .94 miles up stream of the high water mark of the reservoir along Packard Creek. We wrongly assumed that we could not travel on the gravel road paralleling Packard Creek and began traveling on the steep exposed banks below the high water mark.

After about 20 to 30 minutes we were wondering about our interpretation of the rules. We were hiking with a solo racer named Gary but there were no other foot prints and we didn’t see any other racers. It was incredibly difficult to travel on the steep, loose, rocky, sandy banks and we were getting nowhere fast. Melissa was in front of me as we scrambled across the loose footing when she tripped and fell hard on her face….literally! After she hit she just held on to the ground and didn’t move or say anything, and Mike and I knew right away that she was hurt. I moved her quickly to a stable rock to sit on because she’d dislodged a rock and disturbed an ant colony with her head. We did our best to patch her up with Mike’s minimalist first aid kit. Note: Minimalist first aid kits don’t seem to be enough when racing with Melissa. She was dizzy and nauseous but was soon ready to get under way. We decided to cut up to the road which involved plowing through some poison oak along the high water mark. Melissa was not a happy camper because the following weekend she was attending a wedding in Poland and was looking forward wearing her new short dress. Now she had a mild abrasion on the cheek, an abrasion and contusion on her forehead, a potential black eye, and she knew her legs would be covered in PO too.

We reached the road and were trekking along still assessing Melissa’s condition when we realized that we had left the map where Melissa had fallen. We hiked back and mike scampered down the banks to retrieve the map. On the gravel road we passed several teams returning from the CP. I was cruising up the trail and not counting passing landmarks. It was getting dark. I noticed an overgrown road grade leading down to the creek and figured it was there for a reason and we followed it to the creek. I hesitated here and stopped a couple times to confirm that we were traveling the right direction. If I’d been paying closer attention along the gravel road I would have known where we were. Footing long the creek was tricky and we had travel through the water. I slipped on the rocky bottom and fell twice in shallow water. To get to the CP we had to wade in water almost waste deep. We found CP6a and moved back up to the road.

*** Adam - Ouch! That sucks Mark! We did take the road right out of our kayaks. I had the point plotted exactly, however we could not make out the road on the map which was directly across from the CP due to the extremely dark shading on the map designating private or government land etc… Because if this we walked right past the point we needed to bushwhack and ended up about 1/2 too far up the road. When we reached a bridge I knew we went to far. There were a few other teams scampering around looking lost as can be. We quickly regrouped and took off back the way we came to try and loose them hopelessly lost teams. We took a directly perpendicular bearing from the road that we didn’t see on the map the first time and popped out 10 feet from the CP. ***

We got back to our kayaks just as the other DAs were launching their boats…I’m kind of curious about what took them so long. We eventually got under way again.

It was now dark and we enjoyed a surreal and beautiful night time paddle. The partial moon had set and the stars and Milky Way were displayed in their full glory. We even saw several shooting stars. We paddled to the other end of the lake. Adam D and I had both plotted the CP to be at a boat ramp. We searched for the boat ramp and finally located it. It was gravel and did not reach all the way to the water due to lower than usual rainfall. We landed the kayak and got out the rules and passport. The instructions were to read the graffiti and on the bridge and complete the phrase…Andreana _____________. Well, there was obviously no bridge here, but there was one on the map just a little way farther. If I’d compared the CP as I’d plotted it with the clue on the sheet we could have saved 15 - 20 minutes. We got to the bridge and found the other DA team in their kayaks trying to launch downstream between the rocks. Melissa and I were entertained by the show while Mike found the answer for the CP. We were quickly under way again and passed the other DA team. At the kayak take out we had to drag the boats up a steep rocky bank. I think Mike’s tandem kayak was probably the heaviest kayak in the race and even with portage wheels it was a struggle to drag it up the hill.

*** Adam - The bridge CP frustrated me as well. Like Mark said below, I wasn’t on my A game either. Not paying attention that we were looking for a bridge was definitely a rookie mistake. ***

At this transition we had access to our gear boxes again. I failed to find my dry lightweight base layer top and dry socks in the box. I left in a mid weight fleece top and wet shoes and wet Smartwool socks. The trek was pretty straight forward on the first part. We followed the Larsen Creek Trail all the way until it met a forest road. We gained plenty of elevation on the way as it was all uphill. At the road we found several other teams looking for CP7 which was a “Bearing Tree” where we were supposed to find the bearing written on the “bearing box”. There were three or four teams there when we arrived and all were searching for a bearing tree. Mike and I searched the surrounding area for something on the trunk of a tree but never found it. We ended up measuring the direction that a trails sign arrow was pointed.

*** Adam - This should have been good enough to prove to race officials that we had infact visited the point. But apparently a bearing tree is something else. To this date I still don’t know what the heck a bearing tree is! ***

The next part of the trek was off of the 1:24,000 map and on the 1:63,360 map which made it hard to determine how far we’d traveled. We were with the other DA team and a three person all male team along this section. I found several unique features that would tell us where to leave the road. The map had a trail drawn by the race director that would take us up the hill. We arrived at the area where the trail should be and began to look for the hand drawn trail. We quickly found some flagging that continued and led us up the hill. From there we trekked along a forest road to the next CP.

*** Adam - We parted ways with Mark, Mike and Melissa here and looking forward to seeing them on the trail. However our cadence from the TA up to the Deception Bute trail was unexpectedly fast. A-bomb lended me a tow a few times other than that we hauled but to the trail head and never looking back. We did have a couple of other teams hovering around us throughout this leg. We’d loose them pretty fast, but the they’d come back like a pesty mosquito when ever we stopped to check maps or trails. ***

Here we received race instructions and CP information for the rest of the race. We were directed to bike to a point we plotted as Deception Butte and follow the single track trail almost all the way to the finish line. We received plenty of warning to be cautious as we’d be on some steep and dangerous trails. We almost missed a turn on the fast gravel roads leading to Deception Butte. Looking at the 100 foot contours on the map indicated that there’d be a wickedly steep hike a bike about 300+ feet up to the top of Deception Butte…we got more that we expected. We hiked without bikes on our shoulders over almost straight up over slippery terrain to the top. The trail down was steep and narrow with plenty of exposure. Melissa was in front and walking most of the trail. Mike was in front of me. I was actually riding more of the trail than Mike and Melissa. They’d both fallen hard early in the race and it wasn’t unreasonable that they were both pretty cautious.

*** Adam - the decent from Deception Bute frustrated me so much that by the time we finally made it to the bottom something came over me that I don’t think DP or A-bomb had witnessed before. I knew there were a few teams in front of us that were reachable. I also knew one of them had a broken derailer. We hit highway 58 and then the frontage road. Like a horse that knows he’s almost home, I starting kicking it in and putting all I had left into picking off those teams and getting to the finish. We passed one then two teams. We’d been riding so fast and so hard I never had a chance to flip the map. But I knew we were almost there. However I was going mostly by instinct. Well after a while of riding my instinct told me we gone too far. We tuned off on a low maintained road and ended up at the gravel pits. I looked don’t he map and saw we were just west of the finish. As we headed back to the main road the teams we’d passed backpedaled and followed us. We flew past them and continued on. We caught up to another team but made a huge error again and followed them into the sewage treatment plant. I knew instantly that was a mistake and should have stuck to my instinct to go straight but DP and A-Bomb were already a bit ahead. Again we peeled out then dropping the team we followed in and further up the road saw the finish flags through the trees across the river. We found a bridge and circled back to the finish like with zero left in my tank! ***

There was some minor rerouting of the trail near the bottom but we pretty much cruised to the finish. I called my family and told them I was close to finishing. They’d been hanging out near the finish since about 7am and it was almost eleven. We finished in about 25 1/2 hours to the cheers of my wife Kyle, and our three kids.

The other DAs were there and had already changed out of their race clothes. The cold beverages were gone and some teams had packed up and left. I’m glad my family was there because otherwise it was a pretty anti-climactic finish.

Overall I had a good time. Racing was fun and challenging. Melissa and Mike are great teammates. It was good times traveling with the other DA’s. I think I let the easy “follow the trail for six hours” navigation early in the race lulled me into navigating lazily later in the race. I estimate that if between the time lost on our decision to avoid the gravel road along Packard Creek, the missed opportunity to travel cross country on the first trek, and the inaccurate plotting of CP6b, Mike’s broken shifter, and a few other minor issues we should have been 90 minutes to two hours faster. Throughout the race we seemed to move faster than the teams around us but would be caught at TAs and while stopped on the trail.

Sometime I still need to race with Brian, Jen, Aja, Will, and Adam A.

For my money Dinotte lights are the best in the business for AR. Extremely light weight with very long burn time. The are bright enough that I was able to use them for a 24 hour mountain bike race with fast single track descents with no problem. My set came with multiple batteries. On one training ride I ran a single battery on high for 7 hours. During the 24 hour race I ran a battery for around 6 hours on high before I had to swap out.

Easy to mount on the bike or helmet. The buttons work well with gloves.

They have a new 500L that burns brighter and longer then the current 5W.

I highly recommend this unit.

Raid the North Extreme was the first real expedition race for this Dirty Avocados adventure racing team. Leading up to race day, we had never been so excited for one race. We had trained together, raced together, planned together, played together and now…finally…we arrived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada to race RTNX together.

The four of us—Melissa Griffiths, Mike Chastaine, Will Gilmore and I, Brian Schmitz—arrived in Rupert to find a wonderland of lush and wet forest, expansive mountains, and limitless waterways. We were all amazed at the prospect of racing in a place that contrasts our northern California stomping grounds; which normally includes rugged and tall mountains, but mostly dry and open.

The race actually would start off the coast of Rupert on the Queen Charlotte Islands. This was a major change to the original plans and a major opportunity. Normally, the Charlottes are off limits. Kudos to the race staff for selling us in!

The start was early on a sun-drenched Monday morning and began with a sweet 4-hour paddle down the Skidgate Channel. The paddle was calm and uneventful…except for a few verses of the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song from Melissa and Mike. “Are you ready kids? Aye-aye Captain…” No offense; but I’ll be happy if I never hear that song again!

We arrived at CP1 and quickly transitioned to the first mountain trek. The transition was relatively quick. As we trotted off towards the mountain that held CP2, we were spurred along by the excitement of finally getting on our feet for what we expected would be a challenging but reasonable jaunt up to a peak and then over a saddle and finally an arrival at CP3…all before dark. Little did we know.

After nice jog with some other teams along the last trail we’d see for a long while, we pealed off and headed up via a stream. This is where we would soon be served our first—and certainly not our last—dose of BC bushwhacking. After walking up the stream for a while, the terrain turned up and we were soon face to face with a major waterfall. Yikes! Do we climb up along side that or turn back and head up one of the more forgiving hillsides? After a vain attempt at the falls, we turned back and hit the hillside bush.

This is where route finding would become ever challenging, as the 100-foot contours on our 50,000-topo maps hid soooo many portly, impassable, and sometimes-fatal cliffs and other obstacles. This, again, would be a constant throughout the race. This aspect caused a slow and painful exercise of going forward, backward, and around. And this made pinpointing our location very difficult. We finally penetrated the tree line and we could see the mountaintop we were in the hunt for.

At that point, though, we could also hear an unfamiliar sound. Thump, thump, thump! It was the sound of helicopter closing in fast! Soon we could make out what would be the Canadian Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue. They had arrived for team Supplier Pipeline, after one of their teammates took a serious fall on the scree above.

We continued up and were a little surprised to see CP2 a little farther, higher, and more precarious than we expected. We continued on and finally tagged CP2. We also met a team Expedition Canada along the way down and decided to team up for some of the trek to the saddle that would take us to CP3.

We then, again, heard a now familiar sound. Thump, thump, thump! It was the sound of another helicopter. The mountain had take yet another racer; one from team Running Free.

At this point, night had arrived and we were well below the treeline and back in some serious bush. The bushwhacking continued to be slow and frustrating. We finally decided to sleep off what was left of the night and take on the bush during the day.

Finding a route up to the ridge that held the saddle we were seeking continued to prove extremely challenging. The terrain continued to be thick and slow going and the fog was starting to fill in any relieving gaps. By the afternoon, we had fallen way off schedule and now we were out of food. We had remembered that this trek was supposed to take about half of 1 day. We were now on day 2.

We finally reached the ridge areas; but with the thick fog and wet snow continued to thwart our progress. We eventually reached a point where we needed help. We held out long enough and finally decided to radio the race staff, as we needed to be safely pointed in the right direction. We had already crossed way too many sections that exposed us to some potentially fatal outcomes.

We were instructed to change course, head to a gully that would take us down to 2,000 feet, and we’d then see an approachable forest and some deer trails that would lead us to the saddle we were looking for.

We continued through the snow and fog and found what we thought was the gulley. One problem, though. We couldn’t see past the opening (because of the fog) and we could hear what sounded like a serious waterfall. Do we step through the fog and hope there is something on the other side besides a drop or waterfall? We had no choice but to move forward.

We stepped through and saw a very steep and narrow snow and ice filled gulley with very little relief. A controlled glissade was our only option. As we each carefully moved downward, Melissa slipped and started soaring down toward Mike. She hit Mike and the two of them spun downward until they could arrest and stop. Whew!! Though, before we knew it, I was now off my feet and skidding downward. I couldn’t arrest before I flew into the wall and dropped down into a crevasse. Lucky it was a soft landing and not very deep. I climbed out and we all proceed down to the 2,000-foot mark. We thought this was end of the menace. Little did we know.

We followed some deer trails to find…yet another cliff. Cliffed out again! We decided at that point to make a camp. It was late and we had been way out of food and we were drenched (did I mention it had been raining) and soon the night’s chill would set in. We made a makeshift shelter and nursed a damp fire until we finally puppy-piled ourselves to sleep. Though, it was more like mixed levels of dozing.

The next day (day 3!) we decided to head back up to the ridge, as that was were we ultimately needed to be to get to the saddle. We radioed our status to the race staff and were instructed to meet some race staff on the ridge, where we’d be met with food and a way down. We finally did so (after yet more super sketchy and exposed situations). The jaunt down was incredible, as we followed the course designer, legendary Lawrence Foster and others. They essentially put on a clinic in rugged terrain route finding. That was awesome!

We finally arrived at CP3; 57 hours after we started. Wow! That section alone was longer than any race I had done to date. (The help we received on the mountain didn’t disqualify us due to the amount of help that was dished out to so many other teams.)

At this point, most every team’s race had drastically changed due to the first trek’s unexpected outcome. We made our way to the next transition and were moved to a shorter course. After a rapid recovery and nap, we set out on a short night paddle and followed that with a short trek. The trek progressed well early; but we struggled to finish it as the injuries and damage we had sustained during the first trek lingered. We missed a cutoff and we were pushed past that section’s mountain peak and onto the bikes. We decided to short the bike to allow our injuries to heal some, as we had a ferry ride back to Rupert that night and thought that’d allow us to be stronger during the remainder of the race.

The remainder of the race started with a short jog through Rupert to a paddle. The paddle started calmly but turned wet and windy. We finally ended the first half of the paddle and prepared for a demanding portage. Will created a nifty system of backpacking the deflated boats. Will and I were the privileged two that humped the boats…on our backs. These things were the size of TVs and weighed as much. Ugh! Plus the trail we started on quickly widdled down to something only the “force” (and Will) could distinguish. We met team Dancing Pandas along the way and decided to partner. They were a lot of help and a ton of fun!

We all finally decided to peel off down toward the water. The bushwhacking was again treacherous. It was as thick and taxing as ever. And now we had boats on our backs. We had to climb up and down small loose cliffs and sloppy hillsides. And down and across rugged streams. After 8 FREAKIN’ hours of this, we finally found the water.

We completed the paddled after 3 more hours. We then not so quickly transitioned to the bikes for a night ride that was mostly road and mostly…uninteresting.

We then transitioned to yet another paddle and ended that with a sunrise and…another portage!! (I now hate that word.) After humping our boats (inflated this time) again, we transitioned to the last leg, a trek up a small mountain overlooking Rupert and the finish.

The way up was straightforward. However, we got a little twisted at the top of the mountain. After a quick recovery, we bushwhacked some and then discovered a clear trail across a saddle and up the last section. We finally tagged the top and proceeded down a raw road. It was painful due to some of our foot and leg problems that continued to build. The final minutes of the race was run through town and finally the FINISH!

Officially we finished in 5 and a half days in 15th place out of 23 teams. More important than the outcome was the effect of what we had just accomplished. We became a quintessential team. We each filled key roles, banded together in the face of adversity and danger (too many times to count), and grew and matured as racers. Plus we had TONS of fun!

I want to thank my teammates for supporting the team and me. Melissa’s toughness when dealing with some painful injuries late in the race was balls out! And her enthusiasm and spirit is unmatched. Mike’s leadership and experience proved to save our lives during the first trek and was invaluable throughout the entire race. I’ll never forget it. And Will’s navigation and creative thinking was awesome in the face of some of the most challenging terrain and conditions we had ever faced.

When Brian delivered my Wing Nut pack to me I could see there was going to be a learning curve involved in using this modular pack system.

I started using the pack on my family’s vacation to Mendocino/Albion.  It was the perfect time to experiment with different configurations and adjustments.  I started by loading it with food and jackets to take to the beach.  I found it was very comfortable.  I also used it as a lumbar pack on a couple of 1 hour runs.  When I went on a 3 hour bike ride I removed the main pack bag used the lumbar pack with the only the top pack nested in the lumbar pack.  here I struggled to get a comfortable fit.  Eventually I realized that the 1″ nylon straps that attach the shoulder harness to the lumbar pack wasn’t threaded correctly through the 1″ male clips.  This allows the strap to slide through the clip so it was impossible to keep adjusted to fit.  After I re-threaded the straps they held the adjustment perfectly.

Next I needed to test the pack loaded.  My bike ride to work was my first commute using the Wing Nut pack.  I ran half an hour on Monday and an hour on Tuesday with my wing-nut pack loaded to about 20 lbs (dirty clothes, 95 oz water, inner tubes, bike tools and a 10 lb weight from the fire station’s fitness equipment)  I fount it very comfortable.  It’s the most comfortable loaded pack I’ve worn.  In the past I’ve had to tape over my lumbar region to prevent chafing.  I don’t think I’ll get that chafing with this pack.

I think it’s going to be hard to fit as many clean shirts into this pack as my old Salomon pack when commuting.  It would also be difficult for a teammate to grab something out of the main pack while on the move when the top pack is attached, especially if that teammate doesn’t also use a Wingnut pack.  This is partially negated by the ample space in the hip belt compartments that I can access myself.  This is where I will stash most of my food and other things I need to get without stopping.  It would be nice if these hip pockets were farther forward.

The extra compression strap that came with my pack is fitted with a different brand of plastic 1″ clip than the rest of the pack so it doesn’t integrate as intended right now.  I’d like to try the top pack attached to the chest but will have to wait until the incompatible clip issue is resolved.

I am currently using a 95 oz square shaped bladder from Liquid Solutions that fits nicely in the hydration compartment of my lumbar pack.  I still need to investigate other brands of hydration bladders because the standard 100 0z. bladder doesn’t fit into the pack well.  Also, the information pamphlet that came with the pack said the straps that attach the shoulder harness to the lumbar pack need to be wrapped around the nylon rod. I’ve set it up both ways and didn’t notice a difference.

The key to making this pack work is adjusting the length of the straps that attach the shoulder harness to the lumbar pack.  This is essentially how you adjust the torso length of the pack and should be done and tested carrying different sized loads loads in the pack.  I recommend marking the strap at the adjustment that works best for you. 

This is a great pack for adventure racing.  Brian, Mike, and will all used it at Raid the North Extreme.  I’m looking forward to days and days of adventure with this pack on my back.

By Mike Chastaine

Choosing a mountain bike for adventure racing is a very personal thing.  Cost, style, suspension and brand all are factors.  For my dollar the Specialized Epic is a great bike for AR.  The ride is easy on the body, the “brain” technology is great for climbing and downhill and the bike is generally pretty fast.     The rear suspension keeps the tires on the ground which makes the bike much more stable on a down hill and much better for climbing.  The bike is very durable and can really take a beating.  The way I treat a bike, I’m sure I would crack a carbon frame. The bike is good for both the shorter races and even better for longer races. 

            Specialized is a great company, local to California, and parts are easily obtainable and reasonably priced. 

            I have a model that is a few years old.  I purchased the lower end Epic comp with V brakes and have upgraded components as money allowed.  This way I was able to keep the cost down.  AR wears out components and they have to be replaced anyway.

            My only knock on the bike is it’s a bit heavy for hike-a-bike sections and carrying.  I’m sure I could cut some of that weight with a new wheel set and a few more carbon components but it will always be a bit on the heavy side.  Of course, when I add a tow system, water bottles, bento box and other gear any bike is going to bet heavy.

Overall: This is a great bike for AR racing. 

My bike: 2003 Epic Comp, XT crank and derailleur, Mavic Outland wheel set, Hayes hydraulic disk brakes.

Cost – average depending on components
Ride – Very good – high level of comfort
Weight – a bit on the heavy side
Durability – can really take a beating.

*** Sunday update ***

This just in from Brian…

Were on our way home. We all survived, but have lots of bumps bruises and things that linger.

The race was truely exteme! There was more danger and excitement than we or even some the staff had ever seen. Tons of details and pics to follow.

-Brian

*** Wednesday update ***

Still waiting for the leader board to update with the Avocados status and rank. Looks as if they are still on the trek. With all the rerouting and weather and course changes, it is likely they are stuck in limbo. Weather calls for more light rain for next couple days.

-A

*** Monday update ***

Thanks for your support while were at Raid The North. If you’re here to check on our teams race status and latest news, you’ve come to the right spot. However due to a glitch on the SleepMonsters.ca website our team seems to be “invisible”! As of today you wont see them on the Leader Board or the Send Message to a Team tool, but rest assured our teammates state-side are on it and doing what they can to contact SleepMonsters to get it cleared up. I’ve attempted to contact them multiple times but alais, no reply. You also wont find a race status or leader-board on the Raid The North website either. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a black hole. Bear with us while we try to obtain race updates as soon and as much as possible.

-Adam (The only avocado still in California?????)

Check out our mention in SleepMonsters.ca race coverage.

Leader board. Allthough were not listed yet!

Race central on Sleepmonsters.ca.

Raid the North website latest news.

With no cell service and one Internet cafe here in Rupert, we’ve felt a bit out of touch. Now with less than 24hrs before the start I’ve finally had a spare moment to check email. Here’s the skinny…

The race will be epic! Simply epic! We’re going to be exploring the Queen Charlotte Islands as well as the coastal mountains outside of Rupert. The visit to the Charlotte Islands is a privilege in itself. We’ll be going to places on these islands few have seen. Overall, it’s going to be a paddle heavy race. The trekking will be awesome, as we’ll hit two of the highest peaks on the islands along with some coasteering on some remote beaches. The biking will be sweet too. We’ll be covering some major distance on our rigs in order to get through all what’s in store.

The planning continues to be the most we’ve ever done for any event (AR or not) in our lives! Wish us luck that we have everything correctly sorted.

Gotta run. And this will be the last you hear from us until we’re finished. Check sleepmonsters.com for race updates. Talk to you next wkd!

Ripe for racing!!!!!!