Life Is An Adventure Race

by Jim Farmer (farmerjp@bellsouth.net)

Why did I spend every free hour the weeks before the race preparing gear and poring over maps to try to get an edge on the competition? Why did I desperately hunt for a replacement for both a sick teammate and a support crew member that had to work, all just a day or two before the race started? Why did I stress myself out on Thursday night packing and repacking gear so that my transitions would be efficient? Why did I get up early on Friday morning and go to work for a half a day before driving to North Carolina to do gear check-in and last minute preparations for a forty-hour adventure race that started that night? Why did I show up given the fact that rain, snow and sub-freezing conditions were predicted? Why did I even sign up for the Smoky Mountains Adventure Race? I’m not looking for pity, admiration or even understanding here. The number of a good shrink would be a lot more helpful.

Tony Berwald and his Raceday event staff are responsible, and I mean that in the culpable sense, for all three North Georgia Adventure Races held annually in the month of January. I’ll let you read the details of these races in my previous columns but let’s just say that weather has always been a factor and the attrition rates were phenomenally high. The first edition of the Smoky Mountains Adventure Race, SMAR for short, would be held at the beginning of April in the mountains around Cullowhee, North Carolina. Granted, the southeast always gets a bad weather spell right before spring kicks in for good, but what are the odds of it hitting smack dab in the middle of one of Tony’s races. If you’re a betting man then you put your money on bad weather. I don’t know what he did to tick off Mother Nature but I need to put him in touch with an exorcist, shaman, voodoo priest or all the above. Whatever he’s been doing just isn’t cutting it. Perhaps he’s just a sadist like most other race directors. It’s hard to tell.

Starting a forty-hour race at 10PM on Friday night is a cruel addition to an already brutal race format. By the time you get to the starting line you’re already wiped out and ready for bed. Then you have to race through two nights straight in order to be competitive. But everybody was in the same boat so we just had to suck it up and push through. Another cruel twist was the fact that the maps and passport instructions were handed out at the Comfort Inn Hotel in Sylva just three hours before the start and we had to drive a good half hour or so to the Ralph J. Andrews Park near Glenville where the race would begin. After methodically plotting UTM coordinates on the handful of maps given to us, we did some route selections and got ready for the paddling leg that would start the race. Being pressed for time kept the intensity level high and we hadn’t even broken a sweat yet.

The original Chattanooga TrailBlazers team consisted of me, Patricia Williams and Tom Sell along with my wife, Carol, as our support crew. In the weeks leading up to the race, Patricia and Tom had both gotten sick and work was forcing Carol to rethink her availability. Things were not looking good and there were a few times when I thought about pulling the plug. On Wednesday, just two days before the race, Tom, working in the germ factory known as our school system, wasn’t getting better and Carol was definitely out so I began the begging process looking for replacements. Ardie Olson and his wife Sherry came to the rescue and agreed to join us, although they had just returned from a long vacation and Ardie had not been training to his usual high standards. This brought back together most of the team that had won the Swamp Stomp race the previous month, so I was feeling pretty confident about our chances and our new name: Explorer/Mighty Dog.

Glenville Lake, also known as Thorpe Reservoir, is a beautiful waterfall-fed body of water with mountains all around it. At the start of the 2005 SMAR it was anything but beautiful. Dark, cold, rain and wind were the orders of the day as almost sixty teams took off in a mass paddling start from the boat dock below the campground. Sheltered in a cove, the elements were at bay for the moment, but the dangerous game of bumper boats resulted in quick baths for a few teams. The pucker factor was high as the top teams tried to get out quick to avoid the carnage. Once out of the cove, teams started to spread out and settle in to hit the five checkpoints nestled into the far corners of the lake. It wasn’t long before Mother Nature came back into play though. Once out in the main channel it started feeling like an ocean leg as the swells, wind, rain and sleet belted us mercilessly. Navigating well and paddling hard kept us afloat and relatively warm, but teams at the back of the pack weren’t so lucky. Some of them never made it past the first paddling leg.

We exited the water in third place and in the hunt, but our semi-hypothermic condition forced us to take our time in the transition area. Other teams did the same and we left for the long bike leg around 2AM, tired but in good shape. Battling the sleep monsters only four hours into a race isn’t standard fare but this was definitely not your average adventure race. That fact would become increasingly more evident as the race unfolded. Although cold and drizzling, the weather gods were being nice for the moment as Team Subaru buzzed by us as we entered the Panthertown Valley trail systems and started heading north. Our jaws dropped though as we saw one member of their team wearing bike shorts and no pants. That was one hardcore racer for sure. A bad flat and another mechanical caused us to drop several places on our way to CP9 and we were all by ourselves for the long haul up and over Rich Mountain. A navigation error at CP10 dampened our spirits as we all started feeling the effects of half a day of racing without any sleep for thirty hours or so.

Checkpoints 11, 12 and 13 were spread out across the south side of the Great Balsam Mountains, bringing us to some of the highest points in the area. The mind-boggling array of forest service roads, single-track trails and logging roads made route choices difficult at best, especially when considering the fact that the maps were ancient. It was a coin flip and a prayer when picking a route, not knowing what roads and trails on the maps were now overgrown or washed out. The three or four inches of snow on the ground at that point made following the teams in front of us an easy out. We just hoped that their bikes were as useless as ours. Although the weather forecast on Friday said that the bad stuff would work its way out of the area by noon on Saturday, it was not panning out that way. The beautiful and innocuous puffy snow flakes we encountered earlier on the way up to elevation were being whipped up into a frothy torrent pelting us as we pushed our frozen bikes trough the snow, mud and slush.

After several hours of moving at a snails pace we caught up with teams Race Metrics, Lightspeed, Tally-Ho and Bear Naked at Sassafras Knob and joined their merry band on the way to TA2. All teams were in survival mode at this juncture so the navigators joined forces to simply get everybody out of there in one piece. A few more miles of trudging along overgrown logging roads brought us out to pavement, but that didn’t help much since many of us, including my teammate Patricia, had no brakes left. The snow, rain and grit turned the wheels into sandpaper, quickly eroding the brake pads over the fifteen-hour slog. The “No Brake” club was formed as racers rode along the grass at the side of the road to check their speed or had teammates grab their packs to keep them from spiraling down the road out of control. After a steep climb up a dirt road we arrived at the Up Yonder cabin in the mountains just to the east of the town of Cullowhee and Western Carolina University at a little before five on Saturday afternoon.

Teams Adventure Sports Magazine, Subaru and Hooked on the Outdoors had left the transition area before we arrived and were slugging it out for the top three spots. As teams huddled in their tents and support vehicles trying to warm up and replenish their stores, the next five spots would be determined. The race directors informed us that the next trekking leg would be reduced significantly and the last twenty-mile bike leg would probably be canceled. However, given the conditions, the trekking leg would still take at least ten hours. We were also informed of the worsening weather on the peaks atop Black Mountain where we were headed. Whiteout conditions, high winds and bitter cold awaited us. I don’t know how the conversations went with the other teams but our discussion was solemn, succinct and honest concerning our ability and, more importantly, our desire to finish what we had started. Knowing that most of the other teams would never leave the TA was enough motivation for us to get dressed and head back out into the unknown after quite a bit of deliberation.

Before getting our passport in order to leave the TA we were told that the race directors were deliberating closing the course entirely and ending the race right then and there. Team Tally-Ho had already headed up the mountain to CP15 and we were chomping at the bit to get in as much travel time as possible while it was still light out. Twenty minutes or so passed before Tony and Tim came out and announced that the course would be closed at CP16 for both Tally-Ho and us and that they would be pulling off the top three teams as soon as they could due to safety reasons. Smiles came across our faces as we realized that we only had a few hours of work in front of us to get a fourth or fifth place finish. Inspired, we started the steep climb up to the Black Mountain ridgeline.

Our plan was to head to the knob north of the cabin that lay directly between Hooper Knob and Parker Knob, the latter being the location of the CP15 flag. Finding footprints on the way up confirmed that Tally-Ho had taken the same tack. We hit the top of the knob just after dark and saw Tally-Ho’s headlights approaching us. I could hear the relief in their voices as we informed them of the termination of the race at CP16 in the parking lot of the Roy A. Taylor ATV Trail System at the bottom of the mountain. Jon Barker, their team captain, quickly offered the peace pipe and we happily accepted the offer to finish the race together tied for fourth. After spreading out into a search party looking for the hidden saddle connecting the two knobs, we headed northeast towards Parker Knob and pay dirt. Although the wind was still whipping, we could see the evidence of the earlier maelstrom as we slogged through knee-deep snowdrifts on our way to the top. After punching the point at CP15 we wound our way downhill along the muddy ATV trails until we hit the parking lot and the awaiting EMS volunteer and the support crew that drove us back to the TA. The top three teams came down off the mountain after CP17 to end their race with Hooked on the Outdoors finishing first, followed by Subaru and Adventure Sports Magazine. No other teams went out on the hike and only nine teams made it to TA2 at the end of the bike leg. A fitting end to another epic race.

So, we’ve come full circle back to the question of “Why?” To be honest, I don’t have a clue. Seeing all the friends and foes at the race check-in and out on the course, joining up with four other teams slugging it out on the bike leg, finishing together with our friends from Tally-Ho, enjoying several hours of beautiful scenery and cotton balls of snow falling on me and my teammates, the sense of accomplishment at the end. These may be a few of the reasons we do it. But there are plenty of negatives as well. Hmmm. Ups and downs, low points and high points, being confronted with challenges and working with your teammates to solve them. Sort of sounds like life, doesn’t it? I think I’ve just found my answer.

P.S. If you think adventure racing is for you then check out our club website at www.TrailBlazerAR.com. If you’re looking for a great race for beginners and experts alike then check out the Greenway Challenge Adventure Race in Chattanooga on May 21^st at www.NorthChick.org.