Fall Creek Falls AR 2004

The race took place at Fall Creek Falls State Park, the most beautiful of all Tennessee state parks. We were racing with our teammate from Blue Ridge, Greg Chiarello. Zach’s brother Paul and his wife Debbie were our support team. We had little time to scout the course when we arrived on Friday, so we relied on Paul’s knowledge of the park to find the best routes. On Saturday morning before the race started we had to put our boats and bikes at the marina and then drive to the other side of the lake for the 7am start at the Inn. There were 30 teams in the race.

The race started with a swim across Fall Creek Lake from the Inn to the marina, a distance of about a quarter mile. To make it hard we had to carry all of our mandatory gear and paddles with us. We were well prepared for this as we had our mandatory gear in dry bags, the paddles were attached to the dry bags, and we had ropes attached to the bags and our PFDs to tow the bags behind us. When we arrived at the marina we hopped into our canoe with Greg and Zach on the ends paddling and Cathy in the middle was navigating. The paddle was about three miles long and traversed from end to end of the lake with a CP on both ends. Before we arrived at the second CP we had to stop about 50 yards from the shore and Greg and Cathy had to exit the canoe, swim to the CP and then swim back to the canoe and get in it without flipping or sinking it. They both carefully climbed back into the canoe and we headed back to the marina for the start of the bike leg. We were in 28th place after the paddle.

From the marina we headed out on our bikes. There were two miles of riding on paved roads to CP5. From there it was a nasty single track ride to the next CP that required lots of hike-a-bike. CP6 was hidden in a fishing hut but we had no problem finding it. After that the trail improved to the point where we could mostly ride and then it turned into a double track road with some gradual uphills and downhills, so Zach was able to tow Cathy most of the time on this trail. CPs 7, 8 and 9 were easily found. From CP9 there was some question about where to go next. There was a trail next to the CP that most teams though was right. We weren’t sure but we went down for a while not confident it was correct. After about 10 minutes and several yellow jacket bites we realized this was not a bike trail and we headed back to CP9. Seeing five teams coming back toward us also was a good indicator it was the wrong trail. At this point we passed a lot of teams who were traveling down this incorrect trail. From CP9 we went south about a quarter of a mile and immediately found the right trail which was hidden when we came by from the south. There were several more miles of hike-a-bike, a walk across a suspension bridge over a gorge, and a punch-in at CP10 in a parking lot. From there it was another three miles of trail riding and five miles of road riding to the TA where we met back up with Paul and Debbie. After a quick five minute change to our hiking gear and some food we were off on the trek. We had moved up from 28th to 16th place.


We were out of the TA on the trek around 1pm. The course took us north on two separate trails for about an hour. We arrived at the gorge and were heading down the steep descent into the gorge when we were once again attacked by yellow jackets. Zach and Greg were stung about a half dozen times each. Cathy escaped without a bite. Further down the gorge we arrived at another suspension bridge, CP14 and the start of the "bouldering" section of the trek. We were required to stay in the creek bed below the high water mark which made for interesting and slow travel. Some sections of the creek bed were dry and the travel wasn't too bad. It was just a matter of selecting rocks that were stable. Unfortunately, most parts of the creek bed had varying levels of water and varying amounts of algae on the rocks. Rocks with algae are very slippery! And we did slip many times but were very cautious so we didn’t sustain any major injuries. About half way through the “bouldering” in the gorge we arrived at the next CP where we were required to take a refreshing swim in the creek to find a clue. From this CP we had to continue in the creek bed all the way up until we hit Fall Creek Falls. We continued up the creek bed for what seemed like an eternity and finally saw a park ranger sitting on a rock. She signed our passport and informed us that the CP underneath Fall Creek Falls had been taken and that we were to climb up to the trail and hike out of the gorge. After three hours of bouldering we finally finished and made the climb out of the gorge and then ran a mile and a half to the TA. We were now in 10th place and the only thing left for us was the rappel.

The rappel was 200 feet down between two waterfalls and into the pool at the bottom of the falls. None of us had ever rappelled directly into water before. We were wearing our full packs and PFDs. Zach went down first and at the bottom dropped into the water and swam to shore to punch the final CP. As soon as he climbed out of the water both quads cramped severely but he was able to walk out the cramps. About the same time Cathy and Greg were finishing their rappel. Once they unhooked they also had to swim to shore. As soon as they stood up their quads also cramped severely. We still had to climb out of the gorge via the cable trail. It’s called the cable trail because it is so steep that there is a permanent safety cable used to assist in climbing out. It was slow going because both Cathy and Greg kept cramping. At the top of the gorge it was a short walk back to the TA and the finish of the race. We were still in 10th place with a finish time of 11 hours and 10 minutes.
 

The race director, Ed McAlister set up a great course that was a perfect blend of skills, terrain, and difficulty. It was one of the best courses we have ever raced in our five years of adventure racing.