San Antonio 2004

Zach was in San Antonio for business 15 years ago. He thought it so nice he always wanted to take Cathy there for a visit. Last weekend was that time. We left on a Thursday morning using our Delta Sky Miles. Arriving in San Antonio before noon, we picked up a rental car, checked into our Marriott hotel, and headed downtown. Of course, our first stop was at the Alamo also known as the Mission San Antonio de Valero. It’s a remarkable tribute to the defenders killed in the battle against the Mexicans in1836. The Alamo is just a minute away from the River Walk on the San Antonio River, which is lined with restaurants, hotels, and shops and is the highlight of the city. It’s not a very big river but big enough to have boats which hold about 40 people give a half hour ride with guides that share information about the history of the city.

Another nice thing about San Antonio is that most of the places of interest are just a short walk from the River Walk. After our riverboat ride we walked to Hemisfair Park, sight of the World Fair of 1986 or thereabout. We took the elevator to the top of the Tower of the Americas which was built for the World’s Fair and is still the focal point of the park. It can be seen from almost anywhere in the city and consequently, offers a panoramic view of the entire city. After the ride down from the top, we walked across the street to La Villita, an ethnic shopping and dining area on the River Walk. We then had tex-mex food and a really good margarita on the River Walk. After dinner we strolled on the River Walk and through River Center, the big mall on the river. Yes, everything is on the River Walk.

On day two we were back downtown near the River Walk. We visited San Fernando Cathedral, the Spanish Governor’s Palace, from pre-Alamo days, and El Mercado (Market Square), which is the largest Mexican market north of the boarder. From there it was a short walk to the King William area, also along the river, where all the “rich“people lived in the late 1800s. Lots of big old houses, one we toured was called the Steves Homestead. It was the home of a local lumber baron. This area fell out of favor for many years, but recently it has become the place to live and almost all of the old homes have either been renovated or are in the process of being renovated.

 We spent that afternoon on the Mission Trail. It starts with the Mission San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo. The four other missions are in a southerly line a few miles away from each other. The one closest to the Alamo, Mission Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion de Acuna has mostly been destroyed except for the church itself. A few miles south of there is the Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo, which is the most intact of all the missions and includes the entire original wall and most of the buildings. The next one on the trail is Mission San Juan Capistrano which except for the church is all but gone. The last one Mission Sam Francisco de la Espada’s church and immediate buildings are still in good order and the outlines of the wall and other buildings are still apparent. All of these missions are active catholic churches still run by Franciscan priests just as they were hundreds of years ago and are maintained by the National Park Service. Of course, we had to return to the River Walk that night for another tex-mex meal.

 

Saturday we visited other sights in the area. We started the day at the Botanical Gardens and learned a lot about “waterless” gardens. The conservatories there are as nice as we have seen. From there we went to Natural Bridge Caverns not knowing what to expect since the last couple of caves we visited were rather disappointing. We were pleasantly surprised. The caverns were spectacular with huge columns, flows, stalactites, and stalagmites and rooms as big as football fields. From there we went to historic Gruene, a shopping and eating area in buildings from the late 1800s. It is home of Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas, which look like it would blow over in a strong wind, but has seen the likes of entertainers such as Lyle Lovett, George Strait, Jerry Lee Lewis, Garth Brooks, and Willie Nelson. We had dinner in a refurbished Grist Mill overlooking the Guadalupe River.

 

 Our last day started out with lots of rain but had pretty much stopped by the time church was over. Because it was that kind of day we decided to do indoor things so we went to the Institute of Texas Culture which highlights the 21 ethnic groups that have helped make Texas the great state it is. We finished the day at the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. We were expecting something hokey but it turned into a very interesting museum of the old west. After an early dinner we went to the airport and flew home.

SOAR 2005

 Just as last year The Specials Operations Adventure Race 2005 raised money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation which benefits the children of Green Berets and SEALS killed in action. The race was in the Highlands, NC area, but this year it was south and east of town which was the opposite of last year’s west and north of town. There were only one-person and two-person teams in this race. Cathy decided to pass on the race this year due to the extensive amount of mountain biking. Last year we spent 10 of 13 hours on the bike and this year was not going to be any different. Zach teamed up with Jeremy, our son-in-law, who also raced Blue Ridge with us. We were in the Masters Division since our combined age was over 80 years.

This was an unsupported race so we had to drop our bikes at the first TA the night before. We were only allowed to leave water bottles with the bikes, which meant we had to carry all our biking gear with us on the first trek. This made already heavy packs even heavier. The race started in the middle of Highlands at 7:30 am with a trek down Main Street to a gravel road to a trail that was not always easy to follow. If not for some engineer tape placed along the trail by the RD most teams would have gotten way off course. The last three miles were downhill all the way. We maintained a fast pace to finish that leg in an hour and a half. The first cut off was at CP6 at noon and we had to maintain a quick pace without getting lost to make the time cut.

After a quick transition to the bikes we were off to the rappel. CP 3 before the rappel and CP 4 after. We needed to be finished with the rappel by 10 am to meet our time line. We dropped the bikes and then had to climb an incredibly steep mountain to get to the rappel site. Although we had been assured by the Race Director that there would not be a wait at the rappel, there was. We waited 25 minutes before rappelling but were given 25 credit minutes toward our total race time. A fast rappel and a fast run down the mountain brought us back to our bikes. We were back on the main Forest Service Road when we went flying by a truck. We were already past the truck when we realized it was Cathy, Jenn, and Jackson driving to watch us rappel. Oops, too late. We didn’t have time to stop and talk. Another mile and a half down the road was our first turn. We watched in amazement as four teams in front of us kept going straight. It was a single track to CP5. After CP5 things started getting dicey as there were many trails not on the map and we had to find the right one to turn north. We missed the turn and ended up on a paved road. After looking at the map Zach found a road that would get us back on course with little loss of time. When we finally arrived at CP 6 it was a little after noon and the Race Director told us we would be the last teams allowed to complete the entire course.

This next section from CP 6 to CP 12 was an orienteering section. Both of us had a restless night’s sleep trying to figure out how we were going to complete the entire course by the 7 pm cutoff. We knew that we couldn’t finish in time so we decided to skip CPs 10 and 11. As it turned out it was a very good decision on our part because the trail to CP 10 was very difficult and no one could find CP 11. We biked uphill from CP 6 to CP 7 and on toward CP 8 until we had to drop our bikes and continue uphill on foot about another mile to find the CP. Fortunately, we met another team returning form the CP that told us where it was placed. It was way off from where it was supposed to be and if we hadn’t run into the other team we might still be looking for it. It was on the right trail, the Bartram Trail, but was at 500 feet lower elevation than it was by the map grid coordinates. After punching our passport we ran back downhill to the bikes to CP 9, then to CP 12 where we again met up with the Race Director and told him we were skipping CPs 10 and 11. He thought it a good idea as well.

It was 3 pm then and we had to be at the paddle by 6 pm. By this point Zach was towing Jeremy on the bike to help him maintain a faster pace. We had several miles up a steep Forest Service Road and then a turn onto a single track which took us near Glenn Falls. The single track trail was steep enough and we were tired and hot enough that we just hiked-a-bike the entire trail until we arrives at the next FS road. From there it was about two miles to the lake and the start of the paddle. Although the bike section was difficult we made it to the lake in an hour.

We dropped our bikes, picked up our canoe and put it in the water. The paddle was on Lake Sequoyah, which is a relatively small lake. As we put our boat in the water one of our fellow TrailBlazers was exiting and told us that the four CPs were not in the correct location according to the map. The volunteers at the CP told us the fastest paddle at that point was one hour and twelve minutes. We found the four CPs with no problem and completed the paddle in 54 minutes. From there it was a three-mile bike to the finish line. We crossed the finish line at about 4:30 pm. Jenn and Cathy missed us crossing the finish line not expecting us to finish for another hour and a half according to Zach’s calculations from the night before.

From there we took showers and headed to the post race dinner, which was excellent, and the awards presentation which never took place because they were having difficulty finalizing the results. We finished 7th overall and 2nd in our division (Masters) in 11 hours, 27 minutes, and 43 seconds with the penalties for the two missed CPs.

SRACAR 2005

 Since the AWAR at the end of October was cancelled, this is going to be our last AR of 2005. The Savannah River/Augusta Canal Adventure Race started and finished in the same place as the Upper Savannah River/Augusta Canal Adventure Race, which we did in March as a two-person team. This time we were a three-person coed team in the advanced division and Jeremy was our third person and no support crew was needed. The weather was warm with overcast skies; a perfect day for racing.

he race started at 8am at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Augusta with a two-mile trail and road run, but we were tied together with a 10-foot rope. Halfway through the run we picked-up our maps and passports. The maps were pre-plotted, so we didn’t have to worry about doing that ourselves. The first leg was about a 20-mile bike down the Augusta Canal Tow Path. We had to find four CPs on single track trails off the tow path and return to our starting point at the Pavilion. We decided to take a short cut to CP1. It was a short “cut” alright. We had to go through some briars that tore our shirts and cut up our arms and legs. On our return to the starting point we did a rope climb up a 50-foot cliff then we rappelled down a steeper side of the cliff.

From there we transitioned to the canoe for the 10-mile paddle section which turned out to be longer than we expected. We were only allowed two paddles, so Zach and Jeremy did the paddling. Shortly after we started paddling we had to land the canoe to look for CP6. We made a turn toward the bank and we were hit simultaneously by a very strong current. The canoe stated to flip and Jeremy went into the water. Although we took on some water we were able to keep the canoe from capsizing. After getting the boat to shore and emptying out the water, we started looking for the CP. We went to where we thought it should be and didn’t find it. We then expanded our search area and still didn’t find it. After a half hour of looking we decided it was time to move on. We later learned that the CP was much higher on the hill than it looked like on the map. We then headed for CP 7 which was further down the canal. We had to paddle into an estuary and then hike to the CP. It took us almost an hour to find the CP and return to the canoe. In that hour we had to climb over or under 5 chain link fences topped or bottomed with barbed wire.

CP8 was a short distance down the canal. We had to get out of the canoe and complete a four CP orienteering course. One of the CPs required us to triangulate to find the location. Our triangulation was a little off and the CP was farther west than we expected, so that CP took a little extra time to find. From there we had to paddle to a take out, portage the canoe from the canal over the tow path to the river, and then paddle through four sets of rapids to the South Carolina side of the River. It was several miles down the River to CP9 which was located on a small island in the middle of the River. There were many small islands in the middle of the River so it wasn’t as easy as it might sounds. In an effort to avoid rapids and move faster down the River we paddled to the Georgia side. This turned out to be a mistake. When we arrived at the island there was another team looking for the CP but they didn’t find it. We paddled to the south side looked around and didn’t see anything and assumed that it was the wrong island. Later we learned that we were only 20 feet from the CP but it could only be seen from the South Carolina side from a canoe.

From there we paddled to a take out and then traveled by foot to another rappel and a CP north of the rappel point. We went right past the rappel site to CP11 where we met another team that had already rappelled. They told how to get to the rappel site. Even with their directions it was difficult to find, but we did discover a really nice disc golf course on the way there. We had to travel down the disc course and find a path that took us to the rappel site. It was well worth the search, as it was100-foot rappel with a nice wall to bounce off.

Returning to our canoe we had to paddle back to the Georgia side of the River and paddle up Ray’s Creek to the final paddle take out and zip line site. A flood gate was open between the Canal and the Creek sending a torrent of water toward the River. We had to keep paddling without resting, because if we stopped we’d be pushed back. The water was running so fast we couldn’t make it to the take out but found an alternate place where we could carry the boat up the side of the creek to a trail. We portaged the canoe down the trail to the zip line site. The zip line started above the ranging cauldron created by the open floodgate and ended on the other side of the Creek. It was about 200 feet long but not particularly fast, so we all ended up pulling ourselves hand-over-hand for a short distance to the end.

 

From there it was a six-mile hike/run back to the finish with a few CPs along the way. CP14 was on an island we had to reach via river bouldering. We did a lot of running on the way back because there was a team a short distance behind us that we didn’t want to pass us. We crossed the finish line around 6:50pm, 10 hours and 50 minutes after we started. We ended up 2nd place three-person coed team in the advanced division.

Virginia and New Orleans 1998

On Labor Day, Zach and Paul Velker ran a10K race, which is billed as the toughest 10K in America, and probably is. The race started at am and our plane left for VA at noon. Zach barely made it home in time but we did make our flight. We flew into Richmond, picked up the car and headed west. Our first stop was Appomattox. The village is almost unchanged since Lee's surrender and the McClellan house still has the table on which Lee signed the surrender document. In fact, the room is set exactly as it was on the surrender day. From there it was off to Natural Bridge and the Shenandoah Valley. The
Natural Bridge is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Besides admiring the Bridge we hiked the trail that runs along the stream that runs under Natural Bridge. Got that! George Washington's initials are carved at the bottom of the Bridge from the time he was surveying the area.

We spend the night in a wonderful Hampton Inn (Did they say Hampton Inn? That's right). It had been converted from an old mansion into a Hampton Inn and retained much of the original charm. It had the look and the feel of a B&B. Lexington is the home of VMI and Washington and Lee University. For our run that morning we ran around town and through both schools. Lexington has a lot of charm and is a very nice town. From there we went to Luray Caverns, the largest caverns in the east.
How are caverns different from caves? We don't know. The caverns had an amazing variety of rock formations; flows, columns, stalactites, and, stalagmites. We spent most of the afternoon driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway toward Charlottesville. In Charlottesville, we visited Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, the same one on the back of a nickel.

Then it was on to Richmond where Zach was working with the IRS for 3 days. Cathy spent her days exploring the town and in the evenings we found some nice restaurants. One afternoon we decided to run to the park which housed the zoo and several historic buildings and monuments. We found out all the streets were not on the map we were using as our guide. So, an hour and forty minutes later we finally returned to our hotel. When Zach finished with the IRS, we took the plantation highway to Colonial Williamsburg. Besides visiting Williamsburg and enjoying our run through the colonial streets, we visited Jamestown, and Yorktown. We thought Yorktown much nicer than Williamsburg because it was not as commercialized. We finished our visit at the one, the only, the colossal Williamsburg Pottery. We returned home Saturday night and had enough time on Sunday to wash clothes, cut grass, and repack our bags for our departure on Monday morning for New Orleans.

In New Orleans, Zach was again working with the IRS. During the days Cathy explored the city. We did stay over several extra days. We made daily visits to Bourbon St, the French Quarter, and Jackson Square. We rode the trolley through the Garden District, where many fine old homes are located.We rode on a real steamship on the Mississippi River. One day we went running off toward the zoo and ran so far we had to catch a trolley back to the hotel. The week after we left the city was threatened by Hurricane Georges and had quite a lot of rain.

BEAR 2001

Cathy opted out of this race because of the heat and sharks, so Jon Barker, our teammate from the Blue Ridge Mountain Adventure Race 2001, and Zach went to Jacksonville, FL to compete in this race. Cathy went along as the official photographer.


In most other adventure races in which we have participated we knew the order of events the night before. With this race we didn't know anything about the course until we received instructions during the race which made things very interesting. We knew we wouldn't start off in our kayaks because we had to drop them off at another location. We also knew it was going to be hot. Jacksonville is always very hot in August. The humidity was high, the temperature was in the 90’s and there wasn't a cloud in the sky all day. Finally, we knew we would be swimming in the ocean and river, so we packed all the equipment we had to carry with us at all times accordingly.

The race started with a javelin throw, which separated the 40 two- and three-person teams into two groups. Each group was sent off in different directions. The race was heavily into orienteering. Every instruction we received always had a distance and direction. We started with about a mile run south through the surf to pick-up our first checkpoint marker. The checkpoint markers are our proof we had been to that particular location. We had to keep them with us throughout the race and turn them in at the finish. We retrieved our first marker which was a large piece of Styrofoam. Then it was back north up the beach where we had to swim out to and around a buoy in the ocean, return to the beach, low crawl under some barriers, and climb over the 12-foot wall. The race was just getting started and we were already wet and full of sand.


From there we went on about a 5-mile orienteering course that took us to the kayaks. We were not certain how our inflatable kayaks would do on a large river and in the ocean and competing against sea kayaks. We traveled a couple miles down several small tributaries that emptied into the St John's River. Once we reached the River we had another three miles of kayaking before our next stop. The St John's River is the home of Mayport Naval Base and the home of large aircraft carriers and other naval vessels. It is no small river at this point, probably a half mile across and wider as it flows into the ocean. Of course we were heading to the ocean in our little kayaks with all sorts of boats on the river and we had to cross to the north side of the river before our next stop. Our kayaks were doing well but were not as fast as the sea kayaks, so we were passed by about five or six teams in the two and a half hours of kayaking before reaching our next check point.


From there it was out of the kayaks and back to another running leg which took about two hours and included three checkpoints. At the first of the three checkpoints we had to do the human wheel barrel for about 100 yards for a special test. The second check point was at the end of a jetty that required us to cross water and scramble over large boulders. We did well on this run and were able to pass most teams that were ahead of us.


The third checkpoint brought us back to the kayak for the second kayak leg which took us out of the river into the ocean. Our plan was to cross the river to the south side and follow the coastline as close as possible. As we were crossing the river we suddenly realized the current was pushing us back up river, so we let the current take us to the other side and then worked our way along the shore.


When we came to the south jetty which is at least a half mile long we decided to portage over the rocks and across the beach which saved us at least an hour and allowed us to pass two teams that were ahead of us. Two and a half hours after we started this leg we arrived at the starting point. Then we had to crawl under the obstacles and go over the wall and do two special events before starting on the bike segment.


The first special test was to fill-up a ten gallon water cooler bottle with water and carry it top down for 100 yards without spilling it. If that wasn't enough, we then had to fill the jug with sand and carry it the same 100 yards. From there it was on to "islands" which we breezed through and passed another team that was having problems with completing it.

It was on to the bikes with less than two and a half before the cut off time. Before entering the trail on the bikes we had to go over another wall. While we were biking we had to find six key punch checkpoints as well as navigated on very winding trails through a virtual jungle. The end of the bike brought us back to the beach and one more time over the wall before hitting the finish line.

Our time was about 10 hours and 10 minutes. We finished about 20 minutes before the cutoff. The best part was we finished fifth place overall and third in our division of two-man team. Only 15 of the 40 teams that started the race finished and most of those finished after the cutoff. It was indeed a "BEAR" of a race.

Save the World AR 2005

 For this race we teamed up with Mike Vaughn, our regular training partner and our teammate from our Master’s Division first place finish at the AWAR 2004.

 

The morning of the race thunder showers swept through the area ensuring muddy trails. By race start all the rain was gone but it was a little cooler than normal for the first of May. The race started at Baker Creek State Park near McCormick, SC and was unsupported since there was only one transition area (TA). Although parts of the race were in the park most of the course was in other “nearby” areas; if you consider a 20-mile bike ride or 7- mile paddle one way to be nearby. We had heard that this was a tough navigation race and it certainly lived up to expectation.

At the 7pm start all the teams gathered on the beach. We all knew the race would start with a swim since we could see the canoes all lined up several hundred yards from shore and we were wearing our PFDs. Since the water was about 60 degrees and we had to carry our gear with us, it was not going to be a pleasant swim. We had put our packs in our dry bags and were going to float them out with us to keep all our gear dry. We were the only team that showed up at the start with the dry bags and by the expressions on the faces of the other teams we could tell they were thinking; wish we had thought of that. The race started and the water was darn cold. As we swam out to the canoes we watched several teams capsize their canoes while trying to climb in from the water. We didn’t have that problem. As soon as we were in the boat we paddled back to shore and returned to our tent to change for the first leg of the race.

The first leg was on the 10-mile single track bike trail in the park. It was very muddy and all the little bridges were very slick from the rain as many people discovered when they went flying off. After we saw a few bikes and racers go flying we decided to walk all the bridges and we had to do that carefully. We had to complete this bike loop before we would receive the list of checkpoints (CP) and grid coordinates. We also had to complete the loop by 8:45pm or we would have to dismount our bikes and hike-a-bike back to the TA. We didn’t make it back by 8:45pm and ended up hike-a-biking about the last three miles. We picked up our CP list and plotted our coordinates on the maps. We had two options; paddle north or bike south. We decided on the bike since night navigation is easier on land than on water.

By the time we started on this leg it was almost 11pm and we had a 20-mile road bike to get to the area called Bussey Point which was in Georgia where we would be navigating to seven different CPs. We arrived at the check-in CP about 1am Sunday morning, so it was six hours from the start of the race until we punched our first CP. We spent the next five hours looking for the other six CPs. We used a combination of riding and hiking to cover the 10-miles between the CPs. Finding these markers at night is not easy and frequently we teamed up with two or three other team to find them. We found them all but one and at 6am made the 20-mile ride back to the TA.

We arrived back at the TA in about two hours, ate some food, filled the bladders in our packs and headed out to the canoe for the paddle leg. The paddle was about seven miles one-way on the Little River/Clark Hill Lake. It took us to the area near the De La Howe State School where we had to find nine CPs. We’d have to cover 5-6 miles looking for the CPs and we were running out of time so we would have to do a lot of running between these CPs. Cathy did the navigation of the river and did a good job getting us through all the twists and turns and into the right inlet. We pulled into the inlet, shot an azimuth to the first CP and walked right to it. We then found a road and headed north to the next CP. When we arrived at the CP it was at a high ropes area which is part of the school and there were lots of people milling about. We were the first team to arrive that morning so we received a lot of attention. The CP was on top of a 50-foot pole connected to the 50-foot rappel tower by a walk wire and two hand ropes. We had to get one of our team members up to the top and across the wire to punch the CP. We had three options to get to the top; a rope climb, a giant’s ladder, or the climbing wall. The catch was each of us had to get to the top a different way. Zach went first via the giant’s ladder. He made it to the top crossed the wire and punched the CP so we got credit for that. Then Mike tried the rope climb and made it about half way.

The rope climb was extremely difficult as only three people made it to the top. Lastly, Cathy tried the wall but didn’t get very far. She usually has no problem with these walls, but she is short and the holds were set for taller people. We received an hour penalty for the two of them not making it to the top. After that the three of us were tied together and had to work our way through a 15-station obstacle course. It took about 15 minutes but we made it through the obstacle course without a hitch. After that we made it to five more CPs before we had to head back to the canoe for the return paddle to make the cutoff time. It took us an hour and 45 minutes to paddle up and 15 minutes less to paddle back. When we landed on the beach we had to go over a slippery mountain in the water before finishing. Another TrailBlazers team worked with us to get both teams over.

We crossed the finish line in 20 hours and 28
minutes in 11th place.

St Louis 1999

Zach was in St Louis working with a client for two weeks. Since Cathy had never been there and it was Zach's birthday weekend she headed west via Delta to join him.

Although we were only able to see the sights for two days we made the best of it. On Saturday we started the day at Grant's Farm. It's run by Anheuser-Busch and is the place the Clagsdale horses are bred and raised. It's also a nature preserve and zoo of sorts. From there we went to Forest Park which is in the middle of St Louis and is larger than Central Park. Forest Park features the world famous St Louis Zoo which we visited next. It also houses museums and conservatories. After the zoo we went on the tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. We learned that Bud has been the nation's #1 selling beer for 40 years in a row and that Anheuser-Busch has 45% of the US beer market.

It was off to the Gateway Arch from there. We rode the tramcars to the top. It is a very impressive structure and is 630 feet tall. After that we went to the Old Cathedral next to the Arch for mass and then down to the Laclede's Landing for dinner.

On Sunday we started with our morning run and a round of disc golf at one of the local parks. Then it was off the Daniel Boone's home near Defiance, which is about 30 miles outside of St Louis. Boone spent most of his life in Missouri and built this house in 1813. It's is a four-story and was the finest house west of the Mississippi when it was built. We then went to St Charles, which has a street of shops along the river and is similar to New Hope, PA or St Augustine, FL. We ended the day at a buffet dinner at on e of the gambling boats, Station Casino, and then lost our requisite $20 at gaming.

SRACAR 2007

  The Savannah River/Augusta Canal Adventure Race was our last AR of 2007. We did this race as a 2-person team. We did race with our sometimes teammates Mark and Jeremy. The race started at 730am at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Augusta and had a 3pm cutoff to finish without penalties.

It started with a two-mile road run with our legs connected with a rope. Halfway through the run we picked-up our maps. The maps were pre-plotted, so we didn’t have to worry about doing that.

The first leg was about a 20-mile bike down the Augusta Canal Tow Path. We had to find four CPs on single track trails off the tow path and return to our starting point at the Pavilion. On the way to CP 2 we found a bunch of people looking for the CP but they were looking in the wrong place and we were nice enough to let them know. We decided to take a short cut to CP3. It was not a short cut, since the place we had to get access to the CP was fenced in and off limits/no trespassing. After wasting 20 minutes it was back to the trail to the next CP and the Transition Area.

On our return to the transition we did a 50-foot rappel down a cliff,

followed by a climb up a cargo net,

and a swim across the canal.

From there we transitioned to the canoe for the 10-mile paddle section which was longer than we expected. First we had to portage the canoe over a bridge to the river. Shortly after we started paddling we ran into a series of class 1 rapids. Cathy was nor happy. CP6 was on an island in the middle of the river with a nice muddy uphill climb to the punch.


After CP7 we had to portage back to the canal. To reach CP 8 we had to go through a lock on the canal. Then we had to go back upstream on the canal into a lake for the canoe take out. We decided to cut across a small sliver of land to get to the lake faster. Unfortunately, we had to portage our canoes another quarter mile before we could find a place to get into the lake where there were no weeds and grass growing. We landed at the canoe takeout at 1230 pm.

We had 2.5 hours to return to the finish and 7CP left to find. There was no way we would be able to find all in the allotted time so we decided to skip four of them. We went directly to CP14. It took almost an hour to reach it. CP15 was on an island we had to reach via river bouldering. We did a lot of running on the way back because our time was running out. After CP16 we ran hard the last mile as we watched the minute hands get closer and closer to 3pm. We crossed the finish line at 256pm. We finished 1st place in the two-person coed division.

Upper SRACAR 2005

We decided to do the Upper Savannah River/Augusta Canal Race as a two-person team since we hadn’t raced as a two-person team since June of 2004. The weather was warm with blue skies, but there was lots of wind, causing some concern about the paddle on the river. No support team was needed.


The race started at 7am at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Augusta with a requirement for one person from each team to fill a cup with water from the river and then climb a hill as many times as was needed to fill a bucket at the top of the hill with the water. Everyone ran up and down the hill except Zach since he knew it was going to be a long day and there was no need to expend the extra energy. Once the bucket was full we were given our passports and the check point coordinates. Although we were the last team to fill the bucket we were not last leaving for CP1. Since we had a lot more experience than most other teams in plotting coordinates we were able to finish rather quickly.


The first leg was five miles straight down the Augusta Canal Tow Path by bike to a 2-mile single track where we found CP1. Then it was straight back up the canal tow path past the start point and on to paved streets for a 25-mile ride on city streets and over a bridge to South Carolina. During the ride we joined up with Team Reversico. Shortly after crossing into SC the two teams decided to cut through a farm. We received permission from the farmer to cross his land and he gave us directions through the woods that would take us to the road to CP2, Fury Ferry Boat Landing. We saved considerable time with this shortcut and no other teams thought of it. CP2 was the Transition Point from the bike to the Rogaine on foot. It was also the return point for the Rogaine where we would start the paddle.


The orienteering Rogaine consisted of six check points spread over a wide area. We left for CP3 with Team Reversico. The route to the CP was mostly a bushwhack. We had difficulty finding the CP and started to run into other teams looking for the CP as well. We spent another half hour trying to find it before deciding it was in the wrong place. Our assessment later proved correct as only two teams found the CP, both by accident. Misplaced CPs are the most common problem in ARs and the one that causes teams the most frustration. From there it was a short leg over to CP4.


At CP4 there was a zip line set up. Unbelievably there was an ominous looking tree very close to the zip line with padding wrapped around it. About half the people in the two teams before us hit the tree a glancing blow to a knee, foot or head. Zach’s turn came and he leaned back on the zip line and his feet turned right. As he approached the tree, he saw that he was going to hit. He tried to pull his feet back but he didn’t have enough time, room or both to do it and smacked into the tree with his left foot. The zip line was traveling over 20 miles per hour when he hit. The ankle should have been broken. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be as he was able to stand on it, but it was start swelling. After Cathy zipped down with no problem we headed out for CP5. Team Reversico had already left for the next CP so we were traveling alone. It required some bushwhacking up a hill to a road. Once we arrived at the road Zach tried to run but couldn’t so we walked quickly. We found CP5 and CP6 without any problems although it was an hour and a half journey. We had previously decided to skip CP8 since it was out of the way and only an hour penalty for missing it. On the way to CP 7 we decided to go straight to the boat landing since Zach’s ankle was getting worse. Two hours later we arrived at the canoes.


We had a six mike paddle ahead of us on a very windy day. Our best bet was to head straight over to the Georgia side of the river and hug the shore to stay out of the wind. During the paddle down river we almost caught up with another team. The paddle was quite enjoyable because the GA side of the river was lined with huge beautiful houses. (There must be a lot of money in Augusta.) At the end of the paddle we turned into a cove which would bring us to the take out. The wind picked up considerably as we headed into the cove and turned the boat in circles. We had no control. Just as quickly it calmed down and we were able to paddle to the take out point. Then we had to carry the boat trough a marsh to a road before we finally finished that leg. When we dropped the boat off we found out we had to carry our paddles and PFDs with us the three miles back to the starting area. Zach’s foot was feeling better so we ran all the way. When we arrived back at the Pavilion we found out the second paddle leg had been eliminated because the Rogaine took longer than the Race Director anticipated.


All we had left was a 50-food rappel down a cliff and a run to three CPs and back to the finish line. The rappel was quick and fun as usual. It was about a 10-mile run down and back up the tow path we had biked earlier in the day. The team we almost caught on the paddle was right in front of us, so we decided to join up to find CPs 13, 14 and 15. We ran down and back up the canal and only walked for the bushwhacking parts. CPs13 and 14 were all off the canal and required considerable bushwhacking but we found then with no problem. CP 15 was over our heads so two of us lifted Cathy on our shoulders and she punched both passports. There was one last surprise on our way back to the finish. We had to carry a 175 pound dummy 100 yards. Since we had the two teams together the five of us picked the dummy and transported it the100 yards without any problem.


We arrived at the finish line right after 7pm, 12 hours after we started. We were the first coed two person team and the fifth team to cross the finish line.


Zach immediately started icing his foot and iced it all the way home and frequently on Sunday. We're leaving for a week in the Vegas area, “business of course”, so Cathy thought it best if Zach had his ankle checked because we had planned to do a lot of hiking out there. The doctor looked at my ankle and said "it’s broken". When Zach told him he had hiked and run over 25 miles since the injury occurred he said “well maybe not”. After the x-rays he decided it was a 3rd degree sprain, the worst possible. He wondered how Zach had run the rest of the race. Now Zach is wearing one of those boots with no running for at least two weeks and PT for three weeks. The doctor said he should be ok for Blue Ridge on April 9th as long as he wears a brace. We'll see.

SRACAR 2008

 The Savannah River/Augusta Canal Adventure Race was our last AR of 2008. We competed in this race as a 2-person team; although we did race with our sometimes teammates Mark and Jeremy the entire race. The race started at 7am at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Augusta and had a 3pm finish deadline without penalty. The penalty was one CP for each 15 minutes late. The objective of the race was to acquire the most CPs by the cutoff; so there was no penalty for CPs missed or skipped.

We started with a two-mile trail/road run. Halfway through the run we picked-up our maps. The maps were pre-plotted, so we didn’t have to worry about doing that, which is not our favorite thing to do with too many chances for errors. We had to find one CP on the way back. It gave us a short pause since it was high up in a tree and we had to climb the tree to punch the passport.

The first leg was a 15-mile bike down the Augusta Canal Tow Path. We had to find four CPs on single track trails off the tow path and return to our starting point at the Pavilion. We had a little delay with one CP that was slightly misplaced, otherwise that leg went smoothly.

From there we transitioned to the canoe for a long paddle section. The first paddle CP was down a creek that was off the canal. Then we had to hike through a swampy area to the area of the CP. We were looking for the CP and walked within 20 feet of it, but missed it since the orange of the orienteering marker blended in with the orange of some temporary fencing next to it. We retraced our path and then went back toward the fence and finally found it. However, it cost us some valuable time. When we returned to the canoes we decided to skip the two portages and two CPs on the river due to the 3pm cutoff. Cathy was delighted since she doesn’t like to portage or paddle through rapids.

We still had a long paddle to the takeout. When we reached the lake off the canal where the canoe takeout was located we had a lot of headwind to fight. Then we had to paddle to the end of the lake to get to CP 9. This required us to paddle through some thick river vegetation under two bridges. We had to fight our way through the vegetation going to and returning from the CP. Finally, we made it to the takeout after way too long in the canoe without a break.

By our timing we needed to be at the canoe take out by 1230pm to have time to finish before the 3pm cutoff. It was 12:24pm when we took the canoe out of the water. We had about 10 miles to travel by foot to finish. We immediately decided to skip CP10 because it was an out and back and would take 30-40 minutes. We went directly to the rappel or so we thought. It was actually an ascent with a big backlog of teams waiting to go up so we decided to skip that as well because of the time constraint we had. By then we had less than two hours to acquire the other 4 CPs and finish. First we went to CP12 which was on a rope bridge

Then CP 13 which required a short climb up a tree on a rope ladder

Then CP 14 which required crossing over rocks to an island on the river.

Cp 15 was in a gully and CP16 was under a bridge. As we found each CP the clock continued to tick. At CP16 we had 20 minutes left to finish. We ran the entire distance back arriving at the finish line 4 minutes before the deadline. From there we went to the zip line across the canal. (That was not on the clock.)