Story by Nathan Smith (on the left).
After a nice four
hour drive to Bernvill, PA, just 10 miles north of Reading,
PA, I hit the race site for NYARA's (New
York Adventure Racing Association) Saddle and Paddle.
Billed as being longer, tougher, and more challenging than
last years, it was true to it's bill.
I met up with my two other teammates, Scott
and Janice, and proceeded through gear check together. Since
I was voted to be navigator for the race, it was my job
to do the skills testing for UTM mapping. I hadn't looked
at a map in ages...and it took me a while to get myself
refamiliarized with the map. But, after a little scratching
my head, I managed to find the points, and off we went to
the next station. We finished checking in and then we had
to start plotting our points and planning our route selection.
We also had to prep our bikes by putting on the required
bike odometers for a tulip section (Following directions
to get where you need to go, borrowed from Rally Racing).
We finally hit the sack at around 11pm. A little late, but
we'll manage.
Up before the sun, we head over the race
course from our hotel. We get ourselves ready for the race
start and wait for the gun to go off. The opening sequence
was very interesting. Since the start/finish was at the
base of a ski lodge, it only makes sense to have the first
CP up at the top of a the highest peak of the ski resort.
The kicker was that it was a "bike leg". Pushing
the bike up the hill, our team trudges upwards and finally
make it to the top after red-lining our heart rates. What
a good way to start the day.
 The
next section was a quick out and back orienteering section
to help spread out the teams. Nothing really exciting except
for the fact that I rolled my ankle. It's a little sore
now (after the race) but it wasn't really bothering me during
(thank goodness).
After the trek, it's back to our bikes
for the first tulip section. In our haste, Scott and myself
sped down the ski hill leaving Janice in the dust. We got
separated, but managed to find her a minute or two later.
However, Scott didn't see that I was right
behind him when he backtracked to look for Janice. Needless
to say, we were split up and out of eyesight, which is cause
for a time penalty. We're not too sure if we incurred one,
but it was reported to the race officials.
Being a team once again, we set off onto
the bike tulip section. It wasn't all that bad. We had managed
to plot out where we needed to go on the map, so there really
wasn't much of using the odometer. The race was supposed
to have a water crossing section, but it ended up being
cancelled due to the water temperature being below 50 degrees.
However, during the bike tulip section, there was a section
of trail that was completely submerged by water. Just about
waist deep! Crossing the section, it was indeed very cold.
And by the time we got to the other side, I swore I didn't
have any legs b/c I certainly couldn't feel anything! I
can honestly say death would have been in my cards if the
actual water crossing was in effect!
Dropping our bikes at TA1, this started
the trek! What a trek it was. This is where my nav skills
would be put to the test, and thankfully, they shined through
the entire trek section. (However, rule of thumb...ALWAYS
use trails versus bushwacking!!!) Halfway through the trekking,
there was a traverse across a small inlet of water. Arriving
at the CP, there were about 6-7 teams ahead of us. And with
each team taking 15 minutes to cross, that was about 1.5
hours! We opted to take a time penality of 1/2 hour (strategic)
and headed off to finish up the trekking section. We managed
to find all the CPs with no real problems, shuffling/running
for the majority of the 15k trek. Halfway through, Scott
ended up carrying Janice's pack so she could keep up. Scott
was labeled the work horse by other teams as we passed them
:-) From one team, we heard "Hey <insert name here>,
I like ya, but don't expect me to do that for you".
We up made a lot of time up on the trek that we had lost
on the bike leg and came into TA2 in 8th place (out of 40+
teams)
Next came the canoeing section! 3-4 hours
of paddling...ugh! The basic idea was that there were about
10-15 different CPs out on the water. Each one with a different
point value. Obviously, the higher the point value, the
father you had to travel. Before you could leave the water,
you had to accumulate 150 points. Which for us was about
7 CPs. Lots of wind, and high speed sparkly motor boats
that shoot up huge rooster tails were all around us.
We ended up loosing three spots while on
the canoe section. Probably b/c we had forgot our kayak
paddles and was forced to use canoe paddles. Not very efficient!
But, back on the bike we went for the final bike leg. This
one was primarily hills, and again, in our haste forgot
to bring/make a bike tow system. A very handy little tool
that allows one biker to tow the other up hills and such.
It was desparately needed since the hills were pretty deadly
during some sections of the bike tulip.
Coming in at 11 hours and 20 minutes, we
were happy to be done. We were officially 12th place, finishing
a mere 3 hours behind 1st :-) A few of our friends were
pulled off the course for not making the time cut off, and
a few others finished ahead of us. All in all, a good day...and
I'm not really all that sore *cough*lie*cough*
.nathan.
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