Great course - didnt think it was to hot, there was quite a pleasant breeze most of the day, and no bugs at twilight either :)
Shame we couldnt find you up there at CP8 :( But then we didnt find that many of the other CP's either ;)
My inexperience with map and compass showed thru as we ended up on the wrong mountain while looking for CP4 and 5 :(
We started out good, made the decision to cross the road and track down the river, which was hard going until we got to the lake, then was a breeze to the kayaks.
A nice gentle paddle into a stiff breeze on Stbd Bow made for some nice steering to get around the headland, after which a following sea and breeze almost carried us past CP2, and then onto CP3.
Error #1 was trying to carry the kayaks up the beach with a whole load of gear still onboard. After we emptied them out (3 Gallons of water, plus the extra we took onboard during the paddle :( ) they where a LOT easier to carry up to the bikes.
Then onto a challenging bike leg.
Although the map showed that any of the trails up from the Salmon La Sac road should have led us to Hex Mountain, we took the one right after the Last Resort (which was one to early) and ended up riding every single piece of trail looking for another trail north to Hex Mtn. We could see where we wanted to go, just couldnt get there. After 5-6 hours we ended up heading back down to the road.
We met up with another team who decided to plunge off the side of the mountain down a steep incline in hope of getting back onto the right track. They hadnt made it to CP6 when we left there for CP8 at 21:00, and we saw headlights up on the ridge while we where looking for you, so not following them was proably a good thing :) I think they finally got to CP6 around 11:00?
Just before we got back down to the road, we finally saw the Sasse Mtn trail sign - Grrr.
Then just 10 miles on the road back to CP6, and quick ROGAINE in the dark - we didnt find a single checkpoint :( - then of to find CP8.
We went up and down that trail looking for the turn off from the map, but just didnt find anything that bore any resemblance to the map.
We thought we had gone far enough when the trail headed down hill, and turned further East. Maybe you where just a bit further down the trail? But then we met two teams coming the other way, who had nothing but grunts to say ??? So it didnt look like the CP was further down there.
Anyway, we got done around 01:30, but then missed CP4, CP5, CP7 and CP8. This was pretty quick compared to the top teams, but they had covered considerably more distance than us, and found most of the CP's along the way.
Not bad for my FIRST adventure race.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, and had a great team to share the day with.
Definitely coming back for more :)
Lesson learnt.
Thanks everyone for a great race
Cheers
Steve
a small part of Team 430