Adventure

This weekend was the big Adventure Race out at Jubilee State Park. With most of my prep going in the morning of, I started getting a little nervous upon arrival. It didn't help that the band-aids required for the race got used on the way to the race because of a package opening accident in my car. I was too embarrassed to tell my teammate until after the race.

There were 50 teams participating overall in the race, 27 in the beginner class with Storm and myself. Other rivals in this class included:

Kari and Kinsey / "Trippin Trail Blazers" Sarah and Kelli

"WCIC" Steve and Jeremy / "Beat Gustafson" Father Daughter Mike and Katie

The race started with some simple control points to find on nearby trails. Different teams were sent to different locations for the first few points in order to spread them out. Storm and I will never live down the fact that the first turn we took on this race was incorrect. It was, however, made up for within minutes. :-P

Next was biking to an area where we would do more orienteering on foot.

The Orienteering was not as serious as I had feared. Often, you are only given clues to the control points and must determine the exact location based on features from your topological map. Our maps had little circles on them instead :-)

Most control points were off the road and some were off the trail as well. Trails were closed to bikers, so hiking had a much bigger part in this race than originally intended. I actually enjoyed that because it's easier to hike uphill than to ride, and it made us more likely to go off the trail, which we did.

The other surprise was how much mud and water was involved. There was a particularly confusing marsh where we did not use the trail as our guide, but rather the compass. I was thankful for the fact that worthless shoes and wool socks were used.

Also a somewhat deep creek.

Final surprises were the two mystery events spread throughout the race. The first one Storm and I hit was the figure 8 knot tying. After so many rock climbing trips I had better be able to do this in my sleep. I was impressed how fast Kari and Kinsey got theirs considering I doubt they can pass a belay check ;-)

Next mystery event, not so simple. So you take two small boards that you never would have thought were big enough for two people to stand on, and you tell two people to stand on one. The two heterosexual team members (I assume) then throw one of the boards ahead of themselves and occupy that one. The process is repeated with the same two boards until the team has crossed a distance and returned without touching the ground. Ridiculous.

Gotcha

Finally! The finish line, 2 hours and 46 minutes later.

Brauts

...And Katie with a Banana.


I won't tell you how the other teams did, but I will say that if you want to beat Gustafson, gotta put it in your team name. Good job guys. The race was entirely enjoyable and my own ability to last it and enjoy it was a complete surprise to me. Thank you Storm for your encouragement and putting up with me!

Video of mystery event #2 may not go up becuase I'm having alot of trouble with the size of the file