Rocky Gap Quick Post with Pictures

Sunday March 26 started early. With two hours of sleep to fuel me (after staring blearily at little infant Eddie most of the night), I stumbled into Mical and Paul's car. The sun was rising, red bud lined the interstate, "Oh Champs Elysees" was on the radio (for some reason), but it still didn't drown out the tune of "John Jacob Jingly Heimer Schmidt" (sp?) that was stuck in my head. But all that was fine. We were headed to the mountains for an adventure filled day of biking, paddling, running, bike carrying, dehydrating, tracking, back-tracking, getting lost, cursing and many other things.

We arrived at Rocky Gap in plenty of time. Michelle, Megan and Mark were already there, of course. We checked in, got our act together, got the map and set a plan. We had to, of course, get certain check points (cp) in a certain order, bike to some, paddle to others, or run. Some we could get in optional order, but the options seemed pretty clear. Learning from the passport that we had to go from cp 3 to cp 4 along a certain power line, with out bikes, meant two things: (a) we had to go around the diameter of the park counterclockwise, along the high ridge trail; and (b) the bike had to be carried up to the ridge. The powerline trail was the "more interesting" way to go, in the words of the RD. In everyone else's words, it's the more rutted, more washed out, more steep, more overgrown, more steep, more blocked by fallen trees, more exposed to sun, more gravelly, and most of all, more steep. It's straight up the mountain. There is no option to ride the bike that we are required to have on that stretch.

Otherwise, the course seemed straightforward, checkpoint order seemed clear, with one or two exceptions that we elected to decide at things warranted.

So anyway, the day warmed up as the race briefing finished. Then we were off, started in the canoes across the lake to cp 1. We brought with us a gallon of water and some food items to leave in the "transition area 2" that was across the lake, not sure what we would need for later. Paul and I paddled well, made up some 'ground' after a purposefully leisurely running start. The boats spread out the field a little, and once we beached and started running back to the transition area for cp 2, we felt we were on a good clean start.
So on to the bikes for the first time that day, we had a clear course in mind, followed it up the hill, from trail to trail, and got cp 3. Then we headed over to the powerline.

Knowing what was coming, having been on this hill before, allowed us to prepare mentally for the climb. Of course, carrying your bike up hundreds of feet up a steep gnarly climb is never simple. But it was not as bad as I might have thought. We got cp 4, part way up the slope, wet our heads in the little spring, and headed up the real climb. Here, it was really not an option to even push the bike. The bike had to be carried. Thankfully Paul knew the method for this, frame across the shoulders, so we quickly got in good form and hoofed it. Along the way we passed a few others. One pair, whose energy was clearly flagging, was pushing the bike from the handlebars, tires on the ground. Terrible way to do it. So Paul kindly told them the better way, which they switched to and immediately felt the benefit. As the race went on we would realize that this pair was our chief rival, and they would ultimately beat us by about 3 minutes, thanks to the energy they saved on that climb. (Way to go Paul).

Upon reaching the top of the hill, we got CP 5 and rested for a moment to put our bike shoes back on. I took long sips from my camelback, as I had all they way up. Then Paul look long sips from my camel back, since he didn't fill up back at the transition area about 1.5 hours before, and had emptied his own water during the ascent. The first of several questionable water choices for the team that day. With the climb successfully behind us, we enjoyed the long descent down the weeping ridge trail - fun! - to cp 6 and back on the canoes at transition 2 (and cp 7).

Here we made a strategic blunder. After the long ride and hike-a-bike, we were both out or nearly out of water. So when we reached the transition 2 area, I naturally insisted that we both fill up our bladders. Trouble was this left very little water from the one gallon we had there. We should have filled a small amount and waited till we got back to transition 1, where we were headed in the canoe, to fill up completely. We would need that water later, and it wouldn't be there. (Way to go Joe!)

But all filled up, back in the boats we got the first colored CP - brown - then fought a headwind to get to TA1. I started singing "Oh Champs Elysees" to combat the "jingle heimer" tune that still haunted me. Paul griped, "you have too much energy!" He didn't understand my suffering.

Beached at TA1/CP8, we started running to find some more. We headed off to CP 9 at the base of some hills, then had go up the hill to get two colored CPs before returning to the base and check in for CP 10. Pretty straightforward except that the only orientation point on the hills was a single creek. The creek appeared to lead you up to CP Silver, if one were sensible enough to follow the creek up to its source. Paul and Joe, however, did not do this. Paul and Joe saw that their chief duo-male nemeses (the ones Paul helped on the powerline) were right in front of us, taking the creek up. Paul and Joe would not deign to admit that this other pair was making the right decision and debase themselves by following this pair. Paul and Joe decided to out maneuver their enemies by turning their backs, literally, on the creek and the sensible path, and walk straight up the opposite hill, completely devoid of all landmarks, know only that the CP purple was somewhere, vaguely, "near the top," as the passport said.

Forty-five minutes later, an irritated, bickering pair, team name "Magnus and M.R.K.," checked in at CP Purple. Paul saved us a little there by reading some signs and topo marks to realize that we needed to follow a rocky spine for a while to get to the marker. But by then much time was lost. We headed over to CP Silver, by then with little idea of where it was or what to look for. We went this way, then that, then needed to head farther up the hill, then needed to look for a creek re-entrant, then maybe we weren't on the map. Then several other teams seemed to think the same thing (or stupidly followed us), and the woods were creeping with 10+ people in space-suit breathable, neon-glow fabric, all pretending they did not see and were not following each other. Finally one of them spotted the check point, and soon we found it.

Knowing our mistake, we followed the said creek down, as we should have followed it up. Our nemesis duo-males checked in to Silver about 30 minutes before us. Not as bad as we expected, but an indication of the time we lost. The hills venture took, probably 1.5 hours when it might have taken 45 minutes to an hour.

Back on the horse, we CP'ed 10, then on to the 'challenge' we were executed a successful lake crossing by using one inner-tube and two paddles, paddling in sync. We made it across to CP11 pretty well.

On again to the bikes. After the long trek on the mountain, we both needed a full water refill. But the gallon we left was nearly empty (remember that strategic blunder I mentioned?). So we filled what we could, which was maybe halfway. The day was hot.

A little worn, and judgement waning, we took a lake path that might have been a short cut. But the race had closed off the short cut and doomed us to riding the long circuitous shore path that went in and out of every cove, a la Lake Needwood, complete with beaver cut spikes, overused trails, roots, etc. In time, we got back on the main trail and headed to CP Green, an out of the way CP, down at the base of the dam, accessible only via highly technical and steep trails. First we thought to go there carrying our bikes - we weren't allowed to leave them on the trail. But we didn't want to carry the bikes. We could however leave the bikes at a nearby "bike drop," then run back to Green. Indecisive, we decided on that. We went to the bike drop, changed shoes (you notice we carried a pair of running shoes with us nearly the whole time biking - it worked well). After changing shoes we started running to green. We realized this would take longer than it should and we might as well bike after all. So, indecisive still, and losing time, we ran back to our bikes, rode to Green, down the dam, huffed it over rocked and laurels (very beautiful), to Green, then back, huffed the bike up, up, up the steeeeeeep dam(n) hill.

Back to the bike drop, we headed on foot to get CP red. We found it fine on top of a very high cliff looking down at a great rocky gap (namesake of park, no doubt). It was a beautiful place, and who knew it was there? This was one of those moments when I realized that I'd hardly stopped to appreciate the great place we were out in. I took in the scenery a bit and we headed back to the bikes.

The bike drop was CP 13. Our last numbered CP. We still had two colored CPs to go, both on bikes, so we were feeling happy about that. But we both were nearly out of water, and it was hot - really hot. There was no way the water would last, so we had to cover these last few miles efficiently, make it snappy. On the bikes, up hill, over a log just big enough to take my attention off the trail and thus miss the checkpoint Blue. Paul followed me, so he missed it too. When we started to descend, we figured we'd gone too far. We backtracked and found it, in clear site. How's that for efficient!

On and on the trail. Paul knew that this trail continued to the next check point. Very glad he knew that, I would have had no idea and would have gone the longer roundabout way. So, on the trail down the other side of the hill, came to steep drop that fell down to a road. Good thing I was paying attention and I didn't have a break failure. That drop was mean. I accused Paul of trying to kill me. We had to walk the bikes down about 50 feet, no big deal. Got the CP. The LAST checkpoint. No big deal.

Then started the ride back around (couldn't go the way we came, too steep). The way back was a road hill, which wouldn't seem bad but for the grade. I felt like I was in the Tour, Alpe D'Huez, baby! I wanted to die. I was very nearly out of water, not enough to keep me replenished with my magical honey-salt mix. As we reached the top, Paul turned around and yelled -"Do you have any water?!" (He was out again). And I said, "barely." And he said, "well, if either one of us has any water" (that meant me, since he was out) "then one of us should be drinking it!!" So I yelled back, "I have been drinking it, the whole time!" And finally he got to the gist of it, saying, "I need some water!" So together we finished the water, and thank god it was the home stretch. I could feel the shut-down beginning - a la Highland Sky 2006. If the race went on much longer, it could be trouble for us.

But as it was, we finished. Six hours and twenty minutes. And ended up in 5th place in duo-male division, probably the most competitive. Just ahead of us by about 3 minutes, were our duo-male nemeses, looking fresh as daisies with all the energy they saved on the power line. we can't complain. We wanted to finish and never expected to place, or come come home with a keepsake "5th place 2009" pint glass to match our "5th place 2008" glasses from Venture Quest last year. Not a bad day for "Magnus and M.R.K." Paul made a great teammate, as usual. Thanks Paul.

I was welcomed in by Mical and Erik, Mark, Megan and Michelle who also had a great and tough day. Michelle had a signature red plastic cup that, in my state of near dehyration and exhaustion made me a little queasy. Also at the finish were Lorrin and Eddie (sleeping like a baby, the way he WASN'T between the house of 11pm and 2:30 am). Kevin and Marty and toddler Eleanore were all there too. A great sight.

I sank to the ground in the non-shade of a 95 degree April day in the mountains, drank some, took salt and ibuprofen, and slowly worked my way up to pizza. Then home for a good rest. Thanks to everyone for a good day.