Dawn to Dusk
How do you describe a race in a phrase or sentence? I like to sum up a race in a brief statement, and then explain its virtues. For this race the phrase is "Ah, YOU'RE team 420". I assume that makes no sense to you, but read on and I will attempt to explain. The Central Coast Adventure Challenge has been my favorite race for a number of years – and still is! The first time I raced it, it kicked my butt, but I loved the terrain, the course, the volunteers and the competition. Last year our team barely finished the race when I failed to advance in the 100+ heat, so my personal goal this race was to simply finish. Our team goal was to have fun, and we achieved both those goals. My long-time teammate Steve Moore and I were joined on this adventure by Teri and Dave Ayotte, who we had hiked and biked with for the past couple of years and just thought it would be fun to race with (and it was a blast).
We got up to Santa Margarita Lake on Friday afternoon and set the boats out at the lake shore. Bike drop was to be the next day at a location the race had used before, so we knew where we had to be in the early morning hours. All Out Events, who puts this race on, are known for being tight-lipped about any pre-race info, so we never bothered to ask a lot of questions. They are also known to mix it up while you race with runs thrown in the kayak leg, or runs as part of the bike section. You have to be prepared for anything. There were a number of hints before the race about what was going to happen. There was to be 10-12 miles of kayak, 25-35 miles of bike, 10-15 miles of running and a ropes section. The lake was full, so portaging the boats was not one of our concerns. But there was promise of some big single-track sections so that led to many options, and the organizers are known for finding tough hike trails, so we were prepared for that also. There was also the problem of poison oak, which afflicts all of my teammates.
We listened to the speculation by other racers and swapped stories about past Dawn to Dusk races, past trails which were used, and scouting reports from those who had been there all day, plus reports others had picked up from mountain bike websites of new trails in the area. In past years I may have been hyper with all this information, but Dave was to be our navigator for this race, and my job was to keep up with the others on the team, so I enjoyed discussing the information but knew we had to wait till 6 AM and map-handout, to get the "real" clues for the race. We turned in early as I figured we needed to be up at 4:30 AM to go drop the bikes and be prepared to get maps at 6.
Soon after 5 AM we were driving to the bike drop at the east end of Santa Margarita Lake. By the time we setup and returned to the start area we were scrambling to break camp and get the remaining equipment over to the second transition area. I keep forgetting that as the race starts you get to meet people from past races and even a brief 40 second "Howdy, what have you been up to lately", among a couple of dozen good friends will quickly erase 15 minutes. So we did not get our maps till about 6:15. However, fortunately (or not), the route was to cover trials I had been on during the past 3 times I had participated in this race. From the start we had to kayak to the bike TA, then there were 7 mandatory checkpoints (all on the bike section – all pre-plotted), which took us on a loop from Turkey Flat, up Navajo Grade and along a ridge to a really fun single-track down Fernandez Trail. We would then loop back to the Navajo summit, and back to the Kayaks. All other checkpoints (CP8 through CP14) were optional and some were pre-plotted but most we had to plot ourselves. When returning to the start/finish line we would get plots for CP's 15-20 and more information about the run and ropes section.
- Bike Drop
The plots were all quite simple with our plotting tool, a protractor and compass. We shared our plot information with a couple of other teams and then everyone worked on strategies for how to pick up the optional checkpoints. Most teams were paddling straight to the bike section to get the mandatory checkpoints then picking off the checkpoints around the lake on the paddle back. We decided to get most of the checkpoints on the north side of the lake as we paddled to the bike TA, then get those on the south side, or further away, as we returned. CP's 13 and 14 were out of the way and we decided to wait till after the run section (if we had time) to go for them. We had a strategy that we felt was flexible with our time and progress. We also do not like following the crowd and wanted to run our own race. The course looked simple (but it had also looked simple the past times I raced here, and every race report I have written talks about how we got our butt kicked at this race).
The race started at 7:10 AM and we had 13 hours to get back to the finish line.
Our boat positioning was advantageous and we were one of the first teams away from the shore. We rounded the first corner of the lake and headed for CP 11 while the main field snaked up the lake. We paddled into an arm of the lake and grabbed our first CP. There were 3 other teams close behind us. Around the next bend and back to the main channel we passed some of the sit-on-top boats as we aimed for CP8, about 4 Km away. The team was joking and having fun attempting to find all the inlets and decide which one we needed to go into to get CP8. We headed up a long arm just past a picnic area to quickly realize we were in the wrong place, but as luck would have it this led to CP10, which was about 1Km up a trail at the end of the inlet.
When we got ashore, Dave, Teri and Steve ran up the trail with me hiking behind them attempting to do my best to stay within 100 meters. CP10 we had plotted at the top of a small peak, and they took off up the first peak, but it was only about 600m from the boat. Being behind them I stayed on the trail and when rounding another corner I could see the marker at the top of the next peak. "YO TEAM, False peak, false peak, you have to go over one more. I can see it, come to my voice". I was pumped, I was going to beat them to the flag. But they had the passport and the younger legs, so I lagged 100m from the top and Teri and Steve punched our second CP. We were then running back to the boat and the pine-cone pile we had placed on the trail to remember where to cut back to the boats.
- Steve in the tranquil waters at the end of the day
As we got to the pine cones the first "Uh-oh" of our day occurred. We could not find the passport. A quick pat-down and "No, I don't have it". So it was retrace our steps to find the passport. By now the other 3 teams who were grabbing checkpoints with us were coming off the trail, and none of them had seen our card. We hunted for 30-40 minutes before deciding the only way to continue was to punch the route card and substitute it for the passport.
- Smiles all around for Teri and Dave
With a bit of the swagger lost, we paddled to CP8 and found some pink ribbon up at a bend in the next inlet. We then proceeded to search for 10-15 minutes for CP8, before unfortunately we had to give up as we could not locate the flag, and the pink ribbon had no marking on it. However, as we exited the inlet we spotted more pink ribbon on the other shore of the inlet and it led us to the CP8 flag. Okay, we now had 3 checkpoints even if we were almost an hour behind our schedule. To make matters worse we kayaked up the north side of the lake to the boat drop to find we were locked-in with trees, reeds and no forward progress. The map showed a better route up the south side so we had to boat-whack (it's like bush-whacking, only in your boat) through the reeds and river trees to get to the channel where we were the last kayaks to the kayak drop.
- Barrie boat whacking
From there we had a short hike to the bikes and after a quick transition we were eating, drinking and riding about 10Km to CP1, the first of seven mandatory checkpoints we had to get in sequence. Dave was on-top of the navigation and we had an uneventful, but enjoyable ride on gravel and paved roads to CP1. We gained one position as we passed a team coming into the CP. There were a number of folks (including a Ranger) working the checkpoint, and we got to see the first teams coming down from the bike loop. We were just 18 miles behind first place (but we had 3 checkpoints they still had to go get).
- Dave consults all the signs
The ranger was very attentive to all teams and stressed to the leaders they had to check in as they came out of the loop so the organizers could keep tabs of who was in the "back-country".
As we rode up Navajo Grade, we managed to pass two more teams so were pretty happy about the fact we were moving from the very back of the field into the race group. It was fun to say hello to friends as they rode back to the kayak. We used their location to estimate our time around the bike loop, which we estimated at about 23Km (~14 miles). More water at CP2 at the Navajo summit and we were off to CP3 which was the start of the single-track. The ride along the ridge is not easy with steep uphill to start and big ups and downs. But there was a nice gentle breeze keeping us cool, though we were wondering about our strategy if it got much hotter.
Once we got on the single track we forgot about everything except having fun. This trail is difficult to describe. It is like a goat trail along the side of a steep canyon. The trail is generally smooth and well worn, but it is only 6-8 inches wide, and if you fall, the drop-off in most places is 20-50 feet down a jagged rock-infested hillside. So you are riding for both exhilaration and safety at the same time. You also have to always pay attention as there are bumps along the trail to assist water flow, so you can get slightly airborne at times, which means your landing is important. The trail weaves downhill about 3Km before leveling out and then undulating about another couple of Km to CP4 and a further 3Km to CP5. We passed another team on the downhill because they were repairing a flat. They caught us at the bottom as we posed for a team photo (yeah, I know it’s a race, but we like to think of our team as an Adventure team, more than a Race team). Exiting the small campground at the bottom of the downhill we crossed a creek and followed the trail up a very steep hill on the other side. We had to get off here and hike-a-bike for a short distance and that did not seem right to me. I remembered doing this trail in 2006 and riding the entire trail (no hike-a-bike). So we stopped and looked at the map, and all of us agreed the trail followed the creek. The team who just passed us continued ahead of us. We asked if they wanted to look at the maps with us, but they were sure they were on-course and continued. We went back 50m to the creek crossing and sure enough there was a trail following the creek. Dave kept a good eye on the map for the next 5 minutes and all topo features matched so we were sure we were following Fernandez Trail.
As we rode the trail I was telling the team about CP4, which had a park bench with a plaque about some person who had died about this time of year. If I remember, his information was on the plaque because he had maintained the trail and died young. I seemed to remember that in 2006 there was a question about what day he died, because it was the same as the race day that year. When we got to the bench it still existed and the plaque was there, but no checkpoint marker. The map showed the CP might be 20m past the saddle in the hill, but we could not find it. We biked down 200m and still found no CP marker. Other teams were now around us and they could not find it either. We took 20 minutes and hiked back to the bench and looked up trails both sides. No marker. Unsure what to do we continued on the trail to CP5.
When we got to CP5 a racer told us there was no marker. The passport asked for the age of the person who died. Oh man! It all had to do with the story I was telling, but having lost the passport we did not realize it was a question not a checkpoint marker. So we started back up the trail to get the answer when another racer came down and we asked if he found the CP and he nicely blurted out "Yeah, he was 46". Hey, after spending 20 minutes looking for the darn marker I did not want to go back and neither did my teammates. So we did another u-turn and passed back through CP5.
While riding the dirt roads we were laughing about our misfortune on this race. Knowledge of the course had helped us stay on-course following Hernandez Trail, but it was not sharp enough to re-read the plaque. Loss of the passport had hampered us in wasting time at CP10 and again at CP4. But we did not care; we were having fun riding on great single track, in the wilderness with great weather. And we considered we were now doing well, having moved up to about the back-side of middle of the pack. There were lots of teams lost on Hernandez Trail. So we merrily peddled our way back toward the Navajo summit.
We got to an ORV park and suddenly I was completely lost. I had no recollection of this part of the trail. We had been having too good a time to really pay attention to the map, so we now had to find where we were on the map. A road sign told us road 29S02 went that-a-way, and we looked on the map and 29S02 led to Navajo summit, so we rode on. The uphill was steep in places and the breeze had died down unless we were in exposed areas, so we stopped a couple of times in the shade and ate, drank and cooled down a little. Steve even asked at one time "How long are we staying here? Because I can take a sleep if it's another 5 minutes", we left immediately. We finally got to the saddle in the hill, but a couple of things were wrong. First, at the top of Navajo Grade the road turns to pavement. Second at the top of Navajo Grade there are power lines across the road. And more important, at the top of Navajo Grade we expected to see a checkpoint vehicle. ALL WERE MISSING!
We were lost.
We had managed to get to the crest of the hill (after maybe a 45 minute climb, plus some stops). But we were somehow off the map and had no idea where we actually were. Our team has been lost before, and almost every time it has been when we wandered off the given map. Experience told us that we were screwed. So, what were our options? I'm all for chances and forward progress. Steve was the voice of concern as we were low on water and had no idea where we were. Dave was not looking forward to another uphill ride and Teri was game for whatever the three boys decided.
At this summit (which I now believe to be La Panza Summit – way east on Pozo road), there was a more major road going downhill to the left as we looked at it, and in the distance it appeared to go to a flat area. To the right was a dirt road that seemed to go along a ridge. From where we had gone off the map we figured we were east of Navajo and if we took the ridge it might get us to Navajo Grade. If we went down the road we might get to Fernhill road and be able to come into CP6 (which we were told at CP1 was the same location as CP1). Our decision was to follow the ridge for 20 minutes hoping to come to Navajo summit, or at least see the power lines or communications towers we had seen earlier in the race. If that failed we would return to the ORV and ride up that darned hill again.
But 2-3 minutes into our ride we found we were turning downhill so we regrouped and attempted plan Z. (No typo, we went straight from plan A to plan Z). We went back to the intersection and went downhill hoping to find Fernhill road.
The downhill was fun, smooth and fast. We needed water so stopped at the first farmhouse. Nobody home. Didn't look like anyone had been there in a long while and the most recent registration on one of the half-dozen vehicles parked around the house was 1996. Ride more. Pass a mail box. STOP. A mail box! Open it and look at the address on the mail. It was addressed to someone on Pozo Road. Now if you are following this story and have pulled out a map, you already know we are going in completely the wrong direction (we did not know that). We are not using the compass (I have no explanation why) and we are making assumptions that we have been curving south or west. Also, I thought we had circled around to the Pozo road that we drove when we went to River road to drop the bikes at the TA. So my thought was to now simply ride back to the TA.
After the mailbox the next "house" we found was a Fire Station (all locked up), and after that was a Winery. Yep, we were joking about hanging out there too. We pushed all the buzzers at the entrance. Waved at the security camera, but if anyone was watching they chose to ignore us. About 1Km further we came to State Hwy 58. Highway 58 you say! Doesn't that start at Santa Margarita and go toward Interstate 5 in the middle of the State of California?
We were lost big time!
None of us had any idea where we were. We were not positive which direction to go, though west toward the Ocean seemed a good idea. There were cars scooting along Hwy 58 at a rapid pace and we needed to ask one of them if they knew where we were. We wave down a Brazilian named Sergio, who likes us because our race jerseys contain the Brazilian flag. He tells us Santa Margarita is indeed west of where we are. We ask if it is about 8-10 miles away and his saddened smile gives us the answer before he mentally calculates that we are more like 30 miles away. This is the most lost our team has ever been, and we are laughing about it.
Our biggest concern is to let the rangers and organizers know that while we are lost, we are safe.
While we were about 30 miles from Santa Margarita, the odometer reading was 41 miles back to the start/finish line at the Lake, where the organizers were happy to learn we were alive, laughing and ready to continue the race. We still had 3 hours of race time and were looking forward to the hike and ropes section.
We got the plots for CP15-20, but they never told exactly where the rappel was so we considered the overall picture and the fact that we still had 3 kayaks at the east end of the lake. Hence we returned to the bike TA, grabbed our paddle gear and paddled to the finish line picking up CP9 and CP18 along the way. When we arrived at the TA we checked in with the worker and he greeted us with "Ah, YOU'RE team 420". It wasn't just what he said but how he said it that had us laughing more. It was good to be missed.
- Teri uses beer to power the last kayak section
We finished the race before the 13 hour cut-off. We quite possibly doubled the race distance and we did almost no running. We missed the water bridge and the rappel. But, we had fun, we finished (one way or another), nobody got hurt, and, we will be back next year to try again.
A huge thanks to the All Out Events staff, their volunteers and the park personnel for putting on the race and helping with the race. An inside joke to one person who will read this race report – are you stalking me again?
