June 05, 2010
Thanks to Steve and Jake for putting on another Mt Laguna Adventure Race. I could not be there race day so I arranged to do the "check-out" a couple of weeks prior to the race. I imagine I had as much fun as all the racers in a somewhat more relaxed environment – no other racers to follow, or to chase me along the course. Steve accompanied me, but the arrangement was that he would not make any comments on the navigation (unless I was way of course and we did not want to waste the time). So I read the instructions and plotted while Steve drove up to the Start location in the Laguna Mountains. We arrived by 8 AM and were on the trail by 8:17.
The race started with a short (2½ mile) bike ride to the TA. Racers had to take all run and bike gear, including food for a 6-8 hour race. But then at the TA the bikes were dropped, extra food left behind, and the hiking boots were laced before we took off on what was an 11 mile hike. The day was very windy and we both wore 3 layers for the start of the hike with alternating low clouds, but clear skies 30 seconds later. The TA was at Penny Pines and the hike was north on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), then looping west to Pine Mountain and Indian Creek before returning to the TA via upper Noble Canyon.
- Run checkpoint R1, going up to Garnet Peak with the PCT in the distance, long course CP R1-L
I had never been on this part of the PCT so it was fun hiking north and checking very carefully that the trail on the map matched the terrain (you may recall that a few weeks before this, our team had been VERY lost at another race, and I did not want to repeat that experience). I was attempting to hike at our race pace of 100m per minute, which is a good walking clip while also reading the map. I must have been going slower than that because it took 30 minutes to get to the first Checkpoint which was a trail sign to Garnet Peak, which was 2½ Km from the TA. But the CP was easy to locate and then we were off on the "Long Course" which had us trudging up the trail to the top of Garnet Peak. Other than the wind almost blowing us off the trail it was a very scenic hike to look out onto the Anza Borrego desert. The checkpoint (R1-L) took Steve and I a few minutes to locate as before checkout he was not sure what the marker would be (and there was no Geo Cache at the top of the peak). But we did find a stone marker for K.P. Zaleski who passed away in 1998 (or I assume he did as there were two years on the marker). From that checkpoint we came part way back on the trail and then went cross-country to the PCT through the light Manzanita and other plants which are re-growing after the fires some years ago. We strode along the PCT until it came out at Pioneer Mail and Sunrise Highway. R2 was on the west side of the highway and easy to locate.
- Run checkpoints R2-L, R3-L and R4
The next checkpoint (for Long course or the Not-So-Long course) was a bit tricky and racers had to pay attention to the map. The Not-So-Long course had to be careful as there was a trail which went due south from R2, and it was very easy to see, but they had to take a trail which almost paralleled it slightly to the west. Meanwhile, the long course racers had to find R2-L which was about 300m off a trail but there were 2 or 3 ways to get to the checkpoint. My theory was to hike along a well marked trail (well marked on the map) and get into the checkpoint from the south side. Another approach was to use a Jeep Trail and approach from the north. (Either way, the trail never took you to the CP, you had to rely on your navigation and cut toward the CP at the appropriate time. From the northern approach I reasoned you had to find the intersection of the Jeep trail with another marked trail (and I had no guarantee the trails existed), then bushwhack 200m to the CP. My reason in approaching from the south was two-fold. First, the route into the CP would be the route out from the CP, so on race day perhaps I could see the swathe cut by racers ahead of me. Secondly, and more importantly to me, the CP was almost due north of a marked bend in the trail which I figured would be difficult to miss. There were a couple of ways to get onto the trails from R2, and I did overshoot a trail in the first few minutes. But this was good as I was on flat terrain near R2 and after 5 minutes I could tell I had gone too far. A quick hike up the hill and the trail was easy to find. Further up the hill it was easy to locate the single track I wanted and I was lucky that it had trail markers showing it was a maintained trail. The big turns on the trail were about where they were expected and when I got to the bend I wanted it was a short climb to get to the checkpoint. R2-L was on a small dam and while the lake was more a watering hole it was easy to locate. Backtracking to the trail I hooked up with Indian Creek trail and went downhill to R3 (which was a shared CP with the Not-So-Long course).
- Getting to R2-L (double click map for better view)
R3-L was another cross-country checkpoint which looked like it had 3 approaches. One was to follow a creek to the checkpoint (probably the preferred route in hindsight – but I do not like creeks as after the rains they tend to be overgrown and slow to traverse). The second approach looked like it had a trail, but you had to go all the way to R4, around a hill, and then take the trail in (this was my preferred exit to get to R4). The third choice, which I took, was to go up a hill and follow a route down the second saddle I would come to, which should have taken me directly to the CP. Following Indian Trail up the hill was easy, but access onto the second saddle was not so easy with lots of trees and dense brush in the way, so I continued to the south side of the ridge and found a way down a shallow gulley. This proved to be easy going which surprised me, but when I got to the checkpoint location I had a difficult time actually locating the stump which was to be the CP marker. Steve had taken a different route into the CP and until we met up I was a little uncertain where the CP was, but the stump I pointed to was the CP location and on race day I was assured it would have lots of ribbon
to reward those who ventured into this area (which was well off the beaten track). Getting out of the area proved to be the biggest time-taker of the entire race. The trail which was marked on the map, used to go to a now very-abandoned mine. You could see remnants of the trail but it kept disappearing and after 20 minutes of frustration bush-whacking and getting scratched up, my route choice was to go back up the gully I had come down.Once back on Indian Creek Trail it was a short uphill to R4 and then you were on part of Noble Canyon which I have biked before so it was navigationally easy to get back to the TA. The hike segment took me right on 5 hours and was exhausting. In fact I was not looking forward to the bike section as I had little energy left. But while I changed back into bike shoes and stashed my gear (which I would return for after the end of the race – I was not carrying my shoes and poles on the bike), I had some food and jumped on the bike with new vigor.
The first bike CP was at about the half way point of the bike section (or it seemed that way on the map). We were up at the north end of Big Laguna Trail, and B1 was down at the southern end where the Meadows meet Sunrise Highway. The bike to this location was really fun (except when I fell). It seemed mostly downhill along the west side of the meadow and while we had to give way a couple of time to large groups enjoying a leisurely jaunt around the meadow, we made good time to the fence. Those who raced or regularly ride in this area will know where the fence is. It is where you can go east across the bottom of the meadow or ride over a small bridge to cross the fence. I had to break out the compass and really pay attention to the map at this point as the trail going directly to B1, while marked on the map, appeared non-existent on the ground. There was a trail slightly west which went up a small hill (and on the map that led to a larger hill), or I could believe the map and ride cross-country to B1. Fortunately the old trail came and went, and while we were biking across cow patties and in hoof ruts, it was the most direct route with very little elevation change to get to B1.
- Bike checkpoints B2, B3 and B3-L
There were only a couple of checkpoints on the bike section. Three total for the Not-So-Long course and three extra for the long course. We headed south and east toward Wooded Hill and a long course B1-L (which was not part of the final route). Steve and I fell into a rhythm of checking the map every couple of kilometers and wondering why the map and our compass did not agree. We were following the Old County Road and the map we had showed it kind of paralleling the new Sunrise Highway. However, after we asked a couple of groups who were in the area if they knew where we were (they did not), we came upon a map at the Wooded Hill Group Camp, which fortunately had "You Are Here" marked on it. The map we were navigating from did not have the appropriate roads marked on it (be thankful you had a checkout for this race). When we compared maps (the park service and ours) we were able to figure out what had happened so I am going to guess they will pull this as a trick in a future race – don't say I have not helped you. The checkpoint they wanted was on a trail we never actually found when I ran the course, but which both Steve and Jake say they have ridden in the past year – so it exists.
As it was getting late in the day and we had been hiking and biking for over 7 hours, plus taken time to photograph checkpoints and sit and eat lunch, we then went directly to what was B2 on the race at the top end of Los Gatos Ravine. This is a FUN trail. For those who have never ridden in the Laguna Mountains, you have got to go! It's only 1 hour from downtown San Diego and if you simply follow the Big Laguna Trail you get to ride both the Meadow (mellow) and Los Gatos Ravine (ragged, fast and fun). At the bottom of the enjoyable single track we raced past B3 (which was where you simply counted the steel fence posts), and for the Not-So-Long course it was then a bike back on the east side of the Meadow to the finish line. For the long course it was a turn up Agua Dulce Creek, then the road over toward Escondido Ravine. There was some navigation involved, but it was not so difficult, the idea being to hook racers up with as many fun single track trails as possible, not to get racers lost. After riding up a ridge to B3-L and going over to Red Tailed Roost and B4-L there were two ways back to the finish. The more straight-forward was maybe the more fun and that was to race down Escondido Ravine back to the Meadow and on to the finish. An alternate, which I think was slightly faster was to turn back at Escondido Ravine and ride up to Los Huecos Road. This is a wide gravel road that runs through the campground and while it may be longer than the ravine it is mostly downhill and I was able to exceed 50kph on a couple of sections.
Back at the finish Steve and I simply packed up, retrieved our hike gear, and went home. I had my GPS running while we ran the course and came up with a total distance of 33.5 miles (2.4 miles on the first bike, 11 miles on the hike and 20.1 on the long bike). It took us 9 hours to complete, but we were only moving for 6½ hours, the remaining time was reading the maps, locating checkpoints, taking photographs and trying to find our location at Wooded Hill
.On race day I understand there were lots of stories about the adventure. Our youngest team had lots of fun running around with their Light Sabers and shooting the "bad guys" (trees were bad guys). One team went south on the PCT for a couple of hours. A couple of teams had difficulty at R2-L and elected to finish the Not-So-Long course, but I understand actually rode the Long Course bike. So please remember, results do not necessarily reflect the distance travelled by each team. And times definitely do not capture the fun factor had by the 42 people who raced one way or another.
Thanks again to Steve and Jake for the many hours scouting the trails, making the maps, printing the instructions and getting the group camp area for everyone's enjoyment. We hope to see you at the next few races we plan on organizing. Next up is the fifth annual La Bufadora race in Mexico (a fun weekend south of Ensenada), followed by probably the shortest race we have ever designed, at Otay Lakes in October. Please read the website for updated information: http://www.baAdventures.com/events.html
To see a whole lot of photos from the race please go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/benckatturio/LagunaAR2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCKW0_5yru4W9cA#
