May 30, 2009
Advertised as a “tailored for all skill levels”, this race did not disappoint. If you wanted an extra 2000 ft of elevation gain on the bike, it was all there at bike checkpoint 2. If you wanted an easy hike, the course setters were nice enough to plot waypoints and a route along the side of the road to skip an optional checkpoint. If you wanted a 5 hour day in the beautiful clear skies at 6000 ft elevation, it was there for the taking, and if you wanted to push yourself for 8 hours (or longer) there was a huge orienteering course at the end of the race to feast on.
map of bike elevation gains B1 to B2
Maybe the best was the BBQ and fire at the finish line, with beer, soda and lots of water to rehydrate.
Start the fire – photo by Rick Eastman
I went up to Mt Laguna Friday afternoon with my wife Jo, and we were to camp for the weekend. We took enough clothes and gear but it was still cold in the tent at 4 AM and 44 degrees outside. But the morning was warm by 6 AM with the sun shining in the tent. Most racers came up Saturday morning to do a bike drop, then at 9 AM get maps and instructions for the race which started at 10 AM.
I was on a team with Juliana Bruni and Eduardo Pinedo. Juliana runs 1-2 races a year and believes in no training, so she had some fun with her new clip-less bike shoes, falling on the flat sealed road before the race even started. So we convinced her that running shoes were a better choice on the bike.
Team Equinox One – photo by Eduardo Pinedo
When we got the coordinates and the 3 maps we quickly plotted the beginning trek and bike sections. There were just 6 trekking checkpoints (of which 2 were optional), and 8 bike checkpoints (of which 4 were optional). At the end of the trek and bike was an optional orienteering section but we had no information about that until we returned from the bike.
Team Porkitos plots their points – photo by Jake Bencke
After plotting the UTM points we decided to get all CPs on the trek and skip 1 (possibly 2) CPs on the bike. Bike CP2 was way out in left field with all sorts of contour changes and we decided it was just too far to go in the allotted time, given our bike abilities (see map above). We also decided we could choose if we would get bike CP7 after we got to CP6, depending on time and how well we were doing.
At the start of the race we were part of the group of 56 racers on 22 teams, who charged from the El Prado Camp site and headed south to the Laguna Meadow. The sun was out all day and the weather was a nice 62 at the start getting up to the high 70’s in the middle of the race. CP1 was at a low bridge by a trail junction and was easy to find, about 1 KM from the start. We then continued on trails in a loop around Little Laguna Lake (which is dry this year), and turned east cutting cross country up a dried creek to CP2 which was also easy to locate. We continued cross country up the creek to the main road (Sunrise Hwy) which we had to cross to get to the remaining trek checkpoints.
From the trees to the meadow – photo by Rick Eastman
At the Highway, Jake was nice enough to be manning the first waypoint instructing those who wanted the easier course to walk along the road about 700 meters then take a trail up to CP4. Those who wanted a challenge went cross country up one of two indentations in the hills. Many were ahead of us as we arrived at the saddle of two small peaks to locate the checkpoint. I estimate we were with a group of about 6 teams. The brush was not dense, but it was ever present and reading the map and the terrain was not as easy as we hoped for. Our team spread out with the many other racers and were like bees in a hive buzzing here and there looking for a 2 foot piece of orange ribbon. After 5 minutes and no CP we attempted a search pattern and I though I had found the tape, but without my contacts in it turned out to be an orange flower. Oops!
After about 15 minutes when all we found was a trail on the otherside of a valley we decided to forego the checkpoint and continue the race.
Assuming the trail to be the Pacific Crest Trail we headed south to get CP4 but instead found the roadway. Oops again, we were not on the PCT, but some other trail. We did a quick turnabout and continued uphill to CP4 and the junction with the PCT. We now knew our mistake on CP3. We had come over the wrong saddle and searched for the CP about 400 meters south of where it was located. Too late to worry about the mistake, we pressed on to the second optional CP at Monument Peak.
Optional CP at Monument Peak – photo by Rick Eastman
CP5 was a tricky checkpoint to locate. The wording of the clue was difficult to decipher and we were not sure we were at the tower they requested. The clue indicated East Tower – “Danger”? We found a couple of towers at the top of the peak and they had “Caution” on the doors, was the clue “Caution” is a synonym for “Danger”? We took photos to prove we were there and as we left the peak we saw another small tower with the word “Danger” on it and a warning about asbestos. This was the only tower with the word “Danger” and the answer was to identify the danger was from asbestos.
Next we had to continue on the PCT north and west in a beautiful section of the trail that looks down on part of the Anza Borrego desert. There was a lot of photo taking by racers (this is a FUN event after all) and some wrong turns by teams as they looked for CP6 which was at a small overlook giving directions to the many distant peaks all the way from east of LA to across the Mexican border. After CP6 we continued on the PCT till it came back to Sunrise Highway and our bike drop.
By my estimation we had covered just 13.8 Km (8.6 mi) and it had taken us 2 hours 43 minutes. Not exactly warp speed, but sightseeing does take time and messing up a checkpoint is frustrating and time consuming.
Steve and Jaime taking care of the bikes – photo by Jake Bencke
After a very quick transition, mostly to fill our water, but also to change to bike shoes and pack running shoes which we had to carry, we were off on the bike. At the first hill Juliana was having problems as her flat running shoes were not easy to bike in with her rounded bike-shoe pedals. So we slowed down and hiked up that hill to then be able to bike downhill for about 1 Km on a fun and fast single-track trail. That got us to bike CP1 where we made a course correction. We were running with Rick and Kim from Sierra Adventure Sport and their decision was to do the minimum on the bike and gain points on the orienteering. So they were going from CP1 to CP5 (CP2, 3 and 4 were optional). With Juliana having pedal problems that was our inclination at this point also. Our original plan had us skip bike CP2 but go to bike CP3 and 4. A competitive nature and the desire to have fun both kicked in. If we got one more bike CP it would give us the opportunity to beat our good friends from SAS, and with Juliana, Eduardo and myself enjoying downhill single-track the trail to CP4 was a fun 2 Km blast (forget that we then had to ride uphill back to CP1). So a quick team meeting to explain our options and we took the fun downhill of upper Noble Canyon.
The ride had lots of quick downhill turns. All was good except a small spill I took on the last turn and a cramp Juliana suffered on the uphill ride. Eduardo kept us supplied with salt tablets (actually e-caps) to ward off the cramps and we continued uphill from Noble Canyon back to the north end of the Big Laguna Trail (BLT). We took the trail in a counter-clockwise direction around the meadow to CP5, then crossed to Chico Ravine and up to CP6. The BLT really is a nice ride undulating up and down along the side of the meadow, but generally keeping to the contour lines. From CP6 to CP7 was about a 5K loop and we did not think the 10 points for the optional CP was worth the time it would take, so we skipped CP7 and rode to CP8 on our way back to the finish line.
Our ride was about 20 Km (12 miles) and it took us 2 hours and 11 minutes.
With a cut-off time of 6 PM we had 2¾ hours to complete the race on the O course. I quickly copied the checkpoint locations from the master map and Eduardo and I went out to see how many extra points we could get for the race. We had just 20 bonus points (of a possible 60), and there were 70 extra points to be had on the O course. There were ten CPs, (one had a value of 15 points but was too far away for us to get in the allowed time, two had 10 point values and the remainder were worth 5 points). With time against us we considered our best route was to get two 5-point CPs a 10-pointer, then depending on time we might get another 10 pointer before getting one worth 5 points on our way back to the finish and if we had any extra time there was one more close to the finish line.
We took off fast to O1, but slowed quickly as the terrain went uphill. We failed to locate the first point and were unsure if it was because we overshot it as we went up a ridge, or if we had simply missed seeing it (the markers were small pieces of orange ribbon placed close to the ground – so very easy to miss even when looking at them). Not wanting to waste time we continued to the second marker, O5, and this time aimed off where it should be so we could use a trail to locate it. Eduardo found it easily and we were off to our third location, O9, which was worth 10 points.
O9 was on a fence, and when we found the fence (maybe I should say “a” fence), Eduardo went left and I went right to find the ribbon. But we made a silly mistake in not agreeing to look for just 8-10 minutes then coming back together. So I wandered for 15 minutes before turning back to find Eduardo, who went a long ways till the fence ran out. We decided we were perhaps over the wrong hill (dejá vu trek CP3), so looked over the next hill and still did not find the ribbon. We took photos to prove we were in the correct location and reviewed our time. We now had about 1 hour remaining and not enough time to get the other CP worth 10 points. So we headed back to the finish picking up two additional checkpoints and completing the race with 15 minutes to spare. We were racing on the O course for 2½ hours. Our total time was 7 hours 43 minutes and we covered a total of about 43 Km (26 miles).
Food and drink was the top priority as we waited for the remaining teams to finish the course. Many teams stopped after the initial trek and bike, but the top 4 teams finished just minutes before or after the 6 PM cut-off. For every minute after 6 PM teams lost 1-point, which made for some interesting scores at the end.
Equinox Uno and Equinox One at the finish – photo by Jake Bencke
Teams left the finish area as they completed the race or after food and stories. Some camped over and went riding or running Sunday to loosen the limbs. Jo and I decided a hot shower and warm bed was better than the previous cold night camping so we headed home about 9 PM.
Thanks first to Rick Eastman who some years ago attempted to put on a race at Mt Laguna, but the fire season stopped permits. Thanks second to Steve and Jake who wrote that race for Rick, and kept it in the bag for so long, then resurrected it and gave us a fun and challenging day. Thanks also to all the people who attend races because you are the friends we have come to enjoy being with and competing against, as we share the outdoors.
There are more races in the San Diego area later in 2009. Please go to http://www.baAdventures.com/events.html to learn more about the La Bufadora race in August, and the small series in October, November and December. These races are shorter than this one, in the 3-5 hour time range.
