Central Coast Adventure Challenge
Dawn To Dusk - or in our case almost Dawn to Dawn
I was hoping to post more photos from my camera, but nothing came out, So thanks to the official photographer, Trevor Povah from Red Potion Productions, http://www.redpotion.com for those included.
Last year I took this race lightly and it kicked my butt. This year I joined Team U.S.E.S., Jon and Tony Chaus, and we were serious about it, but it still kicked our butts. Fortunately we each had our down times while the other two were strong and we kept going and going and going. It took us almost 16 hours but we did cross the finish line eventually.
The format of the race was similar to last year, kayak, bike, kayak and trek. Before the race Yishai Horowitz, the race organizer, said there would be less bike and more run. Was he ever right! Some of the bike was hike-a-bike on sand trails or super steep uphill in the heat of day. Add to that the huge trek sections and you had a long race to fit into a day. By my calculations we did about 12K paddling, 40K on the bike and 25K trekking. The elevation gain was about 5800 ft.
Tony, Jon and myself prepared well and had the kayak in good position for the start. We also had the gear at the bike TA and at 7:30 we got the map and a
few instructions. Kayak to CP1, then bike roads to CP2/7 and from there get CP3 through CP6 in any sequence, basically a loop mostly on single track with some fire roads. There was one UTM to plot and two plots using degrees from a given point. We had a protractor so the plots were quite simple. After the return to the bike TA we would learn about the remainder of the course.
The race started precisely at 8 AM with many teams not even in the start chute. The 3+ mile paddle was fun until the lake ran dry. We then had to portage to a flag before trekking to the TA. I had a problem with the portage in that it was very rough on the boats as they were dragged over sand, gravel, sticks and logs as the lake had dried up. I think it would have been better to move the flag to the waters edge to save the boats and make us drag a log the half mile to the flag location. But we were all in the same boat (pun not intended) so an energy sapping drag it was.
The bike to CP2 was straightforward as was the loop – either clockwise or counter-clockwise – we chose the former and I’m glad we did when we saw the massive climb from CP7 through CP6 to the top of that hill. But the time either way seemed about equal. The bike trail had some fun single track and kept us off the main road. Then it was back via the road to TA/CP8.
Gritting their teeth on the final climb
Stage 2 of the race was really interesting for us. It began with the handout allowing you to acquire all remaining CP’s in any sequence. Equipment was not specified, though the bike was mentioned – mostly because you could not take it on one trail. This had us pondering the possibilities. If we biked to one CP, ran to get another, biked further and ran to get the remainder of the CP’s on the north side of the lake, then we could swim across to two CP’s and the rappel on the south side. But as we entered the park there was a sign about no swimming, so that seemed wrong. There was also the question of how to retrieve the kayak if we did not use it. We talked about
NOT using the bike because if the trails were sandy or too steep we would be walking anyway. Tony finally figured it out that we use the kayak where we considered the bike then the gear was left at appropriate spots for pickup after the race.
So we dragged the boats to the water and paddled to the north shore. However, when we got there and did some quick math of the distance and time to get all the CP’s, we considered we would miss the cutoff for the rappel. SO, we jumped back in the boats and headed to the south shore to get the elusive CP15 which was in a gully. We considered swimming along the shore to go up the gulley but though it may be faster to take the trails over the hill and go down to the CP. I’m not sure of the faster route but we were able to find CP15 and get to CP16 which was a Burma Bridge to cross a ravine before doing the rappel. Tony and Jon both got across the bridge when the climbing was abruptly shut down due to the time of day and needed quite for Eagles in the area. By this time teams were scrambling to meet the cut-off and making lots of noise as they waited at the bridge crossing.
Is this cool or what???
I was instructed to run around the gully and was the last contestant to rappel down to meet my teammates who were already at the end of the rappel. We got back to the Start/Finish about 12 hours after the start of the race. But it was not over for us. We still had to get the CP’s on the north side of the lake.
Two manned CP’s had already closed but we needed to pass them to get the other CP’s so there was no problem in the organizers knowing our route. We plodded on for another 4+ hours, finishing the race a little after midnight. We were beat up but elated to have raced to the finish line. Our hats are off to the faster racers who completed all checkpoints before dark - because it sucked to look for the CP’s in the dark.
If you go to the Dawn to Dusk race next year (and it is well worth it) be prepared for a long day of racing. On the map it may look easy but out on the course is another thing all together. You need to be able to navigate on the run. You need to know about UTM’s and triangulation from bearings, you need to stay hydrated as the sun will bake you, and you need to eat well all day long as you will use a lot of energy. And, if you have to tow the log next year you will need lots of strength to add to your stamina.
This race has grown year to year. There were about 90 racers in the Dawn to Dusk race on Saturday and over 150 in the Sprint on Sunday. Unfortunately I had to get home so cannot comment on the sprint, but I hope someone posts a report for us to learn more about that race too.
Thanks to Yishai and all the volunteers who put on this awesome race. And a big thanks to Jon and Tony who allowed me to run with them on Team U.S.E.S.
Cheers
Barrie Adsett
