Mar 24-29, 2008
BIG and relentless. These two words sum-up this race. I really do not know where to start in summarizing the race. To say it was “fun” is not the correct word. Finishing was “fun” and during the race we had “some fun”, but the course seemed to pound us, and the other teams, all race long.
From what I understand all the top teams had navigation issues. We were running slower and never made any big errors, but we were confused on a number of occasions and went with Victors gut feeling to get us through those situations. Errors were easy to make as you had to be on the compass and map all the time, a slight error took you off course very quickly.
I’m happy this one is over and waiting for the next one.
The race started in San Felipe with a paddleboard relay. From the Marina Hotel, some 5K south of town, we took turns paddling along the shore to downtown where the first transition (CP3) was amidst the shoppers and Spring Break crowd. Our team (Equinox) had worked hard on learning the paddleboard and we had an elaborate tow system to help our teamwork for this leg as we expected a 15K paddle. Thankfully it was only 5K, and our towing design was not needed with the relay format.
At the start line – Mayte wears a video camera to take action shots of the race - Photo by Victor Escobar Jr.
Mayte started the paddle for us and was 4 th to the beach after the first leg. Daniel of Yoga Slackers tore up the first leg and was ahead of Claire of team Hilarious, both of them opening a gap on the remainder of the field. Victor had the second leg and worked along the coast to Barrie who had the final sprint. It took us almost 70 minutes to do the paddle.
We had a quick transition as we had staged one of our support vehicles on the Malecon early in the morning, so had a great spot to rinse the salt water and pick up the packs for the second leg which was a 30K trek across the desert sands. Did I mention that the race started at 11:30 AM, so the desert trek was in the heat of the day?
From downtown San Felipe we basically walked west across a large expanse of arid land. We were instructed to stay 500 meters away from any major roads and with the desert scrub you basically followed the compass until the shimmering hills took form and then you hoped you were in the right place as CP4 was a mere “mound” in the desert. This early in the race we were conscious of the desert navigation and walked directly to CP4, then directly to CP5. Here we made a strategic error as there was an option to cross some rugged hills using good navigation, or you could backtrack 2K and use a road to get to CP6. We selected the road, which unfortunately was powder and difficult to walk on, so when we got to CP6 we noted that some teams had passed us by taking the more direct route.
Desert trek – somewhere between CP5 and CP6
Photo copyright Jacqueline Windh (www.windhphotos.com) reporting for sleepmonsters.com
For us, the desert trek finished at dusk and we then had the Auto Rally drive to CP7. This leg was not timed in the race and you basically sat and enjoyed the ride as the driver raced and slid the vehicle over the dirt roads en route to a huge canyon we had to climb.
At CP7 I knew I was personally going to have a problem as I could not eat any food. A spoon of anything in the mouth made me gag and I wanted to throw-up. But I could drink water with electrolytes so we continued on at a slower pace, hoping I would feel better in a few hours.
It was now the darkest of night as we headed west into “Cañada El Cajón”. From the desert floor at an elevation of about 640 meters it was estimated we would take 15 to 24 hours to climb to CP8 at the top of the canyon (elevation 2260m – some 5300 feet of elevation gain). We took 21 hours and traveled through that first night and all the next day to get to the top as the sun set about 6 PM. Along the way we had been careful to follow the map and plot our progress as the canyon took an early “S” curve south then back to the west, and up further it headed NW then back to the west. About mid afternoon it came to a fork where the NW canyon turned dry but a west tributary still had water flow. Verbal instructions told us to follow the water, but written instructions also told us the water would dry-up about 75% of the way to CP8 and by our estimate we were 75-80% of the way to CP8. Footprints went west, but we do not like to follow other teams so we weighed the map and compass against the desire to follow the stream and fortunately the map and compass won, such that we popped out right at the CP location and a nice warm fire.
I was very tired as we had not slept in close to 40 hours, plus I was still not eating. Mayte wanted to push on for the next few hours as it was her birthday and she wanted cake at the transition area. Victor was neutral in his assessment as he was now nursing a swollen ankle after a rock fell on it in the canyon. We were last up the canyon and the checkpoint crew told us they had taken 7 hours to get into that location from the transition. They were to accompany us out to the transition and we could simply follow them if we wished, but they too were tired so a sleep was appreciated. We slept around a fire for 6 hours waking every couple of hours to build the fire up as temperatures dropped to freezing.
By 2 AM we were all awake and packing to trek out to the first bike section and CP10. Never follow the workers! We made two small errors as we hiked out when Andy and Yishai got to talking and wandered across La Encantada meadow in a slightly wrong direction, and then we got turned around on some cow trails some 30 minutes later, but Victor was watching his compass and we quickly recovered then planned our own route. The climb to the transition was more uphill, but not the steep incline of El Cajon.
By midday on day 3 of our adventure we started on the first bike section. It had taken us 2 days to cover 4 maps of 12 we were given for this race. The hot desert trek and the brutal uphill canyons had worn us down, but we figured we still had plenty of time to complete the race, and we were only 20 hours behind our initial optimistic schedule. Besides, we got to sit on our butts now with the bike, right?
Wrong. While the bike started easily on some flat roads in Vallecitos Meadows up by the Observatory, it too quickly turned to a hunt for CP11. We followed the map to somewhere within 500 meters of the CP and then the terrain all went wrong. 20 meter contour lines never helped us as we fanned out to look for anything like a checkpoint. After 5 minutes Mayte reported finding a trail and some ribbon which we followed to CP11. After that we checked the map every opportunity we had.
This was part of a long 91K section on the bike and it started with spectacular downhill scenery which blurred past us. We were high in the Sierra San Pedro Martir and dropping elevation quickly. Fortunately for us it was daylight as we headed to Mike’s Sky Ranch and CP12.
With the daylight we could see the road twisting below us and we were able to look ahead and follow the trail on the map. Some roads on the map did not exist but using the compass and our direction of travel we rode downhill jarring over the rocky road.
While riding a small uphill we came to a large Arrow on the road (made of rocks) with a bottle of water at the tip of the arrow. We wished we had a camera to take a picture because below the arrow was written “Baja Travesia” and “Team Equinox”. We were pumped that someone out here knew we were coming. Above the arrow was “Alex Papa”. Alejandro Reyes’ father was out here leaving a bottle of water for us. We all shared in the water and were rejuvenated by the fact it was left as much as the water itself. We later saw Alex and his dad at one of the transitions and thanked them for the gesture.
Papa keeping warm – Photo by Alejandro Reyes
At dusk we arrived at Mikes Sky Ranch where we turned north toward the next transition still 40km away, some 12Km west of Valle la Trinidad. The riding here was on sandy roads, but our navigation marks all came up as we expected so we had no problems getting to the checkpoint, though it took us until the early hours of the morning to get there.
Our crew, which was Victors family; wife Katia and boys Victor Jr, and Ramon, and Mayte’s boyfriend, Jaime, had a fire ready for us to warm up, and we had some hot food before getting a couple of hours sleep. We had caught up to 4 other teams and the sleep was welcome. I was barely eating, but Katia prepared some warm soup for me and it went down with no problems so I ate more when we woke.
Big thanks to Victor Jr, Victor, Katia and Ramon, a racer with his family as crew - Photo by Alejandro Reyes
The next section was a trek which looked easy on the map, and that always makes me nervous as the easy looking sections tend to be difficult for some reason. We headed off along a river bed following a notable cliff on the map. The idea was to follow the river as it went north then swung NW and we would come out on a meadow where we would locate CP14. But somewhere along the route a few hills got in the way. In hindsight we were not keeping track of our speed as when the river turned NW I suspect we missed the turn by a mere 200 meters which took us into terrain which we did not expect. This was one of my confused moments as I could not understand how the terrain matched the map some 10 minutes ago, and was now all wrong. But Victor took the lead here after I got confused and he led us for 20 minutes to the very meadow we were looking for and we located the checkpoint reasonable easy. As we left that location we noted many footprints going the opposite direction so suspected a number of teams had problems on that checkpoint.
The next checkpoint was very interesting and simple in concept. On the map was a distinct mound about 100 meters high in the middle of the high desert. We simply had to climb to the top for CP15. Walking from CP14 we came to a road junction and could see the mound 8Km in the distance, we took a compass bearing and walked as straight as we could to it, while avoiding all the thorns, cactus and trees. As you approached the mound the curvature of the desert made it disappear so we had to use the compass bearing to continue in our desired direction. After that checkpoint we headed for another transition and back to the bikes.
However, getting to CP16 was not so easy as we had to stay clear of the main Highway and that meant we had to cross an area on the map where the contour lines never showed the varied terrain. It took us much longer than I expected to locate the small town of Héroes de la Indepencia, where again we came in about dusk.
More warm food, an hour of sleep and we were off on the second bike section.
By now it was dark and the trail out of town was confusing to find as the map showed main streets but there were a number of other streets not on the map. Once we did figure out the road we needed to be on we picked up the pace until we came to a dead-end in the road. Uh-oh how had we gone wrong? I had been watching the distance carefully and the road never went where it showed on the map. This was another of my confused times on this race. Fortunately Victor and Mayte could read the signs and we were pretty sure where we were on the map, but the roads were not where they should have been. Here Victor again took over as navigator and reasoned that we simply go cross country to a major road which would take us to where we were meant to go. When we located the major road we rode to a small town where there were distinct mountains we could make out in the moonlight.
It then took us some time to find the main road to CP17, all because we were on the main road all the time and it was not on the map. I was looking for a side trail, but again Victor convinced me to keep going as the trail we drew on the map was the major road. This turned out to be a huge downhill section on an old mining road. The lights I used reflected too much off the chalk-like dust of the road and we were all riding by feel of the road rather than seeing where we were going. At one point when I crossed a small stream I looked back to see Mayte come down the hill and she looked as if she was vertical. About then I knew the sleep monsters were getting to me and simply kept going till the morning when we could see better and when the sun seemed to wake us up.
This section was also a lot of sand, especially when we rode into a big valley as dawn approached. I cannot count the number of times I fell on that section as I wanted to ride and not push the bike in the sand, though we did push the bike a lot.
As dawn came up we came upon Claire and Nicki of Team Hilarious who were camped out along the road trying to get some sleep. Both were frozen and their backpacks had a layer of ice on them. As a group we all got going and made it to CP17 then continued to CP18 and the transition to the last big trek section. Hilarious were to join us in the last canyon as their compadre Christina had to drop from the team with a suspected broken leg earlier in the race. However, when we were ready to depart they made the decision to call it a race and go to the post race party rather than trek for 12 more hours (smart gals).
Reading changes to the kayak section – photo by Carlos Ramos
Seeing the crew at CP18 was good for us. We also had many friends come to that spot, so it was a pleasure to plan the last section of the race and listen to stories of the teams who had finished by that time. From the times in this last canyon we knew it would be difficult, and one of the lead teams had gotten lost for 4 hours so we knew navigation would again be important. But it was daylight and we could follow other teams trails (so we reasoned).
Sassy and high spirited as we head into the final canyon – photo by Carlos Ramos
With renewed spirit and an estimate of just 12-15 hours more of racing we entered Santa Clara canyon for a 25K trek which ultimately took us 8 hours. The upper twists of the canyon snaked back on each other and we cut across small saddles to take a more direct route, often following the trail of racers before us. At this point we were ahead of one team and believed they were very close to us so we moved as quickly as we could. The further we moved into the canyon the tougher it got. There was more water from tributaries and the vegetation was thicker as we moved downstream. At the same time those tracks from earlier racers were disappearing on us, to appear only occasionally then fade away.
By the time we were half way through the canyon we were walking on rocks and the 4 plus days of being on our feet through desert sand, huge canyon boulders and wet creeks was making all of us limp along. Victor had bandaged his ankle best he could and was resolute in keeping going. Three teams had dropped out of the race, and one was behind us, but none of that mattered as we were determined to finish this beast.
As we neared CP19 we had to break out our emergency headlamps to find our way, and just as we were wondering how to go the final kilometer we saw lights ahead as one of the checkpoint crew was looking to see if he could see any lights coming. We exited the canyon and learned that the final section of the race had been modified due to stormy seas. We were asked to ride the bikes a final 30K and go directly to the finish line where they were already holding the awards ceremony which had been brought forward a day.
The last ride was very strange for me. We had a support vehicle following us and the headlights shone on everything which had dust attached which made it look as if you were riding down a cobblestone street with the trees on the side highlighted as if they were buildings. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe what I saw was real. But the weirdest was the 11 river crossings we had to make. We knew they were coming as we could see water on the road from cars coming up the road, but when we got to them there was no reflection and they were just black holes we rode into. We had no idea of the depth, but figured if a car was fording them we could ride through them. With a quick change to a lower gear and the legs pumping we used blind faith to cross these sections of road.
Following specific directions we peddled to the finish line at the Corona Hotel on the waterfront in Ensenada some 4 days and 11 hours after we started. We arrived just as the party was ending so had all the racers, crews and workers there to cheer our finish.
At the finish line in our new jerseys – delivered after the race started
Photo copyright Jacqueline Windh (www.windhphotos.com) reporting for sleepmonsters.com
It was a great finish for our team and we would like to thank the Rosquillas family, Antonio, Jaime and their respective wives and children who work this, a big thanks Paul and Karen who do a tremendous job organizing and finding routes and all the behind the scenes things they do while putting together a very challenging race. More thanks to all the volunteers who took time out of their busy schedules to allow us to do this race for our enjoyment. We hope our crew (and all crews for that matter) had a good time in supporting us as we got grumpy and demanding while we moved from the start to the end of the race, with very little sleep.
Thanks also to the sponsors of the race, to Sole Custom Footbeds who was the tile sponsor, and to MyTopo maps who reproduced the INEGI maps on waterproof paper, and the many other sponsors I have not mentioned. There are so many things that go into making this a good race and a great event. I hope all the racers liked the Baja as our team likes the Baja.
Thank you also to those who took photos which I have included in this article.
My last thanks are to my team mates who worked to get to the finish line as a team. While I was the designated navigator it was Victor and Mayte who pulled us through the confused times and who scouted the route on many occasions.
It was a tough race, but very rewarding to say we completed it. After a few weeks of rest we will be out there again enjoying this crazy sport they call Adventure Racing.
Gracias a todos.
