Cyclepath Adventure Racing

My friend Joel and I got a chance to head up to Anderson Peak this week. The peak, at 8683ft, turned out to be an arduous goal.  We were out in the hills for a 4 mile trek in and a 4 mile trek out. This took us 11 hours.  We ended up kickstepping our way to the summit which worked out pretty well but with not having ice axe and crampons we had to be pretty careful.  Got a chance to see some beautiful cornices and some interesting rock features and mark down my 11th Tahoe peak.   We ended up coming back in the dark - some fun and interesting night navigation!

Pictures located here: http://www.randyfranklin.com/pictures/anderson_jan_2007/

From the how-come-we-never-saw-this-before department comes a great website entitled Energy Fiend. These guys are obsessed with caffeine in various foods and drinks…they even have a searchable database of the amount of caffeine and sugar for various sodas and energy drinks. With the comparative line-up of all the sodas I guess it’s no surprise to see something called “Cocaine Energy Drink” coming out on top with 280 milligrams of caffeine in their 8.4 ounce can. Maybe we can just use solely this stuff for the next 3-day adventure race?

I had a notion that Aussies had a crazy tendency, but I didn’t know they’d plant an orienteering course in an abandoned mental asylum.

Sydney Orienteering

Jan 15, Callan park. Starting times are between 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. It’s 35° C. Or somewhere near there. It’s HOT.

Primary goal is to pick up a southern hemisphere compass so I can brag at orienteering events at home that I raced ‘down under’. No such luck. These guys wouldn’t take my money, and wouldn’t sell a compass. I was expecting a sort of BAOC type of fair with wizened, profiteering dude hawking nylon pants. No such thing at Callan park. All navigation was done by landmarks and map reading. God help me.

Darcy and Amelia decided to take their late afternoon and play in the park watching the various fitness-minded Australians do their thing. Wow. Lot of fit people in Sydney.

I register and sign in. I mention my origin and looked for place to enter my club name (BAOC!!!) but didn’t see the place to enter it (and didn’t ask). Looking at the results it appears that there was a means to enter in the name… Ah well.

Very good course. FAST people with good aim. I came in somewhere near the middle. I was proud of my time too… Dang it.

So no compass. No physical proof that I was there except for the map. Neat place to race. The grounds are a historic part of Sydney and the 1800 architecture was cool to look at.

One thing I couldn’t find anywhere in Sydney (not that I was looking very hard) was an Outback steakhouse. Go figure. Apparently Australians just don’t know good australian food.

This past Friday night I decided to do a solo trek as training for Baja Travesia. I started my little adventure at 5:30 P.M. My initial plan was to go 15 miles and attempt to complete the route in 5 hours. Darkness fell relatively shortly after I began. The first mile was in a residential area then the trail led me into the outskirts of a park system. I attempted to walk briskly through the first single track only to turn an ankle twice. The last thing I wanted was a major strain. I lowered the light beam towards my feet and slowed my pace somewhat. I turned the light off as I came out of the forested area and returned to a fire road system.

After about 2 hours I drank an energy drink and ate some gu (not the best combination). By my estimate I was only about a third of the way through my self imposed course. I felt compelled to pick up the pace and ran as the mood took me, which meant; the flats and downhills. I am wearing my full expedition pack with climbing harness and all other mandatory gear for the upcoming race. My pace is between 10 and 11 minute miles while running.

I climbed several fences which were obviously built to keep everyone but Karl out. My course was circular in design. Part of it crossed through a new golf course construction area where I used to run my dog. Now it is both gated and secured. I have not been in this area for several years and found many changes to the area including additional bridges, lakes and other aesthetic upgrades that were designed/created in such a way as to maximize the natural landscape around them.

I had my route marked out on our topographical map software with Cynthia just in case something odd occurred and i did intend to stay on it, but…IT appeared to me to be a perfect opportunity for some cross-country travel.  I wanted to avoid some nasty cow areas and therefore crossed a meadow prior to dropping 300 feet to the valley floor by way of a ridge/finger. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I had only been in this area once before and it was during daylight, over a year ago. So something odd happened, I went down the wrong ridge line.

It’s about 11:00 P.M. when I enter the forest. The chaparral area disappeared relatively quickly (hmm). I’m following a game trail that completely disappears after a hundred yards. By this point I lost a significant amount of elevation and it couldn’t be that much further to the road. Besides who wants to back track anyway? Especially uphill! So on I go. The land gets steeper and denser. I am trying to stay under trees but keep getting pushed out into the undergrowth.
The undergrowth gets so dense that for about 15 yards I am crawling on my belly. My trekking poles in front of me (playing GI Joe in my head) until I come out into a clearing of sorts. The terrain is too steep to keep going the same direction. I turn left and walk about 15 yards (my only light is my headlamp) everything is kind of misty. My breath is causing fog affecting my vision. Nope no good, looks like a berry patch or something (not even crawling through that). Turn around and go right and find a tiny game trail that allows me to get away from the cliff area (whew). The game trail was treacherous for a short piece and I had to commit, but it all turned out well. The brush clears away and the terrain is not as steep. I’m not where I think I should have been because I never hit the fire road I was looking for. I pulled out my compass and found out I was heading North when I wanted to be going West. I surmised I was in a canyon perpendicular to the one I wanted. Made a sudden left hand turn and walked for less than 100 yards prior to finding my fire road…My chest puffed I was the proud adventurer!
Final statistics as follows:
· 17.3 miles
· 3000 vertical feet
· 6 hours of travel time
And yes, that dense brush apparently was poison oak!  

Our very own Karl and Cynthia Royer have been featured over on BAARBD.org - check out the great write up (and great photos) at: http://www.baarbd.org/community/forum/view_topic?topic_id=356