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/

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!  

The plan was to meet at the sports basement in SF next to Chrissy Field at or about 6:00 PM.  The “we” of the group of misfits consisted of John Turner, Hani Juha and your humble author…KR.We left a vehicle in the Sports basement parking lot and then proceeded to drive to our starting location, which was the Pantoll walk-in campground on Mount Tamalpais.  John promised us an 18 hour session. 

The course was revealed with a sea to summit and a summit to bay type path with lots of meandering inbetween.  The first leg was a downhill trek.  The dipsea trail was the main route of choice for the drop to the ocean.  We did a small amount of bushwhacking and game trail traveling in order to cross between the trail and highway 1.  A short saddle with steep drop offs on either side was the highlight for me on this leg.  Upon reaching the beach we did two night rappels of a length of approximately 100 feet.  The ocean surf was pounding in the back ground, with virtually no moon light, giving the exercise a dark shadows’ feel. 

We continued the trek climbing back to our TA (Pantoll campground).  The transition was a bit slow, because we needed to unlock our bikes, switch out gear, ride about a mile prior to realizing I left my keys (would need them to drive the vehicle left at the sports basement back) and then returning back to the campground prior to starting the bike leg again.  The bike leg took us on a bunch of illegal single track on Tam prior to going up and over the summit (stopped to take in the dawn) and riding into Ross.  The drop to Ross was about 2000 feet on fire roads that had several fun rock gardens.  We stopped in Ross for coffee and bagels prior to continuing on the short ride to Sea Trek for the beginning of the kayak session.

We kayaked on the bay, around both Angel and Alcatraz islands, dodging ferries and other obstacles, prior to fighting a strong ebb tide back into Sausalito and the Sea Trek harbor.  The bay was calm and uneventful, outside of some worthy chop on the Alcatraz side of Angel Island.   We did a quick transition upon exiting the water and completed the event with a short ride over the gate prior to finishing at the Sports basement parking lot.  The course took us 17 hours and 50 minutes to complete, a very well laid out course, The details in short are as follows (and approximate): 13 miles of trekking, 35 on mountain bike and 12 on the kayak, with about 6500 feet of elevation.

A great way to start off the weekend!  

Cold day in Tiberon! Wow, but what a cool group of people to literally ‘hang-out’ with. Saturday the 9th we met up with the California Alpine Guides’ Scott and Commala and learned the basics for our soon-to-be expedition race in Moab, Utah. Will Gilmore the AdventurePac leader of PacWestAthletics organized the event for the AdventurePac beginner team and then invited others along.

There were a few dirty avocados there as well, and for a brief period, I thought they were ok people. (just kidding, these people are ok most of the time )

Check out California Alpine Guides for more information on classes, trips and places to go.

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiOvpJx22cQ

This Labor Day weekend I was able to head off to Oregon to visit a friend for a few days. During the mini-vacation I was able to do some trek training and even taught my friend wilderness navigation skills. We were able to to hike in a coastal rainforest near Ecola State Park; here we followed mostly trails but went off trail through one section. Off-trail in coastal Oregon (and I’d imagine Washington and British Columbia) is an interesting experience - the vegetation is very thick and moisture makes everything very soggy. This means that there is some question that the log you are about to step on will hold your weight and in many instances it did not. However, the coastal forests were a nice change from the high deserts of Reno, Nevada and it was nice to actually practice bushwhacking with real live bushes rather than relying on my usual “sagewhacking” techniques. We also headed to Mt. Hood to hike on the Timberline Trail and to get some alpine-style experience. I tested out wearing my Under Armor leggings (which I bought last winter but only used once) and they worked great as well as testing out a Buff headscarf. The Buff is an interesting article of clothing popularized by old-school Eco-Challengers and I believe it did a sufficient job in keeping the sweat out of my eyes. The temperature wasn’t too cold so I will be interested to see how a Buff does in sub-32F temperatures. Will the moisture freeze to my scalp? Either way, I think the Under Armor and the Buff will be a perfect addition to my repetoire for Moab 3-day race in case we head up in to the La Salle Mountains.

On the way back from Oregon I stopped off for an overnight trip at Lassen National Park. My intention was to summit Lassen Peak and so after camping at Summit Lake South campsite I rose early in the morning to nab the summit. My goal was to be the first up there in the morning but unfortunately as I neared the top two people intersected my path while coming down. I gotta wake up earlier next time! I did the trail in race clothing and race pack and charged the peak at a bit less than race pace. For a 5 mile distance with ~2000ft of ascent and ~2000ft descent I did the peak in 2hrs 5minutes with that 5 minutes being the summit stop. After a bit of rest at the parking lot and a stop to see some of the geothermal action of sulfur pots my vacation was over however I think a return to Lassen NP is in order in the near future. I’ve heard the nordic ski touring there is awesome…