Team CyclePath: Karl and Cynthia Royer, Brandon Nugent and Randy Franklin
WARNING: This piece has been written by all four teammates and therefore is extremely lengthy; continue at your own risk…
The story tellers.
Cyn’s Commentary
One mile from CP 6 Brandon looks at me and says, “you’re bashing through the bush like you own it now”. I was a little hesitant at the beginning of the race especially since Dan said there were many rattlers in the area and that they were oddly AGGRESSIVE and would come after you as well. “That’s because we haven’t seen a rattler…uh knock on wood,” as if knocking on wood somehow helps. Brandon instinctively points out a log and I give it a little knock, afraid of what might happen if I don’t. Not even 5 seconds later I hear, “Cyn, STOP!” I look up and there is Randy with his hand doing the international hand sign for stop. “What’s up?” I say. “You need to stop and go into the river and follow the bank,” Randy says with contained excitement in his voice. “Why, what’s up?” I had to ask. Randy, not missing a beat says, “There’s a rattlesnake on the trail and you need to go around”. No problem I think as I quickly jump down to the rivers edge. Randy comes over to “escort” me around the venomous serpent. I couldn’t help but think what a fitting end to an epic adventure, but I’ve gotten ahead of myself a bit…
We were in the midst of a new experience for us…. not only were we going to race as a four person team for the first time but we had to bring someone willing to give up their weekend and work there arss off to be our “support” crew all for little pay (well a room for the night, some food and major feet kissing for life). Karl’s sister, Pat, was the perfect victim, I mean volunteer, for this race. Didn’t matter to her that she had never crewed before. (Thanks to all who helped her out…she was taught a lot that will help us in the future…the AR community is AWESOME without doubt!!)
The one i owe feet kissing for life, sister Pat.
To get to race headquarters in Kernville from Hwy 99 required us to drive along the absolutely gorgeous, but thoroughly intimidating Kern River. I looked out the window at the massive rapids below and commented to Karl, “It looks like self-rescue is one of the disciplines in this race because those rapids are a bit more than Class I.”
Once we arrived it appeared the rapids varied from Class I to Class 2+. Had there been some major obstacles in the river it could easily been rated a Class III. The river was flowing at about 5,800 cfs and in some distinct areas the rapids were at least 3-4 feet in height. Being pretty decent kayakers, Karl and I felt semi-OK. Our teammates were not as blasé in their thought process…I think they were a bit concerned.
Members of the Dirty Avocados (a regional fav) sporting their spiffy jerseys!
After checking in, tossing a Frisbee (to find out who kayaks first in a staggered start, we ended up 3rd from last) and attending the pre-race meeting, we received our maps. Teams were given 20 minutes to go over their maps, move their kayaks in line and be equipped and ready to paddle. During the pre-race meeting we were told that there was a route that Dan Barger drew onto the master map to help get to CP 3, though we would need to transfer it onto our map. We were also given some beta about the river that confirmed our assessment during an earlier scouting session.
We just look like we’re confused.
The staggered start was in 30-second intervals, 30 seconds to get in the kayak, secure your spray skirt, (definitely needed) align your paddle, and shove off. Everything was moving way to quickly…3…2…1…go. I am struggling to secure my spray skirt all the while trying not to lose my paddle in the process. It was decided earlier that Karl and I would be in the lead kayak and that I would be in back navigating the lines we would take. I feel someone starting to push us out, trying to be helpful…“wait”, I say a bit panicky; “I can’t get my spray skirt on.” No worries, 10 seconds later, were going…ready or not! No turning back…we are committed.
Randy and Brandon
We get pass the first set of rapids with relative ease. Made the left turn…piece of cake… and then we see the river has already begun claiming her victims. Teams and their kayaks are strewn along the banks. No time to panic…here comes the next set…hey this is fun! Next set…oops, almost dumped, but was able to brace and prevent taking the frigid swim. I start to think we may make it through after all. Hey now! Another set…almost done…looks like one more section…holly s;it…there are 4 footers slamming into us from every direction. I try and steer us to the right where the better line is, but it’s too late…were going for a whitewater swim and at some point Randy did as well. And so it goes…Karl and I holding onto the kayak and our paddles but can’t see over the kayak to see what’s coming. Suddenly, I slide too far down the nose of the kayak and end up getting swept away. I hold onto my paddle for dear life. Karl is going to have to bring this baby in alone. Thank God he is strong. Were getting tossed about for a bit while trying to remain calm and not drown (holding your nose helps) in the swift rapids until we can find an eddy where we can regroup. Once we were safe at an eddy (where we met up with Brandon who made it through in spite of a nearly submerged kayak, and Randy who had made it to an eddy and was walking along the bank) we emptied the water out of the kayaks using the only bilge pump we had left as we watched other teams go bobbing by. We were through the worst of it…just a little bit further down and the rest of the leg would be on Lake Isabella. The lake crossing turned out to be fairly interesting as well. Strong gale force headwinds greeted us at the mouth along with 2-3 foot swells. Challenging, but we made it. And to our surprise we were the 10th team off the water (out of 15). We were thrilled!
Karl’s Commentary
It is now my turn to narrate this tale of high adventure. As we came over the final summit prior to dropping into CP 6, we were all stunned by the most remarkable of views. To the left I saw white snow capped mountains. In my minds eye they were the white mountains of Gondor. Ah, but I digress as I am prone to do if left to my own devices…
At one point while holding onto our kayak and floating down the river I noticed a Simon River Sport paddle opposite the kayak. It just so happens I too have a Simon River Sport paddle. So, whoever you were…I saw you (your paddle anyway)! From what we observed not many teams made it through this section unscathed. Having a smiling face meet us at the TA was a welcomed site. Our transition was chaotic. This entire crew thing is new to us and it showed. We did not prepare Pat for all that was involved because to be honest we didn’t know ourselves. Twenty-five minutes later, our transition complete, we headed out feeling pretty darn good about things.
Lost in Transition
We began the bike section by crossing a dam and climbing 1,500 feet. We stopped once for both gear and bodily fluid adjustments prior to reaching the single path turn off. Our bike light batteries were craftily stored on Randy’s bike rack. Unfortunately the idea in practice didn’t work out as good as in theory. The storage container kept bouncing off effectively stopping our momentum.
Our team inadvertently forgot to mark Dan’s hand drawn cutover trail to CP 3 on our map. This oversight could have had us climbing all the way to 6,000 feet prior to dropping via the cross over route if it had not been for the timely arrival of another team. In my best “I want to contribute voice, I said something like “um, how come they’re going that way?” Cyn remembered the pre-race briefing enough that after a quick caucus and straw poll we decided to get on our bikes and follow the other teams.
Although the kayak ride was very enjoyable in an adrenalin rush type way, this next section had my vote for best part of the course. It was a fun yet steep single/double track. There were several deep ruts and round rollie thingie dingies, deep trenches and berms. This trail had plenty of areas to punch it, pitch it and slide! The next section was made up of a 4-mile single track traverse. As dusk settled upon us I occasionally heard the voice of my wife’s critter shriek (see/hear critter at dusk = shriek), which I tend to ignore (unless it has the special tone). This track had areas of tall waist deep chaparral type grass. The roadside ground would disappear at times and sure enough Cyn had to fall off her bike to go exploring, which was when I got to hear “the special tone”. After deciding falling off the side of a cliff isn’t as fun as one might think we proceeded at a more careful pace through this section.
Not having marked our map required us to stop several times along this leg to hunt for CP 3 until we spoke with Barry St. Germain (racing solo), who graciously shared his map with us. We found the necessary 4-wheel drive road shortly thereafter and dropped our bikes. The descent to CP 3 was along the road and encompassed a 500-foot elevation drop. The CP was unique in the fact we got to snap our pictures with a camera hanging from an orienteering flag.
Upon returning to our bikes, we began the 3,000-foot climb up to the ridge. We stopped at the summit to share some food. Brandon was nice enough to share a Serrano pepper with me and said something about how it helps to keep you awake. He said, “Take a large bite, I have plenty” or some such statement like that and…I did. I took a large bite “like a champion” (our mantra for the race, which came about when Brandon and Randy pulled into their camping spot and commented on parking “like a champion”). Our team was very amused as the smoke began billowing from my ears while I was cursing, ranting and spitting out the pepper whilst guzzling large quantities of precious water. Let’s just say it was the hottest, meanest, pepper I have ever encountered. Let it be known here and now…Brandon has a mischievous sense of humor. And he was right…it did keep me awake for a very long time!
It was a relatively short tabletop ride along the summit to the CP 4, which we promptly missed. A short backtrack and there it was. A few meters up the road we dropped the bikes, another few meters to the top of the knoll and viola! It just feels good getting those silly markers. Wahoo, a quick ride to the road and…wait, where is the road? No problem for our ace navigation team, just grab the bearing, exit stage left, through the woods over the ditch and back onto the road.
It is now early morning; just prior to dawn and the temperature is dropping. We stopped to wrap Brandon up (mummy style) in his space blanket. We thought this was somewhat amusing (you had to be there), prior to the descent into TA 2. At the transition, Pat (who had learned a great deal during the 12 hours we were gone), greeted us with warm food and gear out and ready to go. Debra who crews for the Dirty Avocados took Pat under her wing and showed her the ropes. In addition Maureen, Maria and a dozen others provided her with advice and help as needed.
Brandon’s Commentary
Who knew my feet needed to be broken in? Didn’t discover this until ¾ of the way into the trek, but I guess they’ll be better off for the next race. All I can say is ‘WOW, that was painful’.
In a way it was good. It was a competing distraction for the terrain we were covering. Hardest trek I have EVER done. Of course, I also learned thru this trek that if my pack wasn’t loaded with my requisite gear for surviving Armageddon, I would have moved a bit lighter with a touch more speed.
Team Cyclepath was there for me though. Karl with his “Isn’t pain great?” To Randy with his: “oooh those are bad feet”. The only person that wasn’t saying a lot about this was Cynthia, who, from what I could tell also had some feet trouble. The only difference was that she wasn’t complaining like I was!
I could have removed a couple items from my pack. One: the Serrano peppers. No one in their right mind would have eaten those things in the kind of heat we were hiking in. That’s simply a death wish. Two: the bike tools. That was just lameness. Although the multi-tool did come in handy for removing a tick… And three: a lighter pack. My pack weighs twice as much as Karl’s it turns out. Time to do some shopping it sounds like.
The orienteering section, which would have been difficult at night, proved relatively mild for us in the day. We were able to spot the O-checkpoints from a distance and we tracked right to them. For us it made sense to grab as many as we could, and after nailing the first one, we progressed to the next, and then the final one. We were sorry to leave such a green and cool valley, especially once we made it half way up that hill!
Over the course of the trek, the one thing that would continuously pop-up (besides Randy’s quotes of Jim Gaffigan) would be our experiences on the kayak. Phrases like: “I can’t believe we paddled that”, to “I can’t believe we did that” to, “Randy, you abandoned ship like a champion!”
Actually, Randy did jump out of the kayak, but that’s only because we both knew the boat was going down with his cockpit full of water. It was a mutual survival agreement. It was sheer luck and stubbornness that I managed to reach shore without rolling the boat. It was an odd site sitting in the back of the double kayak seeing what should have been Randy’s back, only now a large pool of water.
So to end my commentary: yes, I have a naughty streak, and will opt for a practical joke whenever my brain has enough juice to come up with one. But this race left me with very little to work with – very tough! Something I will take with me on future races.
Our team worked well together and we laughed a lot. I might have verged on OCD a couple times regarding a CP’s assumed right or wrong location, but we managed to tag them all. Nice job Cyclepath!
Randy’s Commentary
As Brandon had mentioned we had a bit of an interesting time with our tandem boat during the whitewater section. I had actually jumped out of the boat because it was becoming submerged. We had tried to paddle the boat into an eddy but the eddy currents were too weak and our boat was too long so we ended up getting swept out (also, during the middle of this we lost the bilge pump in a poorly coordinated handoff). Downriver of the eddy was a strainer that neither of us felt very inclined to hit…. there was no way the boat could make it through the strainer but there was a good chance a person could. I jumped out of the boat and swam hard for the eddy. Brandon veered past the strainer toward river right and was soon out of sight. I ended up getting pushed out of the eddy and tried to calm myself as the strainer was nearing. I swung my body to face the strainer and aggressively swam toward it with the idea that the extra momentum would help me “launch over” the nasty bits. This is exactly what happened. I ended up rolling through a few more wavetrains before finally finding an opportunity to hit the bank on river left. I pulled myself through some submerged trees and started trek along the sandy bank. I felt so immediately exhausted and I knew that the cold water had taken a toll on me. I was hoping hypothermia wouldn’t be a problem – thankfully the air temperature was warm that day. As I ran south down the riverbank I realized that I was on an island in the middle of the river. I had reached the point where the left fork and right fork meet at the south tip of the island. This meant I was going to have to jump back in the river again. I was not very happy with this thought plus I wasn’t exactly sure where my team was – it was slightly possible they had beached upriver of me. I took the chance and jumped in, this time pointing my feet downstream in the appropriate manner. After a bit of floating along I was able to hit the real river bank on the left and started a slow slog down toward the mouth of the river. After a minute or two I noticed Brandon running up toward me. Immediately I slowed down thankful to see a familiar face but then he shouted, “Run! Hurry up”. We were then able to meet back up with Karl and Cyn and get things back in order for the paddling section – I was glad to see that everyone was okay –just a little wet and cold but we were raring to go.
Now, aside from that little adventure on the whitewater section, I’ll give my recount of the second half of the trek. Soon after walking along the road in the “alpine” section of the race the map pointed us downhill toward CP 6. The latter half of the trek was intended to be on trail following a ridgeline above the Tobias Creek Canyon. Apparently this trail had been used during a Cal Eco race in 2003 but in the past few years the land has shifted and the trail has become overgrown. At the top of the ridge where the trail meets the road things had started out great but even in the flat section I could tell this trail was going to be a hassle to follow. The idea is that you would follow diamond blazes and could compare where you were going on the map but definitely wasn’t that easy in practice. Many times we would follow the trail only to cliff out by a series of boulders or vegetation that was too dense to bushwhack through. We would follow a dirt patch only to find that it ran into the base of a boulder and would have to backtrack up the hill to try and regain the trail. Many times the trail would tease us with a diamond blaze only to peter out a few feet beyond the blaze itself! This was probably one of the hardest bushwhacks our team members have ever done and we’ve bushwhacked in the poison oak filled chaparral of the Bay Area, in the thorns of the East coast hardwood forests, and across the outback of Tasmania. Our team had to really band together at this point and focus to get down this nasty ridgeline. And that is exactly what we did.
At the bottom of the ridgeline we were greeted with a wicked maze of reentrants, seasonal rivers, and a jumble of rocks. We decided it was time to take a break. Our hope was the trail would’ve opened up once we were down here and it would fast track us to the transition area. After our break we wandered around and backtracked for quite a while trying to determine the best way out of the thick until finally we banded together to get ourselves past a particularly wide and fast moving part of the river. This was our shining moment as a team as Karl was able to jump out and brace himself on a large boulder and the rest of us formed a moving chain to get across. When we finally made it across it was a cathartic experience though we still needed to find the way out. When we were bushwhacking down from the ridgeline we could see what we thought was a nice wide trail from the top. We were aiming for that trail but as it turned out it was up the side of a Class IV climb. Again we sat and debated our situation as the frustration mounted – not at each other – but with the heat, hills, and tiredness. Eventually we found the Tobias Creek trail – it was running east of the canyon…a flat section and climbed up the hillside gradually. We could tell it would drop us down to the TA - CP 6 and to the Kern River. We were getting very excited at the thought of soon seeing our support crew, Pat.
When we came out of the end of the canyon we all looked back at the nasty ridge we had come down. We all agreed that this section of the race was brutal and we were in fact very proud of our team and of ourselves. Around this time we heard someone on a side trail. It was Maria, one of the race directors. She was the tip of the spear on the search and rescue operation that was going to take place at some point. We had been out for nearly 27 hours and Dan and Maria (not to mention Pat) were very worried. Maria was elated to see us (as we were her) and offered us a much needed bottle of Gatorade. We regaled her with our stories of the course and mentioned that we had grabbed all the O-course checkpoints – she joyfully told us we were the only team to have done so. She also mentioned that this race was a small taste of a Primal Quest experience and we all felt like we had really accomplished a lot this day.
Now that Maria had verified our safety she ran back to the TA to inform Dan and others of our whereabouts. Team Cyclepath was left on it’s own to finish the last mile of trekking. This is when we suddenly encountered the rattlesnake that Cynthia mentioned at the beginning of this report. The snake had actually reared up like a cobra with its fangs out and was hissing. I’d never seen anything like that before and it definitely put the fear in me. We hustled past the snake and tramped through a campground and finally met up with Pat who had already packed our gear and was ready to take us down to Kernville and back to civilization. We ended up being short-coursed (which meant we avoided the final bike down the road). We were all okay with that. We had done well that day and in our mind Team Cyclepath was…
“like a champion”.
Cyn’s final thoughts
Like a champion…I laugh now with the echo of that phrase being uttered throughout our race. Yep, we felt like champions that day. We may not have started the race as a cohesive team, but by the end we were. We learned a lot and it will serve us well in the future. The fact that there are people willing to make sacrifices to make a race happen (race directors, family, support crew, land owners etc) makes us appreciate every step we take towards the finish line. Not always easy, but definitely worth the fight in the end.
And speaking of the end…we end by saying thank you to our sponsor Joel Davis and his staff at Cyclepath in Hayward www.cyclepath.com without whose support and constant encouragement our journey into this sport would be far different than it has turned out to be.
Enjoy the journey!
Team Cyclepath
Maps
Race Topo
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