Team DarkGlobe - Adventure Racing - Lillooet - Lunatic Fringe - 24 Hour

Team DarkGlobe

Adventure Racing Team

Lunatic Fringe Adventure Race
Saturday, August 9, 2003
Lillooet, BC, Canada

Date: Saturday, August 9th, 2003
Location: Lillooett, BC, Canada
Entry Fee: $300 CAD Per Team of Two Member
Race Start Time: 12:00pm
Check In Time: 7:00am
Duration: 24 Hours
Distance: 80 - 120 Km
Disciplines: Paddling, Mountain Biking, Trekking, Navigation
Support Crew: Supplied
Divisions: Coed Teams of 4, Various Other Classes
Banquet Location: Tyax Lodge
Website: The Lunatic Fringe

Registered:

Gerry Chicalo

Geoff Dyck

Craig McConnell (race volunteers)

Preparation Notes:

Waiver Form

Mandatory Gear List

For the 24 hour race, it looks like we have everything we need except:

2 launching flares

human waste shovel

I will get these items at MEC.

Paddling

You will be paddling canoes on non-technical flat water. 2 person teams and solo's will receive 1 canoe. All canoes will not be identical and canoes will go first come first served as you reach the paddle transition.

Race HQ

Race HQ is located near the BC Hydro campsite on Carpenter Reservoir at Gun Creek. This is a great campsite with basic facilities.

From Pemberton: Follow the signs to Meager Creek and Gold Bridge. This road travels over the Hurley Pass, a rugged gravel road that is better suited to trucks than cars. It can be very rough, lots of loose gravel, washboard and dust. When in doubt follow the signs to Tyax Lodge as they are sometimes the most visible indicators that you are on the right road. The Gun Creek Hydro campsite is along the North shore of Carpenter Reservoir approximately 10 km from Gold Bridge. As you turn into the campsite there is a road immediately on your left, this road travels a few hundred meters to the site of our Race HQ.

Itinerary

Sat 07:00 AM - 09:00 AM : Sign In and Gear Check at Race HQ.

The more organized you are with your gear the faster this will go. It is recommended that you group your gear by discipline (biking, trekking, paddling) for faster processing.

Sat 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM : Course Review.

We will release the maps and review the course, answering questions as they are presented. Once the briefing is over teams have until 11:00 to review the course before we load the vehicles for transport to the start line.

Sat 11:00 AM : Transport to Start Line.

Do not be late, the convoy leaves at 11:15 sharp.

Sat 12:00 PM - RACE STARTS!

Sun 04:00 PM - Awards banquet at Tyax Lodge.

Dinner will be served at 5PM.

Expectations

The Lunatic Fringe Adventure Races are wilderness expedition style races of shorter durations. You will be accessing remote and rugged terrain and need to be prepared for all the risks that can entail. We have a series of checkpoints and a radio network to help us monitor your progress but you are entering a wilderness race. This is more true for the 24 hour than the 8 hour but all racers need to take responsibility for their own and their teams care while on the course. Treat this race as a remote backcountry trip and be prepared accordingly.

Gear List Changes

You must have a headlamp or bike light for the biking sections of the race, there is a good possibility that you will be cycling in the dark for part of the course.

The waterproof flashlight listed in the Paddling gear is now mandatory equipment for all sections of the race as part of your personal gear.

Life Jackets - I can provide life jackets with the rental boats.

Outcome

Did Not Finish in 28 Hours

CP00 to CP01

Just moments before the race started Cindy joined our team at the starting point at the boat launch at the Gun Creek Recreation Site on Carpenter Lake.

Wearing sandals we launched the canoes into relatively calm waters on Carpenter Lake. As we neared the main channel of Carpenter Lake the wind increased and small whitecaps appeared. Water began to wash into our canoe which we bailed out with our hands. We fashioned a bailer from a plastic pop bottle but it was quickly lost over the side by accident. Another team behind us recovered it. One canoe was sunk and the two participants tried to swim to shore. Finally another team stopped by and made a rescue. We made it to CP01 in third place. Team Go Big in first place and Natural Wonders in second. The Natural Wonders had a leaky canoe and was forced to make last minute duct tape repairs on the canoes and allowed us to leave CP01 in SECOND place.

CP01 to CP02

After leaving CP01 on Tyaughton Junction Recreational Site, this canoeing leg offered more rough lake water and fighting against a gusting wind. I was in the bow with a kayak paddle sitting on a very uncomfortable and awkward flat hard seat. Geoff was in the middle, sitting on the carrying yoke, also with a kayak paddle. Cindy was in the stern with a canoe paddle. We reached CP02 and the start of the trekking section in just under 6 hours in second place. (est. 45km)

CP02 to CP03

We made a quick transition at CP02 at the BC Hydro Bighorn Creek Campsite, and started up the Bighorn Creek Trail that was marked on the Backroad Mapbook that hopefully would lead us up to the train on the ridge. Terrain was with little underbrush and the occasional outcropping of deadfall. We crossed one small side gully and decided to turn away from the Bighorn Creek gulley when we reached the next side gulley and followed a easy-walking ridge uphill. Eventually the hill got steeper. This is where we found, and followed uphill, the mysterious ditch. It appeared to be about 8 feet across, 5 feet deep and went directly up the hill on a steep grade that make you think that there was no machine that could handle this terrain and dig this ditch. It did not appear that any water flowed down the ditch. Eventually the we veered away from the ditch as we neared a ridge of cliffs.

With a bit of difficulty we managed to climb the cliffs. Geoff was stung twice, and Gerry once, by underground-dwelling wasps. Finally we came out on a knoll where we could see the forested route in front of us and the craggy alpine ridge above that were we figured the route lay. Night broke on this hill. Geoff's light didn't work at all so he used Gerry's 3 bulb LED light. The light had gotten wet during the canoe section, drying the light out accordingly would have fixed the problem.

After a lot of uphill grunting we broke out of the tree line and climbed to the first summit of our target ridge. From there we could see other teams by their headlamps. One team was far below us on the other side of a large valley, one was on the far side of Bighorn Creek Gulley and one was directly ahead of us. We caught up to that team and followed them briefly. Then we veered off below them to try reach the pass in Shulaps Range Ridge. A lot of scree, gravel and a large assortment of weird-colored and different sized boulders. We could see race support person in the pass calling to us. By this point we had slipped to 4th place and at one point we were in 5th place.

Over the pass was a high altitude road that some sections were initially covered by rock avalanches. Finally we encountered water for the first time. Geoff started to feel sick. Gerry's wrist was sore from the paddling and Cindy developed at least one blister by this time.

CP03 to CP04

Craig had hot soup for us as we changed, resupplied and readied our bikes as this was the start of the very long mountain bike section. Two routes were available: through the maze of logging roads then hike-a-bike to and around Serpentine Lake to find the horse trail, or down the logging road to the Yalacom River Forest Service Road, along it and then back up the very high hill. Since Geoff was going to quit we talked him in to riding down the logging road to the Yalacom River Forest Service Road and then if he still wanted to quit we would radio in and proceed down the mainline logging road back to Carpenter Lake. We took a quick look at what we thought was the road to the Serpentine Lake hike-a-bike and quickly turned back as the road turned out to be a short skidder spur road.

It was a bit chilly riding down the logging road, and dark. We had serious lighting problems. None of our main battery packs were working. Luckily we had other options, but not as good as our main lighting systems. This is about when our eating and drinking discipline broke down completely. We were on a timed and alarmed 44 minute cycle which was circumvented by the conditions.

Daylight broke and we reached an active logging area just as a crew cab pickup drove past in the same direction we were going. It didn't make sense: why were they going to work down the hill to the main road. Soon we arrived where they were working and asked about where we were. Incredibly in the darkness of the night we had taken the wrong road and we mistakenly ended up at the end of the logging road leading to the Serpentine Lake hike-a-bike!

After getting some instructions from the friendly loggers we crossed the slash to the tree line and followed a grassy and open gulley as far as we could. Soon we could see orange flagging and followed it. We did not have to carry our bikes but merely push them. Occasionally we had to lift the bike over an obstacle, but rarely. The meadow-filled gulley gave way to a ridge, which we followed. We could see other recent boot prints and tire tracks along this ridge. Obviously another team was ahead of us on this route.

After traveling the estimated 1.3 kilometers we thought we saw the lake. Turns out it was not the lake. Eventually, after taking an educated guess, we headed to where we thought the main "road" on the top of the ridge would be. Very soon we came across the Serpentine Lake horse trail, which we followed. The horse trail took us uphill to the top of a spur ridge. It was there that we saw other racers that appeared to be coming down the ridge towards us. It was Team Natural Wonder.

We all headed towards CP04, near Rex Peak, on the grassy and barren valley bottom, passing numerous shallow gullies. Eventually Natural Wonder took a different route from us and we started down the Brett Creek Trail after verifying that there was no one at CP04 and radioing in, as per instructions. We decided on taking the Brett Creek Trail rather than the Hog Creek Trail.

CP04 to CP01

Brett Creek Trail led us across 2 major passes before starting over 4,000 feet of uninterrupted single track downhill. A couple of places people had cut down trees to block the trail. All of us had numerous wipe outs, especially in the sandy areas. Finally we came out at the bottom on the Marshall River Forest Service Road.

From here we road up the gentle slope of the Marshall River Forest Service Road to Marshall Lake where we to start on a trail through a pass then down a hill to CP01 on Carpenter Lake. We were to paddle back to the starting point from there.

We arrived at Marshall Lake and found a road that went around the backside of it. Eventually this road turned into a private road which we followed anyway. Dead end. We decided to abort this trail and ride the Marshall River Forest Service Road down to the main road along Carpenter Lake (paved) and head West on it to CP01. Just as we got back to the point were Brett Creek Trail came out on to the Marshall River Forest Service Road we once again encountered Team Natural Wonder. After radioing Murray, the Race Director, he called the race due to time. 28 hours. 4 hours past the 24 hour race format.

CP01 to CP00

The race was over before we got back to CP01 to start the last leg of the race.

Other teams quit at the end of the trekking section. One team started out on the mountain bike section but returned to CP03 after an hour.

Only Team Go Big made it to the finish in 23 hours. Apparently even they were lost at Serpentine Lake for about 3 hours.

Maps

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Map displays entire race course.

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Map displays entire trekking and biking section of course.

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Map displays entire trekking and biking section of course.

Hints

If opened, these hints would cost a 1 hour time penalty. We did not open them. We should have opened all of them immediately.

Click on any of these hints to enlarge image

We should have opened all 3 hints immediately since our race strategy was to finish the race, not rank.
This Trekking hint turned out to be almost exactly the route we took.

This partially destroyed hint describes the two possible routes to CP4 past Serpentine Lake.

This Biking hint from CP4 back to CP01. We ended up taking the Brett Creek Trail to the Marshall Lake Forest Service Road.

Pictures

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Team DarkGlobe Poses Before Race Start

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Carpenter Lake with Canoes Visible

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Crossing Paths with Team Natural Wonder

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Eating Break While Biking

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Geoff Rides Near CP4

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Geoff Rides the Brett Creek Trail