Adventure Racing

SOGGY BOTTOM 6-HOUR BIKE-O

February 26, 2011
By Phil Dawson

            “Richmond ASR: Raging Burritos” fielded a team of two for this race.  Daniel Rodriguez and I drove down to Surry, VA early that Saturday to join race director Mark Montague and his merry band of adventure planners for a fun ride in the country.  Tim Dunkum was also down there helping Mark run the show by volunteering to man the orienteering section at Pipsico Scout Reservation.  The weather was perfect.

            Unfortunately, right from the beginning, Mark had misplaced some maps.  So after some initial scrambling, plotting of some points, and altering of race courses we were racing by 10AM.  We were going to have to do a lollipop-type race course in and around Claremont, Virginia and something called Sunken Meadow Pond.  Because of the initial map snafu, it was difficult to get our bearings.  We skipped the first point because we really couldn’t get a good idea where we were on Route 610; but putting together some field borders, road intersections, and reentrants we quickly found the second point and from then on were on a roll. We attacked the course counterclockwise and slowly reeled them in. 

            Claremont is an interesting place.  It’s a small town situated on a bluff overlooking the James and therefore a small vacation spot for those without means.  You see beautiful views of the river blocked by trailers, chained barking dogs, and multiple front-yard cars.  Get the picture?  Some of the points seemed to be on private property and we gingerly stepped by huge dogs in pens that probably wouldn’t hold them if they wanted to jump.  Mark later informed us that he had talked to all these property owners but we didn’t know that at the time. CP 30 even had its own crazy dude who threatened to shoot a few racers if they encroached on his property.  Turns out it wasn’t his property.  Mark had to quickly erect a sign warning us not to go after CP30.  A few other points near Claremont Manor, rumored to be owned by the feudal lord-like Mr. Kirby, had a ranger-type guy driving around in his Jeep informing us that we were trespassing.   It certainly added color and good post-race stories.  By choosing the counterclockwise route we avoided a lot of this local color and were thankful for it. 

            The points were well placed, fun to get to (some in retrospect), sometimes in swamps, sometimes on steep hillsides, and forced us to keep a close track of our position at all times.  At four hours in, we started to keep a closer eye on the clock.  A few trips through mild briar patches slowed us down, but we were still on track.  Unfortunately, we did run out of time and had to by-pass CP 18.  We got all the others.  Our last conquest was CP 14.  This was the point that was difficult to find due to the map problem at the beginning.  We were counting minutes, checking intersections, measuring distances, and Daniel nailed it.  We dropped bikes, walked into the woods and there it was.  We had given ourselves five minutes to find it and now had 3 minutes to spare.  The ride back was fast, but with an ever-present head wind, and we beat the cut-off by 6 minutes.  Some delicious stew and barbecue (Daniel doesn’t like vinegar BBQ by the way!) got our energy levels back and we drove home knowing we’d done pretty well.  “Too Many Kids” was there too, so we figured we hadn’t won.  Turns out we got third overall.  Not bad for a beautiful ride in the country.   

                                                                                    Phil Dawson