STORM THE EASTERN SHORE
ADVENTURE RACE
Kiptopeke State Park, VA
Sept 24-25, 2011
GPS Track: http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/86718
The Friday drive from Richmond was a mess! There were flash flood warnings; there was driving rain so hard you couldn’t see the white lines; there were flooded parts of the road that required driving directly over the yellow line so as to stay away from the curb….and there was traffic! With a little help from traffic-enabled GPS, Google maps, and some local knowledge, we made it to 226 Tazewell St in Cape Charles just in time for dinner – lovingly cooked by Wendy Cone. The rest of the evening consisted of the usual low-grade panic of packing and planning, but we were in bed at a reasonable hour.
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“Richmond ASR: Raging Burritos” included the usual suspects of Eric, Daniel, and me with the addition of my brother Robin who had flown down from Boston. He raced with us before at the ill-fated Rev3 AR back in April, where it had rained incessantly. The weather didn’t bode well for this race either and we were wondering if inviting him caused all the awful rain. Race weather proved to be much nicer than the drive from Richmond, so we’ll probably give him another chance.
Saturday was overcast with predictions of rain, but it was dry for the 9AM start. We were ready for the first trail section, complete with paddles and PFDs strapped to our backs. We took off south en mass, picking up a couple of easy checkpoints on the way to the kayak put-in at the Wise Point Boat Ramp. Then the race really began. We put-in about 10AM and wouldn’t be done with this section of paddling until 6PM!
We started northeast up the Virginia Inside Passage heading towards CP4 on the southern tip of Mockhorn Island, and then due east to small creek opening. We navigated pretty well to this point but it took a while to find the creek and the pink markers that Chris had planted in the marsh. It was very shallow everywhere and finally Eric spotted something that looked like a current coming out of the marsh. Then it was a task of navigating by satellite map, passing a couple more pink markers, and beaching the boats at CP5. We called Chris on the cell phone as instructed and began the out and back run southwest to CP7. We passed some teams coming back from CP7 and figured we were in about 6th position. Upon returning to CP5, just for giggles, Chris made us portage the boats northeast up the beach to CP8. I think the original idea had been a put-in at CP8, but the tide was out and we had to portage back to 5 and put-in there. A short trip to CP9 to see how many windows were on the northwest side of a house began our endless paddle up to Oyster Boat Ramp and CP10. This was a tough ordeal and led to our only “team grumble” as we had too many navigators with too many opinions. There was a rather quiet 15 minute cooling off period after that, but then we quickly started working together. Luckily the currents and winds were not too bad and we hit the ramp exhausted and with backs aching. http://richmondasr.com/_blog/Adventure_Racing A forty minute transition involving fueling, plotting, and changing had us on our bikes and heading north by 6PM. We had caught Rob Dinterman who was doing the race solo, so he joined us for the remainder. A light rain that had been falling most of the kayak paddle thankfully held off during transition so the maps stayed dry!
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We started a pace line and maintained a good 18 mph. A couple of checkpoints got found but then we overshot a left hand turn in Bridgetown and went about 2 miles too far before realizing our mistake. As you probably know, places may have names but often there is nothing there. This is especially true of the Eastern Shore. Bridgetown didn’t actually exist. We realized our mistake quickly and backtracked to the turn, turned right this time and headed to the first night-orienteering course. Bill Swann was there to greet us. http://richmondasr.com/_blog/Adventure_Racing
It didn’t take long to realize that this was the same area that we had trekked three years ago! I recognized the land bridge and Eric remembered the horse trails like it was yesterday. This probably gave us a distinct advantage and we quickly found 12 of the 14 CPs. We only had to find 8 but had delusions of clearing the course. The only two points in unfamiliar territory proved to be our downfall. We found one, but CP27 remained elusive and somewhere on the other side of a nasty marsh. We gave up, collected our egos (and 13 out of 14 points!) and remounted the bikes. It was now about midnight.
Chris had given us two optional CPs on the bike course, so we took a vote and went for the first one to make up for the missed CP27. It was an easy ride but added about 11 miles to the course. Maybe it was the caffeine tablet I took, but I think the team’s spirit was back up and we pedaled on to the next O-course. Just south of Exmore, my back tire went flat. Luckily we were at an all-night gas station with real food. I quickly changed the tube, ran the tire for any sharp things, and was back in business while we feasted on chicken tenders, potato wedges, and Mountain Dew…so nutritious! Then it was a short ride to the next trek.
We arrived at the Maplewood Gardens Nature Trails and were given the promised “treasure map.” It had no scale and fairly rudimentary markings. The hard part was figuring out where we were on the map. We stumbled around a bit but then figured we’d head for the power line and dirt road on the western edge. This got us going and we found 7 of the 8 checkpoints (4 were mandatory) fairly easily. The trails were really non-existent but we were able to use the stream and occasional bridge to keep us oriented. We learned from our CP27 experience and gave up on CP35. We were back at the bikes by about 6AM.
We then had a LONG bike south along Route 600; but the weather was still good and the sun even started poking through the clouds. After a short stop at mosquito-infested Webb’s Island and CP42 we had to make a decision about the next optional bike CP. It would add about 13 miles to the ride and we were pretty tired. We were still doing a pace line, but there was some towing going on and we were much slower. As soon as we made the decision to bypass the optional point, my tire went flat again. I hate “mechanicals,” but it was as if fate told us not to go for the extra point. I was out of 26-inch tubes, so we stuffed a 29-inch tube in my tire, prayed as we re-inflated it, thanked the Lord that it held, and pedaled on to Check point B and then the bike-to-paddle transition in Cape Charles. Daniel’s parents and Eric’s family were there to greet us. It was about 9AM as we jumped in the boats for the last leg south to Kiptopeke Park and the finish line.
It was an easy paddle, but we’d been up for 24 hours and I swear I was dreaming as I paddled. We were just going through the motions. Eric said he woke with a start a couple of times as his kayak was about to go over. We covered the 12K paddle in about 90 minutes, took out at the boat ramp, and portaged the last 400 meters up the hill to the finish. Family was again there to greet us, there was the customary unceremonious smattering of claps the cheers, and we were done. We were about 4th or 5th or 6th overall…we’re still not sure, but felt good about our race. We’d gotten all the points except for 3 and were done in 25 hours and 43 minutes.
It was fun racing with Rob, and Robin had a really good time. We quickly downed countless hamburgers and hotdogs, gathered the gear, and headed back to Cape Charles for showers. Everyone decided to skip the awards ceremony and headed home quickly. Robin and I had a short nap and then headed home too. Not too shabby for a weekend’s worth of fun.
Phil Dawson
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