back onto bikes for another 20 miles to get to the next foot section. But first we had to navigate doubletrack “roads” through more canyons and grasslands. We were in very remote areas, with nothing to be seen for miles. Sometimes the doubletrack would look more like singletrack. The multiple herd paths from all of the cows would also really confuse us at times. It became very difficult to distinguish a trail from a herd path, as the cows just went wherever they wanted.
saying goodbye to the sun for the next 12 hours
We managed to escape the doubletrack roads before dark. Most other teams were not able to, and that made for some very difficult navigation. We got onto a network of dirt roads all made by the current natural gas boom, passing numerous wells which were flaring off gas. It was pretty crazy to look out at the horizon and see all these “candles” burning. We navigated the dirt roads for a few hours as tandem tanker trucks flew past us at warp speed. It was exciting to say the least. By 930 PM we made it to our second transition area, where we once again changed to trekking shoes, ate some fried chicken and headed off for a long, difficult orienteering course.
When you start an orienteering course, getting to the first point is probably the most important step. Finding that point allows you to get a feel for the scale and layout of the terrain and map. It also allows you to locate yourself precisely, in order to go after the next point. Being in the dark makes this a lot more difficult. Unfortunately the first point we went for, we had an enormous amount of trouble finding. We spent 2.5 hours attacking it from different directions and using different navigation methods, but it evaded us. We decided to forget it for now, and totally rearrange our strategy. Morale hit a pretty hard low at this point. Our 45 minute gap had grown to 3 hours now, and aside from a huge blunder from the lead teams, there was no way to make that up.
the night finally starting to end, John and Julias headlamps below as they follow me up a steep gulley to find a CP
We pressed on through the night though, with the temperature dropping into the 30s. the navigation at night never got that much easier. There was a trail system here we were using to navigate, but the trails were in terrible shape. Sometimes they weren’t there, sometimes they just ended, and sometimes the herd paths from the cows made it impossible to tell what was what. We trudged on through, slowly but surely getting one point after the other. It was a long dark night, but eventually the sun came back and lit up the world again for us. At that point we were going back for the elusive point we had tried for at the beginning of the leg. With the sunlight it was painfully obvious where the point was, and we saw all the places we were the night before.
the sun, back up giving us some new energy to find the points we couldn’t in the dark
We finally got the last point and headed back to the transition area. It was approaching 9 am and we had been on that course longer than any other team. I was worried that another team behind us had passed us through the night. But when we arrived at the transition, the race director told us that we were the only other team, aside from NYARA and Journey to clear the course thus far. This was good news, as it solidified a 3rd place finish for us, but we still didn’t perform as well as we should have.
we got back onto our bikes for a short downhill ride to the river where we loaded into a canoe for a long 18 mile paddle. The river was low and slow, and the water was very cold. But at least the sun was out to keep me warm, as I was in the front of the boat getting soaked by the splashing paddles behind me. The paddle leg was broken at the halfway, by one last checkpoint that was on top of a hill on the side of the river. With the river being so low, the spot we initially landed our boat to get out and approach the point ended up being a shin deep bog of shoe sucking mud. We made it about 20 yards and decided to get back into the boats and continue further downstream to find a better landing spot. Thankfully we did, but not all the teams chose to do this. Some endured that horrible mud, im surprised they didn’t lose their shoes.
I was overheating in my rain jacket, but it kept the cold water off of me at least
2 more hours of paddling and we were at our final transition area. We pulled the boat out of the water with wobbly, numb legs, and changed into bike shoes to get ready for that last climb up from the bottom of the canyon to the top. These canyon walls may only have been a few hundred feet at most, but we went up and down them so many times, that by now my legs felt like jelly and all I was using all I had to spin my granny gear up this hill.
once at the top of the hill we hit dirt and paved roads. We had 20 miles of pacelining to bring us to the finish line.
we finished the race in 33 hours and 3 minutes, securing 3rd place. We were totally beat. The course was so rugged, yet so beautiful. It had such a feeling of remoteness that ive never gotten at any other race. I couldn’t think of a better course to end the 2014 season on. I had no idea North Dakota had so much adventure to offer.
