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Contents 1 Blue Ridge Pictures 2 Blue Ridge Videos 3 Blue Ridge Map 4 Blue Ridge Website 5 Blue Ridge Results 6 Blue Ridge Reviews 6.1 Josh's Take 6.2 Joanna's Take 6.3 Phillip's Take

Blue Ridge Pictures

TheElleStudio Photographs
Josh Phillip Joanna Jordan Prerace	Josh Running Down from CP1	Arriving at CP3	Heading Down to River Crossing
Crossing River	Joanna Climbing Net	Phillip Josh Exiting River	Phillip Joanna Reunited
Josh Punching CP3	CP3/TA1	Phillip Dr. Evil	Jordan Phillip Hanging Out CP3/TA1
Map Reading CP3/TA1	Josh Lunch CP3/TA1	Josh and Signs at CP3/TA1	Josh Portapotty
Shallowford Bridge	Paddling to CP15/TA2	Arriving at CP15/TA2	Josh Enjoying Paddle
Takeout at CP15/TA2	Portaging into CP15/TA2	Transitioning at CP15/TA2	Joanna Josh Sprinting out of CP15/TA2
Arriving at Finish Area	Phillip Josh Sawing	Josh Strong Man	Phillip Joanna Working Together
Josh Joanna Sawing	Finishing

Pictures From the Course
Packed Up	Hanging Out Pre-Race	Starting Run	Portaging to CP2
Joanna and Josh on Garland Mtn.	Phillip Josh on Garland Mtn.	Phillip Joanna at CP8	Phillip Joanna Josh at CP13

Blue Ridge Videos

Blue Ridge Map

Route tracks in Google Maps|Google Earth|Google Video

Blue Ridge Website

http://www.adventureracega.com/

Blue Ridge Results

Race Results

Blue Ridge Reviews

Josh's Take

I was really stoked about this race, amped for an opportunity to come back and take revenge on the course and make up for last year's inexperience (2007 race review), which led us to 24th place (41st officially) out of 102 teams. This year, 87 teams toed the starting line containing as many if not more elite teams than last year. I could not have asked for more, since I was eager to prove that the last year of racing had yielded a positive net effect on my team's performance.

This year I raced with Joanna and Phillip, a recruit. Jordan, slated to do an off-road ultra marathon the day after, provided support for the team. Further fueling the flame was that one of our sponsors, TheElleStudio, was photographing the event, and so we wanted to make sure we put on a good performance.

The night before, we fleshed out strategy for the race, which was largely a rogaine (you can get the checkpoints in any order). Added to the complexity was that it included the ability to separate one member from the team for periods of time (but still only one passport). The logistics of the race became a primary concern, as teams' strategies had to consider there were benefits of utilizing one portion of the team for moving gear when the other retrieved checkpoints and returned to a rendezvous point. Further, splitting the group meant that one portion traveled without the map.

The race started with me running up a hill to CP1 along some double track with a short bushwhack to the summit, where the checkpoint was found. The start was a large herd of people squeezed into a small road running at a steep grade without any warm-up. It certainly woke me up, but I took it in stride and concentrated on pacing myself while my lungs screamed out in rebellion. Meanwhile, at the base of the hill, my teammates were prepping the boat for the river put-in. I managed to come down the hill after Team Toccoa's runner, estimated later by teammates to be in 4th or 5th. I was happy with this as I did not want to be in the main pack down as the put-in was only large enough for three or so canoes at a time and I knew it would get backed up.

We paddled down the river, which sported some Class 1 & 2 rapids (tougher than it looks in a canoe) with only a few instances of hitting rocks, the first of which we got stuck on was embarrassingly close to the put-in. We made took out before the bend south of CP2 and portaged 1km up the gravel road to CP2. Along the way, we came upon Team Black Dome's passport and decided to take it to the next CP. Luckily, Jay Curwen was right ahead of us so when we yelled ahead he came sprinting back towards us. The canoe portage was long and tough but we kept running by rotating out those carrying the canoe with those guiding it. This way, we never stopped moving.

After we reached CP2, we dropped the canoe and continued together up Garland Mountain via the Benton Mackaye trail. This was a steep climb, and we took the opportunity to get some food in our systems. We pressed on to the top of Brawley Mountain, shot a bearing, and ran down to the saddle where CP10 was. We followed a compass bearing to the trail to CP9. At this point Phillip slipped in some mud and busted his leg. We ran down the gravel road (NF-95), Phillip in pain from his leg, from CP9 to CP8, where there was a huge congregation of people waiting, I assume, on their teammates to come down from CP11. We continued to Old Dial Rd., getting overpassed by two Checkpoint Zero members riding three bikes. We turned north to the CP2 junction and then down to CP3, which was our first time to see our support crew.

We timed this part perfectly, since it was lunch. Before getting our lunch, however, was the first special challenge. The team locked arms and cross the river, stopping to help Joanna up the rope net climb to Shallowford Bridge. Phillip and I continued across uneventfully, and the cold water was nice for our weary legs. We had a quick transition, probably less than 10 minutes, and started back for the next leg.

On the next section, Joanna and I tackled CP7, CP6, CP5, and CP4, while Phillip headed up to CP2 and portaged the canoe to CP13 put-in. At the time of setting our strategy, Joanna and I believed we'd be bushwhacking the entire section, and so the plan was that if Phillip could paddle the mile from CP13 to CP5, then he should. Otherwise we would meet him at CP13, either by bushwhacking or floating down the river. When we got there, however, we shot a bearing and headed up to Free Knob, wanting to hump it, but bogged down by the undergrowth, ended up crossing over the tongue just south of it and circling around the contour and down the tongue to CP7. We found a trail down to CP6 and then further towards CP5. We jumped off of the trail and headed down a reentrant to CP5, but Phillip was nowhere to be found. We had made better time than planned because of the trail, so we figured he may still be in route. We then headed toward CP4 on a single-track trail we had discovered by the river, yelling down to the water when we lost visibility to ensure we did not pass Phillip on our way to CP4. We punched CP4 and continued to CP13, where we met Phillip. He had seen other teams trying to make progress upriver but were struggling with two paddlers, so he readied the boat for our arrival and took a short breather.

We were excited to drop into the water as the 7th team to leave that point, but not knowing everybody else's strategies, it was merely a good indicator. The point where we would know precisely how we were doing was the last checkpoint before the finish, CP15. The paddling was pretty uneventful as we made progress to CP12 and then to CP14 with another team about 400 meters ahead the whole time. We finally caught them at CP14, along with three other teams, when we received additional instructions that we would need to plot and get to another, unplanned, CP16 or take a one-hour penalty.

I always carry my UTM grid and one Sharpie marker in my map case with me for these type of scenarios, so I was not too frazzled. Though at the time my heart went out to those on the low end of the list (who likely had not yet learned this lesson) and those on the top end (who might not have carried the navigational tools for their added weight). This is a good time to mention the lesson we learned--I cut off the left, right, and bottom sides of the map so that it would be easier to fold. Unfortunately, without the left and right sides, there were no northernly coordinate markers on the map. Luckily, we also make it a point to carry the race instructions with us at all times, which contained the coordinates of other checkpoints that were already marked. So I reverse engineered which latitudinal lines were what, and figured out where CP16 was on the map.

Now, of the five teams that were at CP14, reading the additional instructions for CP16 and plotting the point, three of them headed north towards CP15, while the fourth stayed at CP14, reading the directions. Since those heading out had had a head start on reading the additional instructions, we tailed them--tentatively moving northward--while I confirmed the position of CP16 as described above. Initial calculations had CP16 south of CP14, the opposite direction of the way we had been paddling! After triple checking the coordinates to make sure we were not about to head in the wrong direction a second time, we made our move south to CP14, parting from the tracks of the other teams moving northward.

At this point I had been hooked under the yolk in the middle of the canoe with my legs in front of me for the last hour or so. After five hours of trekking/running up and down hills, being static for so long froze my leg muscles into place. Making the first ten steps out of the canoe to CP16 took about a minute. I shot a bearing from the small inlet northeast of CP16 and we marched up the hill to find it almost immediately. On the way down my legs had sobered up, but it was back to the canoe for another two miles. We portaged the canoe up and over the easterly-pointing peninsula directly north of CP14 to save 800 meters of paddling, after which we never saw any teams behind or in front of us on the paddle. We reached CP15, where the take-out was, to find out we were in 13th place with the 12th-place team two minutes ahead of us. With a 5.5km road run ahead of us, it was possible to catch them. The chase was on.

We transitioned as fast as possible (probably < 3 minutes). As we headed out on the road run, we saw four or five teams coming off of the bike option within a couple minutes of each other (there were two main options to get from the southern section of the race at CP13 to the northern version of the race at CP15--one was by paddling, which we took; the other was by mountain bike, which the teams we were seeing took). Joanna was on fire and leading our team in this section, and we wanted to catch the team ahead of us, but ultimately were unable to do so. We did, however, match pace with them, until about the halfway point of the run. We then went from trying to gain places to trying to maintain our place. I was happy to keep invisible to the trailing teams, as I never saw them when I looked back at turns, but in the back of my mind I knew they were competing against one another and that might drive them to catch us.

Happy to make the final turn a couple of blocks to the finish with no trailing teams in sight, we were met with one final surprise--a challenge to use a two-man saw to cut through a 12-inch diameter tree, and then carry the cutoff segment across the finish line. We used teamwork as we had on the initial canoe portage and rotated out as being a lumberjack is tough work.

Phillip did the honors and carried the piece of tree trunk across the finish line, busted leg and all.

Joanna's Take

Phillip's Take

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