A "Short" Story

Lewis and Clark Ozark Adventure Race 2007 or as others might prefer to call it:
Pure Awesomeness

Team Mix 'n' Match or el Tortoi

There was a sense of nervous excitement fluttering about us like butterflies Friday as we arranged our things, packed the vehicles and hit the road south for Arkansas. Colin and Fletcher's family was our support team for the race - mom, dad, brother Louis and sister-in-law/wife Patty. Upon arriving at the Lewis and Clark Outfitters near Fayetville, AK (which is also near Bentonville, which is home to Wal-Mart!) for our pre-race meal and meeting we found a big tent and a whole lot of people. It was so exciting to finally be there feeling the adventure race energy. We had our gear checked, got our fill of pasta and settled in for the 7:30 meeting, eagerly awaiting the news... Astonishment swelled through the crowd as we learned that we would be starting this 12-18 hour race not at 2, 3 or 4 am but 12:01!!! We headed back to the hotel (so much for sleep though!) to get organized, try to rest and get ready before caravaning 30 miles to the race start area somewhere deep in the woods.

After getting situated and singing a good ole' rendition of the National Anthem, Colin took off with one member from each of the other 30 teams on a 1/2 mile run to retrieve our map, coordinate list and clues for the first couple legs of the race. Fletcher took the lead in plotting our coordinates with a UTM (teaching Colin and I as he plotted) on the map that was about the size of a...it was huge. Just as I had thought, our first challenge was a bike trek. I was glad I had gotten one practice ride done in the dark! We would be heading out into the woods to search for 6 check points - flags in the trees. Because of the terrain and the darkness we ended up carrying our bikes for much of the 3 hours we were out there searching the dark forest for flags. Given clues like 'intersection', 'rock wall', 'big tree'...we were pretty much left to our own sensibilities and plotting capabilities to find them...and a mysterious little dog to show us the way (seriously..it came out nowhere) And we were successful! We made it back to the truck, dropped the bikes, inhaled some quesadillas and gatorade and jogged back into the woods. It was a bit of a relief to be on foot by then as we continued searching high and low; up and around for the flags. "Did we go to far? Are we sure this is #7 or is it #8?" With minor amounts of frustration and disagreements we made it through to the final part of this section - rock climbing in the dark! - grasping at roots and dirt clumps with my leg loops draped to my knees - it wasn't quite the climbing I was used to - kinda ridiculous, but short and we were soon headed back to find our support team again and learn what the rest of our day would look like. We were ranked at about 13th place by then and feeling great about our performance so far!
After receiving our new map we spent a good while plotting new coordinates and trying to estimate the mileage for the rest of our course. Miles and miles more of mountain biking, paddling, trekking and a mystery challenge!! The maps made the distances seem enormous! Especially the river and trekking portions at the end.

After fixing up what would be our only flat tire of the day we were off into the sunrise to enjoy the morning on our bikes. However, it wasn't long before we had reached what we thought was the next checkpoint and instead found the mystery challenge! It was a mystery...challenge to say the least! We watched as other teams fumbled around with barrels and planks and thin ropes...they were building rafts! Rafts that we would then use to transport ourselves and our bikes and gear across the small lake to the actual checkpoint! We got to work on ours soon realizing the difficulty we faced as we watched another team's raft fall to pieces beneath them 20 yards off shore soaking them and their gear and losing a bike to the murky depths! The poor guy was out there with a stick in 7 foot deep water poking around for his bike until he was able to drag it out. We became determined to make our raft right and sturdy the first time. Fletcher learned how to make some amazing truckers knots while Colin and I stood by encouraging and trying to help, but mostly bewildered and anxious about what might befall us if we weren't careful. The time had come to 'put in' as they say. We loaded up the bikes across the middle of our triangular raft (sorry no pictures) set foot into the chilly water and gingerly hoisted ourselves onto our chosen corner - I and then Colin... but before Fletcher even had time to get his feet out of the sticky mud we went over, under - the raft did a complete 180 - flipping me nearly head over heels on top of Colin, bikes and everything submerged. We were dumbfounded, startled and soaking wet. I couldn't believe it! We hadn't made it 3 feet off shore. Frustrated beyond words, we drug it all out of the water and tried to make sense of our situation. We discovered that all along we had had the option of passing up the challenge at the cost of an hour penalty. With a little persistence and reasoning our penalty was waived since we had essentially penalized ourselves with the hour we had put into building our first raft! We were relieved to be allowed to move on - very chilly and very wet - but relieved.

Off we went shivering into the rising sun. Its warmth couldn't reach us fast enough. We rode for the next 4 or 5 hours along some of the most picturesque country roads, below canopies of orange and yellow leaves, beside wide vistas of fall delight, under lovely blue sky. Arkansas at its finest. I remember hearing the thick, hollow thudding of the hooves of horses galloping to greet us. There were quaint little country homes, random rusted up backwoods garbage, hunters out on their ATVs taking advantage of the first day of hunting season..that's right, first day! Thanks though to the wise forethought of the race planners our jerseys were a bright orange, hopefully clearing us from the line of fire out there in the woods! Colin did a great job leading us with his navigation skills for this leg - and with the kind unprovoked assistance of some locals silently pointing us in the right direction :). It was delightful. Although we stayed on dirt roads there were some good hills and sections of gravelly gravel that I was sure I'd be eating for lunch! But I stayed upright and we all made it safely to the third transition area around 12:30.

Oh how I could have enjoyed a long nap here! - deliciously grassy sunshine soaked lawn. Instead we quickly ate more quesadillas, restocked our supplies, changed out of wet clothes, shared our harrowing rafting experience, marveled at the peacefulness and were off again. We learned there that the first team had reached that transition area 5 hours earlier and still had not finished the race! I guess logically that meant, a long afternoon (and possibly night?) for us! We didn't give it too much thought knowing that even so we were still somewhere in the middle of the pack at about 13th place!

With Fletcher taking the map, we walked/jogged a couple miles back down to the river where we found Big Bertha waiting to take us down the river to the dam at the far end of the lake where we hoped to find our next checkpoint. A ways down the river we decided that our green canoe must be heavier than everyone else's red canoes as one by one they passed us...hence the name...who knows. We labored on, portaging the canoe repeatedly over the low rocky areas that wouldn't carry us otherwise - soggy shoes once again! These were some of the most fun, most peaceful, most demanding and most discouraging times of our race. I enjoyed being in the canoe together after being on our own bikes earlier in the day, laughing at silliness and getting more and more loopy from an increasingly long period of sleep deprivation. We found ourselves lost (mentally...can't really lose your way on a river, thank goodness) at times in the peaceful reflections of the trees in the water. We saw a marvelous owl perched high above in the bare winter trees. We paddled and paddled and paddled. And as the sun set we wondered how much longer we'd be paddling, questioned whether we'd ever find the lake we were looking for and tried to determine whether finishing was more important than the food and beer that otherwise awaited us. We continued on with hopes of reaching our destination soon.

The lake was dark and appeared enormous when we reached it. There was one team just ahead that we caught up to at a well lit dock. They were similarly anxious to get off the water and had considered pulling out there and hitch hiking, but the killer guard dogs (for real!!) prevented this option. So, together we decided to keep moving towards the lights we saw on the distant shore... wondering if that was finally our checkpoint and what we'd do when we reached it. We paddled and paddled and paddled. I didn't know anymore from where our strength and stamina came. We had been paddling for 4 hours by then, the 18 hour race-cut-off time had come and gone and we still had hours ahead of us it seemed.

The lights we discovered when we reached shore were those of other teams who had been pulled off the race course. The decision had been made for us!! They were shutting down the race! It was after 6pm, the dam was still half a mile further where we would then have had to carry our boats up and over the dam continue on the river to another checkpoint and then navigate another 6+ miles and 3 checkpoints through the dark woods before reaching the end. It's hard to say what we would have done given the option to actually finish at that point. But there we were, bleary-eyed, exhausted, relieved and at the same time disappointed to be pulling our boat onto shore to await a ride to the finish line.

On the way back we passed a weary team walking along the side of the road...the teams who didn't reach the river by 3pm had been prevented from even starting the paddling section, bused to this location by the river and allowed to make their way via main roads (instead of to the checkpoints in the woods) to the finish location...they were still walking. We learned that only 5 out of the 31 teams had finished under 18 hours! It seemed more and more evident that the difficulty of the race course had been severely underestimated. Usually, at least about half or more of the race teams finish in the allotted time. This was apparently more like an 18-24 hour course. We had given it our all though to the very end! And when we reached the finish line we stood proudly underneath, eventually received our finisher medals and ate and drank to our bellies' delight -BBQ and beer!

It's four days later and I still don't think I've gotten enough sleep or carb refills to make up for those 19 hours of pure effort and adrenaline! It felt so good to be outside playing and pushing hard for such an extended period of time - midnight to nightfall! Love of the outdoors and outdoor activity seems to have finally seeped into my bones and nestled into my soul to stay. There aren't enough words to express what a fantastic time I had and how thankful I am for the opportunity to have participated in such a fun and challenging event. Thanks to Colin and Fletcher - what a great team to race with - and thank you to the rest of the Hamel family for all of your effort and support as well!