Scout AR report

Here's my Scout AR report.

Team Quadruped (Nino, Andy and myself) were all set to run a 3 man team for this race. We had been training consistently two months up to the race, but ran into a bit of bad luck and the race hadn't even started. A week before the race Nino tore/strained a calf muscle and Andy caught the flu and couldn't recover in time. Andy and I had to scramble a bit to find people the Thursday before the race. We picked up Scott who had raced with Andy at e-camp. I picked up my 16 year old nephew whom I have paddled and ridden with before, and Cisco who I mountain bike with regularly. Both first timers and we're all set. Thanks to the Scout AR staff who allowed us to make roster and format changes at the last minute check-in.

The Friday night before was the usual scramble of getting gear and transition boxes together, made more difficult by having two last minute first timers on our team, but a trip to Sport Chalet and REI ensured that we met all of our mandatory gear check. 8-9p.m Friday night race meeting for a Saturday 4a.m. start. Yikes, we won't get much sleep. Scott coming from the high desert area, chose to camp at the Flying B ranch. My nephew and I stayed at my house about 6 miles up the road (yes, racing in my back yard) and Cisco stayed at home in Irvine. I think we all averaged about 2 hours of sleep that night. The first set of maps were given that night, but only the 1st Leg was plotted. Basically There were three legs (1 Trek, 2 MTB/ropes, 3 MTB Kayak). We would be given legs 2 and 3 plots after leg 1.

3 a.m. alarm clock and it was a scramble to get the rest of the transition gear and bottles filled as it was anticipated to be HOT HOT HOT. Like 100 degrees in the back canyon. We arrive, unpack the bikes and gear box only to find out that they moved the transition area to people's camp spots. We find our our teamates in the dark, get our gear set and off to the starting line just before the start. Why is it that I always get to the starting line with just a few minutes to spare???
4a.m. Start. We were to get CP1 2 3 4 (any order) on foot where it was steep steep terrain. As anticipated, the race organizers showed some mercy on us and had us trek in the cool morning in the dark. We made our ONLY mistake on our first cp and had hung a right when we shoulda went left at a fork, probably cost us a half an hour and a bit of energy. By the time we got back on track we were in the bottom 1/4. CP2 was a LONG way off at some peak with about 1300 elevation gain in about 3 miles. We were all feeling pretty good at this point and everything had been on trail. The third trek check point was at the bottom of a valley and this is where *our* bush-wacking began. There was no direct way to get to the bottom of the canyon except bush wacking so we started ignoring indirect trail switch backs and cutting through brush and shrubbery. We get to the bottom and aquire the 3rd CP. The fourth trek CP there were two choices. Go around the FAR way (long slow ascent), or bushwack and climb the short, steep direct way. We chose the latter and I think only one or two other teams chose this option. The climb was difficult and steep, but worth the time gain. We seriously shaved an hour off our time because of this. The next cp was back at the transition area, so it was back down the steep slope, some more bush wacking back to the TA. At the announcement table we heard that we that we had gone from 53 place up to 25th!!!! The bushwack was worth it, but I paid for it with a couple of scratched up legs and a bit of cramping from the steep terrrain.

Back at the TA, we had to plot the rest of the course for legs two and three. Along with the ropes course. The ropes were at the end of the bike, so I'll get to that later. The next CP's 5,6,7,8 were on bike and crossed over some of the trekking sections so the terrain was somewhat familiar. Also, Cisco and I had ridden a lot of the MTB course last summer in a MTB race we did last year at flying B, so it proved to be an advantage as we knew where alot of the fire road went. CP9 was bike drop off to get a couple of cps on foot down this ravine. It was steep and reminded my nephew of some Indiana Jones adventure. CP9A was in the middle of that decent and CP9B was the same as CP5 at the base of the ravine. Then it was back up the steep ascent to pick up our bikes again. At this point, it was HOT and people were lined up at the ice bucket to refill. We got back to a flat tire so while two of us changed the tire, the other two were gathering ice and water. It was back on bikes to the TA to do the ropes course. At this point I logged about 10 miles total on the bike.

On the ropes, Scott and I got to do a tyrolian traverse down a zip line strapped to our climbing harness. That was a blast. We had to run back up the hill where we had to guide Nathan and Cisco blind-folded to the rock climbing course. basically we had to guide them verbally up a 40 foot rock face while they were blind folded.
Neither of them made it to the top and we suffered a slight time penalty for not completing the rocks.

Back on the bikes for about 4 mile road ride to Irvine Lake. There were three checkpoints here for a total of about a 3 or 4 mile paddle. Nothing eventuful here other than to say that Sevylor inflatables suck. Nathan and I were able to track pretty straight in our boat, but cisco and scott had a bit of a hard time. Did, I mention that Sevylor inflatable kayaks suck? Back on the bikes back to the TA for the finish. We finished in about 10 hours 45 minutes and somewhere in the top third or top half at least. ScoutAR hasn't posted results yet.

Conclusion:

A demanding 12 hour race. I think temps logged in at 103 deg. I logged about 20 miles on the bike, although short there was certainly a lot of elevation gain. Probably about 10-12 miles on foot. The race coverded about 35 miles total, but they were steep miles. All in all it was a great experience and I was happy to test my limits again. It was also great to see people from other teams I've raced with before. I'm looking forward to next year's race.