Ozark Challenge

April 9, 2005

Photos courtesy Dave Meador

In our official debut as Carol's Team, David Frei, Jeff Sona, Carrie Sona, and I went to Cass, Arkansas to race the Ozark Challenge Adventure Race.

We arrive at Byrds Adventure Center mid-afternoon and busy ourselves with sorting through our gear and getting checked in. As usual, the organizers are being fairly tight- lipped about the course design, but the race notes give us some information. By asking enough questions to different people, we are able to deduce the general layout of the race. We'll start with some sort of Trek upstream that will include some rope work. We'll then paddle to the bike drop and ride back to Byrds. Presumably, more activities follow, but we aren't able to piece that together.

The pre-race briefing contains the standard warnings of impending doom. We are told to expect Cliffs of Death, Rapids of Death, Turkey Hunters of Death, Poison Ivy of Death, Snakes of Death, and (a first in my experience) Attack Pigs of Death. The race director not only mentions this last one with a straight face, but assures us that the Attack Pigs of Death really are quite ferocious and we should regard them with extreme prejudice.

With no maps distributed until morning, there's nothing left to do but head down to Ozark, check into a motel, order pizza, and try to get some sleep. We don't get much as we have to wake at 3:30 to get back to Byrds in time for the 5AM start. After another round of warnings regarding the various Elements of Death, we grab our maps and run to our transition area to plot our first set of coordinates.

Any hope of keeping feet dry for awhile is dismissed as we see that the very first thing we have to do is wade across the Mulberry River. We then start the trudge up the opposite ridge to the first control. It's still completely dark and we can see the headlamps of teams ahead of us scattering out along the hillside. We hit the control fairly cleanly and as the day dawns, we find ourselves alone heading to #2. We can tell from the footprints near the control that we're not in the lead, but it doesn't look like many teams are ahead.

Eric on the Cliff of Death

When we reach the first ropes section (a rappel off the Cliffs of Death), we're told that we're in second, about 20 minutes behind the leaders. The team ahead is MOAT, a quality team that we've raced against in the past. We've been moving reasonably well, so they are obviously hauling to take that much time in just 3 hours.

After some more trekking, we get to a zip line that takes us back across the river. The line isn't as steep as some and the volunteers tell us to run hard off the edge of the Cliff of Death so we'll get further across the line before stopping. Here, I reap the one reward of being the pack mule for the team. I'm already 20 pounds heavier than any of my teammates and my bloated pack brings the gap to closer to 30. As a result, my momentum takes me nearly all the way across the river while David, Jeff, and Carrie all have to pull themselves a fair distance to get off the line. Leaving the zip line, we run along a road above the river. We look down at a rather foamy part of the river and wonder aloud what we've got ourselves into.

More trekking takes us to the rock climbing segment. Here, we're told that we've reduced the gap to MOAT to 8 minutes. The climb is a straightforward 5.6 up a 30 foot Cliff of Death, but with muddy trail shoes and a pack (that I could have taken off, but forgot to) it feels more like a 5.8. Since there are no other teams around, we all get our own belay line and complete the climb quickly.

Leaving the climbing, we come across some Turkey Hunters of Death who are set up in a shooting blind. Conditions are listed as "Prime Whitewater with a powerful current" I doubt they'll be pleased to find that another 200 adventure racers are headed their way. Three controls later we arrive at the Canoe pickup. Just as we step on the road, MOAT pops out of the woods not 20 meters from us. We're tied for the lead.

The paddling section will be done in 2 open canoes on the Mulberry River. The stretch we'll be running from High Bank to Big Eddy is listed as Class II/III depending on water levels. The river gauge at Turner Bend (about a mile before our takeout) reads just over 3.0 which they label as "Charged Up." Conditions for the 2.5-3.9 range are described as, "Prime whitewater with a powerful current. Most rocks are covered. Big waves that can swamp open canoes. Solid intermediate skills necessary." Above 3.9, the language gets a lot more scary.

We have a fairly long portage from the boat pickup to the put in. MOAT actually tries to get some time on us by running with the boats. We're not that eager to be in the lead, so we carry them at a walking pace. Upon arriving at the river edge we clip in our packs and each grab a paddle - except that there are only three paddles. David runs back to the boat pickup to get another paddle. It sets us back about three minutes which is just as well. We don't really need to be racing neck and neck through the rapids. David and I will be in one boat while Jeff and Carrie take the other.

The bigger Rapids of Death have been given colorful names by the local paddling community. The set we saw from the road is called Whoop and Holler. It's a borderline II/III run with a fairly long entry. The exit isn't visible until we have committed to our line. From our road vantage point, we had picked our desired exit line, but we were so high up that we couldn't see the details of the current. As we enter the finish chute, we suddenly realize that there's a boat-swallowing hole right at the end. It's too late to change course out so we just paddle as hard as we can while the bow buries itself in the frothy white storm. Water pours in over the gunwales as we frantically push through. Once in the clear, we turn around to see how Jeff and Carrie handle it. They take the same line, but Carrie is so light the boat just bounces over the hole. I definitely need to hone my paddling to the point where I can sit in the back.

Jeff and Carrie shoot an easy rapid

Shortly after emerging unscathed from Whoop and Holler we hit a smaller, but trickier rapid with a hard right hand turn halfway through. David points us through, but we look back just in time to see Jeff and Carrie get sideways and roll into the water. We pull over to the side and watch for any gear getting washed downstream. When none arrives, we run up the bank to see if we can help right their boat. They're OK, and get underway before we reach them.

The river continues with a dozen or so more drops which we get through without incident. We arrive at Byrds shortly after noon, pleased to find we are less than 10 minutes off the lead. At Byrds, we get new coordinates for our second leg. After plotting our new points and pushing down as much food as we can stomach, we run back to the boats.

MOAT is still ahead, although we've closed a bit in transition. We travel about half a mile before I decide to check the map for our position. I ask David to hand me the map to which he replies, "You've got it." Oops. We pull over and I run back along the stream to get the map. The race director is at the checkpoint and it does occur to me that we might get penalized for sending just one team member back. He just chuckles, apparently figuring that an extra mile of running along a river bank is sufficient penalty.

The lower section of the paddle is similar to the first except the rapids are longer and less steep. David and I have a very near miss at the Sacroiliac Rapid when we get so fixated on the huge boulder at the exit that we forget to look at what's right in front of us and run the boat aground on some shallow rocks. Water fills the bottom of the boat as we fight to dislodge ourselves. Once free we have almost no roll stability as all the water sloshes from one side of the boat to another. We manage to get out of the fast current and over to the bank to dump out the boat.

The takeout is on a small channel that breaks off river right. Entering the channel is a short chute going right into a small strainer. We try to stay left of it, but the current pushes us into the branch. Fortunately, the branch is fully above water and we are able to push through. Jeff and Carrie try to run the chute further left, but get the bow caught in the slow water and roll the boat again. The recovery is quite quick as the channel is neither wide or deep, but a bit frustrating given that we are only a couple hundred meters from the takeout. We see MOAT crossing the river with bikes on their shoulders as we beach the canoes.

Jeff, Eric, and David handle the bikes

We take our time in transition, making sure we all get enough food and water. It appears we will be back at Byrds by dark, so we don't hook up our batteries for lights. Crossing the river with bikes takes some teamwork. David stands in the shallower water on the far side while I stand in the fast-moving water in the center. They have a rope for me to hold so I don't get swept downstream. Jeff and Carrie hand the bikes to me and I pass them to David to take the rest of the way.

After the crossing, we have about 2 hours of brutal terrain where the bikes are on our shoulders as often as we are on the bikes. In one case we abandon the trails altogether and go straight through the woods. There are several manned checks and we find that our deficit to MOAT is holding steady at around 20 minutes. We get a respite with some fast riding on fire roads before being hit with another tough bikewhack section. Then we get to a leg where the course notes tell us that there are a lot of unmapped trails. That should have been our cue to put the bikes back on our shoulders, since it's not that far. Instead we try to guess which of the unmapped trails will get us to the control. We guess wrong and by the time we've sorted it out we're 75 minutes behind MOAT.

That's a bigger gap than we'd like to see, but the night is coming and no lead is safe once the sun sets. We get back to Byrds with about an hour and a half of daylight remaining. We're given the coordinates for the rest of the race, which include an orienteering section followed by a long bike. We skip plotting coordinates for the bike section, figuring we should get as much of the orienteering done during the day as possible.

It's a little disappointing that the O section occurs during the day. At night, we'd have a better opportunity to make up big chunks of time. We can take the controls in any order, so we plan our route leaving the easy ones for last in case we're not done by dark. This turns out to be wise as the last difficult control is found just as the sun is setting. By the time we get back, it is completely dark. We've cut the lead in half, but are still over half an hour behind.

We plot our remaining points and head out on the long bike leg. David, who has handled the bulk of the navigation so far, says he's getting tired and gives me the maps. The route seems pretty straightforward, so I'm happy to take them even though David is better at night nav than me.

We start with a significant climb on a dirt road. At the top we hit a manned control and are told that the lead is down to 20 minutes. After a short bikewhacking section (thankfully, this one is downhill - the afternoon off-trail activities were mostly uphill grinds), we're back on a small but mostly rideable ATV track. The trail soon turns uphill and the surface becomes loose. We have to push most of the way up. After a fast descent and some flat riding, we hit the biggest climb of the route. It's a tortuous grunt on a very rough trail. We push most of the way. From the tire tracks, I can tell that MOAT is riding it. That's bad news for us, but it's simply too hard for us this late in the race. When we get to the next manned control, we're an hour behind. The race for the lead is over.

We get off the gas, figuring that pushing only increases the chance of somebody going in the tank and us losing second. After some easy roads we get to the final (and worst) bikewhacking section. This section involves hauling our bikes through some of the thickest forest we've seen. Just for good measure, all the trees are laced with Poison Ivy of Death. From there, it's an easy ride in on a jeep trail. We finish in just over 23 hours, a nearly 2 hours behind MOAT, but 2 and a half ahead of third place Team Dynamic Earth.

Despite having no accommodations, we find it fairly easy to sleep, at least until the sun comes up. Thankfully, there are showers available at Byrds which we use to try and scrub off the Poison Ivy of Death (it doesn't work, as of this writing we all have rashes). At the post-race lunch, we learn that somebody did get a snake bite. Fearing it might be a Snake of Death, the team withdrew, but it was later confirmed to be a non-venomous attack. The Attack Pigs of Death turned out to be a complete false alarm, although the race director swears he wasn't making it up.

It would have been nice to give MOAT a bit more of a push at the end, but at least on this day they were clearly the better team. They made fewer mistakes and had the fitness when it counted to put us away. Second does qualify us for nationals, so the main goal of the weekend was achieved. We didn't think much of the biking sections - too much walking and unmapped trails. The rest of the race, particularly the paddling, was a blast. Overall, it was a great first outing for Carol's Team and we certainly look forward to trying again next year.