Race Report

Raid The North French River

June 11 to 13, 2004

Alban, On

Team: Cindy Archer, Manon Roy, David Haavaldsrud, Andre Gaudreau

Support Crew: Dennis Gaudreau

It all started so well, meeting up with familiar teammates on the Thursday before the race for a change with the idea of getting a good nights sleep to better prepare us for the race. Despite Dave’s best efforts we did not too bad although waking up at 6:00am was not necessarily a good idea. Then perhaps as an omen of the little glitches that would befall us during the race it was off to a very cold shower to start the morning. Apparently the cozy little cabin we had rented included a non-functioning water heater. Although some of us seemed to need the refreshing blast to help recover from the all too brief previous nights sleep.

Strangely despite the rather early hour of our awakening it was still after 11:00am by the time we reached the gear check area and registered for the race. For a change things went fairly smoothly this time with the only concern being a missing nut from Cindy’s bike’s front wheel quick release, which thankfully turned up in the trunk of her car. We actually were finished with registration in time for most of the team to get a short nap back at the cabin. In the meantime Dennis and I headed up to Sudbury to pick up the support van and even managed to get back in time for the race briefing. After a pretty much uneventful briefing it was back to the room and time for a mad scramble to get everything sorted for the race and the maps plotted. Due to a rather long drive to the start line things were a little more rushed then usual. And as for that drive to the start let’s just say it is better to hit a racoon then it is to stop suddenly with a van full of gear and teammates sitting on folding chairs. Another omen?

The race start was another of the now familiar night mass bike starts that I have grown to hate. With 33 teams scrambling for position on a gravel road in the dark it makes it very difficult to keep track of your teammates and sure enough after struggling to keep contact with everyone the inevitable happened. While starting up a steep hill the large group in front of us slowed suddenly, and then it was every man for him self. I darted far left and noticed that Manon went far right around the blockage with Cindy getting caught up in the middle of it. At the top of the hill I noticed both Dave and Manon but was unsure if Cindy had gone by yet. Dave and Manon carried on ahead and I backed off to wait for Cindy. Before too long I knew something was wrong and stopped then headed back to find her. As has happened to me before Cindy had fallen victim to the uncertainty of whether or not the team was ahead or behind her and had done the best thing and stopped to wait for us. Once we got the team back together it was off to make up some ground and resume the chase.

Then the first of several questionable navigation decisions was made when we came to the point in the ride where we had the choice of either a short cut down an ATV trail or a longer ride on gravel roads. The trail looked pretty good and as we suspected it was like that just long enough to suck us into committing to it. The going got progressively slower and muddier until we came to a full on waist deep river crossing. Once across the trail started to improve and before we knew it we were back on roads and headed to the TA. It was obvious while in the trail that our team’s ability on the bikes is much better in comparison to other teams when on rough trails. We managed to catch and pass several teams in that section but back on the roads we were usually just level pegging. The next navigation slip-up came when we missed the turn off to the TA and decided to take an alternate route rather then backtracking for 1 km. It turns out the alternate route only appeared to go to the TA on the map. The road actually ended at a river with no bridge and we along with 6 or 7 other teams were forced to double back to the original route anyways which likely cost us a ½ hour delay. We soon arrived at the transition to trekking solidly in the middle of the pack with some very wet and cold feet, anxious to start the ill-fated hike.

After a reasonably quick transition we headed out and quickly found a trail right on our bearing that led us to some excellent bush-whacking along a ridge overlooking Lake Nipissing. Due to the significant amount of open bedrock the going was quick, but not as quick as we thought. Thinking that we had perhaps gone past CP3 we headed down the steep ridge to the shores of a lake. We soon met up with team 27 who assured us that we had not gone past the CP yet and we resumed bush-whacking in the thick bush along the shore of the lake which led us to the CP without any further problems. We moved quickly (perhaps a little too quickly) through this section leaving team 27 behind and catching then overtaking another team prior to CP3. We left CP3 with the intention of bushwhacking over a ridge and coming down off the far side to find a trail on the map that should take us directly to TA2/CP4. That was the plan. It all seemed to be going well when we cleared the ridge and immediately found a trail. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that this was not the trail we were looking for and worse there was no sign of this trail on the map. Strangely, despite the fact that it was heading in the wrong direction we followed it anyways to it conclusion a short distance away. From there we found a series of marked walking paths heading off in a direction close to our bearing but always a little south of where we were going. Finally these trails ended at a swamp and we made one of our better decisions and just bushwhacked along our bearing back towards the road to the TA. Not long after starting the bushwhack we came across snowmobile trail D102. Here is where things went from not too bad, to oh my god what were we thinking! Theoretically we thought we were just north of Restoule and that by turning to the south on the trail it would bring us to the town where we could pick up the road to the TA. For this brain fart I would like to apologize to Cindy and Manon. This would have been a good time for a team meeting to discuss our options and have a fresh set of eyes looking at the map. As is our habit we rushed a navigation decision and consequently proceeded down a path that would cost us any chance of completing the course as a ranked team, not to mention the pain of many extra and large blisters. A simple right turn here would have saved us over 10 kms of extra trekking. Our trail did lead us eventually to the highway we were looking for just a lot further south then we had anticipated, and I mean a lot. This unfortunate turn did however lead to another moment that once again affirmed the incredible spirit and determination of my teammates. When an amused and sympathetic race organizer offered us the option of a ride to the TA to enable us to complete the course as an unranked team we decided that we would walk the 16 kms in the hope of still managing to complete the course on our own. The one small bonus to our special long course trekking option was the chance to stop in Restoule and buy some ice cream. Thanks once again to that great race organizer who lent us the $20 to pay for it. We were worried about what we were going to have to do to barter for our treats. He did get his money’s worth though as he seemed to enjoy taking several pictures of us suffering through our embarrassing mistake.

Once we reached the seemingly unreachable TA we were greeted by a quick visit from the medical staff to attend to our feet, thanks again to the race organizers. Shortly thereafter we headed out by canoe (thank god we were off our feet) on the Restoule River for a couple of hours of paddling. Day turned to night just as we were nearing the end of our paddle and before we knew it we were back on our feet headed for the zip line. Our navigation ability showed marked improvement by this point and we quickly found the CP6. The zip was definitely the slowest one I have ever been on probably due to the fact that it was dark and there was nobody on the other side to help stop you. It was decided that I would be the guinea pig and was dispatched across first to place glow sticks on the far bank to help determine where the other side was. It also meant that I was able to help my teammates disconnect from the zip, as it was a little tricky to do while hanging on to the tree that stopped you. If while doing this I put my hands in any inappropriate places it was strictly unintentional, honest girls! From here again we bushwhacked out to a road and walked another f***ing 8 kms to Dokis and TA3/CP7. Along the way we passed some amazing sets of rapids while crossing bridges that were quite impressive even at night.

Once in Dokis we met up with Dennis again, got a hot meal (Chunky beef soup never tasted so good) and were sent out on our bikes for a short ride over to pick up the canoes again at the Little French River. This turned out to be a bit of a difficult bike ride as many of us were starting to have serious trouble staying awake and Cindy for one started having hallucinations. Once into the canoes again we took advantage of the chance to rest some teammates and had some sleeping while others paddled. We even had the two boats tied together for a while. Although, all hope that Manon had of sleeping while being towed along in the boat was quickly dashed by Dave’s ever present snoring. As the sun started to rise so did all our teammates and we resumed the full speed chase of the finish line. Once around the portage at Five Finger Rapids we headed for Woseley Bay and the next TA/CP9. It quickly became apparent that we had not taken enough time to sleep as the unresponsive nature of our navigator (not to mention to goofy look on his face) led to some concern for Cindy and I in the other canoe. We soon found an early rising cottager who confirmed that we were indeed headed in the right direction. Sorry for not fully trusting you at this point Dave but you couldn’t see how you looked!

Once ashore we quickly switched back to biking and were headed out for a seemingly simple 18 km ride down a highway before a short 5 km ride on a gravel road taking us to the rappel site. The simple ride soon became a problem as Manon’s bike started to give her problems staying in gear and finally the derailleur jammed bringing us to a quick halt. I attempted a quick adjustment of the cables to fix the problem and suggested that perhaps I should ride her bike just in case there were more problems. I am sure I must have looked a little silly hunched over on her small bike but it seemed to be working. Unfortunately the extra stress that I put on the bike then led to the chain breaking and we were stopped again. We were about to make it into a single speed when we realized we had another chain available to us and after a short bit of trouble with my fumble fingers we had the bike fixed and we were off again. I headed off on Manon’s bike again thinking I would just give it all I had till the end of the paved section and thus improve our team’s time over this part of the race. Obviously the product of a sleep deprived mind, it would have been much more effective to work more closely with my teammates as a group. My bad! Luckily the repairs held together and we made it to the trek to the rappel without further incident. Once again our navigation was much better as painful feet sharpen the mind and we made quick work of the trek into and thanks to some local help out of the rappel. The rappel itself was excellent, the experience gained in New Liskeard paid off and it went off without a hitch. Even the fact that it ended with us taking a swim in the French River wasn’t a problem due to the fact that it was approaching high noon and was now quite warm out. After the short and refreshing swim we soon found ourselves back at transition once again and jumped in the canoes with the end now in sight.

It was now very obvious that we were not going to make the 12:30 cut-off to finish the race as an officially ranked team but we were determined to finish prior to the 4:30 course closing time. All that remained was a couple hours of paddling followed by a short bike ride to the finish line. The only question was could we stay ahead of team 16 Kinetic Konnection. They had rested for four hours on Sunday mourning and were closing the gap, especially after our mechanical problems on the bikes. But we moved well on the water and maintained our short lead, although it dropped from 42 minutes when we started paddling to only 24 minutes when we headed out on the bikes. Initially we headed out pretty strong and despite a little confusion with navigation we made the penultimate checkpoint Cp12 without incident. From there the strain of the last 38+ hours was starting to show. It cannot be said that we attacked that last 2km section of mud and swamp with much zeal but we did have our usual persistence and before we knew it the finish line appeared. Thirty-nine hours and twenty-one minutes after we started, and just four minutes ahead of team 16 we were done.

All in all it was a very successful race for us. Despite multiple setbacks, some due to bad luck and others to bad decisions and communication, we pulled through and confirmed that we can be a competitive team. I had high hopes for this particular combination of teammates heading into this race and for the most part they reached or surpassed them in all aspects. The only disappointment I had was that I didn’t live up to my end of things as team captain. At times I lost site of the most important goal of having fun and working more closely with all my teammates. For this I apologize once again and pledge to work hard at improving in this area in time for Charlevoix. I have been blessed with great teammates and they deserve a better effort from me to improve my team approach to racing and instead of just concentrating on the physical skills. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression; I still had a blast on this beautiful course with my awesome team mates. I just think I could have done a better job of involving my team mates at times and that could have led to an even better result and more importantly an even more fun experience. Thanks for your patience team, I am a slow learner but I will get there.

Sorry for being so freakin long winded (now I decide to communicate eh!). I think writing this took longer then the race. Anyone who reads this without falling asleep might have a future in racing as well. Like it or not I will have another one of these shortly after Charlevoix, I will try to be a little more concise next time.

Andre Gaudreau
Team Captain