Race Pictures

Race Report

National Adventure Racing Championship

Timmins, Ontario

May 27 to June 3, 2006

Team: Andre Gaudreau, Jim Forbes, Linda St. Cyr, Andrew McKean

Support Crew: Dennis Gaudreau

As these things usually do this all started with an idea. The idea was that it was time to step up to the level of an expedition race. I have 4 years of racing experience now and as I get older racing is not getting any easier so there is no time like the present and with the announcement of the CARA National Championship in Timmins I was out of excuses.

This time the search was easier then I expected. Mind you it would mean that I would be racing with essentially an entirely new team again. My regular group of teammates proved much too wise to attempt to race in the Timmins area at the height of bug season! But once again this provided the opportunity to meet and race with a whole new great bunch of people. First to join me was Linda a racer that I had talked to many times about racing together but until now the timing was always off. Like me she was eager to attempt a long race and being a northerner too she could not pass up on the opportunity to race close to home for a change!

Next to join up was Andy and he actually had raced with me once before so should have known better! We had raced together for the first time just a few months prior in the Mansfield Winter Salomon Adventure Challenge. Being to right thinking semi-intelligent people that we are we figured that a quick 5 hour sprint race told us that we would work together fine in an expedition race. And believe it or not it turned out we were right, go figure!

Last but certainly not least the fine people at CARA pointed me in the direction of Jim to fill the last spot on the team. Jim like the rest of the team had a solid racing background and the desire to attempt an expedition race as well. So here we were four racers with little to no knowledge of one another about to stride headlong into the biggest race that any of us had ever done. No problem.

After careful preparation (I actually took a first aid and a white water paddling course) we all gathered in Timmins along with our professional support crew ready to go. And right of the bat a bad omen as when Jim went to unload gear from the back of his suv his bike tool box dropped out and onto the top of his foot! Must have really hurt but you would never have known as he never mentioned it. Mind you in a couple hours after the gear check when it resembled a football it was no longer a secret. But much to his credit the ever stoic Jim would never let this become an issue in the race.

Once at gear check the magnitude of the race was soon apparent. From the heavy sponsorship and media presence to the water skills testing you could tell this was a little bigger then the usual adventure race. By the way the water skills testing made for highlight of the week. Andy and me had easily the best wetsuits of all the teams! Mind you to be honest my little blue number did not even come close to comparing to Andy’s cool pink trimmed outfit. I know he said he borrowed it but somehow I think that guy is not getting it back! So after lightening the mood at gear check and after a great barbeque put on by the local Camber of Commerce it was off to the first race meeting to receive the maps!

The race briefing was another first class affair with a bag piper and highland dancers leading our way into the hall and members of the Mattagami First Nations drumming and chanting us a greeting. After the welcoming speeches we got our first look at the maps and some of the paddling highlights of the course. It quickly became apparent that the huge 48km bushwhack to start the 2nd stage was going to be the most crucial component of the race. Jim and I went straight to work on plotting our course through the sprint race and Linda and Andy took care of marking the cps on the expedition course. Then we quickly headed back to the hotel to prepare for what was to come.

Sunday morning started with a 45 minute drive down to the start of the sprint stage at Mattagami First Nations. During the drive we lamented the fact that there was to be no rappel section in the race and soon learned of Linda’s unusual training techniques! Sorry promised I would not say more then that! Once on our bikes and preparing for the start our beautiful sunny day quickly turned and the skies opened up and the rain began to fall. But just prior to the start the chief of the Mattagami First Nations performed a smudging ceremony to clear our minds and cleanse our spirits and with that the rain stopped and the race was on!

Quickly it became apparent that the strength of our team was on the bikes and in particular Jim with his handy tow system helped speed our way through that section. Before long we were through the first two cps and transitioned to canoeing. The canoe leg was a fun 10km lake and river paddle up along beside and over the CNR main line. Once off the lake and into the river things got really interesting. It was time to put some of that white water canoe training to the test as we had three sets of rapids to deal with. The first was a fairly simple class I and we easily made our way through. The second set was much more challenging and required a mandatory portage around most of it. At the end of the portage though you had to make a challenging front ferry across a strong rapid that as it turns out would dump you and pin your canoe to a rock if you got it wrong. This was made all the more evident by the canoe already stuck under there which actually seemed to help a few others keep from suffering the same fate. Next up was the third and final rapid which was fairly straight forward but had some sizable haystacks which filled our canoes with a good amount of the wet stuff. Very soon after that we reached the end of the paddle and dragged our canoes up a steep sandy bank and portaged to the TA.

Next up was a good 8km trek from the top of one hill to the top of another and the site of a firetower. This is where the weakness of our team would appear. We started off strong enough but I did a poor job of estimating our speed of travel and once again made the old mistake of not having gone a far as I thought we had. After misidentifying a lake as one further along our course then we were I quickly started to question our location and made the big mistake of changing our bearing! Well after working with team Survivorman who had made the identical mistake we decided to get back on our original bearing and eventually made our way to the end of the trek. Once there due to the late start of the race and the time we had wasted it was necessary to cut things short and not do the short final bike back to the finish but instead be tagged with a 1 hour penalty.

From here we made the brilliant strategic decision to head down to Gogama to our waiting hotel rooms and a hot meal. This spared us the prospect of sleeping the night in tents in the outdoor hockey rink and put us a little closer to the start of the next stage.

Monday morning came quickly but not before I was accosted by a banana in the middle of my night’s sleep! At least it was softer then the remote control the night before! We soon headed out for breakfast and kept a sharp lookout for the approach of the race convoy. Despite the concerns of some our skilful support crew brought us directly to the start location without the slightest problem and all that was left to do was wait for everyone else.

Before long the rest of the race arrived and we were all massed for the start. Before you could say what the hell am I doing here we were off heading east looking for the Ishpatina Ridge the highest point in Ontario and the location of cp 1. We had chosen to take a slightly southern route that would keep us hopping from lake to lake to make it easier to stay on track. This also allowed us easy access to water as we were going to have to refill our bladders frequently on such a long trek. After following team Survivorman closely again for the first kilometre or so the short road we were on ended and we were off into the thick bush and over our first of many ridges! After less then an hour into the bushwhack we would not hear of or see many signs of other teams for quite some time!

We proceeded well along our bearing and soon came to the first of the many little lakes that we had targeted but it was obvious that the going was slow and tough. Not long after we reached another lake that required we follow it’s shore for a little while before returning to our bearing at the north end of the lake. The heat of the day combined with the dense bush led us to get right into the lake and walk up along side the shore. This turned out to have a drastic affect on our prospects for finishing the race. In this short time in the water the map bag (one I must admit I insisted we use because I thought it was very waterproof) leaked in a small amount of water that wiped out a critical section of the map showing the few possible roads that would have eased our trek immensely! A quick but severe thunderstorm drove us from the lake and put us back in the bush and back on bearing.

Knowing that we would have to settle for keeping a straight bearing through the void in the map we got back to the business ahead. We kept to our plan of leaping from lake to lake always knowing right where we were more or less. After crossing the roads that we knew we could no longer use we headed off into the darkness as night fell and we hit the dark zone on our map! After a few hours of bushwhacking through the wet forest we reached a rock hilltop, which we decided would be our bed for the night. The rock was a little cool but relatively bug free and had an amazing view of the stars and the lightening flashes off in the distance.

After a couple hours of sleep to recharge our batteries we were off again searching for the ever distant cp 1. After reaching another lake in the early hours of the morning the fearless Linda quickly showed us guys how to cross a lake the fast way and we soon found ourselves back on the mysterious road system. After quickly checking if the road followed our bearing at all it became apparent it was not going to so we headed north on the road to the top of the lake. This put us back on the readable section of our map and on our optional northerly bearing for the last 8 km to the Ishpatina Ridge. Our target was the north end of Scarecrow Lake that had a trail running from it straight to the top of the ridge and the unmanned cp. After more determined trekking and to my surprise we emerged from the bush to find ourselves exactly at the trailhead! Unbelievable!! My first truly large bushwhack as head navigator has gone about as well as I could have ever hoped thanks in large part to my teammates whose diligence in keeping me on bearing really paid off!

Now with bladders refilled we started the push up the trail to cp 1. The heat was building again as we were nearing noon so it was starting to affect the team. Linda took the lead here and in a show of her incredible strength and determination fastened a tow to the teammate worst affected. He described it as being akin to being hitched to a locomotive! I took over after a while but the drop off in power was certainly noticeable. After climbing the punishing trail to the top of the ridge we reached the elusive cp 1 a mere 24 hours after we started! The view was great but I must say none of us had ever experienced such a long period of time between cps before and it was starting to show.

We soon got back on our way and back on our due east bearing that would lead us the 3 kms to the next cp and the first manned cp of the expedition stage of the race. Despite our best efforts to manage the heat and work as a team it was becoming more and more obvious that this was going to be the final cp of our race. Our pace was continuing to slow and we were now going less then a km per hour and stopping for breaks frequently. To make matters much worse we were running low on food as the entire trek was suppose to take 30 hours and we were approaching that just to get to cp 2. After what seemed like the longest 3 hour trek of my life we popped out of the bush onto Michell Lake just south of the cp. Before long we heard the calls of the incredible Larry the cp guy! It turns out he was really looking for team Good 2 Go as they had radioed in a little lost. We had heard voices about half an hour from the cp but were unable to get their attention. Before much longer they found their way to the cp and joined us for a good night of camping. Yes the cp was very remote and there was no easy way to extract our teams from the course. We would have to spend another night under the stars and leave in the morning on a 5 hour 6 km trek along several lakes to get us to Smoothwater Lake and the boat ride out! Larry made us very comfortable, helped feed us and was the best company our teams could ask for. We were a little sorry to have to say goodbye the next morning as we headed off to see his cp partner Marcel with our boat ride.

The trek was a good reminder of what we had already went through and with the help of team Good 2 Go it went well. We emerged from the final bushwhack to find the portage trail that would bring us to Smoothwater Lake and our ride back to civilzation. Incredibly we walked down the last hill of the trail to see the lake and the boat approaching with the ultimate in perfect timing! Much to our surprise there was Dennis our support crew helping guide Marcel through the tricky shallow water to the pickup point. We received the bad news that only one team could be taken out at a time and that we would have to wait another 2 hours for our turn but that blow was softened significantly by the pizza and sandwiches handed to us to make our time there much more pleasant. In fact before long Andy had a fire going and we were enjoying an incredible shore lunch.

Well before we knew it our ride returned and we were on our way back to civilization secure in the knowledge that we had made a strong attempt but stuck with that nagging feeling of a job not done. A little frustrated that even without making any navigation errors we were still too slow to cover the distance on time. In the end I put that down to my inexperience in long races and now I am much more prepared for my next expedition.

Once again I must thank my great teammates as they made this an awesome experience! I had tons of fun with them and they always gave their all out there. Our support crew outdid himself again this time, even got the chance to come get us out of the bush that he has always talked about. And a special thanks goes to the super volunteers and organizers of this race! Everything was always first class and the whole event was special. The people of Timmins did themselves proud and their efforts will be talked about in adventure racing circles for years to come I am sure. As for Larry and Marcel at cp2 we could not have asked for better volunteers to take care of us, they were absolutely great! Bob Millar put a heck of a course together with a trek truly worthy of a National Championship just wish we had it in us to see the rest of it. Special mention should also go to Simon and Jonathan and everyone else at CARA for there efforts in putting on such an impressive event. And congratulations to the winners Simon River Sports and all other teams that competed so hard.

Till the next event!

Andre Gaudreau
Team Max Payne