Since the race start was twenty miles from my front door, making it to Saturday's check in was pretty easy.    Kate and Sarah accompanied Garrett and I so we wouldn't have to worry about shuttling the truck or canoe around after the race.   I'm not sure getting up before 6am was Sarah's favorite way of starting out a Saturday.  

Check in went very smoothly.   As the morning wore on more and more people showed up with faster and faster looking boats.   Garrett and I had opted for his aluminum canoe, which is basically the tank of the adventure racing world.  

It wasn't going to break any speed records.   Then again we weren't going to get swamped by speed boats or sunk by a half submerged piling.   I kept telling myself these kinds of things as even sleeker boats showed up.  

It was still dark when the Vignette's showed up.    Usually you only have to worry about one Vignette team.   This time they had broken up into three different two person teams, and they all had beautiful Kevlar racing canoes.   Kip and Jason both made a point of coming over to say good morning and other witty things that slip my mind right now.   Mostly I think they just wanted to see if I was going to wear my supper cool $2 straw hat during the race.  

Time disappeared like it always does before a race and somehow it was time for the pre-race meeting.   They gave us the usual talk about safety and having fun and then handed out the CP's for the day.   They also gave the team captains a few sheets of paper on how to start a fire using a couple of pieces of wood and some string.   This was going to be our special test for the evening.   Once we got to the overnight campsite we would be required to start a fire using what we'd collected throughout the day.   I have to say, the only word that came to my mind was, COOL!  

There was the usual bathroom scramble between the pre-race meeting and the start of the race.   Some people sprinting for the park bathrooms, and some people ducking behind nearby bushes.   A few minutes before 8am they circled us around a grassy area we had been instructed to drop our overnight gear on.   Debbie went around and had one person from each team stand on the folded aerial photo that we were going to use for the first leg of the race.   Even though it's only twenty miles from my house I had never been to Mansfield Dam Park before.   I was excited to get to run around see it for the first time.  

8am arrived and the race started.   Garrett opened up the photo and almost immediately headed out at a light jog.   I was a bit flustered because I was still looking to see where we were on the photo.   I took a deep breath, told myself to relax and followed his lead.   The fact that there were twenty other people headed the same direction helped a bit.   We got there just as John Beard found the CP under water at the bottom of some steps that ended in the lake.   Three whole minutes into the race and my feet were already wet, that's not a record, but it's close.  

Off with the rest we went to the next CP out on a point of land we would later launch our boats from.   After that the next CP was just across a small inlet from where we were, but we decided that swimming it would be a bad idea.   We opted for a shortcut off the main trail that got us there pretty quickly.   There was a bit of confusion among the teams about where the CP might be, but Garrett thought it was to our right.   I moved off that way and practically bonked into it.  

I've never been a great jogger and we payed for it on the next CP.   It was a mile or so away on the downstream side of the dam just off the main trail.   I watched sadly as the lead teams outdistanced us, there was just nothing I could do about my pace.   I blame it on my age, creaky knees, and general grumpiness.   We thought about trying to cut across the river right below the dam, but a short scouting side trip put an end to that plan.   We found and punched the CP and then headed back to the first TA.  

Back at the TA I quickly ran and grabbed our overnight gear and threw it in the boat.   We had been told we could leave it in the TA until the third leg.   If you're counting you might notice that we were currently on the second leg, I guess I was just a little bit excited.   What's thirty extra pounds of gear to a couple of guys like us anyway.  

We plotted the points for this leg and headed down to launch the boat.   Besides having a really nice aluminum canoe with a spray skirt Garrett also has a lovely Vee-Cart.   I think it might actually be Ed's, but he wasn't there so Garrett gets the credit.   The Vee-Cart is amazing, it goes everywhere, weighs next to nothing, and is practically indestructible.  

There were four points to get on Lake Travis, one on our side of the lake and three on the other.   We headed across the lake first, hoping for a tail wind on the longer crossing on the way back.   The morning was perfect and the lake very smooth.   We were just a couple of guys out for a nice leisurely paddle.    The first CP was pretty easy since there was another boat just leaving it, one of the perks of not being in first place.   The next CP was in the cove where Marshal Ford Marina is.  

Back when I was younger and had more money I had a sailboat at a slip in this marina.   This unfortunately didn't keep me from making the wrong decision about which side of the dock to go down.   We took the more open looking route that of coarse dead ended into the dock itself.   We had to portage over the dock.   It was about this time that Garrett asked why we had the overnight gear in the boat with us when we didn't have to.   I had no good answer besides the fact that I'm an idiot sometimes.  

We were just putting our boat back in the water when we heard "Wait, wait, WAIT!!!" Splash.   It was Tom Lane of the Werewolves of Austin.   He and his partner Ashley had had trouble with their much longer boat and it had shoved Tom off the dock and into the lake.   He looked okay so we paddle on.  

A few bends further up the cove we passed John and Marcy going the other way and got a quick picture.   I had purchased a new waterproof camera the previous day and was anxious to try it out.   At the CP there was another boat just pulling out that we managed not to ram.   People tend to get out of the way of sixteen foot aluminum canoes that aren't known for their maneuverability.  

One more CP on this side of the lake and then it was time to see if we could make the much longer lake crossing back.   The wind had picked up and the lake was a bit choppy, but it definitely looked do-able so we headed off.   Turns out that the wind had picked up a lot more than we thought.   It was coming at us from the left side and really weather cocking us into the wind.   I hadn't done a good job packing the boat and it was very front heavy, which meant that the wind was blowing the back of the boat downwind like a weather vane.   We basically crabbed our way across the lake.   It's not a very efficient way to paddle but we made it.  

After punching the CP it was just a short paddle into the wind back to the boat takeout.    Marilyn was volunteering there and she told us we were the first aluminum off the lake.   Then again there were only two aluminum canoes in the entire race.  

That was going to be it for Lake Travis.   I had hoped to spend more time out there, but after fighting that wind for half an hour I wasn't sad to say goodbye.   We put the Vee-Cart back on and headed back to the trail around the dam.   The only good thing about messing up and loading our gear before this leg was that we didn't have to stop now.   We just waved at Mike and walked past.  

The first part of the trek was slightly up hill to the dam and then it was down, down, down.   I was in back and got to play anchor for the next fifteen minutes with ninety pounds of boat trying to race down the hill in front of me.   Here again the Vee-Cart did a great job.   We got to the boat launch and Debbie told us we were only a few minutes behind the lead teams.   She was lying of coarse, but it's the thought that counts.  

We launched the boat and Garrett started plotting the next points.   With the wind coming right at us and the duck weed trying to steal my paddle I had trouble making any forward progress until he was done.   After that we set up a good pace and got too business.   Neither of us are great paddlers, but we got into a rhythm and made good time.  

A few minutes before we got to it Garrett told me that at the next CP we were going to have to split up.   One of us would be jogging while the other paddled to the CP further down river.   To an normal person this would seem perfectly reasonable, but to me it was an invitation to relive a nightmare.   Several years ago there was a similar situation at a Steel Sports race at Martin Dies Park.   Back then I had chosen to do the paddling.   I had zoomed off downstream and missed the pickup point by about two miles.   It took me almost an hour of hard paddling back upstream to find my teammate, my very patient teammate.   I think about that mistake all the time, and here we were again.  

We rounded the next corner to find Art and his family manning the CP split up point.   Their friendly smiles and big huge van were hard to miss.   Garrett got out of the boat and waved goodbye without a second thought.   I pointed the boat downstream and immediately forgot how far I was supposed to go and the name of the park we were supposed to meet at.   All I could remember was that it was on the left bank and shouldn't take more than an hour.  

About two minutes of trying to paddle from the back of the canoe proved fruitless.   I had to climb on top of the gear and sit somewhere near the middle.   Trying not to tump the boat over or look like a complete moron, I thought happy thoughts and just kept paddling.   Amazingly enough this was when the wind turned around and for most of the solo paddle I had a tail wind.  

Thirty minutes later there was a race volunteer telling me to pull in to the next landing.   I had made it, one small step for racer-kind, but one giant leap for me!   Maybe now I could stop having nightmares about leaving Jim on the banks of that river for an hour.   Garrett showed up a couple minutes later and didn't see what I was so happy about.   We took a break to plot the next points in the shade, and then headed off.  

It was a short paddle across the lake to the next section of the race, which was going to be a trek.   We zipped over into a small creek barely ahead of the Werewolves.   There was a low bridge to go under and then we tied off the canoe and hopped out.   The volunteers manning the boat drop had two little white dogs along and one of them was convinced I was a bad bad man.   It took an instant dislike to me and let me know exactly how it felt.   Dogs know weird things.  

I think it was the bad vibes coming off the dog that set up our first trekking mistake.   Garrett kind of handed me the map and said "Here."   I was not prepared for this, he had been doing the navigating up to this point.   So I took the folded up map, oriented the side I thought was north, took a bearing, and headed us off in the complete wrong direction, right into a thistle patch.   The clue for this CP said "Mesquite."   Mesquite trees are pokey, not stingey, something was horribly wrong.  

Garrett took the map back, turned it right side up and off we went in another direction.   We saw John, Marcy, Jason, and Kip all searching in the general area, but we had no luck.   Eventually we went back and started over and quickly realized our mistake.   We were just getting to about the right pace count when John and Marcy went zipping by saying look for mesquite trees.   Sure enough there it was.  

The next CP was up the creek we'd come in on quite a ways.   I love rock hopping so I was excited to be going after this one.   There were supposedly some trails along the side of the creek but we never really found them and spent most of the time splashing along in the shade.   The clue was ravine, which should have been obvious from the creek, but I started to get nervous when we ran into several other teams all having trouble.   I decided to go up the bank a little and parallel Garrett as he continued up stream.   About a minute later I practically grabbed the CP for a handhold when I slipped.  

Garrett saw me punch it and quietly took a bearing on the next CP.   It was on a hillside on the opposite side of the creek several hundred meters away.   That's a long way to keep a bearing and a pace count, but we set out as quickly as we could.   We didn't hit it completely on the nose, but it was a really good shot.   One more CP to get and then back to the boats.  

The last CP on this section was farther up the creek at the park boundary.   We managed to find a little bit of a trail just before we hit the boundary fence.   The CP was a little ways back down the creek from the fence but not hard to find.   I punched it and back we went.   Along the way we passed the same small group of park visitors we had passed going up.   Two of the women were still in the middle of the same conversation and didn't even bother looking up.   Like twenty or thirty oddly dressed people running up and down the creek with maps was something they saw every day.  

Back at the boat landing things were a bit of a mess.   There were boats everywhere, and we were blocked in pretty well.   Another team was just paddling up when I went to unclip and we bumped boats a little as I tried to shove ours back out of the pack.   Garrett caught the canoe on the other side of the bridge and we loaded up.   Aside from the stinging nettles it had been a good section for us.   The last paddle of the day was down to City Park.   It wasn't too far and the wind had let up considerably, it was shaping up to be a great day.  

Along the way we saw a speed boat pulling what looked like a guy sitting on a chair.   As we watched the skier swung in toward the wake and as he did so the chair lifted up out of the water on a hydrofoil.   He hit the wake doing about a thousand miles and hour and flew into the air.   I don't know how many flips and twists the guy did, but it was amazing.   Just before he landed he got the pole/chair/hydrofoil thing down underneath him.   It hit the water and gently lowered him until just the chair was showing again.   Garrett and I both watched this several times and he can confirm that I wasn't just hallucinating.  

All too soon it was time to pull the boat up out of the water at City Park.   For added help with this section we had were given a trail map of the park.   Garrett quickly transcribed the topo points onto the trail map, something that takes me hours to do.   We headed off with a loose plan to get the first CP along the shoreline and then see how steep the cliff next to it was before we decided on the next.   The first CP was right were it was supposed to be and the cliff didn't look too bad so we headed up.   I saw some scramble marks so we were pretty sure somebody had already done this.  

There was a bit of a false top about half way up that fooled us for a minute and then some more scrambling.   Don't worry, we made it.   It might not have been the most efficient way, but it was definitely the funnest.   We headed down to find the creek/trail that would take us to the next CP.   No problems so far so we turned left and started looking for a small cliff face or some ferns or something.   We came upon some ferns growing on a cliff face and thought we might want to stop and investigate.   I went on ahead to see if the trail did what we thought it should.   It did and we were just discussing where the CP should be when Garrett pointed out that it was about ten feet away.   The big showoff.  

We took a bearing and a pace count to the next CP and hit it pretty well.   Up to this point we had been doing great so you know we have to mess up the next one.   Back to the main trail and down we went looking for another ravine to join us from the left.   We found one but were at odds as to whether it was the right one.   Instead of just standing there talking about it we went up to look.   Alas it was not there.   One more ravine down and we had our next CP.  

We got the last three CP's with the help of John and Marcy.   We didn't purposefully follow them, it just kind of worked out that way.   It was nice traveling with another team for a while, even if they kept running away from us.   We made it back to the overnight TA in good time and found out we were in fourth place behind two Vignettes and MOAT.  

It was now time to try and make fire.   I had studied the handout a little and thought I had a pretty good grasp on what was to be done.   Garrett and I wondered into the woods looking for the perfect tools.   We needed three things.   One: A long slightly curved stick to act as a bow.   Two: A dry and very straight stick to work as a drill bit.   Three: A rock with a whole in it to apply pressure to the drill bit.  

I'll just cut to the chase here.   We failed to make fire.   As a matter of fact every single team failed to make even the smallest flame.   Nineteen teams of die hard Adventure Racers and we couldn't get one single fire going at the end of summer in Texas.   If I hadn't been so demoralized and worn out from an hour of trying, it would have been funny.  

I'm going to skip over the night of sleep I didn't get and jump right to loading up the boat the next morning.   Suffice it to say that a hammock that you pay $1 for is worth just that and nothing more.   There were some very nice showers, but since I had only one set of clothes it didn't do to much for the smell.  

Race start on Sunday was at 6am.   We started moving the boats down to the swimming area at 5:45am.   Along the way we passed John and Marcy who were having some trouble with their cart.   Assistance was offered but politely declined.   Since they were only four minutes ahead of us going into todays stage they probably thought I was going to sabotage their boat.   Smart people.  

We put into the water and waited for the start.   There was a bit of jockeying around, but not bad.   Somebody said go and we all paddled out into the dark.   Okay nineteen boats with ordinary bow lights paddled out into the dark.   We had my MOAB bike like on the front of the boat and man does it light up the world.   We practically lit up the river from bank to bank.  

It was a short paddle down to the Loop 360 bridge where we dropped the boats and got a couple of quick trek points.   We arrived in about fifth place but immediately started loosing ground to teams who were jogging.   Yes I know we should have kept up with them, but jogging just isn't that much fun.  

Back in the boats and onto the next boat drop we went.   I've lived in Austin since 1970 and I'd never been up Bull Creek in a boat.   So the next bit of paddling was very fun, until we got to the 2222 bridge.   Then things started to get messy.  

The portage under 2222 wasn't bad, just a little slippery.   Garrett and I were congratulating ourselves on being big strong guys when we carried the boat right past the next portage.   We missed it because it couldn't possibly be the portage over to the road we were to use next.   It couldn't be because there were compact car sized boulders all over the "path" and trees way to close together to fit a decent sized boat.   It was then that I remembered why I call Mike "He who must not be named."   I could practically hear him laughing in my head, he is an evil, evil man.  

We picked up the boat, gear and all and started trying to push, pull, drag, and pry it down the path to the street beyond.   Taking the gear out would have been much smarter, but we didn't think about that until way too late.   Once on the road we put the wheels on and headed to the park up the road where we would drop the boats and do more trekking.   I've biked and hiked around the Bull Creek Park for years so I was pretty confident in our ability to get this section done quickly.   Why do I ever think things like that?  

We made it to the boat drop where Debbie and several volunteers were waiting to check us in.   I believe at this point we were in fifth place.   Bull Creek Park is a "Dog Park" which means that leashes are optional.   I love the park, but you've really got to watch where you step.  

We took the main trail out of the park and headed for our first CP.   It was in a draw off the main trail a little ways.   We chose a side trail that looked to be going in about the right direction and ran into Bobby and Helena of Oasis Racing.   They were kind enough to tell us that we were indeed at the mouth of the correct draw and that the CP was just up ahead.  

As usual everything was going just a little bit too well and we paid for it on the next CP.   Chalk it up to overconfidence or tiredness or sheer bad navigating, but we just couldn't find the next CP.   It was three quarters of the way up the hills that border the park on the north, and I knew that there was a trail that ran at about that exact height.   We spent an hour and a half slipping and sliding up and down those hills and didn't find a thing.   At one point I stopped to call Debbie to make sure nobody had reported CP25 missing.   She very diplomatically told me that all the CP's were in place and accounted for.   We gave up soon after and vowed to try again on the way back to the boats.  

The next few CP's went quickly, they were all just off trails that I knew pretty well.   On the way back to the infamous CP25 we were passed by Nikki and Cynthia who were the only Tandem Female team in the race.   They were jogging along at a good clip but slowed down long enough to give Garrett and I very detailed instructions on how to find CP25.   They were tired and scratched up a bit but still smiling, jogging and willing to help a team in need.   We thanked them and they jogged off down the trail.  

Armed with their expert directions we found CP25 in about five minutes.   It was just off the trail we'd been walking back and forth on, probably about thirty meters from where I called Debbie from.   On the way back to the main trail we came across Liam looking for the same point and passed on the directions we had been given.   His teammate Barry was looking a little worse for wear, but since this was his first ever AR that was to be expected.  

Back at the boats we found that we'd dropped from fifth to tenth.   Today was definitely not going as well as yesterday.  

The boat practically dragged us back down the hill to the portage from the road into Bull Creek.   We found Cynthia, Nikki, Helena, and Bobby all trying to portage through the narrow gap back to the creek.   Helena and Bobby made pretty short work of it and disappeared.   Garrett and I helped Cynthia and Nikki with their boat and portaged our own unloaded boat next.   We couldn't decide whether it was because it was down hill a bit or because we had taken the gear out, but this portage went much smoother.  

We carried the boat down below the 2222 bridge and threw the gear back in.   Then it was back down Bull Creek, past one of the best BBQ places in town, and onto Lake Austin once more.   By now however the wind had picked up and there were a lot of power boats zooming up and down the narrow lake.   Even with the spray skirt snapped over the middle of the boat it was still a challenge to keep the waves from swamping us.   We spent a lot of time turning into one set of waves or another.  

After a pretty exciting ride we arrived at a small cut that would lead us to our next park.   We took it and followed the cove up to a landing where we were met by some very nice volunteers.   While Garrett cleaned out his shoes I handed my camera to Janice and she snapped some pictures of me being goofy.   After that it was a long hot walk up to the top of Mt. Bonnell to retrieve the date off the monument there.   Unfortunately the last digit of the year had been chipped off so we had to guess.   I took a picture of Garrett in front of the rock just in case.  

Back in the boat one last time for one final boating CP and then on to the last boat drop.   The last boat CP was up a cove a little ways up from the dam that forms Lake Austin.   Near the end it was pretty narrow and windy, it made having a short indestructible boat like ours a good choice.   The CP itself was tucked in among some lovely ferns and stuff.   Again this was someplace that I'd never been to in a city that I've lived in for thirty-five years.  

Back across the lake to the last boat landing we flew.   We beached the boat, clambered out and carried it a short way up the bank.   Actually since it was grass we drug it most of the way.   Just before we left on the trek I asked Debbie to call Kate and tell her we'd be done in an hour or so.   She assured me she would and we moved off secure in the knowledge that our ride home was taken care of.   Talk about service.  

The last trek section had four points.   Two close ones on Redbud Island just downriver of us and two more back up the river a ways.   We decided to go to Redbud first since it was closer and we knew it better.   On the way we had to pass by "Hula Hut", my second favorite restaurant in the whole city.   Again I could here Mike laughing in my head.   Redbud Island is another leashless dog park where you have to watch your step.   One of the CP's was on a tiny island just off the main island while the other was on a dog-poop bag dispenser.   This was one of the more populated parks we'd been in and we got more than a few strange looks from park visitors.  

We located both the CP's and headed north into the hills along Scenic Drive.   Garrett knew where the last two points were, and I knew what streets to take to get us there.   Together we managed to find the last two CP's without getting lost in the city were we both currently live.   We saw several other teams along the way who were jogging in one direction or another.   We resisted the urge to push ourselves that hard and kept to our fast walk, we're rebels.  

The finish of the race was a little more fun for me than most.   Usually the end of a race is kind of anti-climactic, but this time there were still lots of people around to cheer us on including Kate and Sarah.   Debbie and Mike were there to take our passport and check us in.   Mike made sure to stay far enough away from anybody finishing so they couldn't strangle him for that last portage.  

We had a good enough combined two day time to come in third place in the Tandem Male division and fifth place overall.   We were knocked out of fourth place overall by the Werewolves of Austin.   The Werewolves beat us by two hours the second day, totally wiping out the forty-five minute lead we had on them the first.   We had had a great time no matter what ranking we ended up.  

Garrett and I sat down and enjoyed some snacks Mike and Debbie had provided and then started packing up for the ten mile drive home.   We were so close to home we didn't even bother to change.  

While we were packing Doug came over to retrieve his GPS tracking unit I'd been carrying the entire race.   Debbie, who is the founding member of our Austin Adventure Racers club, rented one for us so she could see how well/poorly we did after the race.   It was so light and small that I'd forgotten all about it.   He would download the tracks and post them on his new website.   I was cool with that until I remembered CP25 and all the extra scrambling around we did.   There would be no hiding that from anyone looking at the tracks.   Oh well.  

We said goodbye to Mike and Debbie and anybody else we could find.   Staying and hanging out would have been fun, but the shower at home was calling my name.  

The drive back took all of twenty minutes, including dropping Garrett off on the way.   It was the best feeling in the world to be able to strip down and wash a couple of days worth of junk off in my own shower.   My personal opinion is that more races should be put on within twenty miles of my house.  

As a team I think Garrett and I did great.   There were very few communication mix ups and we worked well together.   Our big aluminum canoe did just fine and moved us down the river in comfort and safety.   The snap on spray skirt and Vee-Cart did exactly what they were designed to do with no fuss or muss.  

The race itself was wonderful!   Except for the fire starting special test I enjoyed the weekend immensely.    Debbie and Mike put on an amazing race right in our own back yard in parks that I had never even heard of.   The volunteers were wonderful.   Every time we met somebody they knew exactly what they were doing and were always ready with a kind word.  

Thanks to everybody involved with this race!   It was one of the funnest this year.   I'll be back next year, and this time I'll start that darn fire.  

Curt Slaten
Austin Adventure Racers