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Posted by Grant on 22. July 2009 20:27
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The Dirty Avocados have another race write-up on Untamed New England. In case you missed it, here is a link to their report from their first team (the DAs had two teams entered in this event).
My favorite part of this race report is their account of the 2nd trek: "All night long we powered through the bush, over the rocks, through the high weeds and around the trees." It's like music to my ears. I know how challenging the terrain is around there, and I spent days hiking/bushwhacking that territory to identify solid CP locations (ones that correlate well to the map, are fair, fit our course, and are adventurous fun).
My other remark on their race write up pertains to this quote as they approached the rope section:
"I saw 2 routes to the rope site – one was a road, the other a 4 wheel drive road that looked more direct and shorter. I asked a local kid on an ATV about it and he said the 4 wheel drive road was in good shape and the way he would go. If I ever see that kid again, he’s in trouble. It was a good road, for a while. But by the time it got to the ridge, it was a muddy un-rideable mess. As a result we wound up pushing the bikes for several hours through the mud. This was the low point in the race for me."
If I'm not mistaken, I ran into the Avocados at this self-described "low point." I was out on the course keeping an eye for teams in trouble, and while the Dirty Avocados didn't fit the "rescue me from this course" definition of trouble, the team in the black and green jerseys that emerged from a densely overgrown trail didn't look to be 100%. I think our exchange went like this:
Me: "Are you guys alright? Everything OK?"
Anonymous Avocado #1: "&@%*#!"
Anonymous Avocado #2: "@#^&%*! we just tried to ride through that. Look at it! Take a picture! I think only moose have gone through there this year!"
Anonymous Avocado #3: "Which way to the climb site?"
Me: "I can't really help you, unless you're asking as a team that is withdrawing from the race."
Anonymous Avocado #2: "No no no. We're done with that trail, now we're all set."
Anonymous Avocado #1: "&@%*#!"
Anonymous Avocado #3: "My bike looks like a rolling fern; I can't even see my brakes through the weeds and mud caked on"
Anonymous Avocado #1: "&@%*#!"
Promptly after this conversation, the team headed back into the woods on yet another trail (hopefully a bit faster going for them).
They've got a Flickr photo album from their Untamed New England race at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtyavocados/sets/72157621426436076/.
The Avocados, and a handful of other teams from out West, represented the Pacific Coast well at this race! Hopefully we can build on that for the future (let's discuss that incentive plan for 2010 Avocados!).