Triple By Pass
July 8, 2000

The triple By-Pass is a one-day 123-mile ride from Evergreen to East Vail, Colorado over three passes, with a total elevation gain of over 10,000 ft. Although it is a road ride, Cindy Gagnon chose to do the ride this year on her Litespeed Mountain Bike, as she loves the ride of that bike more than her road bike. She successfully completed the ride and was one of a handful of the 2, 000+ riders who did so on a mountain bike, finishing the ride well ahead of many road cyclists.

Raid the North EXTREME
July 10-15, 2000
Revelstoke, BC, Canada
6TH Place Finish

For this 5-day race, Jan Bear joined Team NorthQuest/Santa Fe to fill in for their injured captain, Pat, who had broken his wrist. Pat and his nephew, Matt would be the support crew. The rest of the team consisted of John, Bart and Melia, all of whom Jan had met two weeks previously in Fernie, British Columbia (BC). The trip began on Saturday, July 9 when Jan flew from Santa Fe to Denver, then to Seattle followed by an 8-hour drive to Revelstoke, BC.

The team got in at about 10 PM and got a good nightÕs sleep. The next day began with gear/skill checks and at 3PM, the course design was described. Maps were handed out with the checkpoint (CP) list, 16 CPÕs and 3 transition areas (TA). The team returned to the motel to plot points and plan the route. This took about 4 hours along with preparing the gear; the team slept a little before the 5AM wake up call.

On Monday at 5:30 AM, all 13 teams climbed into the buses and with support crews caravaned to the starting line, which was about 50 km north of Revelstoke. The day was cloudy and cool with low cloud level and intermittent rain. The first portion of the race was trekking for a distance of about 60-km (metric measurements were used in this race except for elevations).

This involved two separate climbs from about 1800 feet to 6500 feet. The snow level was at about 4800-5200 feet. Snow covered the course for about 30-km. This along with, low-lying clouds, fog and near continuous rainfall made navigation difficult, but Bart did a great job. The other challenge was being WET from rain or snow for this first leg.

The first CP was reached by descending down to a heli-ski lodge. From there they paddled across the Goldstream River and hiked through a marsh with water up to waist level before reaching the second part of the trek through Groundhog basin. There were multiple snow glissades (sliding down snow throughout this section. They had about 1- hours of sleep during the trek at an abandoned minerÕs camp at 12 PM Monday night.

Finally, the first TA was reached on Tuesday at about 3PM, where the team changed gear and carried canoes about a kilometer to Revelstoke Lake. They began a 55-km lake paddle with a midway CP. The team enjoyed spectacular views and rapidly improving weather. The second TA was reached at 1 AM after an uneventful paddle. After 2 hours of sleep they crossed the Revelstoke Lake in canoes with their bikes to begin the 90km biking section at about 3:30 AM. This involved a climb from 1800 feet to 5700 feet with lots of snow and mud, thus the bikes were pushed or carried for a moderate amount of time.

Finally they started down hill through beautiful forest and rivers only to be met with two or more 1200 foot climbs before the end of the bike at about 6 PM on Wednesday night. At the last TA they got about 2 hours of sleep and headed off for the second trekking section of the race. At 10:30 PM, they began to climb up Eagle Pass Mountain to about 7000 feet from 2100 feet. There, the team found the ropes at the top on the snowfield and ascended approximately 260 feet up the granite face with 40-pound packs. They went up one person at a time on one rope and then down the other side for a 350 foot rappel to a snow field with a long glissade on the snow before continuing the trek. It was sunrise while they were on the mountaintop with spectacular views in all directions. The next 8-km of the trek was on snow until they found the next CP, then down to find an abandoned road and another 12 km to the zip line.

They traversed 300 feet across the river about 150 feet above it. This was followed with a short bushwhack to find bikes at the next CP and pedal 20 km into Revelstoke reaching the finish line at about 6:30 PM on Thursday evening, finishing in 6th place. At the finish line there were congratulations and then off for a hot shower and meal, followed by a great nightÕs sleep. The next day the team explored Revelstoke and their National Park. Saturday there was a luncheon followed by the awards ceremony which was fun despite the fact that Team NorthQuest/Santa Fe finished in the middle of the pack. That evening was spent sharing war stories with other teams before heading home to Santa Fe. For results and more information about the race log on to http://raid the north.com/RtNExt/extreme_results.html

Adventure Race Training in Aspen
July 21-23, 2000

Cindy Gagnon sponsored a 2-day training weekend in Aspen. Two other adventure racers joined her. The first day consisted of backpacking into Crater Lake at the Base of Maroon Bells to set up camp. The second day consisted of a technical snow/rock climb of the Maroon Bells (North and South, both Colorado Fourteeners) via the Bell Couloir and the rock traverse between the two mountains. The snow couloir is about a 2000-ft ascent of 45-degree steep snow to the saddle between the two peaks, and then its Class 4 rock with a few Class 5 sections on the traverse. They descended via the north ridge of North Maroon Bell. The 11-hour day was one of the most technical and rewarding climbs in for Cindy. Day 3 consisted of riding Independence Pass. Again, Cindy chose to ride her Litespeed on this 20 mile, 4000 Ft elevation gain climb.

Training in Taos
July 29-30, 2000

Reis Robinson planned a mountain bike training in Taos on July 29, 2000. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend at the last minute but Kim and Jan Bear, Larry Busby, George Broome and Eileen Pickett and her friend Bill ended up caravaning up to El Nogal Park to do the South Boundary Trail.

Kim, Jan, and George were training for the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race to be held on August 12, 2000 in Leadville, Colorado. It was to be the last big ride before the race. Larry, Eileen and Bill were just "training". Kim, Jan, Eileen, and Bill were on their full suspension LiteSpeed Titanium bikes and everyone wore a Cratoni Helmet. Eileen and Bill explored the trail on their own and the others took off on the trail.

The trail quickly became steep and rocky. George, Kim and Larry worked on their "bike pushing" technique while Jan just worked on finesse. Kim used her Acumen¨ heart rate monitor to keep her heart rate at 75% during the pushing. It was helpful to train using the heart rate as a guide, because the ride was to last 11 hours. The team members were glad to be wearing their Native EyeWear¨ and everyone had sunscreened up with WPC Brands Reflect Sport SunScreen. After about one- hours they reached ridable single track with spectacular views of Taos Valley. This was enjoyed until a thunder and rainstorm made it necessary to wait it out under trees. They used a space blanket, which really kept legs warm, and put on Lowe Alpine Gore-Tex wear, which kept them very dry. The group ate PhilÕs Barª and JogMate¨. Larry was wearing his Alps Pak and kept surprising them with how much he could fit into it, as he seemed to have quite a variety of clothes to wear. Everyone had his or her CamelBak reservoir so hydration was easily managed.

The plan had been to ride to Angel Fire, but after meeting up with more of ReisÕs friends who had come from that route, it was decided to turn around and explore Garcia Park. ReisÕs friends were taken to the turn off to South Boundary; Jan looked at their map and decided on a loop to give added mileage and climbing. This ended up in adding 3 hours to the ride, but the climbing was worth it for this training and the group still liked Jan even though he does not have a photographic memory. They finally came back to the South Boundary Trail and had a great ride down to El Nogal Park. They arrived there at 7pm and went to dinner.

The next morning began at 8:30 in the parking lot of the Taos Ski Valley. Kim and Jan trekked to Bull of the Woods, Middle Fork Lake, Lost Lake, Horse Shoe Lake, and then up to Wheeler Peak. Every 1 to 2 hours foot care was performed with Hydropel¨. The Montrail shoes helped make the rocks and scree tolerable underfoot. The Thorlo¨ sock was the last control of blisters. They then jogged down the RidgeLine to Bull of the Woods and back to Taos Ski Valley. The mileage was 26 miles and the time out was around 8 hours. Neither got blisters and are sold on the Hydropel¨ and the regular application and have planned to use it regularly during the 100-mile run at Leadville on August 19 and 20, 2000.

What do Adventure Racers do for Relaxation?

Don Moden, a racing member of Team Santa Fe, and his wife Brenda, a support crewmember and soon to be racer, recently enjoyed 8 days of vacation in Colorado. They spent 5 days hiking and camping on some of ColoradoÕs famous peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation and finished out their vacation with 3 days of fly fishing near Aspen. They completed four peaks (all Fourteeners) on this trip, Mount Wilson, Mount Shavano, Mount Yale and Huron Peak. Their goal is to one day complete all 54 peaks in Colorado that rise above 14,000 feet.

They experienced heavy rains several nights, but stayed dry in their Outdoor Research Gore-Tex Bivy. They shared their experiences with a variety of wildlife including marmots, mountain goats, rabbits, squirrels, mountain sheep, assorted birds and even domestic cattle. Most of the animals seemed to want food or to inform them loudly that this was their territory. They are already looking forward to their next trip above timberline! After 5 days of backpacking, Don and Brenda were ready to hit the rivers and streams near Aspen for some good fishing. The first day out, a professional guide who helped them with some basics, especially Brenda who had never been fishing, and shared some secret local spots, joined them. Although Don caught more fish, Brenda caught the best fish of the day, a 14" Rainbow Trout. On their own the second and third day, Don and Brenda tried out various areas recommended by the local fly shop, but always ended the day at one special place their guide had shown them. The combination backpacking and fly-fishing trip seems to be a good recipe of adventure, activity and relaxation.