March 5-6, 2000 Santa Fe, New Mexico. Trying to continue the tradition of monthly training event, Jan hosted the march training weekend in Santa Fe. Jan, Kim, Don, Brenda, Slate, Carl and Daphne all participated in this adventure training weekend consisting of hiking, snowshoeing in very deep snow, and mountain biking. The event was successful and enabled members to meet and train with folks from other states. Thanks Jan.

Sunday March 13, 2000. Eldora Ski Area, Nederland, Colorado. As my eyes open, I find that I am lying in the snow. As I look up, I can see trees and a cloudy sky above me. It is snowing lightly. A person I do not know is standing over me. Am I hurt? What's happening? The person is saying something; "ThatÕs good enough. Go for it!" I donÕt understand. I sit up. I realize I'm inside a sleeping bag, in a short, shallow snow trench. What the heck is going on? I look around and see that there are lots of people around. They are all yelling, "Go! Go!" Then I remember. This is a race! It started half an hour earlier at the Nordic Center of the Eldora ski area.

I, Cindy Gagnon, of Team Santa Fe, is at the starting line for the 17th Annual Rising Sun Classic, where participants are required to cross country ski a total of 10K to a number of designated checkpoints where they are to perform specific mountaineering related duties. Participants are encouraged to wear costumes or funny tights and hats for time credits. Everyone had x-c skis and were wearing daypacks with the mandatory gear consisting of among the essentials a stove and fuel, sleeping bag and two eggs. . Most folks, including me are in funny outfits or costumes. IÕm dressed as a cross between a play boy bunny and a catÉ MEOW ! We started "La Man's" style, running to our skis and quickly putting them on. The course followed the trails up to the Tennessee Mtn. Cabin. After dragging my tail up the hill, coughing from the cold air, and soaked with sweat under my white fur, I jumped off my skis and dropped my pack. Out came the stove and pot. Here, I got my first breather as I primed the stove, preparing to boil a cup of water. When the water has boiled per the approval of one of the judges, I quickly repacked and jumped back on my skis. Hmmm.. what is that smelled É could it be melting nylon in my pack?. Just a little up hill travel left then we finally got to do some downhill (thank God!) Shortly after returning to the groomed trails, three of us reached the snow pit station in quick succession. I was handed a shovel and quickly dug a trench just long enough and deep enough for my sleeping bag and me. Thanks to the tip from one of the experienced, I dug my pit in 52 seconds. Like a cat, I jumped in my bag, boots and all, and purred in the trench. As I layback, I closed my eyes just for the briefest rest. IÕm sitting up now, and they are yelling, "Go! Go!" and I remember. This is the Rising Sun Classic Mountaineering Race in the 17th running of the event. I stuff the bag back in my pack and jump back on the skis. Not wanting to waste time, I forget to zip my pack all the wayÉNeedless to say my sleep bag becomes a parachute as I ski down. The steep slopesÉ I follow the groomed trails out to the edge of the Downhill Area Ski run. My legs feel like lead, but I have to get down this hillÉ gracefully (?) I make the 20 Tele turns down the slope as I head toward the final stage. (Each Tele-turn is worth a 20 sec-time credit) As I arrive back to the Nordic Center, I catch the smell of eggs cooking. The lead skiers are cooking their eggs. I get my stove, light it, pull out the two eggs that I have carried unbroken throughout the course, OopsÉ where are my eggsÉ they must have fallen out somewhere during the parachute explosionÉ major time penalty for this mistakeÉanyway, I grab the spare eggs the race director has and begin to scramble. The judge wonÕt let me eat until his culinary standards are met (no runny eggs in this race). I woof down The eggs, dowse with beer to cool them off, and I hear the him yell, "Time!" What a hoot! I finished 3rd overall, but was penalized for losing my eggs and finished 4th overallÉ

March 18-19, 2000 Tonto Basin, AZ. The location of our latest adventure race was Lake Roosevelt, Arizona. Two weeks prior to the race a reported 4-foot of snow had fallen on sections of the racecourse. To the luck of all the racers the weather warmed up and was beautiful for race weekend. The racing members for this event were Cindy Gagnon, Jan Bear, Slate Stern, and Don Moden. The support crewmembers included Kim Bear and Brenda Moden. The photographing member was Marianne Martinez.

Early in the day Friday, March 17th we arrived at Grapevine Campground for mandatory gear check. The team had already completed mandatory gear check the night before in preparation for Friday. This made gear check go very quickly so we could head back to the hotel for some rest. We headed back to Grapevine for a 6:00 PM pre-race meeting, which actually started at 7:15 PM. A 1 1-4 doesn't seem like much, but we needed some rest before race time. We where back at the hotel by 9:15 PM to start the task of plotting the racecourse and doing final gear, clothing, and food organization. Around 1:30 AM, Saturday, March 18th we were able to lie down for a 2-hour rest. Don't mistake rest for sleep because you are usually wired and thinking of all the stuff you know you forgot but later realize you didn't. At 6:00 AM, March 18th, on a crisp, and crystal clear morning twenty-two teams started the Four Winds Lake Roosevelt adventure race. Cutoff time was 4:00PM, Sunday, March 19th, 34-hours.

The first section was kayaking. We had 7-miles of Class I / II rapids and sand bar portaging. Then 15-miles of open water paddling taking us from one end of Lake Roosevelt all the way to it's other end. The rapids were difficult due to many boats scrabbling for the same read and low water levels made boat stability a continuing problem. Jan & Cindy had the misfortune of turning over during one of the rapid sections. Slate & I stopped and helped get them dried out and going quickly. Slate & I didn't get dunked but almost went down one of the rapids backwards. They are difficult enough when you can see where you are going. As we approached the lake the portages got longer. We had sections of 1-4 to 1-6- mile where we were pulling our boats. Jumping in & out whenever we could for paddling and rest. Finally, we hit open water and the lake navigation became important. Having prior knowledge of the lake we took a straight line for Windy Hill, Bass Point, and Mystery Island, which provided us CP2. Leaving CP2 quickly we were on to a straight-line navigation of CP3 and the end of the first kayaking section at 12:30 PM, Saturday. We were in third place behind S.C.A.R. & ARZone. We had a quick mile or so jog up to the mountain bikes, which was the first of three UTA's (Unmanned Transition Area).

Quickly changing we were off on a 36-mile bike section. We were fifth out of UTAl/CP4 but within 5 miles had settled into our third place position. This was a very unforgiving mountain bike. The first 26-miles was a dirt road that had a lot of rocks, washboard, and hills. It offered us many extended opportunities to get familiar with our granny gear. It was a warm afternoon and stopped at a house along the way to fill up on water. It was a very good decision because we had no idea what lie ahead for us. Arriving at CPS we quickly discovered. A 10-mile hill of a grade I would rather not guess on. Comfortably settled into our granny gears we started our trip to the moon. We found ourselves trekking with our bikes off and on just to break up the use of different muscle groups. My mountain bike shoes quickly gave me two heel blisters. I just kept reminding myself to be comfortable with the pain. It seemed to help. After mile six we got a little reprieve to bike somewhat down to CP6, which was a beautiful vista, overlooking the lake valley. It was one of those "isn't this great" moments. I few clicks of the disposable camera and we were gone. Surprisingly enough we saw AR Zone exiting the side point. This encouraged unknowing we had lost no time to second place. Another 3-miles up and we arrived at UTA2/CP7 at 6:30 PM, Saturday.

With a quick change of clothes we headed out on a 6-mile trekking, which would lead us to the rappel and TA1. It had just turned dark and we were on a hiking trail that continued our journey to the moon. We had a very important turn to make at mile 3 on this trek. At the 2-1---5 hour mark we start questioning ourselves that we had possibly made a wrong turn. After a quick team vote we decided to continue for 15 minutes more. After 5 minutes we arrived at our important turn to find AR Zone deciding which direction to go. We quickly moved on knowing exactly where we were on the map and where we were heading. Offering our knowledge to our competitors didn't seem to help their decision, which would later be a costly one. Shortly there after we ran into Kim with the camcorder in hand. We knew we were close to the rappel. After a quick zip down 180 feet we checked off CP10. On down the hill and we arrived at TA1/CP11 there were hot food and dry clothes we waited 24-minutes and we were gone!

The support crew was awesome with a very organized lay out that offered access to anything we needed. Those smiling faces are always a site for sore eyes, literally. It was around 10:45 PM, Saturday. We continued our trekking and little did we know how we had just started. After about 6 miles of dirt road trekking we hit CP12 and the start of our trail. While Cindy was looking for the trailhead and Jan was reading the map Slate squeezed in 5 minutes sleep and I 2 minutes. I thought the few minutes really helped my awareness. The trail started as a trail and gradually became a path, which gradually became a very faint path, which finally became bushwhacking through head high throne bushes. But, with the full moon (which we had not reached yet) and each member's contribution as lead dog we navigated this very difficult section to Boyce Cabin flawlessly.

After a fast medical check and punch of the passport we were leaving CP13 behind at 4:00 AM, Sunday. We had covered around 19 miles for trekking to this point and still had 11 miles to go. We continued on a jeep road for what seemed an eternity. Right after the sun was up I realized we M had made a navigational error. The team consulted the maps and determined our location. After a quick vote we opted for adventure racing's number 1 golden rule Go Back!! Luckily the damage was minimal do to a short cut and we were back on track. We estimated 1-11/2 hours lost.

We continued our trek down as I realized that the race director most have given up on his dreams of actually taking us to the moon. We checked our way through CP14 with a little over 2 miles to the kayaks. We didn't really worry about getting into our paddling gear for this last and short kayaking leg. I think we still had a feeling someone was chancing us and might be close behind. This was definitely a sleep-deprived illusion. It was a relatively short paddle into the open water. The Grapevine Campground and end was actually in site. After a mandatory cleaning of the kayaks we put on our packs for one last 3/4, mile hike UP to the finish line. Our support crew was there with smiling faces to great the weary adventurers. After 97 miles and with a time of 29 hours 30 minutes Team Santa Fe crossed the finish line in 2nd place. Out of 22 starting teams only 3 teams officially finished the race with Third, place crossing the line around 4 hours later.