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November 2000 TSF Highlights

Lake Mead, Arizona and Nevada
November 3 and 4, 2000
Kim Bear

This was the final race in the Four Winds' Mountain Rage Series. It was set in Lake Mead with the course taking racers into Arizona and Nevada. Kim and Jan Bear, Larry Busby and Ries Robinson represented team Santa Fe. Team Santa Fe was entering the race in fourth place with the overall points.

Eileen Picket was the support along with Nevada local, Dr. Bill. The race headquarters was based at the Hacienda Casino in Boulder City, Nevada. Team Santa Fe was lucky to be able to stay at Bill's home, which was located about 15 minutes from the Casino and start. The race directors at the pre-race meeting prepared teams for spending a lot more time in the kayak than usual and a new venue with swimming. Once the maps were plotted, the course offered about 40 miles of paddling. The team would not see support until late Saturday night after many hours of paddling, trekking, swimming and rappelling. Enough water and food as well as all the mandatory gear needed to be loaded in dry bags into the kayaks.

The race started at predawn with a five-mile run to checkpoint CP 1, which was at a beachhead with the kayaks. Kim got a cramp in her quad on the steep downhill and was having to run backwards or hold onto the other team members. It was a worrisome way to start a race as Team Santa Fe was then one of the last teams to reach the beach head, but once out on the lake in the kayaks, the they got into a rhythm and ended up with Team Epinephrine at CP 2. At CP 3, the team tied off their kayaks and swam into shore to hike through a slot canyon up a peak to CP 5. CP 4 was never found by anyone. From there the team swam back to their kayaks and continued down the lake paddling through the miles of "the Narrows" of Lake Mead.

At CP 8, kayaks were again clipped on a rope near the rocky shore and the team swam with their fins into a slot canyon while holding onto their dry bags. From there, hiking gear was changed into and the route led through a rock canyon up to a saddle to CP 9. At this point, it felt like Team Santa Fe was in about 10th place having seen Team Epinephrine, some of the pairs and other teams coming down from the saddle.... all mixed up and not together with their original teams. After punching the passport at CP, the team hiked up 400 vertical feet in a little over a half a mile to find the rappel section. At that vantage, the view was beautiful of Lake Mead, however the team was more interested in their mandatory gear from Black Diamond and having their gloves and Cratoni helmets. There was first a 50-foot rappel, which led to the next rope section, which was a quick descent 350 feet to the lakeshore.

When everyone was on the lakeshore, gear and dry bags were located and loaded back into the kayaks for a short paddle to CP 11. It was reaching sundown and the longest hiking/trekking venue was ahead. The land was barren and once darkness took over, the desert cooled markedly as temperatures plummeted. The hike seemed endless and Team Santa Fe came in around 11:30pm, the sixth team to check in at this Transition Area. It was the first time in the race to see the support crew. Breakfast burritos were waiting as well as happy support people.

Eileen and Bill helped push the team out into the night in the kayaks. The moon had set and Ries was elected to do some difficult navigating. The wind had picked up and huge swells were coming over the kayaks. There were no boats or other kayaks in sight and it was pitch black. The plan was to get to the middle of the lake and find the beacon, which would guide us to our next CheckPoint. After a few challenging paddling sections, Ries found the beacon. At this point, the coast guard people also found Team Santa Fe (we did not know we were lost?). The venue had been closed to teams coming in after us and they asked if we wanted to be taken back to shore. As we had gone through the worst of the wind and navigating, team assured them we would continue. Jan's shoulder was hurting from a tendonitis that had been building all day, so Larry and Jan used the coast guard boat as an opportunity to switch places. Kim and Ries hooked up a towline so they could help Larry paddle and Jan tried to recover this shoulder. The coast guard followed the team for awhile, but the wind subsided. The team was fine except the nighttime seems to always bring challenges of its own.

As soon as the sun began to rise around 4:30 am, everyone was getting back to normal and feeling more sane. The sun brought Jan back to life and he began paddling again. At Temple Bar we were told that we were in second of the teams. Team DAWG/4-Winds woman had gotten hypothermic on the last kayak venue and had been taken in. It was the second time for us to see Eileen and Bill, our support. We were greeted with hot coffee, hot chocolate and burritos. When we left Temple Bar, DAWG/4-Winds left too and there were rumors flying that they were back in the running and that they were in second now. We hit the beach at the last CheckPoint and transitioned to our mountain bikes along with Team DAWG/4-Winds. We took off so that there would be no doubt about second place. The mountain bike section was 37 miles of sandy washes, rocks and washboard road. We finally crossed the finish line in second place for the teams and fourth overall.

Be sure to check out our ongoing feature - The Racer's Story.
This segment teammate, Slate Stern, trains for North Pole adventure