November 17-18, 2000
USARA National One Day Championships
Cindy Gagnon

I got a call at the last minute to join a team in need of a female at the National Championships. Taking the opportunity I hopped on a plane and met Team Radioactive Beagles at registration. I was amazed to see Kernville has so many mountains... big, very big mountains covered in snow.

Mother nature had blanketed the area above 5000 feet with 5 inches of new snow 1 week earlier and with temperatures never rising above 40 degrees, the race director warned us that the snow was to be one of the primary challenges of the race.

We were treated to a leisurely 7:30am start on Friday with the first leg of the race being a 20-mile kayak/portage. As usual, the race started with a twist. There was only one inflatable kayak per team at the start. We had to find a second kayak on an island, without breaking the 100-ft rule (team members cannot be separated by more that 100-ft at any time during the race).

We then negotiated several water CP's were negotiated as well with 1-3 mile portages. We found ourselves portaging more than kayaking due to holes in both of our kayaks (luck of the draw as some say). We returned to the start for the transition to Mt. Bikes.

The first 20 mile leg of the mountain bike consisted of a 4500 foot climb to gain a cold ridge by way of a single track called "Just Outstanding". Looking forward to the 1.5-mile descent into CP9, we all had a number of falls as we found the ski road to be covered in black ice. Shivering and cold we arrived at CP 9, happy to see our sole support crew, waiting with warm beverages.

The second 20 mile mountain bike turned out to be a trek pushing our bikes up to 7000 ft through on a very overgrown, single track through snow and water. And of course, the downhill to CP12 was even worse than the downhill to CP9, where now we pushed our bikes down steep inclines of snow and ice. I was grateful for my lightweight Lightspeed bike, though I would have preferred to have ridden it more.

After arriving at CP 12, I found myself cold and my feet had been numb for hours. After 1.5 hours, I regrettable had to withdraw from the race. Later I was diagnosed with 2nd degree frostbite on both my feet.

However, my teammates continued on unranked to the trekking/ ropes section. CP 13 was achieved by way of a daunting 1600-foot single-track climb to a huge limestone cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites. The team then navigated a cross-country section leaving the comfortable single-track trail to CP 14 and the rope section. My teammates said the 160-foot Tyrolean and 155-foot rappel down to the base of a waterfall under the moonshine was incredible quick 2-mile scamper yielded a finish line along the banks of the Kern River.

EXPEDICAO MATA ATLANTICA (EMA)
Coastal South-East Brazil Oct. 23-28, 2000
Carl W. Gable

Coastal southeast Brazil is a spectacular venue for an expedition length adventure race. Beautiful sand beaches calm warm ocean, and mountains that rise to 1200 meters within 10km. of the ocean, and vertical rock walls covered with orchids and bromeliads make a breathtaking landscape. Add to that a race organization that spares nothing and cuts no corners, race staff and volunteers who are full of energy and good cheer and you have the formula for a good time.

However, this paints too rosy a picture for this to be about an adventure race. Well there was also the black palm with three inch thorns, heat and humidity like nothing I've ever felt before which causes sweat to pour from every pore in volumes I've never before experienced, and a bike ride like nothing I'd every imagined. There was the switch back road that climbed 1km in 6km and the 500m climb over a mountain with our bikes on our shoulder for nearly the entire climb.

EMA 2000 was a well designed course and offered extreme challenge on a creative route to the 33 teams that lined up at the start. Five days later, at the final cutoff, only four teams would complete the entire course, five teams finished in the Adventure category on a shortened course, 11 finished the shorter Alternative course.We however finished in the group of five teams in the unranked category.

Our team began having difficulty early in the race. Six hours into the race, after the transition from 35Km of ocean canoe to a coastal traverse, Slate began to have difficulty. He was dehydrated, cramping and lost his appetite. We forged ahead with five hours of swimming and coastal rock hopping that was capped by a 1.5km ocean channel swim. We continued but our pace was slowed. In hindsight, we may have been able to recover if we had just stopped for as long as it would take Slate to get his blood sugar back in balance. Instead, we pushed on and Slate became ketotic running on shear will power for the next 45 hours. This continued until we reached a place where it was possible for Slate to drop from the race.

Although we were now unranked, Daphne and I continued. We jumped on our bikes and in the next 15 hours moved from 30th place to 20th place, in part due to our pace, in part due to strategic decisions we made and in part due to our map reading. Daphne and I continued on to finish the shortened course in 60 hours after miles of trekking, whitewater rafting and mountain biking. The bike ride to the start of the rafting had the longest steepest climb I've ever done. Daphne said she kept hammering that hill climb with hardly a stop because, 'that hill made her mad'.

We finished the ride in the early afternoon ready to jump onto the rafts, however a glitch in communication resulted in our support crew not showing up for two hours. But hey, we got to rest and the other support crews opened their arms to us and offered warm clothes, and food. We teamed up with a Brazilian team, Rosa Dos Ventos, for the rafting so we had five people for 7 hours of whitewater, portage, and flatwater.

People were starting to act a bit wacky from lack of sleep as we kept falling asleep in mid-stroke and imagined shapes in the dark sky and river. A bit of sleep then 15 hours of bike then trek then bike again brought us to the finish line, a dark deserted place but Tim was there and whooped it up for us.

The goals we had set for competition in the race were not met. However, we had a great time. Our support crew was the best, we had fun regardless of the difficulties we encountered and we experienced the landscape and culture of a piece of the world, which is a rare gem.

Will I be back next year? Who knows. Would I recommend this race to others? In a heartbeat. This is a great race! Team Santa Fe, EMA Brazil Racers: Carl Gable, Slate Stern, Daphne Young Support Crew: Tim Johnson, Siegrid (Ziggy) Dehardt Driver: SteveO For more information on EMA visit: www.ema.com.

EXPEDICAO MATA ATLANTICA (EMA)
Coastal South-East Brazil Oct. 23-28, 2000
Daphne Young

EMA a six day adventure race in Brazil. This was a magnificent race.

My new Zaverl Paddle as light as they come worked wonderfully in the Ocean. With its custom fit my arms never got tired of holding the paddle I encourage any canoer to try this paddle.

I used my Leki trekking poles continuously throughout the race. Digging deep into the moist and very steep terrain the poles endured a beating and never let me down.

Biking was an incredible experience in Brazil, the off road and on road was always straight up and straight down, some roads were 7K long and 3000' elevation climb. Wearing my Sidi Dominator Mountain Bike shoes in comfort. I was in a lot of water, mud, rocks, boulders and even on the flat road and my feet never felt tired or sore.

My Litespeed Obed mountain bike did the job as well. It shifted gears with no problems. I had to carry my Litespeed for several hours due to the very steep terrain and because of the wonderful craftsmanship of this bike, it was so light I had no problems. Know matter how tired I got my Litespeed was so easy to maneuver I just kept on going.

I used my Solomon Raidwind Pack for all of my gear, this pack worked wonderful in and out of the water. Due to the construction of this pack the water drained immediately so there was no excess weight to carry.

I used the Ultimate 120oz-hydration system. This is a fantastic unit. Not only does it hold a lot of water it's wide mouth opening lets you fill your system very quickly. The mouthpiece is a unique addition alone. As for the race, I highly recommend this race to any adventure racers.

It is quite challenging, the navigation is difficult so be prepared, and the race organizers are very good about taking care of the competitors and always have alternative routes so you are assured of finishing this race. Besides all the fun, the countryside is beautiful. You cannot go wrong.