From Pittsburgh, the team "Two Guys From Three Rivers" left on friday evening, and after three hours drive, arrived at Camp Turner to sleep in a cabing bunk bed. The following morning, there about 150 people waiting for the distribution of the map. Some were going to do the 6-hour, others the 12-hours, and the true core rogainers were set for the 24-hour rogaine. At 8:50, general speech by the organizers, and then the map distribution. In the dining hall, all the team strategized and wrote a "intended route" sheet to be returned to the organizers (they may need it in case if they need to look for you...). The point system was the first two digits of a control number (so, for example, control 602 is worth sixty points). At 11 AM, the mass start, and everyone started walking (some ran) in all directions. We followed the Lorenz family to the hilltop to get to 701, and continued following groups of people to hilltop 401.
Then, we opted to go north and stay level and reach spur 605, and not descend to 408. Then, desceding a spur and following a creek, we intended to approach 805 by following a spur after crossing one creek, but misjudged the size of a creek we crossed earlier, and eventually continued and eventually crossed a second creek unncessarily, to eventually ascend the wrong spur. Fanning out and looking for the control near the summit of the hill, got separated with the partner, and looked for each other for about 40 minutes. While all this was happening, we both realized independently that we were on the wrong spur to begin with, and eventually 805 was punched. From here, the idea was to get to 502, 415, skip 307. We lost some time in finding 415, as the reentrant looked smaller and expected a bigger one.
To get to hilltop 706, we used a creek as handlebar and went straight north. From the hilltop to trail junction 301, took a bearing straight east, and ended about 50 meters from the control when we hit the trail. To saddle 405, we took a somewhat direct route, ended up a little higher than the saddle so that we didn't risk overshooting it. To second saddle 410, we also took a direct route, got suspicious of the first reentrant and fearful it might be the second reentrant, we followed it upstream but then convinced ourselves it had to be the first, and thus contined East to eventually find 410. Then down to stream junction 607 in a beautiful stream lined with hemlock trees. And straight uphill to hilltop 402 and hilltop 803.
At 803, we took a break and ate some food. Originally, we wanted to skip 601 and instead go for 507. But then, looking at the easy descending trail that was runnable just east of 803, we chose that route to get us to the clearing below, and eventually to the trail leading to the spur below 601. In the approach to the small hilltop on the spur where the control was located, we could not find it, and assumed incorrectly that it was lower than we tought. Eventually, on a third and fourth pass, we walked uphill a bit more to find the control. We then descended back to the trail and to the water stop were we filled our water bottles. We then crossed a boggy marsh created by beaver dams and went looking for 507. In the meantime, saw the engineering marvels of these beautifully constructed dams. In the approach to 507, we looked for the two streams just north of it and used them as "catching features" to confirm our location, and then attacked the spur to find the control. On the way back to the road, we stayed on the north side of the boggy marsh, and then easily traveled on the road going south.
On the approach to hilltop 505, we used the slight bend of the road as reference, and then reached the spur and the control. Then, returning to the road, used the clearing as reference. From the center of the clearing, we then approached 411 by reaching the saddle point and then the hilltop control.
On the approach to 308, we followed the hilltop just south of control 411, and then descended to reach a trail at a lower saddle point and then looked and found a fainter trail that would lead us to 308. At this time, 9:30 PM, it was getting dark, and we turned our lights on. The faint trace of trail to 308 was jammed with downed tree trunks, and very very slow and frustrating, not to mention the darkness. At the control, we met with the rogainers from team CMS/UNO, and with them, we eventually traveled south to the paved road, and to control 705 at reentrant. Then, due to darkness, instead of choosing a more direct route through the woods, we returned to the paved road, turned off our lights, and with the half moon, traveled easily on the road while eating food. We left the paved road at the North Country Trail intersection. On a trail bend, we saw a strong light ahead of us, and thought it was a jeep or truck traveling on the forest road. Instead, it was a headlamp, an Australian import called "Sun", with rechargeable lithium ion, carried by a veteran adventure racer from Florida. At a trail junction, the intent was to follow the forest road and from a bend, descend down to a reentrant. We considered following the faint trail too risky, but then, somewhat fortuituously, we ended up indeed following the faint trail to a small clearing (used that as reference), and eventually found the reentrant with control 802. On to hilltop 602, we left the forest road at a bend and traveled in the darkness of the woods going SW, and used the creek just south of the hilltop as reference, since the "flats" of the spur just NE of the control was indeed flat and featureless, and in the nighttime it was difficult to see where the terrain sloped. After the control, we then followed the creek to the North Country Trail juntion.
At this point, both of us had severe friction skin rashes on the inner side of our legs, from the constant brushing of skin against wet clothes. Since it just wasn't enjoyable anymore, we took the obvious decision of calling it quits, and knew that the next few controls were going to be the last ones. We intended to gind 302, but in the featureless flats near the location of Mt Oneida, it was just impossible to see where to aim off the trail (talking to other rogainers later, they used a small trail "V" bend as reference, but they also said they did that in daytime, not night-time). So we skipped 302, and continuted on the North Country Trail to find the very evident trail bend, and finding 806 was easily done at around 2 AM. From here, a quick descent to the paved road, and On/In for about 5 km, and turned in our control at base at 3:35 AM. Our total points collected were a big over 1100 points.
Food was constantly available at base. We slowly took off our shoes and wet socks, nursed our skin abbrasions and rashes, and slowly chewed and savored the grilled cheese burgers that the volunteers cooked for us. We took a hot shower, wore dry and clean clothes, and went to sleep in our bunk beds. At 7 AM, woke up and took a walk around, and saw that some 24-hour participants have already returned. At the dining hall, the 12-hour event results were posted, with the winners completing a course with 1300 points. Eventually, we ate breakfast several times, and chatted with more and more finishers. We regrouped with several rogainers that we met on trail, exchanged valuable information, and chatted about route choices. It seemed that only one control was slightly misplaced. The sun was out strong, the day enjoyable, the food conforting. During the result announcement, we clapped for the winners in all categories, and always thought that those ingenious and laborious beavers were the coolest thing of the event.
Total driving miles round trip: 425 miles on a Toyota Camry, filled one tank for about $55, not bad.
Our route during the first 15 hours.
The
route by the team that collected most points.
Team CMO.UNO
Team Kipnjon
