BERRYMAN ADVENTURE 2006

Big Spring Park Van Buren, Missouri Saturday, September 23, 2006

Race: 24 Hour 2-Man Team: Mid Rivers Adventure 2 / Acme Compass Members: Jim Schmid, Bill Stevens

THE PREPARATION

The pre-race activities were pretty much the usual items. We rolled into race HQ, went through the gear check, signed in, and found our spot in the TA. It was located just down the road from the Big Spring itself, and just a couple hundred yards from a canoe launch on the Current River. After getting the gear unpacked and in the tent, we enjoyed the catered spaghetti dinner and were glad to be inside while a rain shower passed through. When it stopped we still had a little time to do a familiarization drive around some of the area. In one campground we spotted an 18" copperhead coiled up on the road!

The pre-race meeting was where we found out the race would start at midnight. This wasn't a total surprise, as the race director had sent an e-mail to all the teams suggesting that we NOT bother with a hotel room Friday night. Three big and two small topo maps were handed out to the 24-hour racers, and we wasted no time in gridding and plotting points. Luckily the meeting was under a pavilion, because another thunderstorm dowsed the area with more rain. We were beginning to think that our luck was holding, and it would only rain while we were indoor....boy, were we wrong!

THE SOGGY TREK

Yes, it rained so much at this year's Berryman Adventure that it would be easier to mention when it wasn't raining than to list all the times it was pouring. The racers were ready to collect their passports at 11:45 pm Friday, but the event ended up sliding about half an hour. Whether it was the thunderstorm or organizational delays, I'm not sure. Anyway, a wet crowd stood proudly during the Star Spangled Banner, and then at 12:35 am the race was under way.

The first list of checkpoints included trek about 27 miles, canoe about 20 miles, and trek about 10 miles. Half-way through the canoe was the TA canoe launch for restocking. Jim and I hung with Tim and Matt for a couple miles or so. We figured they would pull ahead of us at some point, but an early blister above Jim's heel caused us to make a first aid stop and split the Mid Rivers Adventure teams. The bandage just wasn't sticking in the rain, so another stop had us reaching for the cure-all: duct tape.

CP 1 was a last-minute deletion, so everyone was heading en masse to CP 2, a few miles by road (complete with two more copperheads) and about half a mile down a ridge to a creek. Not much trouble, even in the dark, and we were off to find CP 3 which was located on the Ozark Trail. By this time we were in our groove, jogging the downhills and most of the straights. A short distance away was Highway 60 and the manned CP 4. Following the OT was relatively easy with the trail markers, so we skipped a possible bushwhack on the way to CP 5 to make sure we didn’t miss the trail in the dark. We should have used the same logic on the next section of trail, but the shorter, unimproved road looked too inviting on the map. A mile down the road it just stopped. We couldn't find where the road went, and we were too far along to backtrack, so we followed the nearby stream and headed north to pick up the OT again. Whew! That was close. The Mint Spring was CP 6, and after a couple false guesses as to which creek to follow, we found it.

More confusion crept into our trek on the way to the next checkpoint. Just before sunrise we came to a spot where the OT meets an intersection of dirt roads. The map showed that we should follow one of the roads a short way and pick up the OT again. Well, the map was misleading on this point, and after wasting what seemed like 30 minutes we decided to head back to where we hit the road from the trail. The sun was starting to light the sky (it had actually stopped raining for the moment), and we were pleased to see that the trail simply crossed the road at that point--we had missed the marker in the dark! Lesson learned: don't trust the map 100%.

Between CP's 6 and 7 we were able to stow headlamps and enjoy a little dry period. We were making good headway, even passing another 2-man team, but then we saw an evil line of black clouds to the west. A few minutes later those clouds were upon us, and that's when the wind whipped up and the temperature dropped suddenly. Sure enough, torrential rain came down. We each found a tree to shield us a little, and we probably lost 20 to 30 minutes during the shelter period. When the lightning moved off with the front, we continued on (in the rain) and eventually bushwhacked along a bearing to CP 7.

Checkpoint 8 was a beehive of activity, as there were at least five teams looking for the marker when we arrived. After combing about half the perimeter of the pond it was clear that the UTM coordinates weren't quite right, so we enlarged the search and found it a good distance away. The rest of the initial trek consisted mostly of unimproved roads to the canoe put-in. A short bushwhack to CP 9 on a hilltop was the only slowdown.

A REST PERIOD FOR FEET (A.K.A. PADDLE)

After 11 hours of trekking, the canoe was a welcome sight. Personal PFD's and paddles were not transported by the race director, so we had decided to use the rental ones. There was a gear check for fleece and a rain jacket before the volunteer punched CP 10, and then we loaded up and headed down river (in a light rain of course). A couple landmarks let us know our progress along the way to the TA. First we spotted the radio towers that we had seen the day before on the hills along Highway 60. That meant we weren't far from Van Buren, and sure enough the next big bend let us see the Highway 60 bridge. We underestimated how far down CP 11 was, and it had us wondering if we had passed it. Another scan of the map eased our minds, and a couple turns later we pulled out for a much needed break.

At this TA we had several objectives, and they took a while to accomplish. It had stopped raining, but we decided not to wait for our clothes to dry, so we changed in the tent. The first half of the canoe had taken 2 hours, and it was now that I realized how little I had eaten in 13 hours. The trek was longer than I thought. So there was food to eat, water to refill, and a backpack to restock with food. About 55 minutes later we were back on the river.

A little less than 2 hours later we finished the canoe section and arrived at CP 12. There were fewer man-made landmarks along the way, but navigating the river wasn't too bad in this area.

ARE WE THERE YET?

My legs weren't quite ready for jogging after being in the sitting position for so long, so the second trek started out as a quick walk for the first few hundred yards. Jogging was still the order of the day, though, and that's how we made our way to CP 13. It was a few miles away and easy to find at the intersection of two dirt roads.

The next two hours were spent on relatively high ground (dirt road along the ridge top), but our spirits were definitely on a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows as we tried to find CP 14. The road was easy to follow, because it kept a generally west-by-southwest heading. And for the first couple miles we were successful in counting the minor peaks and saddles along the way. In other words, we knew where we were on the map. So with a few hundred yards to go before we were to pick up a trail/road on our right, we started looking for it. Well, we kept on scanning the trees, walking further, scanning the trees, walking, scanning, and then we realized that we'd gone a lot more than a few hundred yards. Either we missed the road or we weren’t where we thought we were on the map. We kept going west by southwest, but now the minor peaks and saddles along the ridge top weren't lining up with the map. I had stopped tracking us on the map while we were looking for the intersecting trail! It was over an hour since CP 13, and we knew that sunset was coming soon. The realization of not making it back for the bike leg was hitting us hard. Eventually we turned around and figured our best bet was to regroup at CP 13. Before long we came across a trail that we had either missed or written off as the wrong one (can't remember now). Anyway, we followed it for a bit, and then Jim noticed that someone was back on the "main" road. Since we hadn't seen another human since the canoe take-out, and since we thought we were desperately lost, we joined forces with another two-man team (Gravity Matters) and a solo (Highlander) who were also hunting for CP 14. The five of us agreed that this trail might be the way, so we crossed our fingers and headed north as the sunlight faded away. Sure enough, we hit a road! And as we followed it, the direction matched that on the map! In a couple more minutes we had three successful punches and peanut M&M's all around to celebrate! (Thanks, Dave!)

We all agreed to press on toward CP 15 and 16 and complete the first clue sheet. Our plan to climb north and over the ridge to CP 15 was cancelled, though, when another team came back from doing just that and said that navigating a "cliff" in the dark was not a smart idea. They headed off in the direction of plan B, and by their action we were convinced to do the same. We entered the large ravine from the west, which was originally going to be our exit path. Climbing up the south wall of the reentrant proved easier the higher we went (less brush and growth). While Gravity Matters and Jim reached the high point and moved westward, I hung about mid-way up with Highlander, and together we swept the hill. I was the lucky one who spotted the reflection first, and once again the M&M's were a welcome celebration.

We blazed a trail out of the ravine, found Highway Z, and walked back to the finish line. It was nearing midnight Saturday night, and we had neither the strength nor the desire to spend time looking for CP 16 along the way. Highlander got picked up by a volunteer who was sweeping the course, because his knee was in obvious pain. Gravity Matters and Mid Rivers 2 strolled into Race HQ to declare victory for finishing a tough course, tied for 6th place among 2-person teams.

CASUALTIES

Blisters on the feet and sticker bush scratches on the legs were the immediate medical concerns. The real reminder of our day in the Mark Twain Forest were the multitude of chigger bites that I'm sure will hang around for a few weeks.