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Like last year, this year’s HVAC saw perfect weather. Temperatures were in the low 70’s and the sky had enough cloud cover to keep things from heating up too much. Unlike last year’s event, this year’s HVAC saw an outstanding turnout with 45 teams “toeing” the line—or rather—“tiring” the line. This year’s event started on bike with all 90 racers lined up on Lakeview Drive looking to summit first. Teams were told in pre-race that the first team to summit would be given CP 1—and a decent head start. All others would have to locate CP 1 before proceeding on course to CP 2. Chris Welsh and Dan Snyder of Team……..Tubes were the first to summit and were well in front of the chase pack. This fact is punctuated by Snyder’s strength on the steep hill…..while riding a single speed! Could they stay away from the pack? Or would their navigation give the lead away?

The first mile and a half was on paved road, so teams were moving quickly. Unfortunately many moved faster than their map reading skills allowed and more than one team struggled to find CP 2. CP 2 was just off of a cul-de-sac, but teams had difficulty deciding which driveway to turn down to find it. The map showed the correct turn to be just under 1/10th of a mile from the end of the road. In their rush most teams went all the way to the end of the road and began their search. As always, once one team does it—they all do! One of the last few teams to find the correct turn was Team Batty Boys—Dave Battista and Matt McCusker. Typically these two are strong navigators, so when they saw my expression they quickly pointed to their compasses. “You would have thought that we didn’t have them with us!” Clearly they had made a wrong turn. It was looking grim for these two. With such a slow start it would be nearly impossible to catch up to the lead pack.

Once teams entered the forest and left the paved roads they were instructed that no riding was permitted on ANY road. They were permitted to cross roads, and were given two very short sections on which they were allowed to ride, but all other travel was restricted to trails. For the next 13+ miles teams would have to navigate using a combination of two maps—topographical and Forbes State Forest trail map. Neither one of these maps provided all of the information needed to easily find your way. However, when combined with each other—and a compass—a savvy navigator would have little difficulty. The amount of information was overwhelming—actually. One just had to slow down long enough to decipher it all.

From CP 2 teams followed a “grassy cut” that was, more or less, on contour down to CP3. At CP 3 they followed a snowmobile connector trail that dropped them down to “Red Oak Trail”—part of the Forbes State Forest trail system. Once on Red Oak it was an easy ride downhill to CP 4 at the border of Laurel Hill State Park. From CP 4, racers had to drop down further to Jones Mill Run ROAD. They were permitted to ride this road for 50 meters until it intersected Cherry Trail. CP 5 was located on this trail. This (CP4 to CP5) is where a couple teams dropped the navigational ball. They knew that their next turn onto a trail was a left. However, they mistakenly took the next left which was only 50 meters from CP 4. The correct left was over a half mile after CP 4. Also, the next left was onto a trail that was heading south. The correct left was onto a trail heading north. And finally, the next left was at 2400 feet. The correct left was below 2200. Plenty of evidence that this first left was the wrong turn, but in a race it is always easier to go forward—even if it is in the wrong direction!

Once teams managed to find their way to Cherry Trail, it was a long hard climb—but easy navigation to CP 5. From CP 5 there was even more climbing to CP 6 at the five way intersection at Fire Tower Road. Teams were instructed that they could ride Fire Tower Road from Cherry Trail to CP 6. This was due to the fact that bikes are not permitted on any trails to the west of Fire Tower Road. Somehow many teams missed this instruction. Fortunately the rangers were not present when this mistake occurred.

CP 6 was a “manned” CP and, after checking in, racers were allowed to proceed to the remaining CP’s in any order. The first team to arrive at CP 6 was the mountain biking duo of Dan Tack and Mike Hennon. These two make up Team 4 the Adventure and had developed a commanding lead. Not far behind was the first Co-Ed team—Team Wheelcraft—comprised of Darin Evans and Marie Parker. These two are also strong mountain bikers. Could they hold off the pack for the remainder of the bike—and the run?

From CP 6 the ideal route of travel would be to CP 7—Lookout Tower. On the topographical this was almost directly south of CP 6 and about 1,000 feet away, with an elevation gain of about 150 feet. However the only option for travel was a trail that headed southeast and then hooked around to travel north into the “back” of the tower. It is not completely clear as to why, but MANY teams struggled with this navigation. Both the topo and the forest map clearly showed the location of that trail. A failsafe method for finding the correct trail would be to locate the correct trail on the topographical map, take a bearing of that trail, and then stand at CP 6 and rotate until the north arrow was properly aligned. That would have pointed you to the correct trail!

From CP 7 it was a matter of retracing steps back toward CP 6 and then locating the Jones Mill Run Trailhead about 200 meters before CP 6. Following Jones Mill Run Trail south, then east it would be easy to locate the re-entrant where CP 8 lay. Then continuing easterly on Jones Mill Run Trail racers would soon cross Koring Trail. This was a useful landmark as from here racers would travel directly north—and mostly on contour—for about a half mile and would run into the intersection of Lookout Trail and Jones Mill Run Trail. This was the location of CP 9, and it proved to be a tricky one. The trails in this section tend to loop around and one could—before they know it—complete a circle if not paying attention. IF a team struggled with this point they needed to get back to the Koring Trail intersection and try again.

From CP 9 it was a simple matter of following Jones Mill Run trail north to Lookout Trail, and then head south, east, and south again on Lookout Trail to CP 10 near Gardner Road. From CP 10 follow the “blue diamond” trail as it wound around behind the houses of “Kooser Circle”. This CP was difficult as the trails were not depicted on either map. However, using the topographical map it was obvious that CP 11 was almost directly south of CP 1 and was about 100 feet lower in elevation. It is also clear that it was located just above a relatively steep grade. This type of attention to detail would make the difference between finishing quickly, or slogging back up a steep muddy hill to locate a CP that was quickly passed.

From CP 11 it was a relatively quick and easy navigation back to TA. Here racers had the opportunity to grab food and drink and change any clothes necessary. They were then given two maps and a punch card. IF they felt this was not enough information, they were permitted to swim to a floating dock and read the clues and their corresponding CP numbers. Ideally they would memorize this information—or attempt to write it on a piece of paper—however it was not long before racers began to shout the information back to their teammates waiting on shore. Amazingly no team simply wrote down what the other teams were shouting, but instead chose to swim and make certain of the accuracy of what was written. Team Two Five—Jonathan Eggert and Wayne Thorniley—were the first to arrive and had a commanding lead on the rest of the pack. Both are strong bikers and navigators and they split duties by alternating responsibility for CP’s. Seemingly it was Eggert on CP 11 that sealed the deal, as they navigated directly to it and passed the hordes circling below. Eggert swam and yelled back the clues as Thorniley jotted them down and reviewed the map. The two escaped TA before the next team would arrive. They were on to the 5 mile run and hunting down a win.

A full thirteen minutes later, series leaders Team BLAZE arrived. Chrissy Valentine was chosen to swim while John Ralston wrote down her shouted words. Over the noise and the confusion, he could only hope he got them right. Three seconds behind them was Team Batty Boys—Battista and McCusker. Inexplicably they had risen from the ashes and moved all the way through the pack into the third position. As strong navigators they questioned the need for clues and gambled that they would succeed without them. They were out of TA well ahead of BLAZE but many minutes behind Two Five. It would take some navigational wizardry to make up the difference.

Next into TA was Rush Howe of Discipline Problem, and newcomers Ed Zabel and Brian Jennings. Rush Howe was racing unofficially due to a pre-race teammate injury, but first timers Zabel and Jennings were unwittingly in the thick of it. Triathlete Zabel made quick work of the swim and the two were hot on the heels of teams Two Five, Batty Boys, and BLAZE.

The “five mile” run included much elevation gain and tricky navigation. A distance that would normally take a strong runner 30-40 minutes to complete could easily take an hour and a half—or more! Accuracy would count on this course and one mistake could take 30 minutes or more to correct. Many CP’s had more than one route to get to them. The strong navigators would reap huge benefits in this leg.

CP 1 was a “gimme” as it was less than a thousand feet from TA and on nearly the same elevation. The clue made it even easier. CP’s 2 and 3 were also quick finds as they were simply located at trail intersections. CP 4 was the first true challenge as the trails leading to it were not on any map and a strong gut and good compass work were important tools in locating this CP. Following a road would have been a simple solution, but the roads were again off-limits. It was inspirational to see teams follow trail out to the road and stop, look at their maps, and re-evaluate as opposed to succumb to the temptation!

CP 5 was not difficult as it was located on the lift towers. The trick was getting there without running on, or near, any roads. But a nearby pipeline followed the correct bearing and racers were quickly dumped out onto the slope top. CP 6 was tricky in that neither map accurately portrayed its location. The clue used “Water’s Edge” but the topographical had an old body of water depicted—so it wasn’t in the right location—and the trail map had no body of water on it. The clue had included “northern corner” but did all teams have that information? Clearly the Batty Boys did not since they chose to not swim to get the clues—yet somehow they navigated directly to the correct location and didn’t miss a beat. One can only assume that they shot a bearing from the lift tower, which was in effect the idea of choosing this location for this CP. BLAZE however had written “corner”, but omitted the “northern” aspect of that description. They wasted countless minutes circling the pond looking for the correct “corner”. In their defense, this apparently happened to more than one team!

From CP 6 to CP 7 was a simple shot around the tennis courts to a “Pumphouse” near Gardner Road. So simple was this CP that it should have made racers wonder. This spot was chosen because it led teams to the correct trail for the most direct route of travel to CP 8. This fact was EASILY seen on the topographical map as CP 7 was clearly the “trailhead” for a trail that ran directly to CP 8. Teams that did not consult their topo used the trail map and backtracked to a “green” trail that may not have been accurately portrayed on this map (it wasn’t). This “green” trail had many confusing and not depicted intersections. It was very possible to navigate to CP 8 while on these trails, but the map was of no help. Teams would have to rely strictly on their compasses and follow a northeast bearing every time they were given the option. This was far from the most direct route, but it was possible to complete. This fact was checked by race staff!

From CP 8 to CP 9 was simply a matter of following trail on either map to the bottom of the ski slope to a set of twin ponds. These ponds were located directly below a newly built maintenance building—which was on the trail map. From CP 9 to CP 10 racers had only to parallel the stream that fed the ponds of CP 9. This was only visible on the topographical map. From CP 10 to the finish line was a simple choice of several routes

It was the navigational wizardry of the Batty Boys that prevailed as Dave Battista and Matt McCusker were the first to cross the finish line in 3:06:38. Less than one minute behind them were BLAZE’s Ralston and Valentine. Clearly they made up a huge deficit considering that they:
1) Chose to swim.
2) Circled the pond to find CP 6.
This is true testament to their tenacity!

Almost six minutes later it was Welsh and Snyder of Team……..Tubes. These two managed to yo-yo back and forth on the course but held strong and ran fast to finish in third. Our leaders of the bike leg—Team Two Five, Eggert and Thorniley—apparently faltered a touch on the run but still managed to hold onto 4th overall and 3rd in the male category. And Co-Ed Team Spang managed to—once again—quietly out-perform the rest of the pack to the 5th spot overall and to take the 2nd spot among the Co-Eds.

Other standouts include the Hidden Valley all female team Mid Life Crisis—Joy Meyer and Patty Ann Wallace. These two first-timers secured the first all-female spot. While first time GRR racers—Team Storm, Molly McBride and Margie Fincher—took second in that category. And our “lantern rouge” goes to Team Green Governor BEASTS—Kristen LoGrasso and Lisa Miano—who stayed on the course for six hours and seventeen minutes so as to not repeat last year’s DNF. These girls are coming on!

Congratulations to all who came out and supported GRR in the second running of the HVAC. This race will only get better and we hope to see you next year. We also hope to see all of you at the WAR—Warren Adventure Race on July 18th. Until then—train hard and race smart!