by Jess Evans
August 21, 2018
The Bears Ears 12 Hour Adventure Race started on the banks of Steamboat Lake State Park on a cloudy, windy Saturday morning. The wind blew in the heavy rain clouds as the sun tried to peek through them just over the mountains in the east. The teams stood poised around their canoes, ready for the start. As “go” escaped my lips, everyone moved quickly dragging their boats to the muddy shores. Not long after they took to the water, the rain began to fall.
It was a rough start to what turned out to be a very exciting race. Most teams pulled out of the water at Transition Area (TA) 1 about 1.5 hours after they had started with the rain still coming down. Luckily, the sky seemed to be clearing in the west. They were on their bikes and heading towards their first big climb to 9800 feet elevation, a 1800 foot climb from the lake’s shores. It was a rocky, rough forest service road to the top and their first bike Check Point (CP). In true cruel race director fashion, I put the second CP about half way down the other side, killing their downhill momentum. The next section was a delightful off-trail orienteering trek through downed trees where elevations ranged from 8600 to 9200 feet with much climbing up, down, and over mountains and downed trees. They had been warned that they had to leave this section by 3pm to make it to the finish on time.
As the day progressed, the weather improved dramatically. After the trek was a rough bike section on single track where bike pushing was inevitable at least in a few spots. The trail is shared with motorbikes where the steep, sandy up-hills are not a challenge unless you are pedaling a bike. The first racer into TA 4, after this fun mountain biking section, came in at 3pm. The second trekking section, on old roads with down trees and sandy trails, would take at least 3 hours. Teams began to stream in throughout the next few hours to TA 4 to collect a few trekking points or head straight to the finish.
As 6pm rolled around with teams still on the last trek, I began to get fidgety. It would take them at least 30 minutes to get back to the finish if they skipped the last biking CP. The lead racer came in off the trek at 6:17pm. We spoke briefly about if he should try for the last CP. He said if he got back to the finish with extra time and had not tried, he would regret it. True enough – go for it! He had 50 minutes to collect the check point and get to the finish by the cut-off.
I did not feel relief after he left, because I had four other teams still on the course, leaving little time to make the cut-off time. Three teams were still on the last trek leg, and one team on the big mountain bike leg. I paced back and forth glancing up the road for any sign of them. Finally, those teams arrived, quickly transitioned, and left the last TA for the finish around 6:40PM. They had about 30 minutes to make the cut-off and not get a penalty.
As soon as the last team left, I was out of the TA and in my car, hoping to get to the finish before them to cheer them in. I passed all of them, including the leader on their last big downhill. I was giddy with excitement. I pulled into the finish ready to cheer them all in. We had three teams at the finish already. Within minutes the leader came flying in on his bike. I took a deep breath, checked the time, and screamed with joy! He had done it! He must have grown wings and flown in because he had cleared the course in 11 hours and 58 minutes! I could not contain my delight. I am pretty sure I jumped and screamed and hollered. While I was reveling in the excitement of his success, my thoughts took me to the 4 teams still trying to make the cut-off. The last few minutes for the cut-off ticked away. Suddenly, we saw all four teams flying into the finish trying so hard to beat the cut-off. We cheered them in. They swooped in, leaping off their bikes to hand their passport to race staff. Unfortunately, they missed the cut-off by 1 minute. The cruelty of adventure racing is even one minute is a point penalty. I appreciated and understood the effort and determination they put into this race. My heart swelled with pride.
Thank you to all the teams that participated in the Bears Ears Adventure Race. We had a great time, and I am looking forward to next year. And for those who missed this race, we’ll see you at the next Bears Ears AR.
