by Jess Evans
November 26, 2019
The weather is now cooling off quickly and snow is falling in Colorado. The Fig is over and some of us are looking forward to winter races while others are settling in for winter training to prepare for those spring and summer races. While many races took place in the last few months, we have missed them on the blog, so now it is catch-up time. Some of the next few blog posts will highlight the NOMAD 48 Hour AR from July and the Bears Ears 12 Hour AR from August. But this post will focus on the Raid International Gaspesie (RIG) that took place in September.
The Only MOSTLY Lost team opted to go international this year and do a Canadian multi-day race. We found the RIG, which has taken place in Quebec for the last 5 years. We made the trek to eastern Quebec September 10, looking forward to the change of scenery. When we arrived, we were greeted with cool, cloudy weather and rain. It was a good introduction to what we would experience during the race.
Race day 1 started on September 13 in Matapedia, a small town on the edge of the Restigouche River which drains into the Baie des Chaleurs and into the Atlantic Ocean. We started at an artistic tower above the town and ran down a steep slope to the town in search of checkpoints. We quickly moved onto the canoes, and I was surprised to see how many teams had reached the canoes ahead of us. I am always slow at canoeing, so I knew we would not make up time on this leg of the race. We paddled east on the river, later needing to portage our canoe for what seemed like a mile to the transition area. The sun was out and felt very warm until we got on our bikes when the wind picked up. We rode into the mountains, dropped our bikes and trekked up a steep slope to the top of a mountain and back again. I lost the sole of my right shoe in this trek. Luckily, I brought another pair of shoes. We biked to the next transition area where we had to zipline into a lake, punch a checkpoint, and swim back to shore. I climbed two ladders strapped to a tree to a platform high in the tree with two guys sitting there smiling at me. They hooked me in and gave me a big push. I flew through the air, not dropping as quickly as they had intended. I hit the water, bounced up, and hit the dock. The shocked volunteers informed me that I was the only person who hit the dock. Most people dropped like rocks and had to pull themselves to the dock. I nodded hurriedly to reassure them I was not hurt, punched the checkpoint, took a deep breath, and jumped back into the cold water. It took my breath away when I hit the water. While trying to breathe, I began to swim. Once on shore, I stripped off my harness and PFD and was ready to get going on the bike. The wind was cold, and I needed to get moving to warm up. We biked back to the river below the mountains and scrambled into our canoes in the deep mud as the sun was setting. We reached the finish just after dark. Shockingly, we were close to the last team in.
Day 2 started with a paddle from Miguasha National Park. It was a 11km paddle which ended with a run down a rocky beach to get the last paddling checkpoint. As we ran, I slipped and tumbled to the ground. Teams around me asked if I was ok as I jumped up again and took off. No time to worry about my stubbed toe. The rain had started and stayed with us the rest of the day. We carried our canoes up the steep slope to the transition area and took off on our bikes. We immediately got into the mountains and found ourselves pushing up steep rocky slopes. We also had a significant river crossing. My poor bike was abused by the mud and the water in this race. Much of that day was spent in the driving rain climbing up steep hills. We eventually made our way down to the bay for a swim. We got our wetsuits on and headed for the water. We crossed the first section of water to the peninsula and then were told that the rest of the swim was cancelled due to the tide going out and the frigid air temperature. We picked up the checkpoints we were allowed get and hopped back on our bikes. The rain was lighter now, but we were back in the mountains doing some serious bike pushing. Night fell and we made our way along ski trails through the mountains until we found the final zipline and the finish. Camping that night was miserable in wet tents.
Day 3 started at 5:30am for those of us in the 300Km race, with the 150Km teams starting at 6:30am. We headed back up into the mountains via a rocky creek with rock cliff walls. The race directors had set up ropes to allow us to climb up waterfalls. It was beautiful but slow going in the creek and on the wet rocks. To our astonishment, the top few teams from the 150Km race passed us at 7:30am. We had been on the course for 2 hours, and they were only on it for 1 hour. Again, I was amazed at the speed of these Canadians. We climbed up into a windmill field. The mountains were foggy, so we could not see the windmills, but we could hear their loud “whoosh”. We spent several hours biking in the fog around the windmills finding checkpoints. We had a tough bike-whacking section trying to bend our bikes around trees growing closely together. When we finally hit a trail, there was great relief. These trails took us down to a trekking section and then on to some really nice mountain biking trails. I would like to try them again some day when I am not in a hurry. We climbed up to the top of a mountain overlooking the bay and had a short trek with zipline, then back on the bikes for the bay. Our ride down was very muddy, and by the time we reached the volunteers, we were covered in a light brown mud. They joked that they liked our choice of make-up. Unfortunately, we had missed the cut off for the final paddle, so we were instructed to go straight to the finish.
We were on the course for about 12 hours each day. Because it was a staged race, we slept in our tents each night in the rain. It was a new and fun experience. They are not having this race again in 2020, but there are lots of great races out there for us to enjoy. Go to www.arcooperative.org to find all the awesome adventure races in North America for 2020.
