Yough IV

Another late April weekend, another day of racing on and around Sugarloaf Knob in the heart of Ohiopyle State Park. This was my sixth time in the woods of southwestern Pennsylvania, and considering how familiar the race has become and the fact that we (or I at least) are not as competitive in races built primarily around speed rather than strategy, I’ve come to look at the Yough Xtreme as a glorified training day in some of the toughest terrain in Pennsylvania.

After the physical nightmare of the Epic a couple of weeks back, I was hoping for a bit of redemption in this one, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. After losing two weeks of training prior to the Epic due to illness, I lost the last two weeks to reading for and writing my final paper for a graduate school course on Progressive Era American History, not to mention the standard grading and teaching requirements necessary to teaching. So, while racing every two weekends is a nice way to stay in shape, I’m nowhere near as strong as I’d like to be, and once again it showed.
Abby, Chris, and I teamed up with Melissa Rice for this one, a friend from the adventure racing community around Philadelphia. The four of us toed the line, as always, on the main bridge over the Yough in the heart of the sleepy hamlet of Ohiopyle, and when the race started, we took off for a three mile trail run for one of our two mandatory passports. After 100 meters, I knew that I was in for the same sort of troubles that plagued me and the team in Virginia. I managed to push through the first run, and we then transitioned onto bikes for a 12 mile haul along the flat river trail up the Youghiogheny River. Normally, American Adventure Sports’ races have racers in rubber canoes paddling down the class II rapids of the middle Yough, but due to extremely high waters, the park service had shut this part of the race down. So instead of whitewater, we biked up to the large, serpentine reservoir in Confluence.

We settled into a pace-line, but even with four people, I struggled to hang on, falling off toward the end, even with a modest pace. The ride was further complicated as we jockeyed with other teams, some of which shared the burden of drafting, and others who seemed to think just hanging off our tails for twelve miles was acceptable decorum. Unfortunately, in my weakened state, we were unable to break free, so we could do nothing except maintain a steady pace until we reached the bike drop for the boats. After a short transition and a run up to the top of the dam containing the reservoir, we portaged our inflatable boats to the reservoir and set off for a nine mile paddle. Having been on the reservoir last fall for the USARA National Championship, I was amazed at the difference a winter’s snowfall and a heavy spring rain can make. Last autumn, the water levels in the reservoir were easily 15 feet or so lower, and giant sandbars blocked our path, forcing us to either portage over them or paddle an extra half km or so around to make forward progress. Thankfully, the paddle was quicker this year, and the icy gales that threatened to swamp us last year were replaced by warm, late-morning sunshine (I won’t speak for everyone; I know some folks were pretty cold by the end of this paddle, but compared to the hellacious conditions last year, this was like paddling in a warm bathtub in an oversized pool-toy).

Coming off the water, we prepared ourselves for the long climb up Firetower Road. Normally, teams climb and descend Sugarloaf Knob at least twice during the course of any given race in Ohiopyle, but due to the last-minute changes in the course, we’d only be ascending once, though the climb up the old fire-road on bikes is arguably the hardest way to summit the mountain. The climb spans just over four miles and is roughly 1,600 feet worth of elevation gain; nothing atrocious, but a good challenge six hours into a race. We steadily rode up the ridge of the mountain, finally summiting and then riding on to the annual transition in the grassy fields below Sugarloaf Knob.

The crux of the race now presented itself to us, a long 15 or so mile foot section including four checkpoints. We knew we wouldn’t catch Team SOG who was way out ahead and who we knew had a significant physical advantage over us, but we hoped to make up ground on Adventures for the Cure who were sitting in second in the co-ed division. We set out and made good time for CP 1, and as we pulled into checkpoint two, I felt good about our chances to make up the time. Unfortunately, we thought the checkpoint was in the creek-bed we were traversing, when in fact it was higher up on the northern slope. After 15 minutes of careful exploration, during which we debated whether the plot could have been bad, we turned back down the creek, at which point we quickly found the flag thirty feet above the creek. Frustrated over our lost time, we then made the crucial mistake of poor communication. Chris had gone up for the point while Melissa, Abby and I waited, eating, drinking, and gearing up for a steep, off-trail climb up and over a high ridge for the third control. While we waited, Chris proceeded to set off on his own, thinking we were heading back out of the creek to the jeep track other teams were relying on to travel to CP 4. Another 10-15 minutes passed as we searched for each other, and once we finally set off for CP 4, we had blown half an hour.

The climb up was a grind, but once on top of the ridge, we had a straight-shot, downhill run to CP 4. Once again we stumbled, having plotted the control at a trail intersection on a slope above the creek, when this time it was in fact down at the bottom of the slope. After working this one out, we debated whether we had time to go for CP 3. It was a long haul north, and the issue was time and route-choice. We had lost 40 minutes or so at this point on our two bobbles, and the clock was starting to run out. Moreover, there was no direct route to CP 3 since the one north-south road was off limits. The most direct option was a creek bed that ran straight to the trailhead that would take us to the control. The only problem was that there were no trails on the map, and the two or three kilometers along the creek could turn into a black-hole of bushwhacking. With that in mind, we decided to go for it…
Thankfully, we managed to find an old jeeptrack. At times it was little more than a game trail, and occasionally it disappeared altogether, but for the most part we made good time, running along the creek all the way north to the trailhead. We made quick work of CP 3, and then began the long climb back to the top of Sugarloaf Knob where we reunited with our bikes and set off for the downhill bomb for the last control. After bagging the checkpoint at Baughman Overlook, we finished the descent, crossing the finish-line with eight minutes to spare. While we moved well on the final foot section, our bobbles cost us our chance to overtake Adventure for the Cure who crossed the line 22 minutes before us. Team SOG blitzed the course for first, and we congratulate both teams for a great race, not to mention our friends from Haines Street Hustlers who took first in the co-ed 2 and from T.O.G.A.S who took the three person male category.

Considering how low we all felt for stretches of the day (except for Melissa who seemed steady throughout) and the problems we had on the foot-section, we were happy with our performance. While I felt miserable for the first couple of hours, I bounced back a bit later in the race, and I’m hopeful that with my final paper due tomorrow, I’ll be able to finally start training for the rest of the spring and summer races. I’m not sure I can make dramatic progress in the next two weeks before the Cradle of Liberty, but hopefully I won’t be the anchor I’ve been for the first two races of the season.