Adventure Racing race 21:00:00 [2] **
We carried on pack rafting to the east end of MacGillivray Lake, where we planned to get on MacGillivray Creek and continue pack rafting if possible. We found the hydro dam and a road leading from it, roughly parallel to the creek. At first I thought it was a portage, but the road kept going. Walking was faster and warmer than pack rafting, and we were going in the right direction, so I didn’t head down to the creek until the road veered onto the wrong bearing after 2 km. By this time, the others were chilled and I was getting worried because Bent was shivering and losing dexterity. Just before sunrise, we were pushing through tall shrubs and weeds coated with tinkling ice. We hit the creek and inflated the rafts, but found that the water was too shallow to get very far. After a few hundred meters, we put them away and planned to walk in or near the creek until it met the Noire River 5-6 km away.
We hit ATV trails and followed them roughly east, keeping the creek in sight as long as we could. Eventually I thought we’d hit a branch of the Noire River, except something didn’t look right. I could see a beaver dam, and the high water seemed to be on the wrong side relative to the direction the current should have been flowing. I headed down to the dam to check. Gazelle seized the opportunity to pull out instant oatmeal and a baggie, which impressed Hingo, who started a conversation - a conversation that may have saved my life!! As they discussed the finer points of instant oatmeal, a Quebecois man came over the hill with his huge crossbow loaded with some evil looking missile. “I thought there was a moose until I heard you talking.” Then he pointed down to the bush where I was moving. “So that is not a moose either?” Having established that indeed none of us were moose, in spite of today being the first day of hunting season, he pointed out our location on the map, which is always handy, and assured us of the existence of the road across the river that we hoped to follow.
We used one pack raft to ferry the team across the Noire River, which we probably wouldn’t have bothered doing if we hadn’t been so chilled earlier. Then we went up and hit the road, following it for a few km until it turned, then we took a bearing straight cross-country. We bushwhacked for several hours, then had a lovely pack raft ride across a scenic, sunny lake with high cliffs. As we approached the next checkpoint, we found more ATV trails heading in our direction. We met two other teams at the checkpoint and realized that we were moving up in the race as a result of this trek. Yahoo!
Most people bushwhacked north and followed a long, circuitous road route from here. I wanted to bushwhack pretty much straight east to the main road, which would be half the distance – and easier on my knee. From talking to people later and looking at the results, apparently this was a good choice. Gazelle, who is an awesomely fit, team-oriented and experienced adventure racer, set a good pace in this section and followed bearings flawlessly. We hit the main road and arrived just after dark at Camp Jim after an epic 41 km, 21-hour trek. We had to wait for awhile, as only the first four teams had made the 3 p.m. cut-off to paddle on the Coulonge River, so the rest of us were being bussed to the take-out point where our bikes awaited. The good news was that we had moved up to 6th place in the race after having the 5th fastest trek! :-))
This gave us some spare time to visit the bar at Camp Jim, where hot beef noodle soup, orange juice and flush toilets made our short stay more luxurious. Hingo was rightfully concerned that we not get too comfortable, since we can be slow getting ready at TAs. We promised to be ready before 9:30 p.m., the scheduled bus departure time, but Hingo played it safe and took a pass on the bar. We started getting our gear ready shortly before he headed off to sleep in the back of FAR’s big rental truck. About 10 minutes later, the race volunteer came running down to say there was a minor medical emergency and he was leaving to pick someone up along the road. We didn’t think anything of it at first, then we saw the big rental truck driving off toward the bumpy access road. Oh no, poor Hingo was sleeping in the back – did the volunteer even know he was there? Three members of another team were in there too, so their remaining team member stood alongside us with jaws dropped as we watched the truck go. It was almost 9:30 p.m. and we were all so worried about our respective teammates that we almost stopped howling with laughter after a minute or two. When the shuttle bus arrived on schedule, we were ready to go – but the truck was still missing. Luckily, the bus waited until all teams had arrived so we could all be moved forward to our bikes at the same time. Phew.