Wicked Ocean 2005 Race Report

"Here's the deal," Reed said as we finished the pre-race shopping binge at the western-most Fred Meyer store on the contiguous 48 states, "if you have to go . . . No. 2, you can't go in the 5th wheel, you have to drive down the road about half a mile, turn left at the brown sign and use the rest area. I'll flash my lights at the turn off when we head out there." "greaaaat" I thought - I could hardly contain myself - literally.

And so began our 24 hour journey that would take us from the beautiful shark-infested beaches of the Oregon coast line to the enchanting, rock-infested fire roads of the nearby Mt. Nehalem foothills. My wife, Connie and I (Peak Physique Fitness) were joined by our good friends, Reed and Andrea (Double Trouble), completing the 3 summer races of the Wicked Series as team PPF.

The Wicked Ocean AR 2005 was headquartered at Nehalem Bay State park just south of the thriving metropolis of Manzanita OR. The park occupies the southern tip of a long spit of land that separates the bay from the ocean. It also forms the opening for the bay and the ocean to do the Tidal 2-step - a fact that race director Shane Gibson reminded the racers of often. Now how many times do remember everything the race director tells you at 0600 while you're still racing to get your pack organized and you think you left the iron on in the mobile home? That's right - we all forget a little something here and there - but we'll come back to that later in the story.

The driving rain that pelted and pounded Shane's set up crew - which included any racer that showed up for check-in before 6:30 PM on Friday night - mercifully disappeared on race day, providing us a near perfect day for our 9-12 hour adventure. The race began at 0700 on the beach with a MTB leg that gave us the opportunity to ride 2+ miles on the beach (hard packed from receding tide) or lug-a-bike over the dune and try the asphalt roads to CP1. Most teams opted for the sand which turned out to be the faster AND funner of the 2 - how often do you get to ride down the beach with 100 other trash-talking mountain bikers?

We exited the beach, punched CP1 and headed up the asphalt roads that lead to TA1. The long climb gave me a chance to recover as our much younger teammates were able to sprint down the beach with time to have a chat AND some coffee with Dirtworld before we arrived. The short first bike leg ended with a rewarding down hill scream into the unsupported TA where we changed into our super trekking outfits (read "shoe change") and headed out on the trail for a long 12-14 mile trek. A cursory glance at the map showed a park trail and a second "something trail" (added by the race director) intersecting in the first 400 yards of the trail. Repeat AR lesson 1 - no cursory glances at maps! As many as 5 other teams had joined us on the trail at this point, with nearly every team heading in different directions - nice. We chose a little longer than optimal route with a short bushwhack that got us to the desired "something trail" with only a little lost time. Yahoo.
"Stuff" happened again when the "something trail" ended short of the real trail - no problem- head NE and hit the trail and turn left - Right? - no left. But the compass went all haywire and said "go right", then Team Purefit came running back the other direction - with us deciding to follow their direction about 30 sec later. How a trail can physically reverse direction while we're on it, I'll never understand.

All the teams were pushing to reach CP 3 before the big tide hit - projected to be about 0930. The prize was a coasteering section that would save racers about mile in distance, 700 feet in elevation and the embarrassment of missing a cutoff. We cranked hard on the trails to hit CP3 by 0925 but Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. We already knew our fate as a slightly late Purefit was already heading back up the beach on the reverse course. We sulkingly retraced our steps back along the trail for many miles eventually working our way past some breathtaking rocky coastlines with deadly steep ocean plunges to consider. Our spirits were bolstered a bit as one-man team Hamblet Wire Products bounded past us just before CP4. He was the last team to beat the tidal cutoff but spent more time in surf than on turf before regaining the trail. We realized we would have lost more time if we had barely made the cut-off. Maybe Mother Nature wasn't so bad after all. The spur trail to CP4 was more like getting out of your seat at a theater as Dr Strangelove and Which Way Out were moving to the CP as we headed out.

The return 2+ mile hike to TA1 after CP4 was mostly trail with one nice short cut that allowed us to pass Which Way Out after they had run by us earlier on the trail. The volunteers at the TA were only too gleeful as they gave us the map to the first of 2 mystery orienteer sections. 2 CPs were buried high in the Wicked woods of the Nehalem Black Forest Reserve - no trails - finally, we get to do some real bushwhacking. DART passed us on their way back in, giving us more words of encouragement - something about their grandmothers running faster than us - I don't know, it was all a blur. We headed up and in to the woods following our bearing and converged with Purefit and part of Which Way Out on the way up to CP5. The woods were a nice mix of blowdown, underbrush, elevation, and terrain. I was having a blast in this section - I don't know about anyone else. The second CP required climbing up a longer and steeper hill that had Connie asking the predictable "how many more miles?!" question. As usual, I lied and kept saying it was just around the next big tree. Eventually the elusive orange and white flag was around the next big tree and Reed lead us back to the TA along another wondrous and highly unused path in the Nehalem Black Forest.

There weren't many bikes left at the TA when we arrived . . . "greaaaaaat" I thought again.

The second bike leg proved far more interesting than the first, as well as more challenging. The next CP ( was located on the top of a crest at the top of a ridge near the top of Mt. Nehalem. The so called ride involved a little pushing and lot of gnashing of teeth. This is when our Turrets Syndrome came in to full symptomatic expression and multiple strings of expletives, all strangely involving the creator of our pain, Shane, left our mouths, making all the sailors within earshot blush. Road of Pain 1 ended at a short but steep trail that lead to Road of Pain 2. Purefit had already completed that climb and were taunting us a second time when we began our assault of the trail. I think they were just toying with us.

The map did a nice job of camouflaging how nasty the remaining climb up to CP8 was and the team made sure the navigator understood their displeasure with his in ability to count hundreds of little lines. From CP8, it was a mostly down hill fly back to good ol CP1 and then return to the HQ for a kayak leg and a few more surprises. The return to CP1 caught several teams off guard - we were only the 7th team to check in - so many teams had completely bypassed this CP. From here, the navigator chose the more scenic route back to HQ, which was extremely beautiful, but got us to the HQ just minutes after the kayak cut-off time. We were rewarded with a 4 CP course instead of the full 5 CP course. We had also missed an earlier cut-off for the second surprise orienteering course located throughout the beach scrub on the peninsula. Only 6 teams made both of the cutoffs - so we didn't feel too bad.

I quickly (and correctly!) plotted CP's 9 thru 12 while my team prepared our 2 boat armada for adventure on the low seas that were getting lower by the minute. We made such excellent time paddling across the bay that we opted to bypass CP 9 and catch it on our way back. The remaining CP's were all close to the water but far enough away that some lucky team member got to hop out and muck in the mud to punch the passport - my new favorite part of AR! For the last time on the course, we crossed paths with Purefit at CP11. They had arrived at HQ in time qualify for the full kayak course so while we weren't racing against each other anymore, we smiled, waved and pointed them in the wrong direction to CP12 - always the friendly competitors. Our plan at this point was to steam back to CP9, charge hard to the kayak finish and have a couple of cold beers at the finish line. Finding 9 wasn't a problem; we'd already paddled past the inlet it was located behind. Paddling to it was now a big problem as the aforementioned Mother Nature and the Tide were up to their old tricks. Only a foot of water was trickling out of the inlet now so about 40 yards short of the entry, I jumped in to the tide flat and sank in the mud up to my shins. Moving towards the inlet to punch the last CP, I was straining to pull each foot from the mud without pulling my shoe off or rip my hamstrings from their insertions! I had thankfully left my tighter fitting cycling shoes on to save time in the transition but soon found that Shimano SPD cleats and climbing on the seaweed-covered rocks near the CP do not mix! The Mud AND Plunge continued on the return to the boat while Reed and Andrea began their assault across the bay. I flopped back in our baby Man 'O' War only to find our keel firmly entrenched in mud - the tide was moving out fast! Pushing at the mud with our paddles only made our arms tired and our paddles . . . muddy. Another 2 man team that we'd passed earlier in the kayak section jetted by us as we helplessly flailed our paddles in our muddy box seats. Again, I was in the water, pushing the kayak for seemingly - a lot - until it finally glided free of the aquatic fly paper &; I re-flopped back in the boat. Our arms now spun like wings of hummingbirds on Gatorade and we re-joined our teammates who were wondering what else we could do to win the award for dumbest kayak maneuver of the day. Together we paddled towards shore and hoisted our rigs up the short but now difficult embankment to deposit them at the kayak TA.

Nearly 24 hours after learning about our satellite outhouse, we hobbled the last quarter mile to the finish line, with one more outburst of Turrets directed at Shane but followed by praise for setting up a challenging &; beautiful course that gave every team their money's worth. In the end, only 6 teams completed the full course with the last few CP's on the 2nd O course deciding the outcome. Perennial favorite DART and most-of-the-race leader MPGear.com were "out-orienteered" by the solo woman racer Time is On My Side who crossed the line a minute ahead of DART (with MPGear.com in hot pursuit) and promptly announced she was heading to Disneyland. We ended up leading the pack of teams that had missed all 3 cutoffs with a stellar 11 hr race and 12th place finish.

Our heartfelt thanks goes out to Shane and Kathleen for creating a full season of beautiful, challenging, and fun AR races on new courses in OR and WA. We want to thank all the great volunteers for helping at the races and supporting this crazy sport. Seeing you on the course at each CP/TA is little party and adds another dimension to the race. We also want to thank the sponsors for supporting Wicked AR and providing ENORMOUS amounts of post race give-aways that make the après race as much fun as the race. Last, a special thanks to Deek and Brian of Next Adventure for supplying the post race cook out and beer - I think I read in Ian's AR book that beer and hamburgers were THE ideal post race recovery meal! See you all in 06.

Colin Ness
Peak Physique Fitness