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END-AR24 2012 edition.

Drought and the Devils Dive, AKA I did Devils Dive and Andy didnt.

23 teams, including a strong field of 12 teams in the premiere category, came out to test

themselves against a notoriously tough course. And at 2 pm, 10 minutes after beinggiven preamble maps and coordinates (the only plotting in the race), many were still busyplotting and planning when the race started with a simple countdown from 10.

Team Dirty Donkey plotting the Preamble points

For the preamble teams had to go to three outof five checkpoints, collecting one itemsitting in the bucket placed at each spot theyvisited. Lucky teams ended up visiting CPswhere they picked up energy bars or juiceboxes, many of which were consumed by thetime they checked in back at the start. TeamSwamp Donkey managed the section in only18 minutes, with GearJunkie.com/Wedalicoming in three minutes behind.

The preamble successfully spread teams outand the biggest clump of teams that headedout north from FrostFire resort and down intothe gorge for the first of seven trips theydmake in pursuit of the mandatorycheckpoints (Long course teams would makefour additional ascents and descents).

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Section 1 was a foot section consisting of five checkpoints deep in the bush. Theapproximately seven mile section included less than a mile an a half of gravel road andanother half mile of rough and overgrown ATV trail the rest was game trails,bushwhacking, creek or river walking, and some meadows of tall grasses for good

measure.

Team Adrenaline Hunters enjoying the only easy foot travel they would see all day

The original course design would have

had teams pack-rafting once they reachedthe main river valley, but nationwidedrought had other ideas. The river waslow enough to allow for walking, butchoked with boulders that caught the siltymud and made the going fairly strenuous.Route choices were plentiful. Top teamscharged hard and completed the section

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in under three hours, with slower teams thatgot lost wandering in the wilderness formore than seven. For some of thenewcomers, this was quite the initiation intoENDracings brand of funishment there

was no save the hard stuff for later, thiscourse was designed to test teams every stepof the way.

Section 2 was a bike section consisting of 12checkpoints. Arriving at TA1 teamsgrabbed their bikes for a quick descent tothe valley bottom on gravel roads beforeturning north and heading up river on goodhard packed dirt. The respite fromdifficultly didnt last long, however, as they

soon arrived at hill road, the aptly nameddouble track that climbed 400 feet so steeplythat no team to my knowledge managed toride the entire thing (although it is rideable,perhaps by fresher legs though).

GearJunkie.com/Wedali pushing their bikes up hill road

Teams pushed bikes past signs touting the wonders of Devils Dive and its closeproximity, and soon reached said destination a quarter mile bike-whack descent downseemingly sheer bluffs for several hundred feet that linked with a half mile of near-bike-whack worthy decades old trail that finally led out to a good gravel road. Even thoughthe route was flagged it was so daunting that volunteers waiting on the gravel roadreported seeing, on more than one occasion, headlights bounce down from the top of thehill to the beginning of the dive itself, only to head back up again in search of another route. In the end though, all the teams that started on the bike leg made it through the

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Dive but the footage our cameramancaptured of the event will have to beheavily edited for profanity.

After the rigors of Devils Dive, teams had

another long climb out of the gorge beforethey were finally treated to some fun two big sections of brand new multi-usetrails zig-zagging their way in the bush fornearly 15 miles. The trails were contourdriven hard-packed trails with bankedturns and, for those riding these milesmoments before dusk, offered somespectacular vistas. Teams had to still payattention though so as not to ride right bythe few checkpoints placed a 5 meters or

so off the trail easy enough to see if youknew where to look, but easy to ride right by if you werent looking! In fact the leadchanged hands this way with SwampDonkey riding by CP 12 and top speedand losing 15 minutes by the time theyrealized their mistake, a mistake not madeby chasing GearJunkie.com/Wedali, whotook over the top position and never let itgo.

The Multi-Use trails ended back at the rim of the gorge where a couple miles of gravelriding took the racers past the first of four cemeteries that they needed to put in order

the races mystery challenge. Thenit was another decades old gravelroad that dropped quickly to themain Pembina River past one moreCP to a manned CP right at theTexas Crossing (a warm fire andham sandwiches for some luckyteams). Proficient riders were ableto ride right across the river due tolow water levels though thosewho chose bad crossing points werewet up to their waist. The tempshad now dropped into the high 40sand the winds had picked up andwere blowing at 20-30 mph staying warm would prove adifficult job for several teams.

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Looking weary after a long night out Local Walhalla team AllMost40.

A final climb out of the gorge that seemed twice as long as any previously made broughtteams into the wind and by CP 17, the first optional CP. Teams pursuing it were facedwith a dense 200 meter bushwhack down a narrow draw a trip that took at least 15minutes each way. Finally, teams arrived (after another 7 miles of riding) to anotherwarm fire and the world famous Dakota Harvest Bittersweet Chocolate and Sea-Saltcookies at TA2.

Section 3 was a second foot sectionconsisting of five more checkpoints.Teams ran (or walked) a good ATV trailinto a tributary valley of the main gorge,having to choose where to leave the trailand bushwhack to the creek bottom tofind the CP. A long (but relativelystraight forward) walk down the creek ledback to the Texas crossing. Teams thenhad a 2+ mile, dark trek (the milky waywas brilliant all night!) down the mainriver valley where they had to pay closeattention to their surroundings to locatethe small creek joining the river on theright the location of the nextcheckpoint. Teams proceeded up thiscreek (or found a single track trail thatclimbed along the ridge on its north side)through difficult terrain for more than a mile of twists and turns to the next CP. Thisstretch of the course was one of the most difficult, with deadfall and the steep sides of thecreek leaving few alternate routes when the going got tough. Many teams fell victim tothe pit of despair, an unassuming looking spot of mud that truly almost swallowed

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teams sinking them up th eir waists. A number of racers truly wondered if theyd beable to extract themselves, and had to rely on crafty tactics and lots of teamwork in orderto do so.

High mud marks from the pit of despair reached waist level on man racers. MacKenzies Hope arriving at TA3.

Teams had to find a critical junction where there was a split in the creek and follow thecorrect one to the next CP. It ended up, on average, costing teams that failed to do this(not that easy after 12+ hours of racing and in complete darkness) about an extra twohours as they wandered trying to figure out where they were. Finally, teams climbedback up to the fields that marked the rim of the gorge and trudged wearily back to TA3,in the same location as TA2.

Teams that arrived at TA3 before 11 am had the option of heading out on the LongCourse a bike section consisting of 10 more checkpoints. 11 of the 16 teams still racingopted to do so. The long course was rogaine style, meaning teams could pursue as manyor few of the points as possible, and get them in any order. Getting all of the points,something only three teams (GearJunkie.com/Wedali, Swamp Donkey, and BlindSquirrels) managed to do required good navigation and multiple climbs up and down theslopes of the main Pembina River gorge, and a mix of biking, bike-whacking, and out-n-back treks. The seemingly short trip from LC8 to LC9 proved to be perhaps the mostphysically arduous piece of the entire course 100 yards of bike-whacking through afield of overhead grasses that seemed impenetrable to even the strongest teams. All theteams managing the feat repeated the same chorus that took every ounce of energy wehad left. Every ounce. The final Long Course point was an out -n-back on a mile long

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ridge-top game-trail/singletrack that all the teams opted to walk rather than ride (althoughit is a great ride!) in their fatigued states.

Whether or not they made the long course, all teamshad one final mandatory CP on the 10 mile gravel

ride back to the finish one more challenge requiringteamwork and determination. The last CP, number24, sat high atop a cliff edge formed from an oldshale quarry. There was no easy approach a steepand eroded 8 foot bank needed to be surmounted togain access to a slightly less steep alder coveredslope leading to the CP. GearJunkie.com/Wedaliwas the first team to reach the CP (even after clearingthe Long Course!) and immediately went to work like a team of ants forming a human chain of sortsand making their way up the biggest section of the

bluff. It was impressive to watch, and a finaldemonstration as to why they are the top ranked teamin the country.

It was similarly impressive to watch the other teamsmake their way past this last hurdle on their way tothe finish line including many far less experienced(or even rookie) teams. In doing so they all onceagain negotiated terrain of a difficulty found so oftenin real adventures, but hardly ever in adventureracing.

GearJunkie.com/Wedali was the firstteam to arrive at the finish, 18 hoursand 21 minutes after starting the race.Teams trickled in for more than fivemore hours with the last team finishingthree minutes before the 2 pm cutoff.

Congratulations to all teams that startedthe race a huge undertaking not onlybecause of the navigational challengesand distances involved, but alsobecause of the difficulty of the terrain.For those reading this that havent raced an ENDracing adventure race take note of what you can expect. This is an ADVENTURE race and we mean it. Our backgroundis in serious, back-country, self-sufficient expeditions. Terrain most race directorsconsider tough we consider easy. Be warned. You will be tested!

2012 race results

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al74S_9z2djkdDZ2by1rUkxyLW9vcjFGbk5zLUxuMnchttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al74S_9z2djkdDZ2by1rUkxyLW9vcjFGbk5zLUxuMnchttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al74S_9z2djkdDZ2by1rUkxyLW9vcjFGbk5zLUxuMnc