On the weekend of June 28 - 29, 2002, Team High Profile (THP) raced in the prestigious Pathfinder Challenge.  Race Headquarters was located at Alpine Valley Resort in East Troy, Wisconsin.  The course was located in and around the southern unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest.  The 90+ mile course encompassed a 200 sq. mile area.  The race had a 24 hour cutoff time.  21 teams from throughout the U.S. participated.

The race began at 7:00 p.m. under hot, hazy, and humid conditions.  From a mass start, teams immediately ascended a steep hill out of the resort.  Over the next 18 miles, the teams' mountain biked over blacktop country roads, often in a peloton, to Transition Area/Checkpoint 1 (TA1/CP1).  TA/CP1 was located at the X-C Trail Center.  Becky Willems and Bart Roberts, THP's support crew were the volunteers staffing TA/CP1.  They are to be commended on their organization and handling of this high stress check point.  From TA/CP1 we bushwhacked 1 mile through dense bramble and thorns to the horse pickup.  Coming out of the forest into a pristine tall grass meadow with fog settling in, a log cabin in the background, and a herd of horses grazing, was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed, it will be etched in our memories forever.  From the horse pickup, we went into a 4 mile horse ride and run.  Gerry was on Tumbleweed, a beautiful two year old brown mare.  At this point in the race we were in 3rd place running with three other teams.  Disaster struck as we neared CP2.  While descending a steep, rocky horse trail, Frances rolled her ankle on a rock.  Although quite painful, she continued on to the horse drop off.  From the drop off we trekked approximately 1.5 miles on the Ice Age Trail.  This trail was quite rocky and steep.  The descents were taking their toll.  As we approached the canoe put in, we made critical team decision, unwrap the cell phone and call for assistance.  Once the call was made, the team was no longer ranked.  We could continue as a three person team, but would not be considered an official ranked finisher.  Through the combined efforts of all team members and another team who loaned Frances a trekking pole, we got her to a road.  Race Director, Tom Tostas, personally picked her up. From there, Frances and our support crew (volunteers) were met by Keith Lamb from Mid America X-treme.  Keith lives in nearby Palmyra.  He gave up his bed for Frances and cared for her.  Our appreciation and respect for Keith as a person and fellow adventure racer is deep.  We were now in 8th place, losing about 1.5 hours.

The canoe put in on Rice Lake, we paddled to CP2A an unmanned checkpoint, then to manned CP3 and manned CP4 to the portage out of Rice Lake.  The distance was 3 miles.  After a ¼ mile portage into Whitewater Lake, we paddled to manned CP5, unmanned CP5A, unmanned CP5B and manned CP6.  The distance of this leg was 9 miles.  After a ¼ mile portage back to Rice Lake, it was a quick ½ mile paddle to the canoe take out.  It took us about 3 hours to complete the paddle leg of the race.  We were able to pass five teams during the paddle placing us back in 3rd place.

It was now 3:30 a.m., 8.5 hours into the race.  The bushwhacking section was to begin.  Unmanned CP6A was located after crawling, bull dogging, and wading through bramble, tall grass, and swampland for about 2 miles.  The CP was located on the shore of Bluff Creek.  At this point, we were joined by our friend Kathy Bullard and her team from Chicago.  The mosquitoes were swarming and the thorns were nasty.  From here we followed Bluff Creek to a road crossing.  From the road we took a southeast heading across a large swamp.  We were aiming for the distant ridge where we would connect with the Ice Age Trail.  Going was slow with deep mud and a waist deep creek crossing.  The cold water was a relief to the scratched and bug bite legs.  We were able to make water in the creek.  After a 1.5 mile swamp crossing, we found the trail and headed in a northeast direction to CP7.  After leaving the trail, we trekked across an overgrown tree plantation.  The thistle bushes were especially memorable during this last portion of the trek.  After 2.5 hard miles, we reached CP7 at 06:19.  From here, we took a northerly direction to CP8.  After a short bushwhack, we got on the horse trails which took us in the direction of Lake La Grange.  We were able to quickly locate CP8 high on a ridge.  It was now 07:30 a.m.  We made a decision to skirt the ridge and traverse along the forest edge to attempt to reach the horse trail located to the southeast of CP8.  As we were crossing a grassy meadow, there was a large herd of cows with little ones.  Randy, for some unexplained reason gave out the biggest mooooo.  Apparently, it meant something to the cows.  They all came stampeding towards us.  At the last moment, they pulled up and stood there staring!  We quickly ran out of the field.  We got to an electric fence.  I looked it over and proclaimed it was dead.  I ducked under with no problem.  Melaine on the other hand, grabbed hold of it.  Once she stopped shaking, she further advised that is was very much live!  On we trekked.  After about 5 miles on the horse trails, in high heat and humidity and swarming black flies, we were running out of water.  We decided to go one mile out of the way to get water at the horse campground.  Once refreshed, we bushwhacked to the south to CP9.  The next 4 miles were a combination of trekking country roads, the "connector" bike trail, and Highway H to CP10 which was the TA to the 21.5 mile mountain biking leg.  In the final mile, we separated ourselves from two other teams and pulled into CP10 at 11:59 a.m. in 3rd place!  After a quick transition of less than five minutes, we begin the blue loop on the John Muir mountain bike trail.  We completed this loop at 1:27 p.m. still in 3rd overall.  From CP11, we took the sandy, steep, "connector trail" to the Emma Carlin mountain biking trail.  Heat was beginning to take its toll on us.  At the entrance to the trail, three teams passed us.  We reached CP12 at 3:31 p.m. now in 6th place.  From here, we were instructed to take county road Z to HY61 to HY12 to the finish line at Alpine Valley Resort.  At 5:34 p.m. we crossed the finish line, 22.5 hours after the start.

In hind sight, we met a lot of great people, Tom and Karen, Keith, Kathy, and many others who names escape me.  We gained further race experience and came together as a team.  We pushed ourselves beyond past limits and did it with a smile.  We can't wait for the next one!