On the weekend of August 10-11, 2002, Team High Profile (THP) competed in the prestigious "Raid the North - Tri-Town" adventure race.  The race was headquartered in New Liskeard, Ontario, Canada located 5 hours north of Toronto and 17 hours from the QCA on Lake Temiskaming.  Registration, equipment check, and skills testing was conducted on Friday, August 9.  Thirty-eight (38) teams competed. Three (3) from the United States.

The race briefing was conducted by Dave Zietsma, one of Canada's premier adventure racers and course designers.  The start of the race was located at the Elk Lake Eco Resource Centre.  The race began at 12:00 a.m. under clear skies, shooting stars, and the northern lights.

The first leg involved a 27 km. bike ride over logging roads to checkpoint/bike drop 1.  We checked in at 2:12 a.m.  From here, teams bushwhacked through the dense forests for 3 km. to the Montreal River for a 400 meter swim.  Once across the river, back into the bush for another 10 km.  We arrived at CP2 at 10:26 a.m.  Teams took a south heading and quickly trekked over a logging road to the shores of Indian Lake.  At this point, we were low on water.  As we walked near a cabin, the occupant, a women originally from Ohio, greeted us.  We asked if she had a well.  She graciously offered us spring water and cold peaches.  She was the first angel and "act of God" we encountered in this race.  We are forever grateful for her care.

Refreshed, we followed an ancient Indian trail to the southeast along the beautiful shores of an unnamed lake.  We took a due east heading from here and bushwhacked across swamps, deep lichen covered rock outcroppings, dense new growth forest and ancient old growth majestic white and red pine stands.  The heat and humidity were beginning to take their toll.  We were dangerously low on water.  No water had been crossed for hours.  The map showed a swamp just ahead.  We were all prepared to drink treated swamp water.  Upon arrival, the second "act of God" occurred.  The water was crystal clear and ice cold.  We rejoiced and drank heavily.  

Again refreshed, we continued until we reached a logging road, went south a short ways and arrived at CP3 at 6:26 p.m. We had been bushwhacking for the past 16.25 hours.  A quick trail run brought us into CP4/TA2 at 6:49 pm.  At the TA we ate, changed clothes, got off our feet, tended to blisters, and prepared for the remainder of the race. We checked out of the TA at 8:25 p.m.  

The next leg involved a 20 km. paddle down the Montreal River.  The Montreal is a beautiful, slow moving river system.  At dark, the shooting stars were memorable.  We arrived at CP5/TA3 at 11:45 p.m, a 3:20 paddle.  At the TA we changed in biking gear.  We left the TA at 12:24 a.m. CP6, CP7, and CP8 were all checkpoints along the 26 km. route of logging and gravel roads which we quickly crossed.  We arrived at CP8/Bike drop at 02:47 a.m.  From the bike drop, we quickly traveled over a trail to Devils Rock, the site of the rappel.  We arrived at the rappel site at 03:09.  Due to a backup of teams, we were required to wait until 03:45 to actually rappel.  This delay was removed from our time in the final standings.  The rappel was 360' in length.  It was quite an experience in the dark.  As experienced rappellers, we quickly descended the ropes and got out of the fall zone of large rocks falling from above. 

Once off the ropes, we had a difficult 3 km. coasteer up the shore line of Lake Temiskaming.  Travel was slow and quite difficult due to the slippery, sharp rocks.  We took to swimming much of this and actually swam across a bay to shorten the route.  We arrived at CP10/TA3 at 7:14 a.m. under clear, sunny and warm conditions.  We got a quick bite to eat and were quickly out at 07:25.

The final leg of the race was a 13 km. paddle up the shoreline of Lake Temiskaming.  The wind was strong out of the south, at our backs.  The final paddle took only 1:17.  The finish line was in New Liskeard.  THP finished it's first 36 hour race in 32:46 in 20th place.