On the weekend of May 3, 2003, I had the opportunity to race with Team Chirosport, in the Lumberjack Adventure Race presented by Team Enterprise Adventure Racing (TEAR) at the Greater Green Bay YMCA Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya, in the Nicolet National Forest near Suring, Wisconsin. The race director was Keena Hilsberg of TEAM. Team Chirosport features Ron and Sue Stonitsch of Rock Falls, Illinois and Jamey Sanders of Sterling, Illinois. All are Doctors of Chiropractic Medicine and accomplished adventure racers.

Registration, Gear checks, and the Pre-race meeting were held the evening of Friday, May 2 along with a pasta dinner at the beautiful and rustic backwoods camp dining hall. No maps were distributed at the meeting allowing teams to make last minute preparations and get a good nights restless sleep before the scheduled 5:00 a.m. race start. The start was unique, giving a decided advantage to the ten (10) two person all male and seven (7) two person coed teams. The eight (8) four person coed and the (7) four person all male teams completed the 32 team roster. The teams lined up and the gun sounded. In relay style the first member of each team ran for approximately 1/2 mile over a single track trail to a pick up point where map #1 was retrieved. They then continued to the start where the next teammate was waiting. This member ran the trail to pick up map #2 or in the case of two person teams the map, passport and instructions. The two person teams at this point began the race. The four person teams continued to run the trail to pick up the instructions with the last member picking up the passport. The four person teams began approximately 15 minutes behind the two person teams.

The first leg of the race involved a 3 mile biking section over gravel roads and ATV trails to CP1 located on a knoll overlooking the forest below, where the orienteering on foot section began. We arrived at CP1 at 5:56 a.m. The "O" leg involved a 1 mile trail run to OP1 located at the edge of a swamp, OP2 was .8 mile via trail on a knoll, OP3 was 1 mile via bushwhack and trail run on a knoll with an .8 trail run back to CP1. This leg was completed at 6:56 a.m., 1:00 in elapsed time. At this point in the race we were in 9th place with eight two person teams ahead of us. From CP1 it was a 3 mile bike back to the transition area located at the activities field in the "Y" camp. The bikes were quickly dropped and a brief trail run down the Bonita Loop Trail brought us to our PFD's. From there a quick trail run brought us to the canoe put in beach. This leg involved canoe orientation to L1 (2.6 miles), which was a the northwest end of Chute Pond at Kingston Road, L2 (2 miles) to Bonita Creek inlet, L3 (1 mile) on the shore of the County Park and back to L4 (1 mile) at the beach in the "Y" camp. The overnight temperatures had been in the high 20's. Skim ice was present up the bay into the Bonita Creek inlet. Chute Pond is a very shallow, less than 5' deep, tree trunk strewn waterway making navigation challenging and paddling difficult. We completed the paddle at 8:05, only 1:09 in elapsed time. We had moved into second place overall behind a two person all male team!

After a brief run back to the transition area, we were on the bikes for a 6.5 mile pedal to CP2 taking :37 minutes to complete. A map of the Mc Comb Lake cross-county ski trails were handed out. Each of the CP's were to be got in order. CP3 was found after bushwhacking across a swamp, through dense old growth forest, and through raspberry thickets and pecker pole new growth forest to the trail where a quick run brought us to the manned CP. Unmanned CP 4 was found by backtracking on the trail to a depression. CP5 was found at the top of a ridge just off the ski trail and CP6 was found in a ravine just off the trail. The final mystery CP was descrambling words found on a trail marker. The words were relating to a water feature found on the topos. The word "Bagley Rapids" was relayed to the CP2 attendant and we were allowed to continue to CP7. We completed this leg at 11:47, 2:00 from beginning it. We were still in second place but the MN Orienteering Club 4 person coed team was only 3 minutes behind and the Team Stuner was 1 minute ahead. When we arrived at CP2 before the "O" leg, the attendant was standing by his campfire. As he was giving us the map and talking, the fire left the fire ring and started a small ground cover fire. After I pointed out the start of the forest fire and his quick stomping and throwing his coffee at the fire to aid in suppression, off we went. When we arrived back at the CP, there was no evidence that this incident had ever occurred.

Back to the bikes for a 3.5 mile pedal on Mc Comb Lake road to the town of Mountain, Wisconsin. We arrived at CP7 at 12:01, elapsed time :14. From CP7 we proceeded for 4 miles on county roads to Old Highway 32 to a steep gravel road up to a restored lookout tower to CP8, arriving at 12:25, :24 minutes elapsed time. A pleasant surprise awaited at the CP where the Red Bull rep handed out ice cold Red Bulls. Refreshed and invigorated, off to CP9. Unmanned, CP9 was 4 miles on gravel surfaced Sunrise Lake Road. CP10 was manned and arrived at after a 2 mile pedal at 1:00, :35 minutes elapsed. At CP10 the attendant provided us a map of the hunting/walking trails off Mc Cauley Creek Road. This section was the off-road biking portion of the course. The trails were somewhat overgrown with small evergreens and thorn bushes. Navigation was challenging with all of the trail intersections. We stayed to the left on the trails and were able to ride the entire system quickly finding CP11, CP12, and the mystery CP13 which was manned at the top of a rocky knoll. We arrived CP13 at 1:52. We were now in 1st place by only 12 minutes over MN Orienteering Club.

After a quick picture and scramble down the steep rock face, we were back on the bikes. We arrived back at CP10 at 2:14, elapsed time 1:14. The hotter temperatures and lack of water were starting to take their toll. Bonking was occurring but recovery's were quick. One can of Red Bull, carried as a spare, (and because it gives me gas), was greatly appreciated and quickly brought one of the team members out of a bonk as did forced eating. From CP10 it was off to CP14 via hard surfaced roads for 7 miles. Manned CP14 was reached at 2:50, elapsed time, :36. The attendant at CP14 provided us with directions back to the "Y" camp. We took old Chicago and Northwestern Railroad bed which has been converted to an ATV trail for 6 miles to the finish line at the "Y" camp. We crossed the finish line at 3:32 p.m., :42 elapsed time. To complete the race standings, teams went from the finish line to the climbing/rappel wall. 10 minutes were deducted for each team member who failed to scale the 40' wall. The wall had hand and foot holds scattered about, many which were loose and would spin when weight was applied. The rating of the difficulty was quite high. Gerry and Jamey were able to scale the wall within the 7 minute time line. Both had previous rock and gym experience. Ron and Sue, not having climbed before, both had gallant and painful efforts but were stopped just shy of the top. With the novel idea of giving a 5 minute bonus for bringing in litter and the 20 minutes in penalties, our official finishing time was 3:47 or 10 hours and 47 minutes. We not only won the 4 person coed division we were the overall race winners! Second place went to Loose Gravel a two person coed team comprised of our friend Stacey Dean and her husband from Tomahawk, Wisconsin.

The major factors in our success were fast transition times (5 minutes, 2 minutes, 6 minutes), the use of towing systems from the start, great team dynamics, running throughout, error free navigation, keep moving when bonking, and a positive, winning attitude. I thank Sue, Ron and Jamey for including me in this winning effort!

-Gerry