2009 Big Chill Adventure Race – Bastrop, TX

January 24, 2009
Team: Captain Pie
Members: Kirk & Lori Zeringue

Pre-Race
Lori and I arrived at Bastrop State Park on Friday afternoon, checked in with the Too Cool Racing folks, and set up camp. After getting the truck unloaded and both tents erected, we decided to ride in to town to do a little shopping and scouting…we knew there would be a small urban section of the race in Historic Downtown Bastrop. We headed back to the park, spent the next couple of hours piddling around and getting all our gear set up just right for the morning. Lori did a little studying and I was easily sleeping in the tent by 10pm…the earliest either of us had gone to bed in months! Our alarms started going off at 6:30am on Saturday. It was significantly colder in the morning than when we went to sleep the night before, which led to a couple snoozes before we actually emerged from the tent at 7am. Since we did most of the race preparations the night before, we only had a couple of things left to do before the Pre-Race meeting at 9:15am (i.e. boat drop, bike drop, fill camelback bladders, etc.). The Pre-Race meeting yielded no surprises and we were told to meet back there for the start of the race at 10am.

Leg 0 – “Amazing Bastrop Race” (Trek/Mystery Challenges)
It was about 40 degrees with a 25 mph winds. Each team captain was given an envelope to be opened at the start of the race. We hurriedly opened ours to find a clue sheet, a small city map of Bastrop, a bigger city map of Bastrop, and pamphlet describing some of the historic sites in Bastrop. The clue sheet was a “Roadblock” that told us to run to the Arena Park where one person was to complete a task to receive the next clue. We were advised to keep all of our clue sheets since we would need to turn them in to receive the map and checkpoint coordinates for the next leg of the race. We had some trouble finding Arena Park on the map, so we decided to just follow the pack while continued to search the map.

As we arrived at Arena Park, Lori finally locates it on the map. There was a sign instructing one team member to round up a goat and bring it to the person sitting in the middle of the arena. I immediately said “go get him Lori!” I knew she would have a lot of fun chasing goats, and I really didn’t want to smell like goat all day. As she makes her first plunge towards one of the goats, Dane swoops in and steals her little goat (not intentionally, he was just focused on catching one, but in Lori’s mind, he stole her goat). She didn’t take long to catch another much larger goat and had no trouble carrying it to the volunteer in the middle.

She came running back with the next clue which directed us to either bring a can good for each team member to the place where one would see Madame Butterfly or go to the Historic Bastrop Jailhouse and locate who the architect was and give that answer to someone at the place where you would see Madame Butterfly. We immediately searched the map for a theatre and found the Opera House. We knew there was going to be a store along the way and that most teams would probably run in and buy the canned goods, which would result in waiting in a line. The Jailhouse was only about a block away from the opera house so we decided to do that option, but if saw a second store along the way, we would then buy the canned goods and go straight to the opera house. Sure enough, as we approached the first store, just about every team was heading in. We continued on and a couple of blocks later there was second store. We ran in, bought our canned goods (no line) and proceeded to the opera house. At the opera house, the next clue was a word search. We had to find and circle 10 words which resulted in 9 letters being circled twice.

We had to unscramble the letters to reveal our next destination…Ferry Park. We quickly located Ferry Park on the map and ran there to receive our next clue. That clue directed us to go the location you would find the oldest newspaper in Texas. On our way to Ferry Park we saw some teams running out of a little museum, so we assumed that was where to go. As we approached the museum, a lady comes outside and directs us in the right direction. We arrived at the Bastrop Advertiser and were given a newspaper and a clue sheet, which said “What’s eating you?” and told us to show our answer at the next location. We figured we needed to search the newspaper to find those words. We searched, and searched….and searched…teams were coming and going. Lori was getting extremely frustrated. We finally decided to just follow one of the teams to see where we ended up. If we knew the destination, then we might be able to find what we were looking for in the paper. We ended up across the Colorado River at the Sugar Shack. There were other teams there so we knew we were in the right location…if we could just find it in the newspaper! We searched, still no luck. Lori is downright pissed off by this point. Damon comes running up and we desperately ask him where it is, he obliges and points it out. Apparently, we were supposed to be looking for the Too Cool Racing logo. We were so focused on the words “What’s eating you?” (because that’s all the clue sheet said!!!!) that we never even thought of looking for a small graphic. (Damon and Dane did this race last year and knew what to look for…huge thanks Damon…Lori and I might still be there searching!) We showed the race folks the logo in the newspaper, and were instructed that one person needed to eat what enclosed in the cup. Lori, concerned it might be bugs, made me eat it. I opened it up and it was sugar coated candy (some teams weren’t quite as lucky)…I struggled chewing the long skinny thing and the near frozen sugar coated skittles. I swallowed and we received a topo map and the first set of UTMs for Leg 1. We had now been racing for about 1.5 hours.

Leg 1 - “Row, row, row your boat and bike!” (Paddle/Bike)
We received coordinates and clues for 7 checkpoints (CPs). We found a spot in the corner of the building (to get out of the wind) to plot the CPs.

CP1 was about 6 miles downriver from where we had dropped our boats earlier that morning. We ran back across the Colorado River and down to where our kayak was. We both put our waterproof gear on because we didn’t want to add wetness to the cold and windy conditions. We loaded up the kayak and headed downriver. The river was pretty low so we had to be careful to stay away from the shallow areas...this was tricky at times because of the current. A few miles in to the paddle, we started passing teams (yes, the ones that passed while we searched through the newspaper). Passing teams in a paddle always makes you feel good. At one point, we noticed some people standing in the river ahead of us. This made us nervous because we immediately thought the river was going to be too shallow to float through…meaning at least one of us was going to have to step out into the frigid waters of the Colorado River. Luckily, this wasn’t the case. Actually, two boats collided causing them to take a spill into the river. We were relieved, felt bad for them, but relieved. We continued on, and when we reached the boat take-out (also CP1), we were excited to be the 4th boat out of the water (3rd team). Our bikes had been transported to this location by the race staff. We transitioned from paddling to biking, ate a snickers, and planned our strategy for getting CPs 2 – 7.

It didn’t take long before we were staring at our first real climb. I didn’t quite make it to the top and had to push the rest of the way…I think Lori made it though. My thighs were already burning and I was severely out of breadth. I immediately new that I was going to struggle in this bike leg…and boy, did I!!! We turned onto a road that (according to the map) would get across the creek and over to CP2. After screaming downhill towards the creek we were greeted by nothing…no bridge!!! Apparently, it had washed out long ago. It was too steep to traverse without a bridge so we turned around and headed back uphill. Lori was pissed that the map had let her down. I was pissed that I had to go right back where we came from without making any progress towards CP2…in other words, an unnecessary uphill climb! We then looked for a new route to get us across the creek, crossed our fingers, and headed that way….downhill again. This time we were greeted with a barricade, but still no bridge…Lori had steam come out of her ears! This crossing seemed a little more realistic than the last, so we put our bikes on our backs and very cautiously headed down to the creek bed. We made it to the other side, where the road picked up again and started the climb up to CP2. Lori punched our passport and we headed back the way we came…downhill, creek crossing, uphill. Finding CPs 3 through 7 was far less eventful and we pretty much went straight to those…scratch that, we went directly to them…nothing straight about it except for when it was straight uphill. The next hour and half consisted of uphill, downhill, uphill, etc. Most climbs ended with me pushing my bike and by the time I got to the top I could barely breathe. During one the last few climbs, both thighs cramped simultaneously. I battled cramps the rest of this bike leg, but we finally made it back to the TA. Lori was extremely supportive during all of this...she even pushed both our bikes up one of the hills!

Leg 2 – “That’s so puzzling”(Trek)
When we checked in from Leg 1, the race official gave us a trail map and a jigsaw puzzle of the trail map to complete. We assembled the roughly 100-piece puzzle quicker than the other teams at the table, so that made us feel good. On the completed puzzle was the location of the next 3 checkpoints. It was about 4pm and we figured it would probably get dark before we finished this leg. We decided go after what we thought would be the most difficult CP to find while it was still daylight. After some trail running, we got to the point where we needed to leave the comfort of trails and roads to find CP A. I shot a bearing, followed it for a bout 400m, and spotted the CP immediately…no problem. We found the next couple of CPs pretty effortlessly as well an headed back to the TA. On the way back we debated over whether the next leg would be a bike leg. We both new deep down that it would be, but it was nice fantasizing that it might not be…especially after my dreadful performance on the first bike leg.

Leg 3 – “I want to Ride My Bicycle (again)” (Bike/Trek)
Of course, it was a bike leg. The race folks handed us a small map with CPs already plotted on it. It was an extension of the big topo we were given earlier. We both were getting a little cold during this transition so we were expecting to be even colder once we got on our bikes. I, of course, was nervous that my thigh cramps would resurface again during one of the climbs we were certain to have to conquer. We loaded our packs and bikes now outfitted for the darkness and headed off. We calculated that this leg would be about 18km. After a few miles of rolling paved roadway, we veered off of Gottier Trace on to a gravel road and headed down to where we expected to hit a fence line. Sure enough, there it was with a couple of teams of headlights trekking off in the distance. We were puzzled by the direction they were going since it was in a completely different direction than we had planned. We checked the map and shot a bearing along the fence line…it matched the map so we went our way. We followed the fence line (on foot) down through the brush until it intersected a creek bed. By this time, we noticed some lights following us…sure enough, it was the two teams we saw go the wrong way. According to the pre-plotted point on the map, the CP should have been about where the creek intersected the fence line…it wasn’t. The other 2 teams joined in the search. We went a couple hundred meters in either direction of the fence line and still had no luck. At this point, there were 8 of us searching. I decided to keep following the creek even farther upstream than what was logical and still no luck. Lori yelled out that if I hit a sharp left turn in the creek, I should turn around and come back because it couldn’t possibly be past that (based on where the race officials pre-plotted the CP on the map). I reached the sharp turn in the creek, decided to turn around and as I pirouetted, the light from my flashlight caught an orange reflection off in the distance…a closer look and there it was, beyond the left turn in the creek. We (all 3 teams) agreed that the race folks completely misplaced this CP. We trekked back up to where our bikes were and proceeded to CP12. After a brief, premature right turn into someone’s driveway (I highly recommend reading Light & Momentary Troubles race report to find out what they endured in this same driveway!), we had very little trouble finding CP12 which our clue sheet told us would be located in a culvert. I offered to go punch the passport since Lori had been performing that duty all day/night. It ended up being about 30 feet into the culvert under the middle of the road…luckily it was bone dry and there were no animals. We then made our way back to the TA. You may have noticed that I didn’t complain about cramping or being severely out of breath during this bike leg…I performed significantly better in this bike leg than the first one. Apparently, it takes me about 8 hours of racing before I find my biking legs (same thing happened at the fig back in November).

Leg 4 – “Fi-nally Trek” (Trek)
We received the last 3 set of coordinates for CPs 11-13 and went back to our tent to plot them. This transition turned out to be fairly long as well. We were cold (temperature in the mid 3o's)and hungry…and Lori had to make two trips to the bathroom. I stuffed food down my throat for about 20 minutes, drank a Coke (maybe the best Coke ever!) and we off we went. While Lori was in the bathroom the second time, she got a tip from another girl who had just finished the last trek. She said to “look up” while searching for CP13. With that fresh on our minds, we went to CP13 first. We arrived in the vicinity of CP13 only to bump in to those same two teams from the previous bike leg. They weren’t having much luck finding the CP. Armed with our super secret bathroom tip, we shined our flashlights “up” and spotted the CP. As we got closer to the CP, we turned off our lights in an effort to avoid drawing attention to ourselves, but the other teams spotted us anyway. After a few miles of trail running and trekking (and tripping over roots!), we found CPs 14 and 15 and checked in at the finish line.

Our finishing time was 12 hours and 56 minutes. We finished 6th overall, and were the 1st in the 2-person team to finish. I had a great time racing with my wife and can’t wait for the next one!