Thursday, July 11, 2019

Quarry Mountain Quest 6HR AR, Steamboat, Colorado by Athena Adventures/361 Adventures

1st Quarry MTN Quest 6HR Adventure Race
Steamboat Colorado
June 2019
by Athena Adventures/361 Adventures

Team Lupine Racing 
2P Coed
Jason Zorilla and Paula Pearson

Very excited to be a part of one of our old AR friends athena and 361 races to grace the Rocky Mountains. We took on the Quarry HR AR as a good "getting" back into it. June in the Mountains can bring any type of weather and it did, hot temps, rain, hail, lighting and more hot sun. This race was a fundraiser to support the Routt County Search and Rescue.  

Normally this race would have taken on a very different face. Due to weather in Colorado.  This year we were met with Epic high snow pack run off which Nix'ed the tube/paddle section which was very understandable.  We scouted out the section of water the night before and was like "wow".   Athena was on top of communication on this and said they would let all teams know options the morning of.  We brought our gear just in case.  

The race started at 10 with prerace at 930.  What we get to sleep in?  This felt odd, but great!  Arriving at 8:15 we staged our bikes at the central TA, gear bin and went to find bathrooms.  Seemed pretty calm compared to other races.  The park was full of softball games going on and all kinds of activity as well in the heart of Steamboat along the river.  

We received our maps at 8:30 and the planning began.  Rules of Travel, Clue Sheet, Passport, Emerald Mt Trail Network and Local Topo Trail Map at 1:16,000.  See maps below.  Navigating between each map made it challenging as well as they were not oriented to each other.  (see North Arrows drawn in by JZ)  The Paddle section was now a trek.   


There were 3 legs to the race.   Best part you could do them in ANY ORDER.  You had to get the points with in each leg only when you were on that leg.  Returning to TA after each section.  Once done with section you could not return.  
Pwild suggested and we agreed as a team to go on foot Leg 1(6 points): as we notice the bike leg was in the same section.  Getting to know the trails first may help us on the bike section later.   The Trek section took a little longer as we planned due to missing some early short cuts by going back and forth between maps.  Lots of trails, switchbacks and elevation.  It was a ski place after all.   We made some new trail buddies, 16 years old and just getting started in AR.  They were fun and said "we just want some new friends".    We said that's awesome!  See photo below of them on the course with us.  Great guys!  Hope to see them again in the future.








  
It was very hot and we went thru way more water than we thought we would.  In all our years in CO we have never seen Mosquitos like this year, not as bad as Wisconsin but bad.   Getting all CP's, 6 total and back to the TA.  On the way back we talked about doing the bike leg and then the trek(was paddle) but we notice we were doing well on foot and leg 5 had 5 points plus a bonus.  Bonus was the farthest point and a volunteer gave you a mental of physical challenge.  

Leg 3 (7+1 points): Trek in town we are doing!  In and out of the TA in 3 minutes just time to check in and get some water in packs.  This section started straight back up the Olympic ski Jump Mountain to the top of the main ski jump.  JZ helped PWILD climb by allowing her to hang on to his shorts from behind. We were just hoping they didnt fall down.  :)  This is were PWilds hot spot on her right foot came on.  Dealing with this for months now.  So it was jog and fast walk the rest of the race.  ARriving at the farthest point JZ took on the physical challenge, he had to stack 7 rocks straight up as fast as he could.  Bam!  Done, he was so fast even the volunteer was shocked. Side note: He like to do this as a hobby.  Off we went.  Getting all the points, the last point a storm started rolling in on our way back to the TA.  Like monsoon raining, JZ said you want to take cover?  PWild said "%$^#" it lets go we are already wet.  
Back in the TA most racers were under the pavilion.  We check in and JZ brought our bin to the shelter so we could get our bike gear on.  NO time to waste.  We thought we had the wrong tires to start but now we REALLY knew we had the wrong ones.  This was going to be a mud fest.  :)
Leg 2(5 points): We went for 2 points, maybe 3 if we had time of the bike section.  The storms were still raining hard on us and we headed out anyway.  Because that just what you do!  Got the first point then turned to climb higher and the black cloud above was loud with lighting and thunder.  Jay stopped on the trail and said we cant go out in the open prairie or we could be in danger of this lightening.....lets hunker down for a minute and see if it passes soon.....we waited.....waited, under a small bush like tree cover but not really, getting more wet.  We waited I bet 10 minutes and then took off, just in time to grab point number 2 & 3 and take the fire road STRAIGHT down behind the TA.  Slip and Slide the whole way!  DONE!

Came into the finish it stopped raining and we hugged and smiled it was over.  Great race for beginners and seasoned racers.  Well done, creative, positive atmosphere and still challenging all around.  We recommend this race to everyone!