Trioba "Wild Sky" Sprint Adventure Race

Andrew Feucht, Matt Hayes, Julie Heidt and I headed up to Index to participate in the "Wild Sky" Trioba Sprint AR. Peteris Ledins, Murray Maitland, and Christi Masi (with whom I raced at Desert Winds last month) were racing with Ian Hoag as Team Verve, and were definitely going to push us hard. We were all looking forward to a good race, and especially to the whitewater rafting trip down the Skykomish at the end.

We camped on Friday out along Reiter Road just outside of Index (an hour and a half from Seattle) where we could find some free camping, and we soaked in the spectacular views of the mountains and river that the area had to offer before heading to sleep. We all met at the River House in Index at 6am for the pre-race meeting (it starts getting light at 5am around here) and received our maps so that we could familiarize ourselves with them. The course worked as follows: bike leg up to a remote TA. Remote trek loop. Bike back through town to another remote TA. Another remote trek loop. Bike to start of rafting. Raft down river to finish. We were allowed one bin at the start line that we could access as we passed through town, and another at the start of the rafting trip where we could leave all of our biking/trekking gear and pick up our rafting gear.

At the start, Verve quickly pulled ahead and disappeared, while Matt got Julie on tow so that we could keep ahead of the masses. We turned onto a fire road that went uphill quickly. and everyone spread out a bit. At the first CP, a rough trail broke off from the road to the second CP. We elected to take the road, and several others headed down the trail. We arrive at CP 2 first, ahead of Verve as well as all the other teams, so we felt good about taking the safe, easy (albeit longer) route. CP 3 took us to the top of Index Town Walls and its beautiful views looking down on Index and across the valley. We did not tarry any more than we had to, however.

The mountain biking took us through some serious water and mud. Water was spread out like a lake across some parts of the road and trail, up to about 20 inches deep. It is a weird sensation riding through such deep, muddy water hoping that there are no holes in front of you. We did not have fenders so we got a healthy spray of mud and water all over.

The trek section took us through some serious bushwhacking. We occasionally followed old abandoned roads, but sometimes went cross-country through heavy brush, slide alder and devils club. Verve caught up with us at this point and we travelled side-by-side for a few CPs. At one point we both overshot a CP and went separate ways looking for it, and they pulled ahead.

A couple CPs later, we found ourselves up above snow level. We decided to take a short-cut down to the main road instead of following a vague snow covered road the longer way around; however, we got cliffed out and had to bushwhack our way down and around some cliffs and lost several minutes.

Back on the bikes, we got to ride some fast downhills past a few more CPs and down into town. We quickly stopped at our bin to refill on water. Verve left just as we arrived, and we saw them again as we pulled into the TA for the second trek loop at Heybrook Ridge. The second trek followed a logging road up to the top of Heybrook Ridge, looped around and came back down again. It was much mellower than the first loop; it had very little bushwhacking and few navigation problems, although it had a big hill. Verve was faster up the hill than we were, and pulled ahead of us by four to five minutes by the time we made it back to the bikes again.

The last biking section followed the road to rafting put-in. One CP along the way was on a spur road that was hidden by a concrete barrier that required us to keep an eye on the cycle computer and pay attention, which we did. We arrived at the rafting put in after 6.5 hours of racing.

Once at the rafting put-in, we were off the clock so that we could get appropriate safety gear, meet our guide and get the raft ready. Then we checked back in, raced to the raft and jumped in. I think our guide, Bucky, enjoyed having a crew that wanted to paddle the whole time and wanted to take the fastest route. Although we certainly still felt like we were racing, the rafting trip was fun and enjoyable and a perfect way to cross the finish line. Steak dinners waited for us at the end at the River House. Verve held on to beat us, but we finished a strong 2nd place. Glenn, RVG and Aaron put on a good race.