2015 GOLD RUSH MOTHER LODE
Initiating Luke into Team Strong Machine the night before the race. (Cliff White photo)
Our most ambitious adventure race yet - a 30-hour race in a remote location with a new teammate. The Gold Rush lived up to its legacy of providing an epic adventure, and we proved capable of handling it as we came in second place overall (admittedly, there were only seven teams in the race).
A plan long in the making, Strong Machine's participation in the 2015 Gold Rush Mother Lode would not have been possible without the addition of Luke White to the team. Blood-kin to Starker and Cliff, Luke had long been teased for not having undertaken a single adventure race. Finally, he had had enough abuse and decided to go big - agreeing to join Strong Machine in a race requiring four-person teams. Fittingly, Luke's first ever adventure race would be of the epic variety.
Cliff and Kate, midway through their monthlong Western swing and one week removed from the 2015 Teton Ogre Adventure Race in Idaho, arrived to a rented house in Arnold, CA on the Friday before the race and started getting gear and food ready, including a jaunt up to Big Bear to rent two bikes (for Cliff and Luke) and get Kate’s tuned up, as it had practically no effective braking power left after the Teton Ogre. At 7 p.m., the race briefing started, and as if on cue, Luke and Starker showed up in a rental car, having both flown into Sacramento and driven a couple of hours. Luke lives in Los Angeles and was excited (and nervous, though he would never admit it) to do his first ever adventure race.
The race briefing was short on detail, as usual, but it was clear that it was going to be an expedition-style race, with few checkpoints but a few with huge consequences if missed. Only a few points sounded difficult, but those required a lot of orienteering ability. After the briefing, we got our maps and then set to work plotting. We didn’t need UTMs as all the points had been pre-plotted by race staff, so all we had to do was copy them from the master maps, which got crowded. It took us a while to get everything plotted, but once we had, the race route looked pretty straightforward: a 12-mile paddle, an 18-mile hike and a 50-mile mountain bike.
By the time we got back to the house, it was 10:30 p.m. We then had to figure out our route, which gear to bring, our TA drop box and strategy. By the time that was finished, it was 2 a.m. Wake-up was scheduled 5:30 a.m. but as usual, the adrenaline kicked in and we still had trouble sleeping. In the morning, the three veterans were ready to go by our 6:15 a.m. deadline, but Luke was nowhere to be seen. After sleeping in, he had decided to take a short shower! Despite his peculiarities, we made it to the start on time and loaded the vans for a 45-minute ride up to the Big Bear reservoir for the race start, a 12-mile paddle on sit-on-top kayaks. After a short delay due to difficulty finding the rendezvous point, we had 10 minutes to set up our boats and then we were led back up to the top of the boat ramp for the start (the boat ramps didn’t even lead anywhere close to the lake edge anymore due to the extreme drought California was/is suffering through).
A plan long in the making, Strong Machine's participation in the 2015 Gold Rush Mother Lode would not have been possible without the addition of Luke White to the team. Blood-kin to Starker and Cliff, Luke had long been teased for not having undertaken a single adventure race. Finally, he had had enough abuse and decided to go big - agreeing to join Strong Machine in a race requiring four-person teams. Fittingly, Luke's first ever adventure race would be of the epic variety.
Cliff and Kate, midway through their monthlong Western swing and one week removed from the 2015 Teton Ogre Adventure Race in Idaho, arrived to a rented house in Arnold, CA on the Friday before the race and started getting gear and food ready, including a jaunt up to Big Bear to rent two bikes (for Cliff and Luke) and get Kate’s tuned up, as it had practically no effective braking power left after the Teton Ogre. At 7 p.m., the race briefing started, and as if on cue, Luke and Starker showed up in a rental car, having both flown into Sacramento and driven a couple of hours. Luke lives in Los Angeles and was excited (and nervous, though he would never admit it) to do his first ever adventure race.
The race briefing was short on detail, as usual, but it was clear that it was going to be an expedition-style race, with few checkpoints but a few with huge consequences if missed. Only a few points sounded difficult, but those required a lot of orienteering ability. After the briefing, we got our maps and then set to work plotting. We didn’t need UTMs as all the points had been pre-plotted by race staff, so all we had to do was copy them from the master maps, which got crowded. It took us a while to get everything plotted, but once we had, the race route looked pretty straightforward: a 12-mile paddle, an 18-mile hike and a 50-mile mountain bike.
By the time we got back to the house, it was 10:30 p.m. We then had to figure out our route, which gear to bring, our TA drop box and strategy. By the time that was finished, it was 2 a.m. Wake-up was scheduled 5:30 a.m. but as usual, the adrenaline kicked in and we still had trouble sleeping. In the morning, the three veterans were ready to go by our 6:15 a.m. deadline, but Luke was nowhere to be seen. After sleeping in, he had decided to take a short shower! Despite his peculiarities, we made it to the start on time and loaded the vans for a 45-minute ride up to the Big Bear reservoir for the race start, a 12-mile paddle on sit-on-top kayaks. After a short delay due to difficulty finding the rendezvous point, we had 10 minutes to set up our boats and then we were led back up to the top of the boat ramp for the start (the boat ramps didn’t even lead anywhere close to the lake edge anymore due to the extreme drought California was/is suffering through).
The start had a few teams racing down the steep incline, but we took it easy, settling into our boats safely and then heading out to the first CP two miles away. Despite not paddling too hard, we still made it there around third place, then we steered for the far end of the oblong lake, passing through the topmost branches of a a bizarre drowned forest created when the dam was built. The second CP was located down a muddy rivulet at the end of the lake. The third CP was located on the way back, and Luke entertained us all with recaps of television shows the rest of us had not seen. Starker was heard declaring, “This is the prettiest paddle we’ve ever done!” We settled into second place as other teams dropped behind, and we would only see two other teams after we left the TA, which we arrived at at about 11 a.m.
Working our way to CP 8. As you can see, the lake was far too inviting not to swim in. (Cliff White photo)
After a very short transition, we headed through a campground and then up a gnarly forest road. We were passed at a run by an all-male team we would see a lot over the next section. We hit CP 5 and they passed us again (they must have gotten off-track somewhere). Cliff found CP 6 at the top of a boulder and the all-male team followed him to it, then we headed a bit too far north for CP 7, but that had the fortunate side effect of putting a little distance between us and the other team. CP 7 was tricky as the run of the large boulders led north/south as we headed west, making us have to go up and down about a dozen of them before getting near the CP. But Kate steered us to within viewing distance and Cliff saw the point at the far side of a lake. Luke then executed stealth strategy, which entailed us ducking behind rocks as we snuck away from the CP. On our way to CP 8, we walked along the bank of a large reservoir and Cliff and Starker stopped to take a dip.
Of course, it was at this time that the all-male team passed us again. We walked as a semi-group over a cool land bridge between two lakes and alongside one of them to CP 8, then hiked a couple miles more past a large campground and to the top of a canyon. We found CP 9 there and began what would become a 10-hour descent of the canyon. Luke and Cliff were low on water and for the first time in an AR, we took water from nature, filling our Camelbaks and using iodine to treat it. It was here the all-male team passed us again, but we didn’t let it bother us, continuing to make our way down the canyon, occasionally crossing the river or bouldering large rocks that got in the way.
Of course, it was at this time that the all-male team passed us again. We walked as a semi-group over a cool land bridge between two lakes and alongside one of them to CP 8, then hiked a couple miles more past a large campground and to the top of a canyon. We found CP 9 there and began what would become a 10-hour descent of the canyon. Luke and Cliff were low on water and for the first time in an AR, we took water from nature, filling our Camelbaks and using iodine to treat it. It was here the all-male team passed us again, but we didn’t let it bother us, continuing to make our way down the canyon, occasionally crossing the river or bouldering large rocks that got in the way.
CP 10 and a view of the canyon before it got tight. (Cliff White photo)
CP 10 was located on the far side of a horseshoe bend in the river, and we executed another stealth move as we cut across the diagonal and got there first, leaving the all-male team in our dust. This was huge as it gave us an advantage heading into the ropes section. After the CP, we followed blue and white checkered ribbons up to the base of a steep incline. Race Director Mark Richardson was there and he told us to don our harnesses and to follow the ropes, climbing the face via ferrata-style, alternating a pair of carabiners. The climb up was sketchier than we expected it to be, but we helped each other out and all made it to the top safely, but we then had a difficult time finding the site of the rappel. Starker spotted it after 5-10 minutes of searching and we walked over to find the last members of the first-place team, NorCal, just heading over the lip of the cliff. They seemed surprised to see us and we took some joy and positive energy from that.
Rappelling down the 250' cliff face after CP 10 (Luke White photo)
After NorCal finished up (it turned out to be the last time we would see them in the race), Luke and Kate hooked up on the three ropes and began their descent, followed shortly thereafter by Starker. They worked their way down the 250’ cliff slowly due to the prussics required by the race organizers, which gripped the rope tightly and didn't allow them to glide at all. Cliff went last and was a little tentative due to apprehension about his new harness, but made it down to his waiting teammates in good time. Luke punched CP 11 at the bottom, then we started a descent to the river, where we would drop our climbing gear, but it took much longer than we expected, as the route down was quite steep and bouldery. This would be a theme for the next eight hours or so. We got to the parking lot where we dropped our gear and begged some bottled water off a guy not affiliated with the race, then headed down an easy, level, beautiful path on the side of the canyon’s river. We continued on the path at a good pace for a while until the trail disappeared.
We, of course, kept going, occasionally crossing the river or heading up one side or another to follow the path of least resistance down the canyon. The terrain was a combination of smooth and flat rocks interspersed with grasses and manzanita, with an occasional patch of pine or deciduous forest thrown in. We had a blast jumping across rocks or fallen trees to cross the river when we had to. We arrived at a boy scout’s camp by 7:30 p.m., where we found CP 12 at the camp’s entrance. We also rejoiced upon finding a spigot with fresh water, doing a little water dance and stopping for a snack break. As it was getting dark, Kate and Cliff planned a strategy out for CP 13, which we had been told was the most important CP of the race, because if we missed it, we could continue down the canyon for a long, long way without any noticeable catching feature or road out. We also knew we would be hitting it in the dark, so took a good long look at the map and made an estimate of what we would hit and when. Continuing down the canyon, we eventually reached a choke point that required a scramble up a steep rock face, then an equally steep descent. These up and downs went on for several hours, with each one getting a little more choked up with manzanitas. Luke turned on his light at 8 p.m., followed by Kate and Cliff, but Starker inexplicably held out until long after dark, claiming he wanted to ‘save his batteries.’ For what? Until his ankle was broken? … Speaking of which, at one point while leading the way, Cliff was pushing his way through a thick manzanitas grove and put his foot down on nothing but air. His momentum led him further in and he ended up breaking through the ground cover and free-falling for 10 feet. How he didn’t hurt himself was a miracle, though landing on yet more manzanitas bushes definitely helped. By 11 p.m., Kate was getting convinced we were close to the CP, so we started making a serious effort to hug the riverside so as not to miss it. Luke thought this was ridiculous as the going was a lot smoother further up the riverbank, but Kate and Cliff wanted to be super-sure we didn’t miss it, because then if we didn’t find it soon after, we would face the tough decision of whether to go back and look for the CP or to continue forward. By 11:15 p.m., we all got seriously thrown off by one last tightening of the canyon, which appeared to be impassible. After much reconaissance, Starker and Luke found a way through that involved some Class V rock climbing. We got through and found exactly what we were looking for - flat and open land on each side of the river. We continued down for another 30 minutes and finally, saw some reflective tape far in the distance. Getting closer, we saw it was definitely the CP and we did some yelping and dancing in celebration.
We, of course, kept going, occasionally crossing the river or heading up one side or another to follow the path of least resistance down the canyon. The terrain was a combination of smooth and flat rocks interspersed with grasses and manzanita, with an occasional patch of pine or deciduous forest thrown in. We had a blast jumping across rocks or fallen trees to cross the river when we had to. We arrived at a boy scout’s camp by 7:30 p.m., where we found CP 12 at the camp’s entrance. We also rejoiced upon finding a spigot with fresh water, doing a little water dance and stopping for a snack break. As it was getting dark, Kate and Cliff planned a strategy out for CP 13, which we had been told was the most important CP of the race, because if we missed it, we could continue down the canyon for a long, long way without any noticeable catching feature or road out. We also knew we would be hitting it in the dark, so took a good long look at the map and made an estimate of what we would hit and when. Continuing down the canyon, we eventually reached a choke point that required a scramble up a steep rock face, then an equally steep descent. These up and downs went on for several hours, with each one getting a little more choked up with manzanitas. Luke turned on his light at 8 p.m., followed by Kate and Cliff, but Starker inexplicably held out until long after dark, claiming he wanted to ‘save his batteries.’ For what? Until his ankle was broken? … Speaking of which, at one point while leading the way, Cliff was pushing his way through a thick manzanitas grove and put his foot down on nothing but air. His momentum led him further in and he ended up breaking through the ground cover and free-falling for 10 feet. How he didn’t hurt himself was a miracle, though landing on yet more manzanitas bushes definitely helped. By 11 p.m., Kate was getting convinced we were close to the CP, so we started making a serious effort to hug the riverside so as not to miss it. Luke thought this was ridiculous as the going was a lot smoother further up the riverbank, but Kate and Cliff wanted to be super-sure we didn’t miss it, because then if we didn’t find it soon after, we would face the tough decision of whether to go back and look for the CP or to continue forward. By 11:15 p.m., we all got seriously thrown off by one last tightening of the canyon, which appeared to be impassible. After much reconaissance, Starker and Luke found a way through that involved some Class V rock climbing. We got through and found exactly what we were looking for - flat and open land on each side of the river. We continued down for another 30 minutes and finally, saw some reflective tape far in the distance. Getting closer, we saw it was definitely the CP and we did some yelping and dancing in celebration.
Luke staying limber with some power yoga during our TA stop at approximately 1 a.m. (Cliff White photo)
The good times didn’t last long, however, as after we punched, we faced a 1,200 foot climb out of the canyon to TA3, where our bikes awaited. Luke found the cairns marking the trail but then it petered out. We puttered around for about 10 minutes looking for it, and finally found it in a direction we didn’t think it went. Kate and Cliff, who had spent the last two months climbing mountains in Europe and out West, flew up the trail but flatlanders Luke and Starker had a little more trouble (it didn’t help that we had been going steadily now for 18 hours). A long, long hike later, we arrived at the TA at around 1:15 am, our joyous whoops waking up the two catnapping volunteers. We tore into our gear box and started wolfing down apples, Pringles, Cheetos, cold pizza Luke had packed, and anything else that looked appetizing. We also refilled all our bladders and bottles, threw a bunch more food in our packs, and Luke even did a little power yoga to keep limber. Our transition time was slow - 35 minutes - but we justified this by the fact that it was really our only transition of the entire race. We learned that NorCal was about 45 minutes ahead of us and also learned no team was close behind.
Our 4 a.m. photo. Note to future selves: do not take photos of the team at 4 a.m. (Cliff White photo)
The first mile of the bike ride was a hike-a-bike bushwhack to a jeep trail at the top of a ridge, and it didn’t help that our muscles had just gotten very cold in the TA just after a long uphill hike. We also had to go over a barbed-wire fence. At the top, we found CP 15 (CP 14 was at the TA), and Kate discovered her front brake was completely jammed. She had a little freak-out as she had just had her brakes fixed the day before following their complete breakdown (a pun! haha) during Teton Ogre. Fortunately, it turned out to be an easy fix, the result of a crookedly inserted front tire, and we got underway after only a five-minute delay. Finally arriving at the road, we discovered it was barely rideable. We had an option to do another .5 mile off-road descent to what looked like a nicer road, but it was clear the race directors wanted us on the ridge, and we ultimately decided to do what they had planned for us. The road was a slog, involving very slow, brake-destroying descents over loose gravel and the occasional boulder pile, and then steep, unrideable uphills with very bad footing. That lasted about six miles until CP 16, where we reached a gravel road that was a vast improvement over what we had been on. CP 17 was only three miles away and on the way, we passed a white truck embossed with a Gold Rush emblem where we found RD Mark snoozing. We woke him up with our bright headlights and posed for a picture. The time stamp shows it was a little past 4 a.m. We made a right onto another sketchy road and a couple of miles later stopped at where CP 17 should have been, but for the first time all race, there was no flag. There was a pole marking an intersection, and we found that the clue in the race book was actually asking us to record what was written on the pole, so we complied, but it still felt weird not punching anything. We eventually decided we had gotten it right, and continued on our way.
At this point, we were all doing some head-nodding, but the first light of dawn helped wake us up. Getting back on a smooth road, we headed towards CP 18, which was at least 500’ lower in elevation from where we were. We roared down some beautiful clay and gravel roads and reached the place where CP 18 was supposed to be riding a big high from the awesome biking after many miles of slow grinding and exhausting hiking. Once again, there was no punch, just instructions to take a picture or describe the bridge crossing, which was actually just a bunch of gravel in a shallow patch of river. But Starker looked around and took a few photos of some cement pylons he found a little downstream while we all snacked and mentally prepared ourselves to climb another 1,000’ we had descended into. It took us 45 minutes to hike out of there and Luke was none too happy about it. By the time we arrived at the top, it was fully light. We decided to skip optional points 18A,18C and 18D but get the easiest of them, 18B, which was just an extra two miles of biking on relatively flat terrain. We had already skipped 15A and 15B because they were very far away and we didn’t want to put ourselves in too deep of a hole. We figured getting one bonus point would help us top anyone who might sneak by us in the later stages of the bike leg. We nabbed 18B and then continued down a decently smooth dirt road for six more miles to CP 19, which was actually off the road but barely visible from above. The rest of the team wondered what Cliff was doing skidding to a stop on the downhill but he had spotted it while riding down and ran up to tag it, finding RD Mark checking in on our progress at the CP. He told us we had fallen a couple of hours back of the first-place team but that we had a big lead over the third-place team. We got cheered up over that news and headed down, hitting CP 20 at a trail intersection at the bottom of the descent. CP 21 was just another mile down the road and then we faced the decision of riding the Arnold Rim Trail and picking up optional points 22A, 22B and 22C or bypassing them and just sneaking in to grab the mandatory 22, which was on the trail but accessible via an easier-looking side trail. Upon hearing about the possibility of doing additional racing for negligibly valuable optional CPs, Luke had a bit of a meltdown but Starker and Kate quickly intervened and tensions were eased. We decided to check out the first part of the ART and found it beautiful and smooth but very up-and-down, and after some slow riding, we finally arrived at 22 and decided to bail off the trail and head to the finish. This was when Starker really started struggling due to lack of nutrition. Due to poor communication, he thought we were a lot closer to the finish than we actually were and had stopped eating and was out of water, so not drinking either. We took a five-minute break to get some food in him (he responded well to Fritos and potato chips), and the color quickly returned to his face.
At this point, we were all doing some head-nodding, but the first light of dawn helped wake us up. Getting back on a smooth road, we headed towards CP 18, which was at least 500’ lower in elevation from where we were. We roared down some beautiful clay and gravel roads and reached the place where CP 18 was supposed to be riding a big high from the awesome biking after many miles of slow grinding and exhausting hiking. Once again, there was no punch, just instructions to take a picture or describe the bridge crossing, which was actually just a bunch of gravel in a shallow patch of river. But Starker looked around and took a few photos of some cement pylons he found a little downstream while we all snacked and mentally prepared ourselves to climb another 1,000’ we had descended into. It took us 45 minutes to hike out of there and Luke was none too happy about it. By the time we arrived at the top, it was fully light. We decided to skip optional points 18A,18C and 18D but get the easiest of them, 18B, which was just an extra two miles of biking on relatively flat terrain. We had already skipped 15A and 15B because they were very far away and we didn’t want to put ourselves in too deep of a hole. We figured getting one bonus point would help us top anyone who might sneak by us in the later stages of the bike leg. We nabbed 18B and then continued down a decently smooth dirt road for six more miles to CP 19, which was actually off the road but barely visible from above. The rest of the team wondered what Cliff was doing skidding to a stop on the downhill but he had spotted it while riding down and ran up to tag it, finding RD Mark checking in on our progress at the CP. He told us we had fallen a couple of hours back of the first-place team but that we had a big lead over the third-place team. We got cheered up over that news and headed down, hitting CP 20 at a trail intersection at the bottom of the descent. CP 21 was just another mile down the road and then we faced the decision of riding the Arnold Rim Trail and picking up optional points 22A, 22B and 22C or bypassing them and just sneaking in to grab the mandatory 22, which was on the trail but accessible via an easier-looking side trail. Upon hearing about the possibility of doing additional racing for negligibly valuable optional CPs, Luke had a bit of a meltdown but Starker and Kate quickly intervened and tensions were eased. We decided to check out the first part of the ART and found it beautiful and smooth but very up-and-down, and after some slow riding, we finally arrived at 22 and decided to bail off the trail and head to the finish. This was when Starker really started struggling due to lack of nutrition. Due to poor communication, he thought we were a lot closer to the finish than we actually were and had stopped eating and was out of water, so not drinking either. We took a five-minute break to get some food in him (he responded well to Fritos and potato chips), and the color quickly returned to his face.
In the meantime, what we thought was an easy escape to the finish turned out to be a steady half-mile uphill slog. It was also starting to get very hot out. To make matters worse, it was now 11 a.m., meaning our big time cushion had dwindled down to less than 2 hours until cutoff. The pressure of getting his family safely out of the woods and done with the race was too great, and Cliff relented and gave Kate the maps to steer us home. She did so with aplomb, guiding us up a few more hills, then down a dirt road that turned to asphalt for the final three miles into the finish, which was just one last CP. The actual finish was another two-mile ride away, and we rolled under the Gold Rush finish line banner to applause and the overwhelmingly appealing smells of grill smoke. We chowed down on veggie burgers and chugged hoppy California beers while waiting for the last of the teams to roll in. The awards ceremony took place a little after 1 p.m., and we proudly collected our second place overall mugs. NorCal took home first place, but our two teams were the only ones to get every mandatory checkpoint, which felt pretty cool. Having made practically zero navigation mistakes, we had at last achieved our goal of having the mistake-free race, and it felt great.
Receiving our second place finishers' mugs from RDs Adrian Crane and Mark Richardson. We also got two free pairs of Salomon shoes! (race photo)
