With Kim and Leo injured and not able to
join Schlossy and myself for this event, we recruited Damon Georke and Kathryn
Preston from the now defunct and highly successful
Blackheart team.
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| #XPDAR Logistics Plan |
With so much experience in the team, we had
a very relaxed and organized planning stage.
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| Bikes packed and ready to go. |
We started with an 8km paddle to Magnetic Island where we traversed the coast for 30km completing snorkeling tasks along the way. The coasteering and rock scrambling were technical and the bush was thick. We thoroughly enjoyed picking our way through the maze of granite boulders that are strewn across the whole island.
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| CP 3 Snorkel |
We began the trek up to Paluma with Peak.
With smoke from a fire billowing out of one of the valleys that was one of the
route options for this leg, race officials instructed us to only use the other
route.
Now travelling with Peak and with a little
trepidation under the threat of fires in the area we couldn’t locate the track
up the hill so navigated up the spur were it was meant to be . After scrambling
through the under growth for half the climb the trail appeared and we soon
powered to the top and started the maze of trails uniquely marked by sundials.
This was a lush rainforest area with sweet mountain water to quench our thirst
and a full tree canopy blocking out another starry sky. Kathryn was nauseous
and was soon vomiting, to our surprise this did not slow her down, she switched
her energy source to Coke and kept tramping toward the next CP.
We rolled into the MTB TA 10 minutes behind
Peak ready to finally ride our bikes after 2 days and a night. Kathryn's
husband and son were at this TA and were also both sick so we now had to manage
a contagious illness. Temps were in the
single digits so we rugged up and headed off with our Ay-Up lights blazing the
way into the misty night. All was going well until we got a little turned
around trying to locate CP20 on a single track as the trails weren't marked on the
map as they appeared on the ground. We relocated back to the lake and then
located the CP after 3hrs. Temperatures were rising as we landed at the Next TA
for the Canyon Trek. Here we discovered Peak had forgotten their helmets and
would incur a penalty giving us the upper hand for the time being.
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| Hidden Valley - Running River Trek |
We found CP 21 in the gorge without trouble
and made the decision to go up and out of the gorge on a straight bearing
rather than down the gorge and out a creek line. CP22 proved troubling as the
contours in this area were not correctly marked. We lost another 3 hours and
daylight locating this CP . We now were navigating more conservatively and nailed
CP 23 and headed to Kim's swimming challenge CP in a beautiful lagoon section
of the canyon. We didn’t get to experience the beauty of this location as it
was dark and we were consumed by dread of a cold water swim on a cool night.
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| The Running River Gorge in daylight! |
We
got through quickly and kept moving toward CP25 in a creek junction. This area
also caused us problems so with dawn 2.5 hours away we slept. The CP was only
100 metres away. Nicely refreshed from sleep we hurried to the MTB TA to
discover we had been passed by Bivouac, Raidlight and Merrell. We paced-lined
on the bike passing all three teams to begin the Burdekin river paddle in 2nd
and with 8 hours of daylight.
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| Team MD's prepare for the paddle |
We were told this paddle would involve a
lot of dragging the boats as the water levels were very low. This paddle was a real highlight for me, I
enjoyed the ducking and weaving around low hanging trees and the abundance of
animal and bird life kept the interest to see what was around the next corner. The last 4 hours was very shallow and cold
so the finish of this leg was a relief. We huddled around the fire at this TA trying
to warm the body for the final push to Mid Camp and some much needed hot food
and sleep.
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| Gary at Mid Camp |
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| River Crossing |
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| The pub is tempting! |
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| Damon is on the Map |
Geocentric Outdoors Facebook Page Interview with Kathryn Preston
We got the first CP and headed into the
Maze carefully but had no luck, over shooting the location by 2km . Things were
starting to get a bit funky with a nudie run, some attempted dacking and some
tow rope whipping all in an attempt to stay awake. Out came the No-Doze and
bang we were back flying, locating a creek line which led us directly to the
Maze CP and then powering toward the canyon and hopefully some water. Our No- Doze induced clarity soon faded and
the long arm of the Maze reached out and dragged us back into the abyss.
Drifting east everything looked wrong, so back to sleep for 45 minutes and
dawn.
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| Kathryn starts with the map on this trek! |
Back on track now we had no further issues
getting the Canyon CP and some nice water. Barreling up the canyon from boulder
to boulder we only had one short stop to patch up a deep little cut. Up the spur to the next CP we came across a
box of heaven, the evil Bycroft had relented and left us all some Coke and Pringles.
We only had 13 hours of food for this leg and we had now been out for 20 hours
so this little bonanza was well received. This leg was now a classic Bycroft soul
destroyer, a leg of XPD which should be expected and eagerly anticipated. We rounded the dam indicating our spur line
and after 5 days of following the same 4 x sets of foot prints we finally had
virgin trail, we couldn’t believe it, not a foot print anywhere. We had a
little bet, with 3, for Peak had already finished and 1 for we were now
leading. We were 1st to sign into TA and our smiles and relief couldn’t have been bigger. We rested a little here as the heat and lack of food was taking its toll.
Geocentric Outdoors - Facebook Page Video - Team Mountain Designs Interview as they approach the final Transition Area
Geocentric Outdoors - Facebook Page Video - Team Mountain Designs Interview as they approach the final Transition Area
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| The turning point! |
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| Team MD's treks into the final TA |
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| Kathryn enjoys a well deserved drink |
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| Dave still can't believe they are leading |
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| Gary - smiles with relief |
We rolled out relaxed with an at times a
seemingly unlikely victory in the bag. The finish line greeted us and we were soon
on the lounges eating pizza, drinking champagne and regaling our journey to any
who would listen.
Big thanks to all our long suffering
families that keep all our affairs in order and support us while we chase
little orange and white flags through some of the most remote locations the
puppet master, Bycroft, can find.
Geocentric Outdoors Facebook Video - Team Mountain Designs crosses the finish line to win XPD Tropics 2015
Here is a link to the Geocentric Outdoors #XPDAR Report XPD Tropics - Day 6 Winners Finish
Here is a link to the write up in the Townsville Bulletin 12 August 2015 Team Mountain Designs Defends Title in XPD Adventure Race
Team Mountain Designs would like to finally thank our team sponsors as without your underlying support, opportunities like these do not eventuate.
Mountain Designs
Ay Up Lighting Systems
Flight Centre Active Travel
Hoka Footwear
Tri Adventure
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| The final ride to the finish |
Geocentric Outdoors Facebook Video - Team Mountain Designs crosses the finish line to win XPD Tropics 2015
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| Team Mountain Designs #XPDAR |
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| Enjoying the Champagne. |
Here is a link to the write up in the Townsville Bulletin 12 August 2015 Team Mountain Designs Defends Title in XPD Adventure Race
Team Mountain Designs would like to finally thank our team sponsors as without your underlying support, opportunities like these do not eventuate.
