Howl at the Moon…a Rumble in the Jungle

By Mindy

Howl At the Moon “12 hour” adventure race

Oct 26, 2002

Jonathan Dickenson State Park, Jupiter, FL

This little adventure is designed to start at 4pm on Halloween Saturday and last about 12 hours. It’s supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to last 12 hours, it’s supposed to be fun; did I say that already? What it becomes is fitting for witches, goblins and ghouls…or maybe fools? For this race, it’s Carey, Nancy and myself. Paige is still recovering from a skiing accident in March. The scary stuff starts right away when we get our maps 45 minutes before the race instead of 2 hours prior as promised. We scramble to plot the checkpoints and discover that our beloved race director has miscalculated UTM coordinates by at least 200 meters. UTM’s or Universal Transverse Mercators are designed to be exact. You can locate anything to within 1 meter if used properly so it makes a difference if you plot your checkpoint on one side of a river and the actual location ends up being on the other side. Well it is supposed to be spooky so perhaps it’s intentional. No problem, we are flexible adventure racers, ready for anything.

The race starts at 4:15pm with a short bike to the entrance of Jonathan Dickinson Park in Jupiter Florida. We drop off our bikes and begin the trek/bushwhack to checkpoint 1. I waste no time drawing blood when an oak branch jumps out and slaps me across the nose, very cool. We are in long pants, long sleeved shirts and full-fingered leather gloves…and if that is not enough we are carrying a pumpkin as part of our mandatory gear. There is no good way to secure a pumpkin to your person when you are running, slogging, whacking your way through swamp and forest. It felt like I was carrying a little fat goblin on my back. We sweat, bleed and crash our way through the thicket and find ourselves in 5^th place at CP1! We almost forget to shout ‘trick or treat’ which is required at every checkpoint. Sometimes you get candy that you will turn in at the end of the race, sometimes you just get a goofy look from the checkpoint volunteer…we get the goofy look at other races too so we’re used to it. We run back to our bikes at CP2 and boogeyman to the next checkpoint. The only thing that stands between CP3 and us is a swamp. So, we say goodbye to our dry socks and plunge ahead. We carry, push and pull our bikes through shin high cypress knees and ankle deep muck. Thorn laced vines as thick as ropes wrap themselves around our bike pedals. The heat is stifling. One team is already struggling with dehydration and we are only 2 hours into the race. It takes an hour but we finally ooze out fairly intact and mount our bikes to head to CP3.

We stop at the transition area and fill up with water and food. Paige is waiting with a big smile and encouraging words. We leave our bikes and head to CP4 and the canoe for a short paddle. We arrive at CP5 at 6:46pm and haul our boat up the steep riverbank, leaving it in a pile with the others to begin our trek. All the teams are instructed to leave their pumpkins at the side of the trail. They squat like little guardians left to watch over our boats until we get back. It’s getting dark and we run to keep up with two other teams, strength in numbers you know. We all end up on the wrong trail for a few minutes but after finding the right trail, we run at a good pace arriving at CP6 at 8:18pm. Another bushwhack to CP7 then we head to CP8 where our GPS data is downloaded. All teams carried a 4-pound GPS tracking device throughout the race. This data was downloaded to a web site and placed on a map of the park so everyone could see how teams progressed. Nancy carried that little gremlin the entire race…she is such an animal. Back on our bikes for a trip to CP9, we got a little lost when we doubted ourselves and doubled back…twice. It probably cost us 30 minutes but there is a fine line between going fast and going right and it’s a constant balancing act between the two. We get to CP9 at 10:18pm, we are now officially past my bedtime. We bike on in the dark and meet up with that most insidious of creatures…sugar sand. This stuff permeates every nook and cranny of your body especially when you are wet with sweat. We have to walk our bikes in places but we make it to CP10 at 5 minutes till midnight. Along the way we see a beautiful orange moon rising in the east. It’s that kind of very special view that makes adventure racers keep coming back for more.

We sprint to the next CP where a volunscare, points to a rather tame looking part of the trail marked by a lantern. ‘Bushwhack west with your bikes to an old dirt trail’, he says. Seems simple enough, it’s about 4/10 of a mile, how hard can that be right? We creep into the scrub and start hacking our way west. It is bad. Maybe, it was a ghost giving us these directions. We can’t see any evidence that people have been through here, not even an animal trail. Note to self: if an animal does not see a reason to be here… We hear other teams, at least I think it’s other teams, but can’t see anything through the thicket. We all keep shouting out ‘has anyone found a better way’? Negative on that ghost rider. It takes us 45 minutes to force our way through to the ‘trail’. We head up to the unmanned checkpoint but the bushwhack has taken its toll and we have to slow down to recover. We get to CP12 at 2:15am where the ever-vigilant Paige is waiting for us. We load up again on food and water and start our trek back to the pumpkin guarded trail and our canoe. We arrive at CP lucky 13 at 3:51am…the bars closed an hour ago but we are still partying out here with Jack-O and our canoe. By now many teams have dropped out as evidenced by all the orphaned pumpkins out here. We grab our little buddy and paddle on. We paddle upstream 12 miles on a twisting, turning river. We have to get out several times to pull our canoe over fallen trees. We arrive at CP14, an unmanned checkpoint where we sign in and use our cell phone to check in…hi honey we’re almost home. Now it’s just a downstream paddle to the finish. On the paddle back I start getting very sleepy. There is nothing like the soft slapping sound of water against the boat to lull you in to la-la land. Nancy starts talking to us to keep us awake. She tells me that if we round the next corner, take the hairpin turn left followed by a short hairpin turn right we will practically be there. I start paddling harder imagining the end is just around that next corner. 45 minutes later we really do see the end. We’ve been in the canoe for 5 ½ hours and it feels good to stand up. Now it’s just a short hike to the finish and Paige is there to escort us the last ¼ mile. We Crew Zen at 9:18am Sunday morning, a 17-hour adventure. 63 teams started and only 28 finished. We are proud of our effort and have earned the right to howl at the moon…or in our case…both the moon and the sun.