DART Team Members Produce Trioba Sprint Race

 

As the sun parted the morning fog over the Chehalis River valley, racers rose from their tents and began preparing their gear for the adventure that lay ahead. Adventure racing descended upon this town like nothing residents had ever seen before. 22 teams comprising 65 racers, 15 volunteers, and many staff, friends and families had assembled on this beautiful morning for what promised to be one of the best Trioba races on record. The weather cooperated, river levels were running high and everyone was in place for what would prove to be a fun, competitive, safe and low impact race in Capitol Forest.

 

The race began at the Blank Hills Wranglers Rodeo Grounds as racers were led out on foot by a mounted color guard. They ran to the river put in where they got in their boats and paddled 10 miles down the Chehalis River. As racers finished their paddle in the town of Porter, home of the oldest tavern in Washington State, they mounted their bikes for the climb high into the Black Hills. Their route took them on the classic Mima/Porter #8 trail. This trail is 10 miles of some of the best single track riding in Washington.

 

When they arrived at the transition area, they were given their trekking maps and set off on a 10 mile trek through the forest using roads, trails and bushwhacking their way through the course. When they arrived back at the TA, they were presented with their national trails day task. Each team was required to pack one bucket of gravel up to a trail repair project that Trioba was sponsoring.

 

 

 

Racers then made their way back to Oakville through a maze of roads and trails with the first finishers arriving in 6 and ½ hours and the last finishers in 12 hours. As they arrived at the finish, teams presented their tally of spent shot gun shells and cans. At the beginning of the race, teams were given garbage bags at told that they would get a 5 second time credit for each shell brought in and a 30 second credit for each can. At the end of the day, teams collected over 900 shells and over 200 cans.

 

 

 

More pictures can be found here:

 

 

The race was a success based on the following measures.

 

We practiced and advocated leave no trace ethics.

Racers rebuilt a trail during the race

Racer collected 929 spent shot gun shells and 229 empty cans

The course was designed to minimize the effects on the environment

Recycling bins were used and we thank Clif for providing signs for these bins

We provided teams with green reusable shopping bags for their swag instead of plastic bags

 

We are looking forward to our 24-30 hour race in August.