Efix (The good, the bad and the ugly)

I’ve already posted about the bad and the ugly aspects of the race. Some questionable checkpoints maintained as “mandatory” resulting in DQ’s for a good chunk of the field despite some obvious flaws in locations.

However, there was some really good stuff at this race.


For the record, I like navigating across a variety of map types, map scales and maps with less than perfect accuracy on trail detail and road labeling. It keeps you challenged mentally. Sharp and focused on the terrain is the only way around a course under those circumstances. What I don’t like is when advantageous unmapped features don’t present themselves as a first option in the field. As in the route to CP5. Nor am I big on points that are well off the marked feature being maintained as mandatory. But I'm digressing back to the bad and the ugly. And I think the key is that the community, working together, will take some positive steps as a result.

The good stuff:

Efix started with guided eight-man rafting down a stretch of the New River. Teams were assigned to rafts through a random drawing. Cool for us, we were paired up with long time racers Scott Pleban, Pete Spagnoli, Julia Pollock and Joe Moersbacher racing as ATP/Pura Vida Adventures. Generally the social hour is at the end of the race when everybody is good and hammered. But we had a fun hour of paddling hard under the guidance of our river runner Chris and getting to BS and whoop it up a bit through a couple class V rapids and some easier warmups. Rafts were launched in three waves of four boats. We had drawn wave three which would later entitle us to a ten minute time credit.

At the end of the rafts we picked up our canoes for a very short paddle followed by a substantially longer portage up out of the gorge. Seriously, we paddled 40 minutes and then portaged for 60 minutes. The portage was a known factor before the race so most folks had some sort of wheelset. However, the rush of racing in a pack led to some lousy initial attachments and there were canoes sliding off their carts all over the road out of the gorge. Did I say road? We were supposed to take a trail. After a few minutes of heading up the road the first two waves of racers were headed back down the hill straight towards us. Fortunately my crappy first attempt at strapping on the wheels had minimized our progress and allowed us to backtrack only a short distance to the trailhead on the opposite side of the creek from the side that the road travelled. Our third wave placement in the rafts had paid off with a time credit and the ability to benefit from an early mass error by the field. Good stuff. :)

After all that fun and excitement we transitioned to bikes for the first of three long rides. We left the town of Ansted for a tour of some country roads and a couple checkpoints before a transition to foot in the village of Winona. The navigation to CP4 was kind of typical of West Virginia. You pass through named places such as Victor and Lucas but with little or no housing and little distinction between what is a road and what is a driveway it can be tricky stuff. But overall it was relatively easy to pick out the major turns. Somewhere along the ride we caught up to NYARA stalwarts Rodney Villella and Amy Bartoletti of Team HYPE. We shared some banter and Rodney and I kept each other honest on the nav. The biggest question of the night was whether the 1:53,000 UTM I had plotted using a brain math adjustment on a 1:50,000 plotter was up on a cliff or down by a river. Since it was a rail trail I decided "down by the river" when we reached the final "Left or Right" choice. We rolled down the hill and into CP4 and then headed out on the rail trail towards CP5.

HYPE fell back a bit as Bruce cranked the pace up but eventually we had company again as MOAT rolled up behind us just in time for the race breaking decision. Our instruction set from CP4 to CP5 was "Bike to CP5". Below you can see the map section we travelled. Given that instruction I thought the logical route was to use the rail trail until we reached 219 and then use that short section of road to reach Miller Ridge Road, turn onto that and then ride until we reached the short bushwhack to CP5. (It turned out Miller Ridge Road didn't continue across 219 but the next road down, Arrowood Creek Road, did). I thought this and a whole bunch of other folks did too. Below you can see the map from CP4 to CP5 with my initial route plan in Red arrows, the actual route plan in Black arrows when we realized there was a rail trail at CP4 and finally a set of Blue arrows showing the unmarked segment of rail trail we were supposed to find. The map is shown in two segments, north and south, they overlap a bit but look for the words "New Haven" in the lower middle of the first map to help see the connection.










I'm also pretty darn sure the crowd made its to the exact point on the map that was provided as a UTM and there was not a CP flag. There were too many cross-reference points available (Farm, Pond, Powerline intersections, waterfalls, etc...) to be wrong. So, we decided the point was somehow misplaced and executed our judgement to move on. In a decade of racing I think I've done that twice. So, really, there isn't a huge problem with course setting. I've also found a few more points that were misplaced, including one real doozy at Odyssey's MegaDose in 2004 (First CP of the race). So it didn't seem like a decision that was completely baseless. A rarity considering I've found thousands of CPs and maybe would contend a dozen or so were out of place but it felt right for CP5.

We moved along, reached the community of Divide and even started to circle back for one more attempt after having positively established our whereabouts but in the end wee decided that we had searched for a good four hours to no avail and with no water in the bladders we went on to Winona. Ronny was there, heard our protest and suggested we race on. But I could tell that the "some folks found it" was probably going to win the argument bad UTM or not. It took some time on the ensuing trek to get my attitude re-adjusted. Initially I wanted to finish out a few more sections for training and then bail. But after a few hours and a little encouragement from the team I blocked out the negative thoughts and focused on cleaning the remainder.

We trekked to the rappel site at Ram's Head rock with one small bobble. We missed a left turn but quickly corrected it by scrambling up a short steep section. Jeremy and I had visited this rappel site at the 2005 edition of Efix but had approached from the opposite direction. After the rappel we trekked (better described as boulder scrambling at times) along the Endless Wall until reaching the Miner's ladder up to the canyon rim trail. Just before reaching the ladder we caught up to a team that then proceeded to turn around and head back (perhaps thinking they had missed the ladder?). But around the next corner was a huge rentrant that stood out on the map just before reaching the ladder. When we reached the ladder ATP/Pura Vida was coming down the ladder to punch CP8. They had passed by the ladder, reached CP9 and had come all the way back to retrieve CP8. Back on top of the wall we shared a morning trail run with ATP on the smooth singletrack. They stopped to fill their bladders at a stream and we continued on. The trail came to a fork and we saw teams heading back and forth on both forks. Since the trail wasn't on the map it appeared a little exploration was required.

We tried the right fork and verified that in a short distance it ran into a road that was off limits. Turning back around we picked up the original left fork. We followed that until it dumped us into the backyard of a house. We poked around a bit. Spoke with some of the neighbors in the off chance that the trail did actually wind through their driveway. Folks were friendly enough but it was definitely LPS. Even rying to get them to verify the identity of the road outside their driveway (which I knew was the forbidden road) was painful and limited my interest in much else. Jeremy, standard to form, asked for a soda. Seriously, I think he's close to a case of free sodas received just by smiling and asking nicely while we're out racing. Try it sometime. You'll be stunned at how easy it is. :)

A little bushwhacking was the only answer to reach the end of the Endless Wall without stepping foot on Highway 82. We headed back into the woods and I quickly scored a deer trail that eventually worked its way to an intersection with a lower trail and hauled us straight to CP9. The volunteer congratulated us on navigating to his CP via trail. He noted that several teams had come from one direction or another along the "forbidden" road. I'm not naming names but you know who you are. ;)

From CP9 to CP10 it was just a couple miles straight forward. Which, in West Virginia, means straight down into a gorge and then straight up to the clifftops on the other side. We transitioned to bikes but had some fried chicken to refuel first (thanks Chad). We hit the ride pretty hard passing several teams along the way to the next TA. We reached the transition and ensuing 4.5 mile hike to the whitewater swim put in. We had a good cushion after riding hard so we ate and then walked to the river. As we dressed the time cutoff for the put in rapidly approached and seemingly out of nowhere teams started appearing. Racing with Giants, MOAT, Berlin Bike and a few others all set out on the swim with us with ten minutes to spare on the cutoff. The swim was a ton of fun. Air and water temps were just warm enough to complete the full distance without catching a chill. OK, a couple folks from places more southerly than Philly told me I was nuts and that the water was freezing. But it felt pretty good in comparison to something like the November river swim featured at Beast of the East in 2004. I remember finishing that one with barely enough sensation left in my extremities to stand up. I guess it's all relative (insert WV joke here).

The swim had been a round trip back to the prior TA. And so for good measure the ensuing trek headed back down the same road to the swim start. Nothing quite like trekking a five mile chunk of road twice in a 3-hour span. After the repeat we turned up hill instead of towards the river and worked our way to the ensuing 8 CP orienteering course. CP15 and CP22 were mandatory and the other 6 CPs were optional. The standings at the end of the race were going to be partially based on the number of optional points collected. The hardest part initially was just finding a way up onto the plateau that had most of the points. We tried to attack up a ridgeline and adjacent re-entrant that led to CP17. But at night it was brutal trying to pick a route through the overgrowth of mountain laurel. We bailed and found a steep but climbable pitch that eventually reached trails headed towards CP16. From there the next few points were easy but then we reached CP17 as being the next logical attack. From the top it was more of the same nightmare of overgrown mountain laurel. There must have been an easier way into the point. But at 2am there just isn't much in the way of sightline. We opted for a brief nap and upon waking up decided our time would be better spent cleaning the remaing optional points and getting to the next bike TA. "Knowing" we would be unofficial was a huge driver in this decision. We were out having fun and this looked like a crapfest at night. Here's a map of the Orienteering course:

We cleaned the remainder and reached CP22 just after first light and changed to biking gear. Our bikes had been dropped but it wasn't a full TA so there was no motivation, other than a free brownie from the volunteers, to loiter. We headed out for what appeared to be an easy trip to CR26 (Irish Mountain Road) and under or over Interstate 64. However, getting there was a bit harder in reality. The nice road on our map had been sealed off by a raised section of I64 and basically dead ended. If we wanted to go this way we'd have to cross 4 lanes of Interstate Highway traffic. Or, and I'm not naming any names, ride several miles along the shoulder of the Interstate Highway to the next exit. ;)

Hey, I64 wasn't listed as a forbidden road in the rules. I say GO FOR IT!

(Just Kidding.)

We chose to backtrack a bit and had a beautiful morning ride past several sets of sandstone waterfalls. After a stop at a country store for sodas we made our way to the character testing climb of the race up CR14 outside of Bellefonte, WV. Try this road sometime when it's 80 degrees and sunny. No shade and no end to the climbing....brutal. We spun through the day joined by Solosit Rafael Martinez and Feed the Machine (with snazzy kickstand on a borrowed local bike after their bike failed). The afternoon wore on and we were cheered heavily by the local postmaster (I kid not) who was having the time of his life driving up and down the roads to find teams to cheer and shout out clear travel instructions. It was highway riding and most of the turns were obvious. But he was having a blast and we didn't want to discourage him even though it was a bit spooky with him driving in the left lane down country highways in order to converse with us.

We reached the road up and over the mountain to CP26 around 4pm and it was evident that spring heat and humidity was quickly brewing up a late afternoon thunderstorm. It arrived just as we summitted and the dirt road disappeared under a pile of dead leaves. All it took was one lightning crackle to reach a fast executive decision....east and down...we'll find road when it's ready to be found. With that we hustled off the main ridge. We stopped briefly in a semi collapsed cabin to don rain gear but another crack and we new lower was better. We eventually found CP26 on the other side of the mountain. Enough has been said about how and where.

Anyhow, I'm running out of time to get something up before my next race: NYARA's The Longest Day.


I would say that the rest of the race was relatively eventless but it wasn't. The final night of riding featured one of my legendary lapses into uncontrollable sleepiness. And the following morning contained an awesome canoe and foot orienteering section, breakfast burritos from McDonalds, more mass confusion at CP38 and Bruce driving a field crushing pace for GOALS up one final mountain. (Think Lance Armstrong at Alpe d'Huez only on foot and, thankfully, without naked Dutchmen chasing us.) Nothing like working your ass off to basically get dibs on cold sandwiches, some really tasty potato soup and an Unofficial finish. :)


So here ya go...let's call this my race report (for now) maybe I'll come back and expound on some of that later.