2600 Divided By 9

Just a Map and Water--No Other Provisions

How much adventure can nine 12-year-olds have in 2600 acres of woodlands?  Well, we found out on Sunday at our first ever Adventure Race Birthday Party in Ridley Creek State Park.


The trash talking started early when we split the boys into teams of three.  But talk is cheap.  The course would separate the contenders from the pretenders and the whiners from the winners—trust me, there's gonna be some whining before this is all over.

Using only a map, the boys navigated to various checkpoints hidden in the woods.  A shadow, (i.e. an adult) followed each team, because sending 12-year old maniacs into 2600 acres of woods unchaperoned might not be the smartest thing to do.   The course included more checkpoints than the teams could reach in time, so route choice became an important part of the race strategy.  And half the checkpoints included challenges that the boys had to complete before getting credit for the checkpoint.  However, the map didn't show which checkpoints had challenges..

 

Ever confident, all of the teams plotted unrealistic plans—it always looks easier on paper than in the woods.

We spaced apart the teams with a short prologue so they didn't just follow each other through the woods.  Each team had to untie their shoes and then as a group re-tie all of the shoelaces while each person had one hand behind his back.  The teams that worked together finished first and headed off.  As a course setter, I was happy to see the first two teams head off in opposite directions.

Not exactly a team effort

The first team, a.k.a. Ditch Dave headed down to the river to reach the checkpoints on the east side.  The second team (a.k.a. Snickers) headed southwest for the checkpoints to the south. When my team (a.k.a. J&J) finished the prologue and headed to the river behind Ditch Dave, I knew we wouldn't see Snickers until the end of the race.

Bridge Out

Ditch Dave and J&J easily navigated to the river and found the first checkpoint—a log across Ridley Creek—the creek, not the park.  Since the only bridges were way upstream and way downstream, this was the only crossing point.  The creek ran high and the water was cold--no one wanted to make an early splash.

Ditch Dave took forever to cross, allowing J&J to catch up after finishing last in the prologue.  Drew from J&J slipped and dunked his foot in the creek, but otherwise all six racers and both Shadows survived the first challenge without incident.  Both teams then found the second checkpoint and climbed up a 10 foot rock face to complete their second challenge.  Ditch Dave kept their lead, with J&J nipping on their heels.

J&J easily navigated the long uphill trek to their third checkpoint—the highest point value on the course.  When they arrived, Ditch Dave was no where to be found.  Hmmm...are they ahead or behind?

The checkpoint was littered with hundreds of logs and branches left from a “log cabin” fort that used to be here.  The challenge required the boys to build supports for a limbo bar using only the logs and natural materials in the area.  J&J made quick work of the challenge using a clever and quickly assembled cantilever design in a small tree.  I hadn't considered such a design when I devised the challenge, so they completed much quicker than I had expected.  Unfortunately, Ditch Dave arrived just in time to see J&J's design before they could disassemble it. 

After quick work at the challenge, Ditch Dave leapfrogged J&J en route to their fourth checkpoint—a massive 12 foot boulder split in two with a narrow alley in between.  Each team had to hoist a team mate up to read a letter written in chalk on top of the lower half of the rock.  Ditch Dave finished first and headed off trail down to re-cross the creek.  Navigational errors cost each team, but Ditch Dave arrived at the tree crossing first, once again forcing J&J to wait.  But J&J would have the last laugh—literally.

Fortunately No Splinters

Johnny from Ditch Dave made a tactical error.  At the riverbank, the tree angled downwardly to the water making a precarious downhill balance beam 3 or 4 feet over the water.  Johnny's decision to bear hug the tree and slide downward seemed like a slow but safe option.  Slow yes, but safe . . . not so much.

Halfway down it became obvious there was a problem.  At first we thought he stopped simply from fear.  But when he said he was stuck—he meant, literally.  Sure enough his pants snagged on the tree.  And we're not talking about a run of the mill snag.  This was a pants in a bear trap kind of snag.  He couldn't go up; couldn't go down.  Worse yet, the location of the snag made things more...um...sensitive.

Now when I say worse, I mean for him.  If you know anything about 12-year-old-boys', you can imagine how funny it was for the rest of the boys.

Out of options, the only choice was to sit up and hope to minimize the tearing.  At first, the ripping sounded louder than the tear looked.  Just a small tear.  But when he turned around we realized the extent of the “wardrobe malfunction”.  Yeah that's gonna require a pit stop.

The final insult: after all that he lost his balance and fell into the water.

That was too much for J&J.  They nearly hurt themselves laughing so hard.  But the guffaws turned silent when they realized it was their turn to cross. Fortunately, J&J stayed high and dry and headed off to find a last checkpoint or two before running out of time.  As J&J headed south, Ditch Dave headed uphill for a quick wardrobe change.

Jake easily guided J&J to a small cave using the special photo clue, and the team collected the surprise bonus—three king-sized candy bars.  A quick run off trail to a final checkpoint in the ruins of a house from the 1700s, then J&J headed back before the cut-off time.

We had 15 minutes left when J&J got back to the finish area and no one else was around.  Time for one last adventure.  No points.  Just fun.  And we had to be back by 4:15 to make sure the other teams weren't late—yes there were draconian time penalties.  J&J hopped into the van so we could quickly get to the George of the Jungle checkpoint.  En route we picked up Ditch Dave returning from two checkpoints after they split away for the wardrobe change.  Always prepared, Dave had scrubs that Johnny changed into—baggy and a bit long, but much less crotch ventilation.

Just After Lift-off

The aptly named George of the Jungle challenge was one of my last, but favorite discoveries during course planning.  A vine hanging from a hillside tree provided the perfect swing out over the creek.  The pictures say it all.

Snickers Holding the Vine at the Top of George

Out Over the Tips

Everyone had a chance (or two or three) to imitate George, then we loaded up to get back to the finish.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we watched team Snickers running to make it back on time—30 seconds to spare.  Now that is perfect timing.

Lower CP35

Team Snickers had taken a completely different route.  They first found the two checkpoints that Ditch Dave found last. From there, Snickers headed over to George of the Jungle, then grabbed the most precarious checkpoint on the course: checkpoint 35 .a.k.a. Walk the Plank-- a log walk that replaced the fear of falling into the river with the fear of falling 6-10' into sticker bushes (although in fairness, the tree trunk was much wider).  For some reason, every Snickers' team member decided to complete the challenge even though the rules only required one—that's a team committed to an adventure (or one that can't read directions).

Seriously, it Looks Way Higher When You're There

Snickers made a navigational mistake on the way to their final challenge—the water balloon catch. The challenge: toss water balloons back and forth using towels—like beach blanket bingo.  I wasn't sure it was even possible, but they did it.  Since the navigation mistake set them back, Snickers had to abandon the nearby checkpoint(s) and hoof it back to the finish before the deadline.

All totaled, each team found exactly 5 or 6 checkpoints, and although there was some overlap, each team's set of checkpoints was different.  And three of the checkpoints were not reached by any team—too bad; they were pretty good challenges.

Final Tally:

Snickers             checkpoints 11, 13, 25, 28, 35 = 112 points

Ditch Dave         checkpoints 11, 13, 17, 18, 21 and 38 = 118 points

J&J                      checkpoints 14, 15, 17, 18, 21 and 38 = 123 points

Back at the house, the boys celebrated with ice cream cake and junk food to restore their lost glycogen stores after all the running.  The winners got first dibs on picking from the prize table.  And seriously, what's wrong with kids today? No one from the first place team picked one of the Dairy Queen gift cards slated for the winners.  That's just insanity.

In a moment of weakness, Lynda agreed to buy Silly String for each of the boys. We let them loose in the front yard.  It all happened so fast, I didn't even get a picture.  But this is what it looks like after the first clean-up of a Silly String debacle.

A crazy end to a crazy day.