2013 MILWAUKEE AREA FALL FRENZY (MAFF) AR
The 8-hour Milwaukee Area Fall Frenzy (MAFF) was the last race of the year in Wisconsin, and the last race of our 2013 season. A little background: a month before the race, Cliff had attended a conference near Lapham Peak and afterwards, had explored the park and its trails on a long trail run. So, by chance, he felt like he had a bit of hometown knowledge that might help. We had also a much better idea of what we were getting into re: adventure racing, and had finally found a bit of a groove at Thunder Rolls with our navigation, giving us confidence we could have a good showing at MAFF. Given that each of the past races hadn’t involved any mountain biking at all, and that the race website specifically allowed hybrid bikes (with a time penalty), Kate opted against renting the crappy mountain bike that she had ridden in the previous three races and instead chose to ride her fun but very skinny-wheeled commuter bike. This turned out to be a terrible mistake.
We woke up before 5 a.m. and after a coffee stop at a gas station on the way, arrived at the race start by 6 a.m. For 45 minutes, Kate and Cliff plotted while Starker got the bikes prepared and inspected. The early November race date meant chilly temperatures we hadn’t raced in since Stubborn Fool, and had us dressed warmly. Pretty soon, the race got started with a silly activity called golfcer, where we kicked a golf ball around a ¼ mile trail. Following that activity, we ran uphill for a mile of paved roads to the Lapham Peak tower, where we climbed the stairs to the top, punched the CP, and got our picture taken. Having taken our time on the uphill run, we were towards the back of the pack at this point. We then returned to the start line, retrieved our bikes, and headed out on a six-mile loop trail that Cliff swore he remembered was paved. It was not, and recent wet weather had reduced the trails to a goopy mess that had already been pretty nicely torn up by previous racers by the time we got to it. The going was very slow. By the time we had finished the loop, we were either in dead last place, or pretty close to it.
Happy to finally be on paved roads, we accelerated and cruised the eight additional miles into the canoe transition, passing a few slower teams along the way. Kate studied the map while Starker and Cliff got the canoe ready, and we made a quick transition. The seven canoe CPs were scattered around Upper and Lower Nemhabin Lake, and we made a strategic decision right off the bat to just get the mandatory four points, as canoeing is typically the slowest discipline and we needed to make up lost time. We picked up our first CP soon after we passed underneath I-94 (it was pretty cool to paddle under a major highway), then turned north to get two more. As we started paddling, we saw a bunch of teams gathered at the far end of the lake, perhaps looking to portage into the northern section of the lake, where a couple of the further-off CPs were located. Squinting at the map, Kate called for a more westerly course, and her eagle eyes picked up a small rivulet of a stream about a 10-minute paddle from the north end of the lake. The water got shallow enough that Cliff and Starker had to jump out and push, but we got through, nabbed a second CP, then came back through the same tight squeeze back into the main lake, grabbed our third CP, and headed back to the fourth CP on the far side of the island in the southern part of the lake, near the TA. Even though we skipped three CPs, we rated this section highly successful as we had hit every point spot-on, which at this point in our adventure racing escapades was unusual for us.
Back at the TA, we transitioned backed to our bikes and headed south 10 miles to the Ottawa Lake Recreation Area, another area Cliff was familiar with after doing an orienteering meet here in the spring. Along the way, top teams Rib Mountain and then Elkbones passed us, which was pretty fun, as it made us feel like we were in the middle of the race for first, at least for a moment. We arrived and got an aerial map, something we had never dealt with before. It was marked with 11 CPs, of which five were mandatory. We took five minutes here to eat some Halloween candy and devise a strategy, then took off for CP 1, which was easy to find as it was near a park road. The second CP was harder to find, as it was up on a hill and the vegetation getting there was thick. We used a compass bearing to get us nearby, then spread out with a couple of other teams who happened to be in the area and finally found it a bit north of where we were looking, but with no major time lost. The third CP was a long way off, but we took a compass bearing towards it and started pace counting (a trick we had learned online and honed to perfection in Starker’s batcave). After a 15-minute walk through all kinds of brush, we came right upon the CP in the middle of the woods...An amazing feeling of pride and accomplishment washed over us for having finally mastered the art of orienteering!
Jubilant, we set a bearing for the next point, which was oddly marked on the map as “hanging on a house.” We took a trail for a while, which ultimately may have led us too far south, then noticed a housing development to our north, but through some very thick bamboo-like foliage. Completely off the compass bearing, we finally just headed straight for the nearest house, which looked pretty fancy. We knew we probably shouldn’t trespass, but the clue did say it was hung on a house, so Cliff checked it out for a while before Kate wisely steered him to the next house to the east, where two teams were waiting in line to go up on a deck and punch a very visible orange flag. Oops! For CP 5, we headed to the edge of a field, followed it until it made a 90-degree turn, and headed into the woods, expecting to see the flag. We saw nothing. We futzed around for 10 or so minutes, having serious trouble triangulating. We then got very lucky, as a team went by us and let us know that the flag was in the field we had just come from. Bizarrely, we had searched the area, but somehow missed the flag. Either way, we got the point, then headed back to the TA and, on the way, picked up our last CP near a 90-degree turn in the main park road. Back on the bikes we rode back to the start/finish line, taking a rails-to-trails path for part of the way. (It should be noted that our bike rides were frequently halted by Cliff’s need to stop to check his directions on the map case he had around his neck, with longer stops necessary to change the maps around inside the case. In the offseason, the team invested in a map holster which significantly cut down in this forced stoppage time).
We arrived at the TA to find that three “special challenges” awaited us: a log-ski, where we had our feet on two logs and had to move our legs simultaneously while lifting with our hands to push the log forward; a lay-the-plank-down-and-follow-it-without-falling-off challenge; and a wheelbarrow challenge. We also received a Sudoku puzzle which we pointedly ignored (Kate and Cliff have an utter and absolute hatred of Sudoku). We finished two of the challenges off pretty quickly before realizing that the maximum time penalty was 10 minutes per challenge. After Cliff wheeled Starker around the ¼ mile loop, nearly killing himself with the effort, the team decided it was smarter to just rest and eat snacks for the five minutes left on the required minimum time on the activity.
After the challenges, we got our final map and realized that we had a monster orienteering section ahead of us - 18 points total. With many teams just rolling into the TA, we were glad we had banked so much time by cutting the other sections short. With Kate as lead navigator, We headed out into the woods and quickly found the first six CPs located in various depressions, hillsides, nooks and crannies. One point in particular was memorable to Cliff as it was located in between the fork between two trails, in a small alcove inside a dense thicket of brambles. Kate had one minor slip-up where we searched the wrong side of a trail for 10 minutes, but we realized our mistake and then found the CP just as Elkbones found it heading the opposite way as us. Mike Prucha from Elk Bones said jokingly, “We’ll spot you that one,” as they passed us. It’s always fun to have interactions with other teams in the middle of the woods during orienteering sections; even more so when it’s a top team.
Heading out to one of the most remote points on the map, we found it easily, but then tried to steer on a 0 degree compass point to a trail directly north of us. However, what we should have done is aim off to the west, as we missed our trail and ended up wandering and additional ⅓ of a mile through the woods, until we started getting worried and headed directly west, ending up on a trail but completely discombobulated as to where we where. Fortunately, Cliff spotted a sign with a trail map on it, and that got us reestablished on the map. However, we were now running very short on time. Still a little frazzled, we ran past where a CP was hiding, then realized we could nab it easily and headed back through a field and some evergreens, with Kate spotting it after only about a 10-second search. Running down a dirt trail back to the TA, Kate took the team on a short side-route past where another CP should have been, but a 10-minute search revealed nothing. As we were about to admit defeat, Cliff looked at the map one last time, exclaimed, “i know where that thing is!” ran back off into the woods behind us and came back a 30 seconds later with the punch in hand. The team hustled back to the TA, where one more point was in definite reach, but after a short, frenzied search, we realized we were out of time and ran back to the finish line. We finished with less than two minutes to spare in the eight-hour time limit - quite a stressful experience after having missed the cutoff at Thunder Rolls!
Notwithstanding the beginner blunders, overall, we were super happy with our race. We felt like we did relatively well on some difficult orienteering. And we had raced smart, using good strategic decisions to maximize our placing. When it was finally announced, we were thrilled to see that we had finished 12th overall and 6th in our division - our best result yet. A great way to end our first season of adventure racing! It left us happy but still hungry, knowing we had yet to meet our full potential and realizing we still could get much better.
We woke up before 5 a.m. and after a coffee stop at a gas station on the way, arrived at the race start by 6 a.m. For 45 minutes, Kate and Cliff plotted while Starker got the bikes prepared and inspected. The early November race date meant chilly temperatures we hadn’t raced in since Stubborn Fool, and had us dressed warmly. Pretty soon, the race got started with a silly activity called golfcer, where we kicked a golf ball around a ¼ mile trail. Following that activity, we ran uphill for a mile of paved roads to the Lapham Peak tower, where we climbed the stairs to the top, punched the CP, and got our picture taken. Having taken our time on the uphill run, we were towards the back of the pack at this point. We then returned to the start line, retrieved our bikes, and headed out on a six-mile loop trail that Cliff swore he remembered was paved. It was not, and recent wet weather had reduced the trails to a goopy mess that had already been pretty nicely torn up by previous racers by the time we got to it. The going was very slow. By the time we had finished the loop, we were either in dead last place, or pretty close to it.
Happy to finally be on paved roads, we accelerated and cruised the eight additional miles into the canoe transition, passing a few slower teams along the way. Kate studied the map while Starker and Cliff got the canoe ready, and we made a quick transition. The seven canoe CPs were scattered around Upper and Lower Nemhabin Lake, and we made a strategic decision right off the bat to just get the mandatory four points, as canoeing is typically the slowest discipline and we needed to make up lost time. We picked up our first CP soon after we passed underneath I-94 (it was pretty cool to paddle under a major highway), then turned north to get two more. As we started paddling, we saw a bunch of teams gathered at the far end of the lake, perhaps looking to portage into the northern section of the lake, where a couple of the further-off CPs were located. Squinting at the map, Kate called for a more westerly course, and her eagle eyes picked up a small rivulet of a stream about a 10-minute paddle from the north end of the lake. The water got shallow enough that Cliff and Starker had to jump out and push, but we got through, nabbed a second CP, then came back through the same tight squeeze back into the main lake, grabbed our third CP, and headed back to the fourth CP on the far side of the island in the southern part of the lake, near the TA. Even though we skipped three CPs, we rated this section highly successful as we had hit every point spot-on, which at this point in our adventure racing escapades was unusual for us.
Back at the TA, we transitioned backed to our bikes and headed south 10 miles to the Ottawa Lake Recreation Area, another area Cliff was familiar with after doing an orienteering meet here in the spring. Along the way, top teams Rib Mountain and then Elkbones passed us, which was pretty fun, as it made us feel like we were in the middle of the race for first, at least for a moment. We arrived and got an aerial map, something we had never dealt with before. It was marked with 11 CPs, of which five were mandatory. We took five minutes here to eat some Halloween candy and devise a strategy, then took off for CP 1, which was easy to find as it was near a park road. The second CP was harder to find, as it was up on a hill and the vegetation getting there was thick. We used a compass bearing to get us nearby, then spread out with a couple of other teams who happened to be in the area and finally found it a bit north of where we were looking, but with no major time lost. The third CP was a long way off, but we took a compass bearing towards it and started pace counting (a trick we had learned online and honed to perfection in Starker’s batcave). After a 15-minute walk through all kinds of brush, we came right upon the CP in the middle of the woods...An amazing feeling of pride and accomplishment washed over us for having finally mastered the art of orienteering!
Jubilant, we set a bearing for the next point, which was oddly marked on the map as “hanging on a house.” We took a trail for a while, which ultimately may have led us too far south, then noticed a housing development to our north, but through some very thick bamboo-like foliage. Completely off the compass bearing, we finally just headed straight for the nearest house, which looked pretty fancy. We knew we probably shouldn’t trespass, but the clue did say it was hung on a house, so Cliff checked it out for a while before Kate wisely steered him to the next house to the east, where two teams were waiting in line to go up on a deck and punch a very visible orange flag. Oops! For CP 5, we headed to the edge of a field, followed it until it made a 90-degree turn, and headed into the woods, expecting to see the flag. We saw nothing. We futzed around for 10 or so minutes, having serious trouble triangulating. We then got very lucky, as a team went by us and let us know that the flag was in the field we had just come from. Bizarrely, we had searched the area, but somehow missed the flag. Either way, we got the point, then headed back to the TA and, on the way, picked up our last CP near a 90-degree turn in the main park road. Back on the bikes we rode back to the start/finish line, taking a rails-to-trails path for part of the way. (It should be noted that our bike rides were frequently halted by Cliff’s need to stop to check his directions on the map case he had around his neck, with longer stops necessary to change the maps around inside the case. In the offseason, the team invested in a map holster which significantly cut down in this forced stoppage time).
We arrived at the TA to find that three “special challenges” awaited us: a log-ski, where we had our feet on two logs and had to move our legs simultaneously while lifting with our hands to push the log forward; a lay-the-plank-down-and-follow-it-without-falling-off challenge; and a wheelbarrow challenge. We also received a Sudoku puzzle which we pointedly ignored (Kate and Cliff have an utter and absolute hatred of Sudoku). We finished two of the challenges off pretty quickly before realizing that the maximum time penalty was 10 minutes per challenge. After Cliff wheeled Starker around the ¼ mile loop, nearly killing himself with the effort, the team decided it was smarter to just rest and eat snacks for the five minutes left on the required minimum time on the activity.
After the challenges, we got our final map and realized that we had a monster orienteering section ahead of us - 18 points total. With many teams just rolling into the TA, we were glad we had banked so much time by cutting the other sections short. With Kate as lead navigator, We headed out into the woods and quickly found the first six CPs located in various depressions, hillsides, nooks and crannies. One point in particular was memorable to Cliff as it was located in between the fork between two trails, in a small alcove inside a dense thicket of brambles. Kate had one minor slip-up where we searched the wrong side of a trail for 10 minutes, but we realized our mistake and then found the CP just as Elkbones found it heading the opposite way as us. Mike Prucha from Elk Bones said jokingly, “We’ll spot you that one,” as they passed us. It’s always fun to have interactions with other teams in the middle of the woods during orienteering sections; even more so when it’s a top team.
Heading out to one of the most remote points on the map, we found it easily, but then tried to steer on a 0 degree compass point to a trail directly north of us. However, what we should have done is aim off to the west, as we missed our trail and ended up wandering and additional ⅓ of a mile through the woods, until we started getting worried and headed directly west, ending up on a trail but completely discombobulated as to where we where. Fortunately, Cliff spotted a sign with a trail map on it, and that got us reestablished on the map. However, we were now running very short on time. Still a little frazzled, we ran past where a CP was hiding, then realized we could nab it easily and headed back through a field and some evergreens, with Kate spotting it after only about a 10-second search. Running down a dirt trail back to the TA, Kate took the team on a short side-route past where another CP should have been, but a 10-minute search revealed nothing. As we were about to admit defeat, Cliff looked at the map one last time, exclaimed, “i know where that thing is!” ran back off into the woods behind us and came back a 30 seconds later with the punch in hand. The team hustled back to the TA, where one more point was in definite reach, but after a short, frenzied search, we realized we were out of time and ran back to the finish line. We finished with less than two minutes to spare in the eight-hour time limit - quite a stressful experience after having missed the cutoff at Thunder Rolls!
Notwithstanding the beginner blunders, overall, we were super happy with our race. We felt like we did relatively well on some difficult orienteering. And we had raced smart, using good strategic decisions to maximize our placing. When it was finally announced, we were thrilled to see that we had finished 12th overall and 6th in our division - our best result yet. A great way to end our first season of adventure racing! It left us happy but still hungry, knowing we had yet to meet our full potential and realizing we still could get much better.
