2009 MOOSEJAW FALL ADVENTURE CHALLENGE

I completed my third adventure race of the fall yesterday. I completed this one with my Dad, who was a first time adventure racer. The race took place at Yankee Springs Recreation Area near Middleville, MI.

Here's the course map we were given at the beginning of the race. The orienteering section is not shown. We were given a differently scaled map of the Hall Lake area for that section.


The race started with a 3.5 mile canoe across Gun Lake and Long Lake to get a couple check points. This was then followed by a 4 to 5 mile trail run. However, we missed a check point along the way and had to double back, which probably turned our 4 to 5 mile run into 6 or 7 miles. The trekking section starts at the beginning of the green trail on the map, and then ended at the check point TA2 on the east end of the mountain bike trail.

Next up was the bike course, which is shown in red on the map. All the other races I had done to this point involved predominantly road riding. This race consisted of all off-road riding on the trails through Yankee Springs. The trails are fairly technical at spots, with a lot of up and downs. I have a little mountain biking experience and found this quite fun, but my Dad didn't necessarily like the biking, as he has virtually no off-roading experience. We did manage to complete the grueling course in one piece.

The last portion of the race was the orienteering section. Our missed check point blunder at the beginning left us with less time than we would have liked, but still managed to find 6 of the 12 check points in the orienteering section.

I am quite proud of my Dad for wanting to do the race to begin with and then finishing it on top of that! Finishing any competition where you are on the move for 6 hours is quite an accomplishment, especially never having done anything like this before. We crossed the finish line in under 6 hours and found 15 of the 21 check points. It was a tough race to do for a first timer. Here are his final thoughts on the day.


As far as racing goes, this was the last one on my calendar for the year. Unless a fun winter event comes up, I won't be doing any more racing until next spring, and hopefully I will be in better shape.

Registry Bliss

The wedding planning is moving along. Last Saturday it was time to get the gift registry process started. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't exactly looking forward to this process. Not because I don't want gifts, but mostly because of a general disdain towards shopping.

I knew I was in for the longest shopping trip of my entire life, so I tested out several pairs of shoes to determine which ones would keep me most comfortable throughout the day. We also packed some snacks in order to keep our energy level up, or maybe it was to keep my complaining to a minimum. Either way it was a good idea.

We registered at three different stores, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, and JC Penny. We started at Bed Bath & Beyond, the gift registry giant.

See how happy we are at the beginning...
We got some help from a registry consultant or something. She gave us some tips on a few things and then set us free. We looked at and scanned a lot of stuff. The scanning gun that they give you isn't really that great. It isn't even shaped like a gun. I expected much better, especially from a store who does as much gift registering as they do. I thought that I would make it through a store or two before I lost focus, but I could not have been more wrong. I didn't even make it out of Bed, Bath, & Beyond.

I think this chair is designed for guys that aren't really shoppers and need reviving during the gift registry process. I find it funny how I have been doing adventure races all fall in which I run, bike, and canoe for 6-10 hours and yet an hour of shopping completely wears me out.

The rest of the day went pretty well. Target has by far the best registry gun. It is shaped like a gun, has a touch screen, and actually allows you to scroll through things you have registered for. By the end of the day I had gotten pretty versatile in my scanning skills.
We both survived the long day of shopping, and we now have the bulk of the registry process behind us!