The Cauldron 30-Hour Adventure Race

Into The Cauldron – Getting Ready To Explore Northern Florida

Rob Howard / 14.01.2021

The 7th Annual Cauldron Adventure Race is coming up this weekend in Florida, and 230 racers are going to be headed for the Suwannee 505 Ranch, which is located on the famous Suwannee River.  They can camp overnight if they wish, though the temperatures are likely to be a bit cool with highs over the weekend in the 50’s and lows overnight in the 30’s, so it will be close to freezing.

There are two distances at the event, staged by the AR Georgia team, a 30 hour race which will be visiting the Florida Trail, Twin Rivers State Park, Pot Springs, Suwannee River State Park and will include long paddle down the Suwannee River; and a 10 hour race which will explore some of the best areas of the Holton Creek and also include a great paddle down the Suwannee River. In both races there are categories for solo, 2, 3, or 4 person teams, and for coed or same-sex teams. There will be live tracking from Adventure Enablers as well and we’ve heard they may be trying a new weather feature on the tracking map too.

Jeff Leininger of AR Georgia commented; “The Cauldron is a special race here in Florida because of the unusual terrain surrounding this area. The river cuts through the limerock that is the base of Northern Florida, and this can cause steep drops in the river and river walls. There are several sets of rapids here and the water flows very fast for great paddling.

“Up on land it may seem flat, however the land is covered with large sinkholes and depressions which is great for elevation gain/loss. It’s a perfect setting for mountain biking and of course there are some caves to hide a couple of CPs. The area has some of the largest oak trees in Florida because of the river, so there is a great backdrop for trekking on the famous Florida Trail that teams must travel on four times during the race.

“The cold weather will make for some interesting route chooses because there are a couple of options for teams to swim across the river to save some time. We will see; cold and wet to win the race, or stay dry and run hard to win?

“This is the 7th year for this race which started with only 5 teams and this year we have 100 teams.”

One of those teams includes his son Hunter (racing on team Good’Nuff) and he added; “All of the map work is completed by Erik Wise in Florida, so there is no chance Hunter can view the maps until the race start like all teams!  However, he does sometimes hear conversations about how Erik has put a CP underwater, or in a cave where teams will need to swim to get it. And that’s only because we are laughing about how bad it will be to do at 4am in very cold water!”

He continued; “Many teams that are coming to this year's race are seeing this as a test or training grounds for the much longer Sea to Sea Expedition Race coming up at the end of February.  With 230 racers coming it will be a crazy weekend in The Cauldron!”