Maya Mountain Challenge
Hot Trails and Cool Canyons
Press Release / 27.02.2018
Exactly at 5am, teams who had arrived before the dark zone bolted out of transition to make the trek and climb up to the ropes. This included Bones, Naturex, Good’nuff, and AdeoRun. Both Bones and Naturex had banked a little sleep. But the other two didn’t have the chance.
The trail to the top of the sink hole is a fairly narrow and steep one, and can be a bit slick. Once at the top though, the view didn’t disappoint. Just as the sun was rising, the jungle opened up some 400+ feet below. Our ropes team reported several worried looks as racers peered over the edge …
Racers enjoyed a fast, free-hanging rappel into the bottom and then traversed around the edge of the sink to a gi-normous cave mouth that seemed ready to swallow the world. They would grab a checkpoint here before continuing to the ladder (yep – a metal ladder) to climb out of the sink hole. From here, it was a ~9 mile (hot) jaunt across the orchard to the entrance of the cave swim.
The 7-mile cave swim (sponsored by Caves Branch Lodge), was a unique opportunity for racers to paddle/swim through an underground river with crystal blue water and high ceilings. Every now and again, a window in the rock also let in the yellows and greens of the jungle canopy with the sunlight illuminating the blue water for a truly beautiful experience. The cool water also was a good chance for racers to cool off from what was proving to be a super hot day.
From exiting the TA until the end of the cave swim, Bones and Naturex traveled pretty much in lock step, until the 26-mile trek to and on the Indian Creek trail where Naturex was able to put a little bit of time on Bones. Heading east on a gravel road, the flat farmland suddenly started to rise into green mounds of thick jungle vegetation.
The Indian Creek Trail traverses between these hills along the Indian Creek bed. The beginning of the trail travels through three different caves before narrowing into a singletrack jungle trail. Although more of a fade, marked by machete points, Naturex made quick work of this trail, getting ahead of the race director’s estimates. Bones lagged behind, but not very far.
When the teams approached the junction of the Indian Creek Trail and the 5 Blues Lake Trail, it appears that the 5 Blues trail they were supposed to be taking west to the lake was very hard to find. Almost all teams lost hours here as they searched and searched but came up empty handed. Because many of the teams thought the trail wasn’t there, most eventually bailed and took the road SW then headed back north to nab the point from the west side.
During this time, Agde and AdeoRun hung pretty close together while Good’nuff Teiu gained a little time on them while they searched for the trail. Tubaina eventually caught up to Good’nuff, but after Good’nuff decided to leave for the TA and skip the CP, Tubaina stick it out and it paid off after the sun came up as they became the only team to find the 5 Blues Trail!! Nice work!
Meanwhile, back at TA 4, the Tubaina and Agde Raid Adventure came in shortly after 5am to trail only slightly behind the leaders (but still with no sleep). Behind them, five more teams, Belize Grisons, Mexico Cemac Toluca, Commie Bar, Relentless and ThisAbility were all still heading for TA 4. Mexico Cemac Toluca was actually shuttled to TA 4 after coming off the water very late so that they could have a chance to do the ropes.
Many of the teams were looking a bit exhausted and hot, but still excited about the upcoming leg. Arriving late morning gave them a little time to rest, however, by the time they headed out, the heat of the afternoon sun was unforgiving, and that slowed the pace even more. The teams were permitted to complete the sink hole rappel, but told they must return to TA 4 and skip the cave swim as they were estimated not to arrive at CP 12 until almost 8pm which would have been too late. These five teams were then shuttled to TA 5 to catch back up with the other teams.
From TA 5 is where we launch day 3 of the MMAC. Naturex and Bones both caught some more sleep at TA 5 since it is becoming clear that they will not make the dark zone at 1pm today. Naturex headed out to TA 5 about 3am but had some navigation challenges heading to CP 19 that slowed them down a bit.
This section of the bike course requires them to pass through a mountain gap by traveling on some orchard trails before finding some local hunting trails (a fore-warned short hike-a-bike) and then pass through more orchards before returning to gravel roads on the other side of the range. A few of the teams also seem to have had some trouble finding the road to CP18 but eventually back tracked for it.
The remainder of this 75-mile bike leg is flat gravel roads and is pretty straight forward. Naturex and Bones are now back on track and poised to fly towards CP 22/TA 6. It’s going to be a hot one though!! May slow them down just a bit. We’re anxiously awaiting!
SleepMonsters
