Beast of the East
Sat, Aug 9th - Through the Looking Glass
Beast staff / 09.08.2003
Given the option to skip orienteering points, and the corresponding rhododendron-wacking, and incur a 5-hour penalty for each, some teams elected to get one or two and move directly to the spectacular rappel. While waiting overnight for competitors, Travis Overstreet's Dirty Dozen climbing crew watched the fog, storms and eventually stars pass by as they perched from atop the 500' rappel.
Daybreak brought the first competitors to Looking Glass Rock. After choosing to skip points 1 and 2, Team V-Max beelined directly to the rappel after point 3 and quickly made their way down the near vertical descent. The following teams spent more time looking for orienteering points and didn't arrive for another 2 hours. Two-person coed team 'Flown the Coop' were next to take the plunge down the side of the dome, with Vultures, Kinam/Leatherman, soloist Eric Turk, and Prestige Trailblazers following behind. Previously leading teams Lightspeed and New Balance/Odyssey completed the rappel in 7th and 11th place respectively (without considering penalties.)
After the rappel, teams finished the trekking section and got ready for the bike ride to the river-put in. Thirty-one teams made it to the bike transition before the 2:00 cutoff that kept them in the PRO category. These teams did a quick 8-mile ride to the river and readied themselves for the 34-mile canoe section. Team V-Max put in at 8:45 am, keeping a 2+ hour lead over the next teams, which included Flown the Coop, Leathermaan, Vultures, Eric Turk and Lightspeed.
By 1:00 pm eleven teams had put on the river to start the 34-mile paddle. Teams that completed the 3 orienteering points had the time advantage, since they did not have the associated 5-hour per point penalties. With this in consideration, team Kinam/Leatherman started the 6 - 7 paddle with a 1-hour lead over New Balance/Odyssey.
Teams arriving to the trekking/biking transition after 2:00 pm skipped the river section and were transported directly to the river take-out.
Leaving from the river take-out, racers have 3 bike legs, 2 trekking sections, a jumar ascent, and another 16-mile paddle to look forward to before the end of the New Balance Beast of the East.
Considering the rugged terrain, it's a wonder only one team, husband and wife duo, Nature Calls has dropped from the race citing, … "just had enough."
SleepMonsters
