Raid the North Extreme
The adventure in adventure racing
Susan McKenzie / 23.08.2003
“We were having dinner last night, and people kept coming up to us and congratulating us,� says Cyril Margaritis.
The French have a long history of adventure racing, and while this team came to Atikokan to win the Raid the North Extreme, it also came for the expedition and the adventure.
“Raid the North Extreme is one of the few races that puts adventure into adventure racing,� says Bruno Rey. “On the voyageur canoe, working as a team to cross French Lake gave us an appreciation of what the voyageurs had to do. I couldn’t imagine having to carry that canoe over a portage.�
“Especially while we were canoeing in Quetico, we felt like we were all alone, we saw nobody in there,� adds EADS’ Laurence Maurin. “We would look at the map and say, ‘okay, we can take the long route and paddle all around, or we can swim a shorter distance. And then go, okay, we’ll swim.’ It was night, it was very choppy water so we had to stay very close together, because if someone got a cramp or got in trouble we had to be able to get to them quicker. It made us feel like a team, really working together.
“It was so incredible, especially out in Quetico,� says Gearsracing.com’s John Yip, whose team crossed the finish line in sixth place six minutes before the midnight cutoff. “It was so beautiful. I’m definitely coming back with my girlfriend for a vacation, so we can fish and paddle and really explore Quetico.�
“I really felt like we were exploring, that we were out in the wilderness, not just following a marked trail,� agrees Yip’s teammate Kevin Wallace. “It was really, really special.�
“When I come back from an adventure race, it changes me a little bit every time,� concludes Maurin. “You see the world in such a different way. Out there, so alone in the wilderness, working as a team: that’s why I adventure race. It was like that last year in the Yukon, and even more so this year.�
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