The Mother Lode Gold Rush Expedition Adventure Race
Ready to Go on the Gold Rush Mother Lode
Doug Judson / 08.08.2012
One of the final qualifiers of the year for the ARWS in France begins tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. in the Central Sierra Nevada Mountain range of the USA when Gold Rush Mother Lode begins.
The course is 285 miles long, epic, arduous, with many route choices all harder than the last. Teams at the Gold Rush Mother Lode expedition race will start at Lake McClure near Sonora, California and paddle 28 miles, with a swim to the kayaks to open the race.
Teams will then trek 25 miles with over 2,500 feet of elevation gain traveling through a tough overgrown canyon on the North fork of the Merced River. They will be on the lookout for lots of bears and poison oak on this leg of the race. Then comes a transition to the first bike leg which is over 100 miles long with over 12,000 feet of elevation gain - crossing the Tuolumne River Canyon, then travel over the steep terrain of Duckwall Mountain, and finish up near Pinecrest Lake.
Trek 2 is 45 miles of slippery fun white granite canyon descent followed by a bike ride of over 45 miles which crosses the Stanislaus River Canyon and ends up near Big Trees, California. Trek 3 takes teams 18 miles in mixed canyon, covering a ropes course with a rapel and jumar ascent and a pack raft. This canyon will destroy teams with its thick manzanita brush.
Teams will then go to Alpine Lake over steep terrain, go to the top of Mt. Reba, followed by travel to the top of the Bear Valley ski resort and finish at the lodge in the pool to the excitement of race fans.
This is a massive course that will test the best and tomorrow will come early for teams. The air is filled with excitement with teams vying for one of the last spots at the AR Worlds in France in September.
Top teams include Tecnu Adventure Racing who are on a roll having won 6 of their last 7 races, Team Sole Captained by Paul Romero with plenty of years of international racing experience, and Columbia/Vidaraid from Spain, winners of the 2012 Ecomotion.
You can follow the race starting tomorrow at : http://www.arworldseries.com/arwsportal/?arwsid= and through twitter at: goldrushar or Facebook at Gold Rush Expeditions. www.goldrushar.com
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