Saturday August 14th 2010 Cairns Post

Story on Metrogaining from Cairns Post, August 14th 2010

for some time I have had in the back of my mind the idea that I would love to get involved in this multisport stuff – i.e. ride run and paddle races.  I am a bit out of condition though was pretty fit a few years back so know how to train.   Is there a come and try type race coming up in the near future and anything else I can start working towards so that I have a goal.  the mission ebach one looks a bit full on to start off and a bit soon.   I have no bike or boat so these would be on the agenda,  but I note that there are places that these can be hired. Also, where can I get ideas about times and distances needed before I am fit enough to enter?  any ideas on how to kick it all off would be appreciated.  I start training tomorrow. training programs.  stories from others who have strated from scratch etc.

Cheers

Matt

It is 3am.
The cloud cover that has hidden the partially eclipsed full moon most of the night is now bringing a chilly drizzle to our stationery team. Progress has ground to an unscheduled halt halfway down the Western side of Bell Hill. Despite my shivering, Brett Wilson lies beside me drenched in sweat. His stomach contents (two cold sausages, a rum and coke and a cupful of salt amongst many other rogaine snacks) are raging an intense nausea-creating battle inside him, yet stubbornly refuse Brett’s repeated, vocal and apparently painful efforts to expel them.
The first eight hours of our event had gone great. A ride out to the Western Gate on Quaid Road allowed us to work steadily back to the Hash House picking up many high scoring CP’s with only a brief misorientation prior to CP65. We had made the old mistake of counting watercourses (and including those unmarked) rather than keeping an eye on distance. The out and back nature of CP101 beyond 65 allowed us to relocate on the South / North Spur, collect 101 and pick up 65 on the way back to the bikes at CP95. The strange white arrows near CP81 inspired some creative explanations. A misplaced compass, a failure (just after dark) to use the mapped vegetation boundary leading to CP78 and the moonless darkness – which made the drop off the road here into the gully appear like a bottomless and impenetrably vegetated abyss – all combined to bring us back to Hash an hour or so later than planned at 8:30pm.
A quick and very tasty hot meal following a replenishment of supplies had us back on the road and full of misplaced confidence shortly after 9:00pm. The plan included an anticlockwise loop of the entire Northern section of the course starting with a nocturnal East Black Mountain ride and a dawn return to the Hash for a Black Mountain Summit sunrise – exciting stuff! As so often happens through the dark hours of a rogaine however, things didn’t quite go to plan. Before reaching CP11 at the start of East Black Mountain Road, Brett realised his headlamp (which had performed perfectly throughout the entire XPD) was going to be uncooperative. The main issue seemed to be the batteries which repeatedly curled up and died after less than 2 hours but a loose and frayed wire also caused some confusion. As a result we were forced to share light by riding parallel where possible (very infrequently on East Black Mountain Road) while on climbs, downhills and narrow sections Brett had little more than my flashing rear red light to guide him – often straight into wayward waitawhile and washed out watercourses.
An untested bike map board then left its precious cargo about halfway along East Black Mountain Road shortly before Brett grew unusually quiet. I hadn’t competed with Brett previously but from talking with those who had and from crossing paths often during events I was aware of two things – Brett occasionally got himself into some situations of serious physical discomfort and he liked a chat. The fact he no longer seemed keen to do the latter warned me he may be about to experience the former. While we raided the contents of the Cookie Jar (CP55) Brett revealed he was in fact feeling awful and if it wasn’t for the presence of the only leeches on the entire course we probably would have stopped there much longer.
As it was we pushed on (Out and Back on West Black Mountain to CP88 and then to the Bump Track) to the outermost points of the course. With Brett crook, mapless and without light and the Slippery Mullets relying solely on my rapidly fatiguing brain for navigation it was probably unsurprising we overshot CP80 and found ourselves shivering (me) and sweating (Brett) halfway down the wrong side of a large hill. We reluctantly agreed that 80 points would make the climb back up Bell Hill worthwhile at 3am (fatigue can do strange things to the decision making process) and after a lie down headed back uphill. The double climb and short break didn’t help Brett’s physical state as he deteriorated into a condition that would see most competitors withdraw and would no doubt hospitalise many. His barely lit headlamp revealed a face of overwhelming pain caused by powerful nausea and a high body temperature resulted in a drenching sweat. When he revealed it was the worst he had ever felt in an event, the worst rogaining night he had had and the longest he had suffered from any condition I knew it was time to look at some alternative options. My now completely fatigued mind decided we didn’t really have any and instead instructed my body to sleep while Brett dry retched beside me (He did show more compassion and consideration than I did however and crawled or stumbled a good few metres away first).
Brett though, had other ideas. Where most would have lain ill for the rest of the night, Brett courageously and stubbornly pushed on through the dark on the return trip to the Hash House like a mullet swimming against a powerful tide. Apart from regular stops to again attempt the dislodgement of the offending stomach articles, we continued homewards with inspiration from the promise of a proper lie down and a raid on the medication in a first aid kit far better stocked then ours.
Paul Kelly did tell us however that ‘the darkest hour is right before the dawn’ and around 7:30am (9 or so hours after Brett first revealed he was unwell) something remarkable happened. Brett started having a chat again and predicted this was a sure sign that soon he would be feeling better. True to his word our pace picked up and Brett provided an insight into just how tough he is by suggesting and for a while seriously entertaining the idea of returning to our original plan of climbing the imposing Black Mountain.
Some quick maths revealed however that there was almost as many points up for grabs down Quaid Raid but a far better chance of returning to the Hash House before midday. At 9am another quick pit stop was had before the gravity assisted sprint rocketed us towards Wangetti. We collected CPs 21, 70, 104 and 84 without incident and left ourselves 40 minutes to get home. As it was, 30 was enough and we checked in feeling relieved to have finished competitively after the string of overnight incidents and I personally was in awe of Brett’s willpower in continuing after being seriously ill and recovering enough to take on challenges like climbing up Quaid – a ride that can leave one pretty knocked up when fresh and healthy.
Massive thanks to Dave and Mel for taking on the enormous task of organising the 24hr event and not just revealing some great rides that many of us probably had no idea existed but also arranging to have a couple of them graded in the week leading up to the event (it’s not what you know), to Mike for his continuous and enthusiastic administering and also Rod, Terry and Brett who willingly split up their team of three to create two teams of two and allow me to compete despite no doubt being keen to do an event with each other.
In particular thanks to Brett, this report hopefully shows just how tough the guy is rather than embarrasses him, shows that when asked to write a winners report one should quietly accept the role rather than passing it onto a team mate who will describe in detail their most vulnerable and lowest moments – Cheers Brett.
For what it’s worth our tortuous route went like this – 12, 85, 76, 95, 101, 65, 94, 81, 99, 97, (sunset) 68, 78, 11, 57, 79, 55, 80, 82, (sunrise) 77, 51, 35, 21, 70, 104, 84.

Setters Report 1 – Hike Rogaines

My course setting adventure begun in early March when I was partnered with my class mate Danielle and assigned the task of facilitating and running the ‘Weir in Heaven’ and ‘Blind man’s Bush Bash’ rogaines for our TAFE cert IV in outdoor recreation class’s Adventure Sport Weekend.

Pretty much straight away we planned a reccy of the event location (Collins Weir) chosen by our teachers. The reccy consisted of a lazy overnight hike along the Walsh River. We left the area the next day with the intention of trying to negotiate our teachers into choosing a different and more suitable location for the event. This was not successful and we were convinced that area would cater for the event well. Next we set out to gain a better understanding of how to set and run a rogaine as this was our first attempt at running such an event. The Dinden Bush rogaine was our first stop and we increased our navigation skills and knowledge by participating. We were then fronted with the dilemma of not knowing what was actually involved in setting courses, Chris White pointed us in the right direction here, when we joined and assisted him in setting and running his ‘Real Hanndful’ rogaine.

Finally after much Liaising with Chris, Mike Coleman and our teachers Andre and Phil we were equipped with sufficient knowledge to begin setting the courses. Numerous possible courses were set in different areas along the river before the final versions were approved and vetted by Andre Vogel. All thoughts of the Walsh river being an unsuitable venue disappeared and we soon considered the area to be a beautiful and an ideal spot for the events after several days of exploring and finding its hidden treasures such as the beautiful butterfly gorge around controls 48 and 51 and the gorgeous views of the weir from the surrounding knolls.

On the day (and night) the events ran quite smoothly. There was one major disappointing error made in marking out the maps for the ‘Weir in Heaven’ foot rogaine as control 68 was marked on the wrong creek junction on the map. Although the corresponding 60 points were awarded to teams who stated that they searched for the misplaced control this mistake costed numerous competitors valuable time. Performances were strong and results from all the competitors including the novice teams were impressive. Both of the courses set were cleared and conquered by the winning teams but were still reported as being quite challenging.

To finish up I’d like to say a big thanks to Sarina Streeter and Kevin Darcy of Rocky Bluff Station for the use of the land and area, Mike Coleman, Chris White, Andre Vogel and Phil Harrison for there ongoing support and assistance in setting and running the event, and all the keen rogainers who supported us on the day with out you this fantastic learning experience would not have been possible.
Alex Cinelli

Two Flat Tires MTB Rogaine 05/06/2010 – Course Setter Report 2

The TAFE Outdoor Recreation students were given the task of setting a Navigation Weekend event for the 05 & 06 of June. Kristen Fixter & I were given the role of Mountain Bike course setters. The event itself was to run for two hours on Saturday 5th. We were given the task in March, so we had plenty of time to prepare for this weekend of fun.
During this time, Kristen & I were looking at the topographic maps that Andre Vogel, Phil Harrison & Mike Coleman suggested that we could use (Tolga & Atherton). The area we chose to stage our event was on Serena Streeter’s property & Simon Gargan’s property.
The ride out there from the Hash House campsite was good fun, both in high spirits, riding up those hills to come flying down the other side making sure you dodged the rocks & corrugation. Once out there, at the starting gate, we rode around the area, looking for areas that might be of interest for our event, we realised that is wasn’t going to be as easy as we had hoped. Crossing dry creek beds, jumping fences, riding up knolls, crossing roads & tracks that weren’t on the map made it much harder but way more fun. While we were out riding we noticed that the area was quite difficult to describe & locate certain features, as it was quite flat. We found many cow pads to follow & various 4WD, dirt bike tracks to move quickly enough through the paddocks, trying to find spots that are noticeable & more importantly on the map.
Thanks to Mike Coleman, we had the GPS with us to help plot our course, as we rode around for hours looking, we could then mark them onto the GPS & return at a later date to put the controls out. After many hours looking at maps & writing up clues, crossing them off & starting again, we eventually found our 12 checkpoints that were going to challenge our competitors & the course setters & the course clearers.

Come race day, we only had 6 teams compete, 5 of them mixed the other all male. To have categories was none existent as everyone would have won. So we decided to have an overall champion, mixed champion & the all male champion. The overall champions were Maiden Voyage (Daniel Robinson & Nancy Caceres) on 400 points, the mixed champions were Weir here for the beer (Bruce Monds & Belinda Wallace) on 340 points & the all male champions were the Ecoholics (Brad McCulloch & Terry Montgomery) on 170 points. The other racers Chair Dragon (Craig House & Rhonda Coyne) totalled a score of 330 points, Team Tag (Peter & Trixie Tuck) on 300 points & Lost Again (Jason Hedges & Lisa White) scored 100 points.
The feedback we received from the competitors was awesome. They enjoyed the ride out to the start, even though it tired most of them, the course itself they enjoyed the challenge of riding through new terrain.
Thanks to Serena Streeter & Simon Gargan for letting us use their property & to the competitors for coming out to support us & everyone who helped out with catering, sponsorship & the every day running of the event.
Sean Browne

Setters Report 3 – Collins Weir Multisport 5hr and 2hr

On Sunday June 6th the much anticipated multisport races was set to start. The 5hr Collins Weir Multisport race started at 8am with a tube paddle where the competitors stayed pretty close together. The 19km ride following that contained some single track and some technical mountain biking through some big washouts. From there the gruelling off track run that continued up to a high point through some thick scrub. After all that running there was a cool down for the competitors with a swim, wasn’t going to be easy to overcome fear with a 10m jump to get into the water. A boulder dash down the river took a scenic route past old Rocky Bluff Township and across the old weir. Once back to their bikes competitors carried their bikes though the butterfly swamp and then road back to the hash house and to the finish. The 5hr Collins Weir Multisport was an extremely tough race as all competitors will agree; it included a wide variety of terrain which was enjoyed by all when they had a chance to look around. Congratulations to all competitors for completing the course.
Starting later in the day the 2hr Collins Weir Multisport was set to take off. Set as a great introduction race for first timers or competitors not up to the 5hr race yet. Starting with a run that took on some very steep terrain both up and down also brought with it some amazing views from the high point. Back down and onto the tubes for a paddle which was much appreciated for a cool down as the day was heating up by this time. The 2hr multisport then finished with a ride that took them through some nice single track and a loop that took them back to the finish. Congratulations to Team Superfly for coming from behind to win after missing a turn on the track.
All together feedback from the competitors suggested that both races were enjoyed even though they were tough.
Thank you to all competitors for heading out to Collins Weir to support the TAFE team.
Brenton

Overall weekend Winners report
We found the weekend so much the better for having a variety of events rather than too much of the same thing.
We didn’t win any event on the weekend but the points toted up eventually through perserverence.
The first event, the two flat tyres presented the biggest challenge of the weekend. We started out well and made good time as we ripped through the eastern loop but things started to go pear shaped when we crossed the road and went looking for the Western loop. We went up and down the road a couple of times but that track wouldn’t show itself. So we eventually had a crisis meeting and executed our contingency plan and rode back to the start and attacked the western loop from the north heading along.We located one checkpoint on that loop and then ended up meandering along an intersecting maze of cattle pads that only vaguely headed south.Time was short so we cut our losses and headed east on more meandering cattle pads to the road and a quick dash back to the hash where we lost some of our precious few points for being late.

A quick bite to eat and we were out again on the 2hr rogaine.This time we were cruisen along picking up controls with ease. As we headed for 106 we planned to pick up 68 on our way through. But it was not to be. We eventually moved on up the steep ascent to 106 and decided to have another shot at 68 on the way back.We encountered numerous befuddled souls hovering around where we all thought it should be.
By then we were losing faith in our navigation and wandered hither & thither.Time was racing by and we eventually headed back to the hash house to lose a few more precious points for coming in late.The good bit is that we were awarded the points for the missing 68.

The night rogaine was a snappy one hour event.We made fast time along the road with the bulk of competitors. the numbers thinned out after the second control as we made our way up a steep slope that was by now quite familiar to us. Chris White and his team mate were now well ahead of us but we were in front of the remainder of the field as we headed down to the next control, which was where we wanted it to be.The country was now strewn with large angular rocks concealed by the long grass and the going was slower.The pace picked up once we hit the road and we jogged to the causeway where we encountered Chris and his mate on their way back to the finish.We located the control at the causeway.We abandoned the remaining two controls and headed back with the intent of finishing on time for a change.We were pleased with a second placing which was our best result of the day.
In a moment of weakness that evening we momentarily contemplated switching to the 2hr event next day.For whatever reason we found ourselves lined up on the far side of the weir early next morning for the start of the 5 hr event.
We made a bad choice from the mountain of inflated inner tubes. we picked the biggest ones we could find in a vain hope to stay above the chilly water.Consequently we flailed our way across the weir and emerged wet,cold and last for the start of the bike leg.
This section was mostly on roadway and fast single track and was enjoyable,but we hadn’t gained on anyone.that didn’t occur until we commenced the hike where we overtook the team ahead of us at the summit of a daunting climb.The view westward was stunning and we took it in as we headed down toward the river.
It was all boulder hopping to the next control point which also gave us the option of a 10m leap to the rock pool below.In the time it would have taken to work up the courage to jump, we had slid down the adjacent rocks and were swimming to the exit point.The Swim had the benefit that it shifted the sand in our shoes down to the toe-end to provide temporary relief.
More boulder hopping took us to the Rocky Bluff weir where we got our best look at the remains of the Rocky Bluff township.The brick chimney dominated the view but the sight of the ruins clinging to the steep embankment was impressive.We took in the view for a leisurely few seconds and then continued our way over a few more hills to the return bike leg.The bikes were the passengers for the start of this section as we lugged them through the swamp.From then on though, the mostly single track ride to the homestead was a pleasure.The site of those orange tents at the finish is always a welcome sight though.
The TAFE team put on a great event. The weekend was challenging but offered variety,spectacular scenery and some really enjoyable riding.In our books, they graduated as awesome course setters.
Brad McCulloch

Collins Weir Multisport Weekend – Winners Report 1
I’ve discovered that the best way to enjoy a weekend of rogaining events is to choose a different team mate for each one, just to keep things interesting. That’s what I did at the TAFE Nav weekend at Collins Weir.

Only a small number of teams participated in the weekend due to clashes in the calendar, or perhaps they were forewarned of the access road to the weir. If my poor old Subaru wasn’t stuffed before the journey, it is now. However minimal the participation, there was enough on the menu for everyone to share in the fun and some teams were solid enough to stick at it for the whole weekend. Weir Here For Beer and Ecoholics entered every race and one of the Carls from Carl vs Carl put in a similar effort. Great stuff guys!

The first event was the bikegaine (Two flat tyres). The TAFE crew had aimed to set a challenging course and had apparent success with no-one able to clear and the winning team only managing nine out of twelve controls. Some great single track to be enjoyed following cow pads and some “roads that weren’t there” saw teams paying a high price for navigational errors and pushing the old treadlies through some deep swampland. Plenty of fun and a good work out for competitors with brand new bikes.

The two-hour rogaine (Where’s 68?) had the greatest number of participants for any event on the weekend. With controls set high up, the route offered amazing views of the weir and the tableland and all teams were challenged. The highlight of this event for mine was seeing Mike lead a novice team deep into speargrass on a bearing to a control that was within a drop-kick of the hash house by road. Great stuff Mike, the only way to learn em.”

The night rogaine (Blind Man’s Bluff) also had good participation. Most teams took the more obvious route, starting high and following the ridge down while others decided on a journey up a rocky creek, or a log walk over the river were better plans of attack. I’m sure that for the organisers it was a fulfilling sight to see competitors headlamps dotted along the ridge – a great reward for hard work in setting the course.

Sunday’s 5-hour multi-sport race (Enough to Weir You Out) had only four teams, but what the race lacked in numbers it made up for in difficulty. Competitors didn’t seem too keen to dive into the murky waters of Collins Weir for the opening paddle with a cool air temperature and the threat of old major lurking deep beneath the surface. But the show went on and all teams made it through the transition and began the bike leg pretty much simultaneously. Some techie downhills with extreme washouts separated the men from the boys and Peter Andre was able to rein in Pinky and No Brain by the run. And what a run! Steep, difficult ascents and descents, again with some fantastic views and dropping into the Walsh River for some boulder dashing, the two lead teams were even on arrival at the 12m cliff jump. It didn’t let up from there as we continued along the river and finally up and over the bluff to pick up the bikes. After a gruelling bike carry through the butterfly swamp, the final fast couple of kilometres were a welcome spin out for the legs. The winning team punched in at 4h 15min with second place only three minutes behind. All reports from the two hour event were also positive.

On a final note, the catering was amazing and coupled with some fantastic organisation of challenging events, the future of rogaining in North Queensland is bright if this year’s TAFE team sticks around!!! Well done team!

Daniel Robinson

In our course design we were realistically looking at travelling 3 .5 to 4km/hr where we would be covering 30-36km in 9 hours if all went to plan. On studying the map, we decided that the SW corner looked fast and open. Why not get a few quick ones to get our eyes in and help our confidence.

By the time we started ascending the ridge at 37, we were warmed up and all systems go. We had chosen the same path as the Woody Willy’s and no matter what we tried we couldn’t shake them. We were blessed with great walking country, waterfalls, and granite slabs. By the time we reached the waterfall at 87, we finally parted company, as they headed east and we headed north to 69. At last we were on our own. We proceeded north east to hit the road and headed up to the radar at 79. We were travelling well and reached this point exactly half way through the allotted time. Here we passed Fat Adam having lunch and enjoying the view .We then embarked on clearing the north east section of the course. The vegetation was a little tougher initially, but once we gathered 93, 96, giving 17 a miss, the going got nice again. We ran into Star Factor at 82 and played cat and mouse with them for a while.

Initially on inspection we thought the south east section of the map was hilly, but still it presented itself with some nice spurs to follow. We arrived at 95 with a little over an hour to go, so we played it safe and decided to head home and proceeded to 65, 46, and then 18. We made it to hash with 15 mins to spare.

Nine hours seemed to fly by due to the quality of the country we traversed. Chris White placed his controls in awesome locations, which highlighted the many great features of the area. The only slight detraction was a little bit of spear grass.
Great course, great country.
Congratulations Chris!!!

Had it not been a competition you would have found most of the teams enjoying the spectacular scenery from one of the many lookouts or swimming in one of the beautiful pools along the creek between checkpoints 78 and 87. The cattle pads along many of the ridges and pleasant undergrowth through much of the area also meant that the walking was some of the best in the region.

For the first few hours we enjoyed the company of the girls in ‘The party has arrived’ before a bit of skinny dipping forced the girls to choose an alternate route. We chose to collect the middle checkpoints from 87 returning to the clockwise route via 58 and 69 which proved to be a good strategy because of the clear cattle pads along the two ridges.

Our last hour and a half became a bit frantic as we pushed for home with the lure of a few extra points on the way pulling us from the most obvious and sensible route. In the end those extra points gave us the margin we needed. In hindsight we wouldn’t have gone to the bottom south west as these points cost a lot of time and weren’t worth many points – but at this stage we were still hoping to sweep the course. We should also have read Chris’ very helpful course notes as they provided excellent information which was not much good to us after the event when we finally got around to reading them.

All in all an excellent event hosted by Chris and his family. Some great country, well placed checkpoints and very big thanks to Rogaining NQ and the property owners of Glen Russell Station.

Course Route:12-20-25-37-43-81-35-51-39-78-87-87-49-70-48-26-108-58-69-106-29-79-96-93-17-57-82-68-95-65-46-HH

Dave Wood and Brett Wilson

The initial trip to the eventual course site involved exploration of roads and cattle pads by bike and confirmed the area was indeed well suited to rogaining – Some brilliant hiking country, some prominent features, reasonably well mapped and generally very open vegetation above fairly friendly grass.

With land access sorted (after some initial hiccups), the most enjoyable element of course setting could be undertaken – sitting at home deciding where to place 30 something checkpoints. I initially aimed to set an achievable (or almost achievable) course where considered planning could allow teams to gradually climb via gentle spurs and friendly ridges to the higher sections before a rapid descent down either of the roads climbing the hill or vice versa. The topography didn’t quite line up like the giant staircase I envisioned but there was definitely the possibility to cover a fair chunk of ground without constantly climbing and descending.

With this in mind, TAFE Outdoor Rec students Alex, Dani and Sean in tow, a bag full of rogaine markers and an ambitiously marked map in hand I headed off bright and early for a big day of course setting. We headed off to the Eastern side of the course as I was less familiar with this and found it was similar in vegetation and terrain to the country West of the road. We worked quickly up to around 750m or 800m altitude thanks to some great cattle pads, the old road and some excellent rogaining territory. Not long after though (around when it started raining), the vegetation got a lot gnarlier, I lost confidence in the accuracy of sections of the map (or maybe my ability to read it??) and the going got a lot slower. After some aimless wandering and a big bash through top of the tableland vegetation, we hit the very top of the road at the tower. From here (and West of the road) some top sites were found including the tree fern patch (CP29), the East Hodgkinson River and the East West spurs and ridges south of here. Daylight beat me however and I returned to the road for the night walk back to the car after what turned into more than 13 hours of walking.

A couple of days later I thankfully pulled up fine from the Speewah Legend Trail Run and headed back out for a big afternoon and evening of marker hanging. This session started down the south west and discovered multiple waterfalls and the very scenic Leadingham Ck along with some markers to ‘join’ the course with Eastern section already set and then all the markers close to the HH. Another big day with lots of k’s, a late finish, rain significantly heavier than both the previous trips but markers were out and a course was set.

Quite a few things seemed to go well over the weekend of the event. 9 Hour teams seemed to like the early map pick up, 2 tags per team went well and I’m still coming to terms with the fact that Navlight operated perfectly. In fact but for a couple of late teams, results could have been presented less than ten minutes after the finish.

Performances were as impressive as results were close. The brisk pace Brainstormers’ (Jack Sloss and Sally Cranney) took off with must have continued as they missed only 100 points from a challenging 3 hour course and got home 15 minutes early. The performance of novice team CTG (Cameron Taylor, Graham Moroney, Tara Bell) in second and just 50 points behind was also tremendous and will have a few experienced rogainers looking over their shoulders. Wily Team Grey Fox (Mike Coleman, John Harders and Mary Crabb) (equal 3rd on points and 4th on time) planned a cunning course that saw them cross one creek in three hours (100m from the HH) and discover the joys of spur surfing.

Similarly the 9hr results featured some excellent performances. The Brush Turkeys (Tani Cooper and Carl Schedlich) showed some very handy navigation skills to win the mixed category (950 points) while The Party Has Arrived (Louise Carver and Rebeka Pople – First Women’s Team) put in a performance (1490pts and 3rd overall) that will guarantee they are very competitive at the World Rogaining Championships later in the year. First and second were separated by just 20 points despite 9 hours and ‘opposite’ courses. Fat Adam performed a largely anti clockwise loop and returned with a rapid finish and 1580 points while Woody Willy planned and executed a very efficient and accurate clockwise loop to clock up 1600 points.

To finish up – thanks again to George Lowe of Glen Russell Station for land access, Mike Coleman for his continuous help to course setters and anyone involved in rogaining, the TAFE crew for assistance setting and on the day, Shane and Mum for looking after catering, sponsors It’s Extreme, Adventure Equipment and Cairns Plan Print for prizes and discounts, Adam and Kirk for looking after the shittiest job, those who have volunteered to collect markers and to all the wonderful rogainers who turned up on Mothers Day to compete in an event on the side of a big hill and returned safely with hardly a mention of Spear Grass and great positive feedback!
Chris

What a top event! A decent length rogaine in great open country, not far from home, early in the year and a week before a trip south to the Australian Rogaining Championships presented a much anticipated opportunity simply too good to miss.

Our slightly late arrival at the Hash House was compensated by the excellent organisation of the coordinating crew who had us with maps and gear in hand only minutes after parking. We still had time to implement the highly secret Rod Gray Rogaine Formula for calculating the likelihood of rogaine completion. This revealed a total of 27 or 28kms would be required to complete the course. Given the open nature of the vegetation witnessed on the drive in, the very helpful tracks shown on the map, multiple access points to natural water and the fact we were blissfully unaware of just how humid and warm the middle of the day was going to get we figured that averaging just over 4.5k’s an hour for 6 hours was achievable and went about planning a route to complete the course and hopefully return in time for a swim in Davies Creek.

Planning to complete the course gives the added bonus of not having to figure which areas present the best value for effort or are most likely to cause fatigue induced navigational errors. Tony’s considered checkpoint placement and excellently set course did however present us with the need to make plenty of decisions about the order to visit various markers. Tackling the ups and downs of the north western ridge complex at the start while we were fresh and the temperature was cooler made obvious sense and we figured if we could complete that and successfully navigate the long hauls across the top from 96 to 106 and 104 by the 3hr mark we would give ourselves a good shot at finishing the course. From there the route selection to return to Bridle Creek was pretty obvious but after this crossing, route selection proved a little more challenging. We opted to work down the better value Eastern side and then complete the inner loop at the end if time and fatigue hadn’t got the better of us.

I found Terry McLelland’s ‘skill set’ following the 2009 Hornets Nest rogaine very helpful and have done something similar here to describe our trip around the Dinden Rogaine Course. From HH out along road to CP28, continue on road to top of second gentle spur and veer off road at bend, aim off to right on creek so turn downstream when hit, after CP 24 back to spur to be ‘funnelled’ down to major creek junction. Compass bearing from here helped find the spur and CPs 20 and 75. The friendliness of the spur walking convinced us that following it slightly uphill and side spur spotting would be easier than taking the shorter straight line option. CP43 side spur was obvious to pick thanks to the main spur veering East where it headed off to the West. The knowledge we had to return UP this spur made the walk DOWN feel longer and steeper than it probably was. We continued this main spur walking and side spur out and back routine to CPs 57 and 85 respectively before sticking to the high ground to collect CPs 88, 55 and 85. From here we’d identified the toughest navigation of the course over the next 4 checkpoints so deliberately slowed the pace to better monitor distance covered, features passed and ensure we stayed in contact with where we were on the map. Spurs radiated from CP85 like Octopus legs and picking the fairly nondescript and narrow one toward CP108 was a challenge. Aided by a cattle / wallaby pad we split the gap between the two watercourse heads shown but then continued onto a spur which veered north and descended whereas we wanted a fairly flat spur veering west. Picking this up quickly meant we wasted little time and headed south to the appropriate spur and dropped to the correct watercourse. A little mistake at this stage of a rogaine is usually a good reminder that more care is needed and we took it by straight lining over rugged steep terrain to CP96 before dropping off the range and straight lining the 2km hike down to CP106. Counting watercourses and spurs and noting directions of each ensured we located 106 easily and moved on as we realised we were out of water. Given we each started with 3 litres and were well prehydrated the humidity and effort of climbing over the range was obviously taking its toll. A pretty north flowing creek proved ideal for a 5 – 10 minute sit down and water filling stop before climbing to CP104. From here we returned to the spur walking routine which allowed us to quickly pick up 95 and 97 with only occasional glances at compasses to ensure spur direction was as it should be. From 97 we again decided a little extra climbing would be preferable to dropping into the multiple and tricky spur / gullies presented by the straight line option. This proved a good choice as the watercourse junction near CP68 and the spur upon which it sat proved easy to spot. Followed tributaries to Wallaroo Ck (CP87) and then down Wallaroo Ck to Bridle Ck (CP69). A zigzag course from here (49, 67, 39, 47, 23, bearing to 38, 48 and 56, road home with side trips to 56 and 36) made best use of available tracks and apart from running out of water prior to the 5hr point, briefly following an unmarked road and me thinking we had an hour less than we did (better than a week more hey Tony) we returned to the Hash House without incident and with 15 minutes spare.

Completing a bush rogaine course was a first for either of us and probably reflects as much on Tony’s considered course setting as on how we went. We were however pretty chuffed we’d made only one very minor navigational error (5 minutes cost) in a six hour rogaine, chosen a route which was achievable and successful and covered nearly 30kms with considerable climbing in fairly hot and humid conditions.

Huge thanks to Tony Webster for coordinating and course setting in the middle of XPD preparation and international work commitments, the good crew at Rogaining NQ for the usual efficient administration, the beer glass and also for including an event early in the year and just prior to the Australian Championships (very helpful!) and all volunteers and helpers who make these very enjoyable events happen.

Darrens Sprained Ankle

By Darren Osmond, Brice Ruellan and Jason Thomson

Having taught many navigation courses in the Davies Creek area I was eager to do an event in this beautiful country which is so close to Cairns. I was also confident that Tony Webster would set a course which was suitable for experienced rogainers as well as beginners and it was definitely so.

The first glance at the map confirmed my assumptions about the course – that there would be many checkpoints close together which would make planning a challenge. Tony had also followed standard rogaining conventions well by carefully assigning more points to the further away and/or harder to navigate to controls.

We agreed on a map distance of about 15km for the 3 hours as a suitable course distance (probably 16-18km in real life including bends and elevation changes). The obvious beginner’s circuit of about 15 controls was only 10km so we looked further north to the hilly country. A high point-value course began to emerge by heading north up the western edge of the course and then collecting five high point (and altitude) value controls from west to east, before returning to the creek systems at the southern end of the map to finish with as many medium point value controls as possible.

We agreed on a point that we’d like to reach by the two-hour mark to then evaluate our options for the last hour. The event went very smoothly for the first 30 minutes and ahead of plan, however I sprained my ankle badly descending a spur and we were forced to spend 10 minutes strapping this to give some additional support. I had a choice of calling it a day and spending the next hour hobbling back, or continuing on the course for the next two hours as much of our climbing had already been done. I chose the latter option, which proved to be a good one from our competing in the event point of view. The photo above was taken 48 hours after the injury – it probably would have been a good idea to stop at the time!

Although we moved a little slower for the remainder of the event, we still managed about half running and navigation was relatively straightforward for our team. The highlight was descending a long, flat spur towards Wallaroo creek. Picking side spurs to descend from a larger spur or ridgeline is one of the most challenging navigational tasks but when you do it well it’s a great feeling. We took the last 30 minutes fairly easy as we were getting a little weary and the ankle was really starting to hurt. All told we covered a little less than 14km map distance.

Thanks to Tony for setting a quality event in beautiful country and for Mike and Adam for their administration expertise as usual.