POLARIS MTB CHALLENGE 1999
After months of anticipation the big weekend finally
arrived. We were on our way to Laurel Hill, to the west of the Snowy Mountains
in south western NSW. Having heard the buzz from last year's Polaris Challenge,
I decided to have a go this time around, so I convinced Dave to join me
(though it didn't take too much arm twisting) and we launched into training.
Perhaps launched isn't the right word. By the end
of December I had lost almost all of the fitness that I had built up by
riding to uni, and I was pretty unfit. Time for some New Year's resolutions.
Nothing too drastic, though. I was going to get out on the road and do
some long distances, as well as doing as much mountain biking as possible.
At least I kept the second one, with a few stupidly long off road epics
thrown in, so I was getting into reasonable shape. Then uni started, and
with a couple of weeks of bad weather my fitness again suffered.
With two weeks to go before the event, we received
the map and other information, so we finally knew where we were going.
It looked pretty hilly on the map, an impression later confirmed on the
ground, with a maze of forestry roads marked in. We loaded up all the gear
we were going to take and set out for a ride in the Blue Mountains, riding
the Anderson's and Oaks fire trails. It was on this ride that I discovered
that my pack was too tall, and pushed my helmet over my eyes so that I
couldn't see ahead very well. I decided that I would split my gear between
panniers and a smaller day pack.
On the Thursday night before the weekend of the
challenge, I drove over to Dave's house and we loaded his gear into the
car so that we could leave straight from uni the next day. When I got there
Dave had just finished fixing his hub, and still hadn't finished packing!
After some stuffing around, he eventually sorted himself out, and so I
drove home to get some sleep. This proved surprisingly easy, considering
how much I was looking forward to the weekend.
Friday morning was spent at uni in classes, but
I was in such a good mood and was so excited about the challenge that I
knew I couldn't sit through the rest of the day. I arranged to borrow some
lecture notes, and went to find Dave in the Physics department. After watching
him play with some radioactive stuff for half an hour or so, we left to
drive down to the event area. Sharing the driving, we made good progress,
and arrived after five hours while it was still light. The final hour of
driving along winding country roads was particularly fun.
We set up our tent close to the car, then went off
to register, picking up our control card and team numbers, as well as a
showbag of schwag (Clif bars, a copy of AMB and some fruit juice) and the
T-shirts we had ordered. We discovered that there were only four teams,
including us, in the under 21 category, so we had a pretty good chance
of winning a prize. We then had dinner at the event centre, conveniently
supplied by Laurel Hill Forest Lodge. After dinner we had a look at the
master maps, which showed additional information about the area, though
there were only a few things that had to be added.
By this time night had fallen, and the sky was clear,
giving an incredible view of the stars. We spent some time in the tent
carefully marking in all of the controls then unrolled our sleeping mats
on the grass outside and gazed up at the sky. Dragging ourselves away from
the spectacle, we prepared our gear for the next day and then retired for
the night.
Saturday
Saturday dawned cool and clear. We woke up far too
early for my liking, but we had to get ready for our 8 o'clock start. We
packed up our gear and got our bikes ready, then went up to the lodge for
breakfast. Then it was finally time to start.
After being marked off a roll, we were herded into a pen at the start line
like sheep. We were briefed by Huw Kingston, the organiser of the event,
before setting off to the give out point. Here we were handed slips of
paper showing us which controls were live for the day, and how many points
they were worth. We spent about 10 minutes here, crouched over the map
and trying to decide which way to go. We chose a route which would take
us north, then wind down through the eastern side of the event area.
We headed out along a dirt road which met up with the main road, passing
a group of brumbies, and rode along the tar up to the town of Laurel Hill,
before turning off into the state forest. After a few hundred metres we
came to Sugarpine Walk. This was an incredible corridor through massive
pine trees stretching uphill into the distance. It was dead straight, with
dead straight rows of mature pines towering above us. As Peter McConaghy
said later, it looked like something out of "Bike" magazine, with tiny
riders in the distance set against a backdrop of pines. The view helped
to block out the fact that riding uphill along pine needles required the
granny gear all the way, and when we reached the top we clipped our control
card at control 26 and picked up our first 10 points for the day.
Feeling good at this stage, we continued on down
from the control, and along some slightly overgrown trails until we reached
some power lines and realised, after some 20 minutes of head scratching,
that we were nowhere near where we were meant to be, but at least we sorted
out exactly where we were. The trail we were following deteriorated rapidly,
blocked first by fallen trees, and then by blackberry bushes up to our
thighs. It was along this section that I broke the retention system of
one of my panniers, losing the spring which is needed to hold the pannier
in place. I bodged something up with some zip ties and we continued on.
Somewhere along this track we missed a turn off
which probably didn't exist anyway, and ended up scratching our heads once
more, though not for nearly as long. While I fixed a puncture in my front
tyre caused by the blackberry bushes, Dave sorted out where we were, and
we headed down to the creek which we needed to cross the get to the next
control, and discovered that bushes blocked this way.
No worries we thought, as there was another crossing
about 300 metres up the track. We started up this way, but when the blackberries
reached waist height we decided this was a bad idea, and headed back to
our original crossing point. Another team was here, and when we followed
them through the bushes it turned out that it took about 30 seconds to
get through. D'oh! We rode up the hill for a bit and finally got to control
27, worth 20 points. Another team which we had seen at the Sugarpine Walk
arrived here at the same time, except they had also visited control 31
on the way and picked up another 20 points and fewer scratches. Oh well.
We continued up a reasonably good track where Dave
managed to stack while riding along a smooth, wide 'rut'. He claims that
he went down because the weight in his pack shifted, and I can't think
how else it could have happened. We made it to a gravel road which went
past control 30 at the picnic ground, scoring an easy 10 points. After
a short break, we continued uphill along this gravel road for a few kays.
It was now that we saw our first and only logging truck, a B-double which
threw up an incredible amount of dust. Unable to hold our breath for long
enough, we ended up sucking in a fair bit of dust. Riding along this road
we saw Frank van Zanten flying down the hill the other way.
The turn off to the next control, at a trig point, was easy to find as
many teams were heading up there. The route up was marked by tape, and
we tried to ride the track but the number of people on the track and its
gnarly nature made things difficult. At the top we clipped our card at
control 29 for 30 points. We also bumped into Peter and Will Ward here,
and shortly after Frank turned up, having missed the turn off. We started
to ride back down the track, but my pannier bodge gave up and the pannier
bounced off my rack. Zip tying it together again, we continued, albeit
more cautiously, down the hill.
It was around this time that the sole of my left
shoe decided to snap in two across where the cleat was attached. I'm not
exactly sure where it happened, but soon after the shoe started to feel
odd. I didn't want to stop and check it, thinking that I may as well keep
going because it still worked. My left knee started hurting quite a lot,
and I think it was caused by the shoe. Anyway, I didn't know what had happened
until I was sitting down at the campsite and someone asked me if I realised
that my shoe had snapped in half. Anyway, back to the story.
Riding along a track littered with branches and
leaves my pannier made another bid for freedom, and so Dave took my sleeping
bag from it and we tried another bodge. When, along the same track,
it came free again we gave up, and I strapped it to the back of my pack.
In this part of the forest the trails were marked with signs, so it wasn't
difficult to find the next control, number 28, earning us 20 more points.
We had a nice downhill to a gravel road, then along this to a dirt road
in good condition, which went downhill all the way to the ruins of an old
hut where control 25 was located, giving us another 20 points. From this
point on the controls became a lot more sparse and widely separated. It
was then a nice slog uphill, passing a group of cows grazing in the forest,
and along a ridge line on a good quality dirt road, crossing numerous small
saddles, before we dropped down to an ancient and structurally unsound
ute where control 10 yielded 10 points.
Our route then followed a long, twisty track, covered in dead branches
and leaf litter, downhill. On this track my second pannier broke free,
as I lost the hook which connects the spring to the bottom of my rack.
Luckily, when the first pannier broke, I had found the hook, and with a
bit of cursing and swearing I bent the spring sufficiently that it could
hold the hook. This pannier continued to give me grief for the rest of
the weekend, as it managed to bounce free about a dozen times.
The twisty track eventually reached an intersection,
where we turned down a rough, rutted track which had me wishing I didn't
have to worry about my pannier. There were many such tracks which we covered
over the weekend where it would have been nice to be able to throw the
bike around like I normally would. This track smoothed out a bit, and undulated
along the side of a steep hill for some time, before we reached control
9 at a creek. 20 points to add to our collection.
As we rode along this undulating track I was starting
to get worried about us running out of time to get to the overnight camp,
and I would have been even more worried if I had known that at this stage
the watch I was wearing was slowly dying, and had lost 10 minutes over
the day. After a couple of kilometres my fear was allayed as we reached
a screamer of a downhill along a dirt road. We went through a gate into
a farm, and down a steep hill to control 5 at a creek, worth 10 points.
On our way down we had seen a map on the track, about two kilometres up,
and here we ran into Simon Hayes, whose team had lost that map.
From here there was a short, sharp climb as we continued
along the farm road, then downhill to a gate and onto the tar for the quick
downhill to Tumbarumba. After riding up and over a few rolling hills through
the edge of the town, we had a final short climb, before turning off the
road and into the local race course which was used as the overnight camp.
The place looked like it hadn't been used for quite some time. We got here
with 11 minutes to spare in 6:49, having travelled 63km and accumulating
150 points.
When we arrived we met up with Kevin (the nudist) and his team mate Jim.
Later we were joined by Peter and Will, Simon and Mark, Chris Collier and
his partner, and, eventually, Trevor Ho and Allan, forming a bit of an
MTB-OZ ghetto in the campsite. There were a lot of other listies around
the place who visited at various times. We sat around for a while, feeling
exhausted, drinking cold drinks which the VRA were selling, and swapping
stories about the events of the day.
Carol Layton and Stephen had particularly bad luck,
getting stuck in blackberries and having a ridiculous number of punctures,
and considering pulling out on the first day. This bad luck did, however,
win them a spot prize, though they had already left to go home when the
prize was awarded. Trevor at one stage got cramps so badly that Allan
couldn't even bend his leg by force, and he had to be driven to the overnight
camp.
At some point the provisional results for day one
were posted on a notice board. In the under 21 category we were coming
second, though this was only because we took longer as the top three teams
all had 150 points, while the fourth was on 130. It was going to be pretty
close, so Dave and I decided that we had to try to be competitive on day
two.
After a fair amount of lazing about, we all decided to set up tents and
cook dinner while we still had good light. A variety of different high
carbohydrate foods was brought out and cooked on trangias or MSR burners.
I had several packets of 2-minute noodles, and Dave had some rice.
It was soon time for the Tumbarumba Cup. Despite
having ridden around all day, there were quite a few willing contestants
for the Tumbarumba Cup, a 1.5km sprint race around the racecourse. As the
competitors waited on the start line, the attention of the spectators was
drawn to a grass fire which had started in the middle of the campsite,
perilously close to several tents. Luckily it was extinguished, and the
gaze of the crowd returned to the race. Not surprisingly the race was taken
out by John Hardwick.
The highlight of the evening was definitely the
alternative Tumbarumba Cup, when four guys rode past the finish line completely
naked, and then turned around and went back, presumably to get their clothes.
Kevin claimed that he would have joined them if he had known about it in
time, and we all know that Kevin isn't shy about doing that sort of thing.
The rest of the evening was spent sitting around
talking, largely about gender politics and the stars. This night the stars
looked even better than on Friday, if that was at all possible. The only
problem was the occasional very brief, but nonetheless annoying, showers.
With the clear sky it got cold very quickly, and it wasn't too long before
Dave and I decided to retire to our tents, Dave giving a running commentary
to all those around him as he got into his sleeping bag. Those tent walls
are pretty thin, so the sound travelled straight through.
Click on the picture for a larger version
Sunday
Sunday morning was absolutely freezing. Even with
all of my warm clothes on I was cold, and I lit my trangia to use to warm
my hands. Dave and I took our time packing up, eating breakfast bars along
the way. I took my sleeping bag back from Dave, and put it in my one relatively
intact pannier, while the tent went into my bag and I did a better job
of strapping the other pannier to the bag. Once again we had an 8 o'clock
start, so it wasn't too long before we made our way to the start line.
We repeated the same start process as on Saturday,
herded into the start area before riding up to the give out point to plan
the day's route. We saw that the trig point at the top of mount Tumbarumba
was worth a whopping 60 points, so we decided to start out riding back
the same way as we had come on Saturday and then turn off to the trig.
We headed back up the tar through Tumbarumba, and up the hill we had come
down.
Along the road my knee was hurting, but when we
got to the first farm road uphill it was so painful I had to get off and
walk. Riding down the other side of the hill my pannier came off once again,
and I threw my bike to the ground, and was almost crying tears of frustration.
I rolled down to the first control at the creek, number 5, which was worth
20 points. Here I took a Panadol, and walked up the next uphill before
it kicked in. I'm glad that it was in the compulsory equipment list, as
I wouldn't otherwise have brought it.
When we reached the gate into the forest the pain
had subsided sufficiently that I could ride the uphill. We decided to take
a short cut, taking a track which led up the side of the fence line, rather
than continuing up the road and turning right. This didn't really help
though. The track levelled out, then became a steep winding uphill which
took about half an hour to grind up. At the top we found control 4 and
picked up our 60 points, but we were a little disappointed at the lack
of a view from here.
When I unclipped here I left half of my sole sitting
clipped on my left pedal. This problem continued later, and I was forced
to unclip on my right side which, to me, was completely unnatural and surprisingly
difficult. However difficult the uphill was, it was thoroughly worthwhile
when we got to do the hill back down. It was great fun, and I only lost
my pannier once (coincidentally just as Carol was riding up the other way).
We took a right turn, rode up over a small hill before about two kays of
downhill back to the road. This was where we rejoined the route we took
on Saturday afternoon.
We climbed up a short hill before following the
undulating track along the side of the hill. We clipped our card for control
9 before realised that it wasn't active. Just to rub it in, Steph Maxwell
and Richard Bontjer rode past, with Steph saying something like, "No point
stopping for that one". At least we were going this way anyway. We pressed
on, reaching the start of the rutted hill which we had ridden down, climbing
200m in 2km before following the contours around to the creek where control
11 was, giving us 30 points.
After this we continued the grind upwards to the
road which led down to the the old ute yesterday, and then cruised along
it until we reached the turn off to Cockneys Spur which was signposted,
but pretty overgrown. We were going to head down this way to control 24
at the saw pile. We decided to try the track as, despite being covered
in dead branches and leaves, it was downhill and passable. Another team
joined us at this point.
After 1.5km we reached a junction, where the road
we were on was meant to continue down. We couldn't even find a trace of
this road, so we decided that we didn't want to get stuck in a hole and
rode up the hill back to the road which we had left. The other team stuck
around to try to find the road. Meanwhile, we cruised down the good quality
dirt road to the ruined hut turn off, before turning up the hill and riding
to the main gravel road.
This road undulated for a bit, before a long, fast
downhill to a turn off. As I came around a blind corner I nearly became
intimate with a van which was on the wrong side of the road, presumably
trying to use the same smooth line as I was. We turned off this road onto
a fantastic section of downhill doubletrack to control 23 to pick up 10
points. Here we met Kevin and Jim, and Peter and Will. Kevin said something
about kicking our schoolboy arses up the next hill.
After a short rise, we came to another section of
downhill doubletrack, plunging to a gravel road for the final big climb
back to the event centre and the finish. It was hot, and open to the sun,
and we were all grinding up slowly in a largish group. We ran into Simon
on the way up as he had completely run out of energy and was walking. With
Kevin's words ringing in his ears, Dave picked up the pace, and with only
a short distance to go, the event centre just across a gully not far away,
I managed to increase my speed to keep up. The others were left in our
wake.
We reached the tar, just one kilometre to go, and
Dave continued to surge ahead, leaving me about 100m behind. At the entrance
to the event centre he waited, and we cruised up the driveway to the finish
line together. We arrived here after 4:36, 44km of riding and 120 points.
It wasn't all over yet. We had to have our gear
checked, and were asked to produce our warm tops, sleeping bags and whistles.
We passed this test, while others didn't. One team had used a plastic sheet
for a tent, and thrown it away at the overnight camp. Many were missing
a whistle. Some were missing hats, compasses or adequately warm tops. One
team was disqualified for leaving their 12 year old son unsupervised at
the event centre! We handed in our numbers and received tickets for lunch
in return.
As nice as it was, I don't think the people providing
the lunch were mountain bikers. Dave and I could easily have eaten three
times as much. Anyway, we sat in the shade, eating our lunch and marking
out where we had been on our map, and watching as other teams arrived.
As successive score updates were posted, it became
clear that we may have a chance of winning our category. At last all four
under 21 teams were up. With 270 points we just beat the second placed
team, who also earned 270 points, but lost 3 as they were late home on
day 2. We were more pleased with our position overall though, coming 28th
out of 170 teams.
We farewelled many listies as they left to return
to Sydney, while we stuck around, lounging in the sun, because we had to
pick up a prize. Frank and his partner arrived back just before the presentation
began after they got lost.
At last the presentation was ready to proceed, with
sponsors' banners moved so that the audience could sit in the shade. John
Hardwick and Dave Wood won the overall and men's, with listies Steph Maxwell
(wearing the list T-shirt) and Richard Bontjer taking out the mixed category.
When it was our turn, Dave acknowledged the closeness of our category,
with 3 minutes between us and second place. We won an activent jacket each
for our troubles, though this was a bonus after such a great weekend.
With the presentation over, we left for the drive
back to Sydney. This time in shorter shifts we split the driving. At Marulan
we stopped for dinner at Hungry Jacks, and saw many Polaris entrants including
John Hardwick and Dave Wood. We swapped the XL jacket we had won for their
L jacket, as neither Dave nor I fit into the extra large category, and
they were going to be swapping their jackets for something else anyway.
The rest of the drive was uneventful, and I dropped
Dave off at his home, before heading home myself to a nice warm shower
and a good sleep.
There were a number of lessons we learnt from the
weekend which we'll apply at the next Polaris. The main ones were:
Lesson no.1: Don't enter early, as the earlier you enter, the
earlier in the morning you have to start.
Lesson no.2: Despite being marked on the map using exactly the
same type of lines, forestry roads
can vary from wide, perfectly smooth dirt roads to overgrown tracks scattered
with
leaves and branches to gaps in the trees filled with waist deep blackberry
bushes to
not existing at all.
Lesson no.3: Test your equipment before trying to use it on
something like this. Those panniers are
never going to be used off road again
Lesson no.4: Murphy's Law always applies, eg the shoes which
you have used without a problem
for 2 years might decide to snap
Lesson no.5: A map holder is a very good piece of equipment
to have. We were forever removing
and replacing our map as we couldn't find anywhere to put it where it wouldn't
bounce out on rough tracks
Lesson no.6: Don't take too much food. I brought about twice
as much as I ended up eating
Lesson no.7: Buy sturdier zip ties
For more information about the event, go to the Polaris
Challenge website
To read reports on all three Polaris Challenges which have been
held, go to Roy's
MTB Page
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