Ashurst Lake
Results
Saturday, September 21, 2018

We're excited to have opened a new area for our club. Ashurst Lake, about 5 miles east of Lake Mary, is a lesser known spot on the high plateau east of Flagstaff. With a more reliable water source than Lake Mary, Ashurst Lake is less affected by periods of low rainfall often experienced in the Flagstaff area. While the Lake Mary water levels fluctuate dramatically from season to season and year to year, Ashurst Lake surprisingly stays full. If you haven't visited Ashurst Lake, we recommend you take the short drive east of Lake Mary.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Ashurst Lake events. We really enjoyed exploring a new area. We hope you're able to join us for one of our upcoming events.

We had a small but experienced group of adventure racers for our race. We started the day with a 4 km trek around the lake. The trek is meant to separate the teams before they start on their bikes. We added one twist. Participants were allowed to use watercraft to travel to the trek point. Using watercraft cut the distance to about 1.6 km. Our friends Robert and Ross from Kayak Lake Meadiocre brought their high-end kayak and blasted through the trek (watercraft) course in 12 minutes. Andy and Tim brought less efficient kayaks to the race and did the out-and-back in just over 17 minutes. Our first runner Harry visited the trek point and returned in just over 24 minutes. There was definitely an advantage to bringing watercraft.

We followed the trek with a long bike section. We placed a total of 11 controls on a 31+ km course (straight-line distance). To make things more interesting, we made only 5 of the controls mandatory. Participants could decide to visit the 5 mandatory controls then return to do the foot portion of the race. This twist allowed racers to decide to collect more points on foot than on their bikes. In the past, only those with the strongest bike skills led the pack. In this event, a little strategy came into play. Three teams completed the entire bike course with Andy blasting through in just over 3 hours. Kayak Lake Meadiocre and Harry also finished the entire bike course. The other teams returned to the transition area to try to collect more points on foot.

The final section was a ~8.5 km Score-O with 18 controls. In a Score-O, participants try to find as many controls as they can in the amount of time they have left. George and Jaclyn from team "Quail on the Trail" finished the bike section having visited 6 controls but gave themselves a full 30 minutes extra on foot. The 13 controls they visited allowed them to leap-frog past two teams in the final standings. Andy had 30 minutes less on the foot portion of the race. His navigation skills allowed him to collect 14 controls.

With strong biking and navigation skills, Andy came out as the overall winner with 25 points (he lost 1 point by arriving 40 seconds over the 5 hour time limit). George and Jaclyn, with their strategic decision to cut the bike section short, collected 20 total controls. Kayak Lake Mediocre and Tim battled out for third and fourth with 18 and 17 controls.

It's worth noting that Harry, with 13 controls, had decided early on that he was going to complete the bike section. He did finish the bike section but with the time he took on the bike, he was only able to visit one control on foot. The payoff was that he explored the entire bike route.

We also had one participant who is fairly new to adventure racing. Telia rented a bike for the weekend in order to join us for our event. While her bike muscle's aren't as strong as Andy's, she finished the mandatory bike course and was able to collect a fair amount of controls on foot. Her navigation skills allowed her to score well when compared to the other racers.

We had a small but dedicated group join us for our Score-O. In a Score-O, participants visit as many destinations as they can in a given time. Control markers located further from the start/finish are worth more points than destinations close by. We placed 18 controls in a ~8.5 km course (straight-line distance). We added an unexpected twist with our control near Ashurst Spring. Bow-hunting season recently started. Some of our participants reported contact with a local bow hunter near the spring. Knowing that there was a hunter in the area could have slowed the progress for some of our participants.

Jeff Brucker made the drive all the way from Tucson to join us for our event. He won the Score-O by navigating to 12 controls on a very rocky course. Tina, Yvonne, and Brad also had respectable results visiting 8 controls in the alloted time. Becky and David visited 10 controls but were penalized for being slightly over time.

Only one team joined us for our Bike-O. The Bike-O traveled the same course as was used by our adventure racers. Irene and her son Max braved the morning winds to visit 6 controls in just over 2 hours. It was nice to see them exploring a new area with us.