Team POW/MIA Adventure Pt. 1

We all agreed that a dress rehearsal with all of our race gear was a good idea and Megan really wanted to ride the Berryman trail, so we decided to take a trip down there to test the waters.  Unfortunately Ryan had a family commitment and was unable make it out there with us.  He was definitely missed, misery loves company.
We met at White Castle at 9:30am Saturday morning, and convoyed out to Berryman.  We arrived at the campground around noon and quickly set up camp.  While setting everything up I discovered that one of my tent polls was broken, and realized that I need a new tent one that is free standing.  It was next to impossible to get my tent pegs into the ground but without them my tent doesn't stand up.
After setting everything up spirits were high as we prepared to go ride the trails.  The status of my wrist was cause for concern since I haven't been on my mountain bike for so long.  All I could do was give it a try and see how things went.  I was also under the impression that we were going out for a much shorter ride.  This is how I know my team makes up in determination anything they lack in skills and experience.  I'm the veteran the guy that gets out and does this stuff, and it was the other team members who are pretty new to this kind of thing who had no question that we were going to leave camp, ride the complete loop, and grill pork steaks when we were done.

Mark before the mechanical issues

We decided to ride in a counter clockwise direction because I thought that would be the easiest.  I forgot my Garmin, and my gloves, the gloves turned out to be no big deal but the Garmin would have been useful toward the end.  At first we were taking it slow as Megan and Mark got a feel for the trail but they came up to speed fairly quickly and I wasn't worried that they were going to do anything beyond their abilities.  It doesn't make sense to get hurt on a training expedition so close to the race.  Surprisingly my wrist felt fine, the brace really shored it up where it was needed and as long as I was careful there it didn't hurt a bit.  Somehow Megan mananged to hurt her wrist though.  She said that she just twisted it the wrong way.  I could see her going into therapist mode checking her range of motion and gauging the severity of the injury.  She said it would be ok and we continued on.  This team is full of tough individuals. 
At some point we stopped and discussed how far we were going to ride.  The only easy marker that I knew of was Brazil Creek which was roughly 10miles from where we started.  This was my first inclination that this was going to be a much longer ride than I thought.  I was game though.  We rode for what seemed to be a long time and came across another group of riders who told us that we had about a mile to go before we hit the creek.  The short stretch of road from the trail to the creek was a very welcome change especially for Mark since his bike had a rigid fork (Mark is hardcore for riding the trail on that bike). 

Megan Crossing Brazil Creek

Once we arrived at the creek I broke out my water filter and we filled our water bottles and bladders.  It was pretty hot out and we were drinking quite a bit of water.  I was glad that my pack had room for 2 bottles (I only brought 1 though).  The filter worked great and the water tasted good too.  Looking back if we hadn't had the filter we probably wouldn't have made it.  We took the opportunity to take some pictures riding through the creek even though the water wasn't very high, maybe 6-8inches at the crossing.  After a quick break we made our way up out of the creek.  This section is by far the steepest on the trail and we pushed our bikes to the top it was so muddy we couldn't have ridden even if we had wanted to. 
The second part of the trail seemed to be easier with long downhill runs that you could really fly down.  At times I was pretty far ahead of Megan and Mark because I just wanted to let it rip.  At one point I caught a pretty good sized stick in my rear wheel/derailleur area resulting in a severely bent derailleur hanger and a broken spoke.  Megan and Mark caught up to me and I told them that's usually what happens when you are the farthest away from the trail head.  Luckily I could bend the hanger back in place and the shifting was good for the most part.  There was really nothing I could do for the spoke, but anyone who knows me knows I have plenty of experience with broken spokes so I wasn't too concerned since it was just one.

My Trek

We rode on for a while without incident until we came to pretty good drop.  It wasn't huge or anything maybe knee high but it had to be ridden with a decnt amount of speed to avoid getting tossed over the bars.  I rode over it without a problem and Mark looked to be doing the same until his rear wheel came down.  I'm guessing that the vibration from the trail loosened his quick release and his wheel almost came off.  We stopped and made some adjustments, then rode and made some more adjustments.  It seemed like the wheel did not want to stay in place. Eventually we got it to stay but the I noticed that his front brake was unhooked.  Apparently it had been like that from the beginning.  He said he couldn't get it adjusted right so he went without it hooked up.  He said it would be ok, and since he made it this far without it...
We were all starting to wonder exactly how far it was to the end because daylight was in short supply.  Megan and Mark were smart enough to bring their lights so I wasn't that worried about the darkness.  I did have my headlamp so if it came down to it I did have a source of light.
After a long while we reached the Edward Beecher recreation area and once again had to refill our water supply at the spring.  When we stopped I was very worried because I could see an "aura".  This normally is a precursor to a migraine, and I didn't know how I would make it back if a migraine set in.  I grabbed some Aleve from Mark and hoped for the best.  Luckily a migraine never developed but I am at a loss for what caused the "aura".  Daylight was fading fast and we were anxious to get back so we didn't stay long.

Which way?

We hadn't gone very far when Mark had another mechanical issue with his bike.  He said his rear (only) brake wasn't working.  I checked it out and found that his brake cable had snapped.  This was real downer for all of us because it would slow our progress considerably.  We didn't know how far it was to camp or how long it would take us to get there but we all knew it was going to take a little longer.  Mark got back on the bike and started to ride.  Luckily the section we were in wasn't steep or technical so it worked out.  When he could ride he rode and when he couldn't we walked.  Sure it was a less than ideal situation but no one complained and we just kept moving forward.
At one point someone asked who would be the first person to hallucinate in the race.  I guessed it would be me because I have hallucinated at Berryman before when I thought I saw a bear that when I got closer turned out to be a log.  I know what you are thinking "If you thought it was a bear why did you get closer?" The answer is simple, I had run about 40miles at the time of the "sighting" and I was to tired to care about being eaten by a bear.  So as we were riding along I thought I saw someone standing on the side of the trail.  I was wondering what he was doing out on the trail.  Once we got up to where he was I realized he was actually a post.  So needless to say I am super excited to find out what hallucinations a 36hour race will bring on.
We kept going and going and going.  Keep in mind I had no watch and therefore had no concept of the passage of time other than now it was dark.  Even with lights it was too dangerous to ride since Mark had no breaks so we went into death march mode.
On and on we kept going.  When we saw the sign for the turn back to the campground we were very excited because we knew we were close.  It seemed to take forever to cover that last stretch of trail.  Finally there it was Mile marker 0 just a few more yards to the campground.  We were so relieved to be back. It was around 8pm so we had been out there on the trail for 7hours.
Megan and Mark got the fire going to throw down some pork steaks and I heated up my Chik'N.  The food tasted great.  We were too tired for s'mores and we went sleep in our tents.  Sunday we were going to meet up with Ryan for some paddling.
Before I settled in for the night I sent Beth a text to let her know that I was still alive.  I slept restlessly but woke up refreshed, without any soreness at all.  Mark and Megan felt refreshed too.  A blessing from the trail as a reward for our hard day.

We broke camp and headed to the Bird's Nest to meet up with Ryan for Part 2 of the weekend's adventure...