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Contents 1 2009 Impossible Panther Info 2 2009 Impossible Panther Pictures 3 2009 Impossible Panther Maps 4 2009 Impossible Panther Website 5 2009 Impossible Panther Results 6 2009 Impossible Panther Reviews 6.1 Josh's Take 6.2 Joanna's Take 6.3 Ben's Take

2009 Impossible Panther Info

Bushwhack Adventures Impossible Panther

• Date: June 5th-6th
• Location: Albermarle, NC
• Event Details: 24 hours
• Event Description: Bushwhack Adventures is taking the Impossible Panther AR to new lengths - 24 hours! Adventure racers have enjoyed the challenges and scenery of the Uwharrie Lakes Region. With 24 hours on the clock, Bushwhack will be able to introduce racers to even more of this beautiful area. For racers not quite ready for a 24 hour event, there will be at least one shorter course option available, maybe two. The course designers are still hard at work laying out another great course, so final details are not available yet.
• Event Points Category:
  • Checkpoint Tracker Day Race
• Team Registered: Josh, Joanna, Ben Culbertson (recruit), Jack (support)

Format:

• 24 Hour. Full rogaine sections joined together linearly.

2009 Impossible Panther Pictures

2009 Impossible Panther
Pre-Race Strategy	Pre-Race Meeting	Surprise O-Course Start	Dropping Bikes for O-Course
Drum Circle At Start	Coming Back From O-Course	Leaving On Bikes	Plotting Points At TA
Arachnophobia	Troll-Placed CP	Running Into Paddle TA	TA2 Canoe Put-in
Canoe Start	Trekking the Canoe Section	After Party

2009 Impossible Panther Maps

2009 Impossible Panther Website

2009 Impossible Panther

2009 Impossible Panther Results

Placed 2nd in 3-person co-ed division (2nd overall) with 2080 Points (out of 2320) and a time of 23:59 (1 minute before cutoff).

• Summary Results (PDF)
• Detailed Results (Detailed)

2009 Impossible Panther Reviews

Josh's Take

Oh man, I still get pumped thinking back to this race after a week has passed.

We fielded a team to the 2007 Impossible Panther and followed it up with 2 teams at the 2007 Gold Nugget. Both races were a lot of fun, and Don Childrey knows the race area very well (after all, he wrote a book on it), so we knew the 24-Hour Impossible Panther would be cool also. He had stuck a 1:7500 scale orienteering course in the middle of the Gold Nugget, and so we were hoping that he would do the same for the Impossible Panther.

More important than the race is what happened leading up to it. Our support crew for it cancels the weekend before. So it was a mad scramble to find someone to help us out. Then we realized we needed a vehicle capable of carrying all those folks and bikes and a boat--my van was the only candidate and I only had a strappy rack capable of carrying 2 bikes. Not only that, but the air conditioner on it was out. Then the boat we were going to use (the Lincoln) ended up having a hole in it. Lastly, Ben's bike is a single-speed. All of these challenges the week before the race.

Getting There

Ben managed to borrow a bike from a friend "with deraillers and cassette thingies". Scrounging, I borrowed a strappy rack that carried 3 bikes. We had to get the Grumman right before the race to use as a boat. The van AC would have to wait, but I did remove some seats in it to allow for a more comfortable trip. And just as we were scheduling the paid race management support option, Jack calls saying he can support the race!

Go Time

With quite earnestly the hardest and most stressful part of the race behind us, it was time to race.

Knowing Don Childrey's support of plot-on-the clock racing, we weren't sure we'd be getting any CPs with our maps at 5pm on Friday, but we showed up early to pick up our maps anyway. There were CPs given enough to give us an overview of the course and the initial two sections, but that was all. The rest was guesswork as to what the race included.

Format

The race was setup in sequential rogaine sections. Bike, Bike, Trek, River Paddle, Orienteer/Trek, Lake Paddle, Rappel, Bike. The only exception to the sequential part is that any/all CPs from the first Bike leg could also be accomplished during the last Bike leg, at the option of the racer. Don claimed that the course was clearable by 3-4 teams, so we started out with some restrained hopes of doing so.

The Gun Goes Off

We barely managed to plot the points, form a strategy, get gear packed, and sync up with Jack (who came separately and after us) before the start of the race. Both Shake-A-Leg Miami and us were still packing when the race started! We quickly made our way to the starting line to receive the surprise prologue instructions--a 1:5000 scale orienteering map, with A1,A2,A3,B1,B2,B3 plotted on it, whose points we were to choose a letter A or B and get by foot. We practiced self control (I usually sprint out of the gate in the wrong direction) and used deliberate attack points to hit the A course right on. Most of the way we were conserving energy, committing to start racing after the prologue in order to avoid potential mistakes (again, early race jitters have traditionally caused havok at our race starts). We did so, made it back from the prologue in the middle of the pack, and then turned it on for the first leg of the race--Overlord.

We turned it on so well, in fact, that I hit a rock and had a blowout at the first bike point we were hitting. As we quickly changed our tire, many teams we had passed on the way there had trickled in. Joanna ripped the tire off and began with the new one in no time! The first bike point has an intersection that wasn't on the map, right before the one that was on the map (where the CP was placed), so it was comical to see all of the headlamps searching for it in the dark while we changed our tire. After we changed our tire, we ran of, got it, and returned to find the rest of the group heading up the trail to get it. We had pushed our bikes up the hill whereas most had dropped them, so we got to ride out.

We caught up to some of the chase pack on the bike out, made our way ahead out of eye sight, then breezed by the second bike point, which was one of the 1st leg's 3 CPs that we could opt to get in the final leg of the race. We hit the 3rd bike CP at the top of the mountain with Team GLR, and then made our way to CP4. We crossed the river early when the biking single tract got tough to go quickly on and it paid off. The water was waist deep. We hit CP4 20 minutes behind CP0, which was encouraging for us given our blowout.

Making our way to the southern bike section (Market Garden), we devised a strategy to zigzag South, getting all of the points along the way, and then take the long way back up along the road (24/27 to 1124 to 1146). I had learned from the 2007 Blue Ridge AR that sometimes the longer path can be the faster one. As we exited CP7 south, we saw Shake-A-Leg Miami, hot on our heels, and they seemed confused by our direction. The strategy paid off, as we again were very close to CP0 on split time.

We Walk From Here

At the TA, we would finally be getting off the bikes and onto the first trekking section of the race--our strong point. Ironically, this section ended up being one of our slower sections relative to others, due primarily to CP17 and CP14. CP17 was tricky because the overlaid and original road markings on the map were on either side of the CP. We figured it was off the overlaid trail and were correct, but had passed up the CP a couple of times and had to pace count our way to this slightly hidden one. We had CP14 plotted on the southern bend of the stream, when it was placed in the reentrant south of it. We discovered it while going to the reentrant to re-attack it. The latter CP took us roughly 20 minutes once there.

Catch-Up Game

We came out of the trek section 1 hour behind the recommended time for having reached that point, and while having skipped one bike CP already. Since most of the other estimates were right on for us, we knew we'd probably not be able to make up the lost time and clear the course, and that somewhere, we'd have to cut out 1 hour's worth of CPs. The first river paddle changed the game up yet again, though, as what was expected to take 3 hours took us 1.5, as storms in the mountains rose the water level and what was the waste-deep water that we had crossed earlier in the night was now class 1 and 2 rapids at least 3 feet higher. At one CP we almost took a spill as we spun the boat around to a stop right by the CP. We made our way to the orienteering course, where we'd plot the final CPs in the race.

Back On Track

With 30 minutes ahead of the course clearing schedule, we now had hopes of once again being able to clear it. The question looming in our minds was how far ahead of the trailing teams, who may be one CP ahead of us due to our skipped CP, we were. We made a route for clearing the O-course, dumped the water we thought we didn't need to drop weight, and took off. The Morrow Mountain O-Course gave me a chance to rest my brain, as Ben became the primary navigator, and I supported him. We were in the heat of the day at this point, and I was pouring sweat. I actually ran out of water on this section as we approached Sugarloaf Mountain, and I realized that when I was dumping out water I had not considered the fact that I had been drinking it along the river paddling leg and overestimated how much water I had left. Joanna and Ben still had water, and I so I was sharing with Joanna until we could get to the water stop along the way. On top of Sugarloaf Mountain, we were all a bit tired of trekking, we spent some time in the rhododendren looking for CP27, which CP0 took a nice video of here. After that, I had a big morale boost from the water spiket at the park's visitor's center.

Chaos

We went back to the paddle TA to get back into the boats and paddle to the dam, getting CPs along the way. We were right on the estimated timings, with much less stuff to do at the remaining TAs, since all our points were now plotted. So we fancied ourselves in a good position. Back at the TA, we portaged the canoe as best we could to make headway against the water moving from the dam. When we put in, it was a exercise in frustration! We made over 10 exhausting minutes perhaps 400 meters of progress against the fast moving water. Apparently they had opened wide the dam and what was very calm water was now moving at 3-4mph along the shore (no telling the speed in the main channel) against our boat, which could muster 4-4.5mph. The problem was we were 3km downstream of the planned canoe take-out! So we got back to the shore, and planned on portaging it. It would be tough, but if the trails permitted, we might be able to do it. The risk: there was no indication of any trails on the map. So we made an attempt at a portage, then got turned around on a trail, and ended up doing a loop back to the paddle TA. Burned about 40-60 minutes on this smooth one. In our minds at this point, there was no portaging option available anymore. We figured that any team that could make it across would have a good chance of winning. There were two options for getting across.

• Paddling directly across from the TA and hitting the trail north of the river we came in on.
• Trekking to the canoe points and swimming the river to the rappel.

We decided on the latter, as we'd accumulate more points in the doing and had better odds of making the high-value rappel, which was open from 12pm-6pm.

Forced March

We were happy after the orienteering course to be off our feet, but that happiness ended relatively quickly, as we slapped pavement on our way to the canoe points. We took the road up, bushwhacked down to CP33, came back up, continued on, stopped for a water break in the small community to the west of CP34, as Ben had run out, then headed to CP34. On our way we caught a glimpse of the dam release. Not only had they fully opened it, but there was a ton of water coming over the spillway. It was amazing to watch the class VI water as it launched from beneath the dam and pounded the rocks. It would have crumbled up a school bus and spit it out like a watermelon seed. AWESOME! So we went on to CP34, knowing that CP35 (on the peninsula south of the dam) was gone as the peninsula was made of up the rocks that were being crushed by the water.

Swim For It

We were surprised to find other teams were punching CP34 as we came upon it. When we found out that they were part of the shorter race going on simultaneously, our hope in our tactics to get to the paddle points stayed alive. We thought there was a chance that we'd be the only team to reach them, giving us a 150 point advantage over others who might have simply made their way across the river without getting any CPs. We prepared for the swim by putting everything in our packs and putting our backpacks on over our PFDs. We jumped into the cold water (released from the bottom of the dam) from CP34, hoping to swim across at the point of the rappel. The water was moving at 4-7mph in Class I and IIs at that point, and so before we even got into the main channel, we had passed the rappel. We chuckled that they probably assumed from the rappel that we had lost our boat! Ben's collegiate swimming came in handy here, as Joanna had some difficulty in getting away from the shoreline and swallowed some water in the waves. Once in the main channel, the water was moving faster and so we were separating slightly. My attempts to swim against the main channel's current so Joanna would catch up only matched pace, but Ben was able to swim to the shore to her and make his way up. She used him to get away from the shoreline by pushing with her feet off his chest; he's swim up, and she'd repeat. Once in the main channel, it was time to swim like mad so that we could get across it before the bend 1km south of the rappel. We made it, and bushwhacked up and over to the rappel with 30 minutes to spare. Whew! Joanna hugged Ben for saving her and we celebrated getting across as Ben did the rappel by eating some Funky Monkey! At the rappel, we learned that many teams had made their way across the river and to the rappel to our dismay. We knew it could be close: we had a lead by gaining canoe points, but given the time lead they had on us to the rappel, they could get more bike points in the final section.

Finish

The final transition left us without a support crew, as Jack had tagged us as MIA for the 5 hours we had taken to trek, swim, and rappel before getting back to the TA, and he had gone to pickup our canoe at the paddle put-in. After transition, we had 1.5 hours to get back to the finish. We knew we'd be hitting CP38 on the way out, but now it was time to decide what others we could get. We figured if we could also get to CP41, which was worth 70 points, was mostly road, but a bit out of the way, we'd have an option of CP3 (which we skipped on the 1st bike leg) and CP33 if we had time. After reaching CP38 and burning 30 minutes to get there on a mostly uphill, rocky and almost unrideable trail, we rethought our strategy. We quickly decided to get CP42, then east and could get CP33 if time permitted on the way to the finish. The path to CP42 proved to be similar, and we ended up halfway riding, halfway walking the bikes along the muddy and rock-infested trails, until we finally dropped them at the intersection that would be our exit 1km south of the CP42. All eyes were on the clock now. We speed hiked/ran down to the CP, got it, and returned as fast as we could to the intersection. We rode downhill and east until we found our bushwhack point north where we could get on a road and off that crappy trail. We had 15 minutes at this point, and I figured we had 5 minutes to spare. We came out a bit west on the road and so when we came upon the first T where we were supposed to take a left, we did and then proceeded to loop around a campground!!! NO!!! We had lost our 5 minute buffer, but we were on track to the finish. We started burning it and rode as hard as we could to the finish. With 800m to go, we had 3 minutes give or take. I was hoping the official race clock would be lenient, as we had no idea how other teams had fared at this point. At a penalty of 20 points per minute past cutoff, the consequences of not making cut-off were steep. With 15 seconds to spare, heart about to explode, we crossed the finish line as the last team to make the cutoff.

Summary

Given the week before, we were ready to race. And we didn't upset--the race was epic for us. From chasing CP0 for a large portion of the race, to strategies working out, to swimming the 600 meters across fast-moving and turbulent water, to the down-to-the-wire finish. Coming off of two upsetting finishes, morale was up the vast majority of the race, and our momentum throughout the race reflected it.

Joanna's Take

Ben's Take

• Navigation domination!
• Are there Life Guards on this River?
• We’ve got 15 seconds to spare! Should have gotten another Point!
• 2nd place cuz we're 3008, and you are so 2000 and late!!!!

So the drive up without AC was not that bad and things were looking up after we got final conformation at 1:30 that we did have support for the race (Jack) which was a relief. We got in the camp with an hour to set up before we could check in, pick up the map, and the first set of points to plot. We spent some time setting a basic plan knowing that with over half of the points still unknown we would need to make adjustments but from the clues and the TA’s that we plotted we had a good idea of what to expect.

The start was a little crazy with a “surprise” prologue but we just took it easy and relaxed at the start, I get competitive and want to race out of the gate but Josh and Joanne chilled me out. After the prologue we got our passports and had maybe 25-30min of light as we started out “when on bike”. I remember some fun trail through the night and some great nav by Josh kept most of the seeking short however at the first point CP2 Josh got a flat which brought every other team swarming around us searching for the point which we watched and then after the repair went straight to the point and got out with Josh making the comment “well I guess we’ll just move on” as we passed a group of teams. We crossed the river when it was still only about marbles high and pushed on without to much trouble that I can remember. During the pre-race the RD had mentioned that there was a route from the southern part of the “while on bike” that was not off limits but that “you’d be lost if you were down that far” well we had seen the road and clocked the distance at about 15k so we took it and I think we made really good time on that getting back out to the next TA.

• Cleared all points but CP3 which was an optional to get later in the race.

Before beginning the trek we got some real food by using the Wave Box plotted the next set of points and set out. Right now this section is a blur to me nothing really crazy happened we just had fun stayed up beat and focused on being accurate. At the manned points we could tell that we were about 1 hour behind the lead team and we got to the canoe TA about an hour behind the RD projected time.

• Cleared all points in this section.

The water was clearly not what was predicted at the beginning of the race so there was no worry of needing to carry the canoe through low spots and we made great time taking advantage of the flow plus Joshes new paddle just paddled itself. We took care to pick out lines through the rapids and made sure we did not over shoot either of the two points along the river... best move was the power slide into the point putting it within reach of Josh at the back of the boat. As we emptied out into the main river (can’t remember the name right now?) we could see the dam but more then that could tell that if there were any points up river that they were going to be a gut wrenching paddle to get to since the fight to cross over to the TA was a battle.

• Cleared all points in this section.

The O course... so we got the remaining coordinates and plotted them all, sure enough three points up stream!! but oh well and on to the O-Course. We had picked up the hour we were behind pace with the smoking paddle and I had the feeling that we could very well clear the course. I hit a little low out on this section but got some food down and felt better Joanna pushed running ahead on the down hills and letting us catch up on the climbs. I think we could have run a little more on this section but we still got around the course in under the suggested time and Josh had time to take a shower (from a water pump).

• Cleared all points on this section.

The River!!! as we ran back into the TA the volunteers mentioned that a few teams had been trying to paddle up the river but it did not look good. We put the canoe on wheels and ran it up the path as far as we could before putting in. From the start we were made the rivers whipping boy with slow progress getting up river but the effort for distance was not efficient and we had a long way to go to get up to the first point. I’ll let Josh fill in the details here but we decided to hike up a road and drop down to the river as we got to the correct terrain features. This got us two of the three points that were high value but when we got close to the dam there was no way to get to the 3rd point which was on an island right below the dam. I wish we had a picture of the water at the dam because it was pumping!! crazy haystacks and I think in one of the plums I saw a skull wink at me?? So down stream we hiked to where the river opened up a bit and the flow was a little less choppy but still fast. We jumped in and within no time we were drifting past the rappel Joanna was not getting away from the shoreline current so Josh and I swam back to her Josh grabbed her helmet which had come out of her pack and I grabbed her by the vest pulling her out into the middle of the river. By now we were way past were we had hoped to cross but the river widened out and we could swim a little better I worked out a system of swimming behind Joanna making her hold her legs straight and pushing her forward as hard as I could then swimming back to her and repeat. We made it to shore before the bend in the river, up the bank to the road, and to the rappel with 40min. to spare. From there it was back to bikes and pick up a few points before the time trial into the finish.

Over all great race had a lot of laughs and everyone was positive the whole time. I also learned that josh has every Vanilla Ice song memorized!!

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