Swamp Donkey Adventure Race - 2010

The 2010 Swamp Donkey Adventure Race up in West Hawk Lake, MB is in the books.  So is traveling long distance to a race event unless it is spur of the moment, all good.
Anyway, Brian Smith, Bill Benson and myself toed the line up in the wilderness of SE Manitoba.  I really like this event because you do not have a clue what you are going to do until the morning of the race.  The rules tell you to be prepared for 6 - 9 hours of strenuous activity to include mountain biking, trekking through the extremely rugged terrain of beautiful Manitoba and canoeing through one of their thousand lakes or swamps.
75 teams of 3 people each participated.  There were women, mens and mixed categories where age did not matter and believe me there were young kids to old guys that were busting through the bush.  Checkout the web page to see the team names as there were some very creative monikers....our team name was Maplelag/Paramount Sports.
When the gun went off at 9am our first task was to lumber around the ski area that was race central.  250 adventure racers following a map looking for 3 checkpoints that require validation by race staff.  It was a cool sunny morning, but we warmed up quickly and got a taste of the long day ahead.  The next task was to canoe across Falcon Lake where we grabbed our bikes and headed out on an a more or less easy bike ride to the next check point and first serious orienteering assignment.  Brian was the weakest biker of the three of us but was seriously determined.  Bill Benson who rode Chequamegon with me last weekend was a work horse.  Brian made it through the bike and we were off on a hike in the woods.
Hike in the woods is an understatement as the area had been dumped with rain and the roots and rocks were all wet and slippery not to mention the knee deep water holes that were too numerous to count.  2 checkpoints later and back to our bikes.  As a team we were working strong and staying in the top 20 throughout the day.  Our next stop decisions needed to be made.  We were 5 hours into the race and had the option to move to the Advanced section of the race which consisted of 4 check points or head back to the finish.  We had to be back to our bikes by 4pm which gave us 2 hours to at least get one advanced checkpoint.  The advantage of the advanced checkpoint is the elevation into the rankings of the Advanced category in final results.  Big time challenge out in the bush reading the map and finding the unmanned checkpoints in extremely rugged country.  We were only able to grab 2 of the 4 advanced points before we had to hike back to our bikes and get back towards the finish line.  Two is better then zero, but we were disappointed in not getting all 4 but did not want to risk possible disqualification by not meeting the predetermined time cut offs.
We were now 7 hours into the race and still had a major bike section and another canoe ride back to the start/finish line.  The last bike leg was down the gas pipeline trail.  Bill is familiar with the ride and let it rip.  One of the biggest challenges was the deep deep water at the bottom of almost every down hill.  I ride an XL 29er mountain bike and there were times when the water was up to the bottom of my headset.  That is above my tires!  The only thing you could do was keep peddling and hope that you made it through.  Of course my bike is in need of major maintenance in the bearing and cable department - all good!
We were all tired, but the bike regenerated Bill and I and we were able to clean all of the climbs and make it through all of the water sections without trouble. We were able to help Brian by pushing him up the hills when possible and made it to the last leg, a 30 minute canoe ride back to the finish line.
8 hours into the race with a canoe ride across the lake was not what I was looking forward to but we drilled it reeling in at least 5 teams on the water and finished strong!
What an excellent adventure! By my watch total time of 8:25:56. I had great teammates in Brian and Bill.  All of us worked off of our weakness and helped each other out when required.  I do not have the complete results as they have yet to be posted but I am confident that we were close to the top 20 of all teams.  No photos either as taking pictures was considered but not a high priority for the day.
The Benson family were gracious hosts?  Linda Benson is a great cook and with her adventurous husband and kids understands what it takes to support a big event like this.  Thank you Benson family and thank you to Brian and Bill for helping me push myself to the limit and have a blast in the woods!