[Mail from Robert Zeithammer] Hi everyone, With some delay, I would like to announce the results of the 5th annual Acadia Adventure Race a.k.a. The 2003 GNARMPFSK Cup. This was the most brutal race so far in the five-year history, not so much because of the well-known sadistic nature of the organizer, but more because of the terrible weather. Six teams faced up to 16 hours of steady rain and temperatures hovering in the upper thirties. Yes, that's Fahrenheit! The team Das Zitterbewegung has captured the ordeal well in their poem and photos: http://web.mit.edu/daniel_/www/tramping/240503.html. Everyone endured for a while, some teams stopped a little early, one team experienced serious hypothermia, and one team collected the most points, thereby securing a victory. The winner this year is Team Wildfire of Becky Hopkinson, Dave Andersen, and Rob Jagnow. Their names have been etched for posterity onto the GNARMPFSK Cup. By tradition, they will be the organizers of next year's race. Here is their sightseeing tour of the island: Team Wildfire Checkpoints and (some) times: > Start: 5:38 >22 Lighthouse: 5:41 >66 Wonderland: >95 Acadia Mountain: 6:40 or 6:57 >74 Bar Harbor Ice Cream: 7:45am >38 Dorr Summit: 8:27 >92 Cadillac Summit: 8:47 > Champlain Start: 9:47 >109 Champlain Summit: 10:29 > Back to road: 11:05 >67 Beehive Summit: 11:40 >70 Beach after a chilly dip: 12:20 >52 Otter Cliffs >126 Day Mountain >82 Norumbega > Closed Long Pond Canoe Rental Place: 15:30 >30 Pretty Marsh >64 Mansell Mountain >46 Bernard Mountain >63 Beech Mountain >-25 Finish: 8:25 > >Total points: 1071 Thanks to everyone for participating, see you next year! Robert P.S. For all the gearheads out there, here are some comments about useful gear for biking and hiking in the atrocious weather: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: " Becky Hopkinson" What didn't work: cotton socks (I know, how stupid. But I couldn't find my techspun in the morning. I think it still would have been worth it to look harder). we actually had to stop, change my socks, and give me a vapor barrier. then we had to run up a mountain to warm them back up. By the time we were down, they were fine again. Biking in wet tennis shoes sucked, all of our feet were cold. What worked: I wore a dri-fit long sleeve shirt and some sort of dri fit type tank top under it. I had a rain jacket made for biking, completely water proof and unbreathable, except one strip of mesh running the full length of each arm underneath. I wore spandex tights, and nylon water-resistant wind pants. Although my legs were soaked right through, it still blocked wind and I was warm. the bike helmets also kept our heads a bit warmer and we left them on to hike. I also brought a fleece ear warmer and a fleece vest, each of which I wore part of the time when i got really cold. Except for my feet, I had no problems. It also helped to keep the biking as short as possible in between hikes. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% From: "David G. Andersen" Gear: Mid to high-calf smartwool hiking socks Running shoes Bike shorts nylonish biking shell pants (very light) long-sleeved rather lightweight synthetic cycling jersey light nylon running wind jacket (mildly water repellent, but not really) Arc'teryx goretex XCR shell jacket Plus the usual emergency gear, etc. I was quite cold most of the time. My feet never went completely numb, which I attribute to the good hiking socks, but wearing running shoes with lots of mesh was stupid with how much biking we were doing. Should have had something with wind protection for the toes. Legs were cold, occasionally shivering. Tights under the shell might have been a bit better, but I think that mostly, I just needed a slightly heavier set of shell pants. Not full winter, but something a little more water repellent than the really light nylon I used. The wind jacket wasn't sufficient, and I swapped it for the goretex jacket towards the end of the morning. This helped reduce the shivering quite a bit and was much happier. I often used it with the side vents open, and had to unzip it mostly when hiking or biking uphill, and had it fully cinched down when cycling downhill. Definitely saved my butt, and by taking it partly off during the hiking, it proved flexible enough to get me through. It didn't keep me dry at all -- nothing did -- but it helped keep what water I was already wearing warm, which was good enough. The hardest was staying warm on the extended flat or downhill sections of biking. In fact, I don't think we really did stay warm then -- we just interrupted it enough that we didn't totally freeze during them. This was by design, but it's a good thing we designed the biking legs that way. I probably should have brought a comfy warm fleece hat as emergency gear. Wearing my bike helmet during the hikes was actually a perfect solution during the hikes, though - it kept a lot of the rain off, but allowed ventilation. Becky had cotton socks, and her feet went numb and stayed numb around Day mt. We swapped out those for some not too dry coolmax socks, and made outside the sock vapor barriers from some shaws plastic bags. Not an elegant solution, but her feet warmed up and she was fine for the rest of the trips. No blisters for any of us that I'm aware of, but we were all in running shoes. Rob also had his goretex jacket. Becky had a slightly heavierweight wind jacket, I think. Not sure how waterproof it was. R&B both wore tights under their biking shells, and they seemed considerably warmer than I did. Rob claims he remained slightly dry in spots, but he was wearing his jacket all day.