Author Archives: Bob Jenkins
The Cedar Cross is Picking Up Some Sponsors
Greetings, Virtusites!!! As I slowly recover from my Hoosier Daddies-induced hangover, (Damn that was fun!), I realize it’s been longer than 5 minutes since I mentioned the Cedar Cross. As you all know by now, we are bringing you 2 non-races this year: The Cedar Cross and….the CAC.
**I will now pause for ten seconds while everyone says “The CAC” out loud and laughs among themselves.**
When you put a race together hoping for 5-10 riders, it’s easy to promise free beer and food at the finish line. But when 60+ people register… you check your wallet and suddenly it’s difficult to control your bowels. I’m in waaay over my head, so I started looking for sponsors.
Enter, Backcountry Research:
Bricks were shat and my pants were ruined when I heard from the president of BackCountry Research. For those who don’t know, Backcountry Research is the company that brought us the Awesome Strap, (among other things). He thinks the Cedar Cross is “legit” and has pledged to ”hook us up awesomely”. I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am to say that The Cedar Cross is officially listed on BCR’s race calendar. Please go to their website and buy something right now. Seriously, do it. I did.
Did I mention we’re also sponsored by Foosh? I guess I’ve been using Foosh mints for about a year now, and I love them. Jason Kensey is the fonder of the Foosh empire, and I’m happy to say he’s a supporter of the Cedar Cross and Team Virtus. Everyone I know that’s tried Foosh has loved it, so you’re probably no different. Foosh is like an Altoid mint with more caffeine than a Monster or a Red Bull. Yep, they’re awesome.
My buddy Nick Smith, (owner of RedWheel Bike shop), was also quick to lend a hand. Not only will he be racing in the Cedar Cross, he’s also giving me a STEEP discount on one of these babies to raffle off on raceday:
Is your mind blown yet? It damn well better be. But wait, there’s more…
I also landed a pretty sweet discount on some Chamois Butt’r. 200 of the sample size ‘butter packs’ were sold to me for $60. So, everyone should be able to go home with a minimal amount of taint destruction. No need to thank me.
As if all of this wasn’t already overwhelming enough, I recently received an email from the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau. It seems they’ve heard the buzz surrounding Cedar Cross and they want to help out. I’m pleased to officially announce that the Cedar Cross will Start and Finish at the North Jefferson Commuter Lot/Paved Pavilion. This will be VERY convenient for you out-of-towners.
I’ve got a meeting with these fine people on Feb 3rd, and I’m really hoping they decide to let us use the pavilion for free. There is also talk of discount rates at local hotels and I’ll have more on that after the meeting.
I guess that’s all of our sponsors for now, but I hope to announce many more in the future. If you know anyone who wants to help make this a better event, please let me know. I think it’d be great if everyone could take home some kind of souvenir.
This will be an AWESOME RACE!!! I can’t wait for May 6th.
Carnage at the Creek….Team Virtus non-race #3
That’s right folks, it’s time to get excited about a free adventure race. With all the scouting we’ve done, this year’s race promises to be better than ever before. We’ve found more cliffs, caves, rock formations and abandoned trails than we could ever squeeze into one race, so I hope you got a new camera for Christmas this year.
When do we plan to have this race, you ask? I don’t know, you tell me:
How long is the race you ask? I don’t know, you tell me:
And yes, it’s perfectly normal to say CAC out loud and giggle. That’s the whole point, actually.
Cedar Cross update
- Northern entrance to the Moon Loop
I figured people might like to see a few more photos of the Cedar Cross course. I had a couple of days off, so I set out to do a bit of trail cleaning and find some new gravel.
I also wanted to get an idea of what the area would look like after 2 days of solid rain; Turns out it looks pretty damn fun. The picture below was taken on Burnett School road. This bit of gravel is usually dry, but when it rains the water has to go somewhere..
- Hmm..might be a good idea to put some fenders on the ol’ cross bike
A few more miles down the road, the gravel was almost too smooth, as if I was the only person to have driven on it. Turns out I was right:
- (You don’t even want to know how much money it’s costing me to get these roads in shape for raceday.)
Then I was off to the Devil’s Backbone to move some leaves off the trail. For those who don’t know, the southeastern portion of the Backbone was only recently acquired by the Forest service. Thanks to this development, the course will now be taking you past 3 DEAD END signs.
Upon entering the Backbone trail, there’s a short, unmarked trail that I can only assume was created by the property’s previous owners. From this trail, there are several cliff-faces where you can step a few feet from the trail onto a rock ledge overlooking Cedar Creek. You can literally see for a mile in either direction, it’s beautiful. Photos are forthcoming
As the trail descends, you get to cross this waterfall:
- *This spot is also normally dry*
I’m happy to say that the leaves have been removed from about 90% of this trail, and it is now very rideable. It’s also worth mentioning that this piece of trail contains one rock garden that’s so nasty I probably wouldn’t attempt it on my full-suspension mtb….unless someone had a camera. No photos yet, but it’s not like a photo would do justice anyway.
It was getting dark, so the work came to an end. Rather than make the 45 minute drive home, I hiked up to one of the bluffs along the Smith Creek Trail and made camp. Lemme tellya, those woods come alive when the sun goes down. I’ve never heard so many coyotes in my life.
- Thankfully, this fire was just big enough to keep the Boogeyman away
- So lazy
- Seriously. 2 minutes.
- This has to be man-made, right?
- *Before*
- *after*
Backstage at Checkpoint Tracker Nationals
It’s no secret I’ve had a bit of an extended learning curve when it comes to navigating. From the first time I tried to fly solo right up until my most recent debaucle, it simply hasn’t been been one of my strong-points. At all.
Leading up to Castlewood, I knew I needed to figure some things out. What better way to do that than volunteer at Checkpoint Tracker Nationals? It was a guaranteed way to see how the elite teams perform on raceday, (and get some free stuff). I spent the weekend mingling with friends new and old, and had the good fortune to be placed at a Checkpoint working alongside Scott Fredrickson of Team Bushwacker. I was excited, to say the least.
Since racers wouldn’t get to our CP for an hour or 2, I got to hang out and watch the start of the race. I found out a few of the teams have some pretty strange pre-race rituals. Take for example, our good friends from Forum Dental, (who kicked major ass at this race, btw):
**Masturbation joke here**
Not long after that, I saw a man who was clearly not dressed to run through 23 miles of thorns:
Wow. I hope he had some pants in that pack.
Here we see Alpine Shop and Wedali waiting to take off.
WEDALI in green, Alpine Shop in red
When the race started, those racers tore out in a hurry. It looked like WEDALI took the lead immediately, but it wasn’t too long before this solo adventure racer/karaoke master came running by:
Ladies and gentlemen....Kelly Sumner!!!
After the race start, Justin Cook and I jumped in the truck for the quick drive to our volunteering stations. We were stationed close together, so carpooling made sense. I dropped him off at this spot, it was absolutely beautiful.
A guy could get real comfortable in a spot like this.
Then it was off to my assigned spot. Scott and I had never met, but as I was parking the truck I felt like I could hear his thoughts:
"Oh shit, not this guy"
Scott and I made friends quickly, and I was blown away at his willingness to pass on a gold mine of AR knowledge. Seriously, I couldn’t take notes fast enough will all the things he was telling me. We had a great time. We worked a CP that teams had to visit before and after setting out the first o-section. They had 10 hours to finish this section, and Gary Thompson, (the course designer), informed us there was no way to complete it without trekking for “AT LEAST” 23 miles. Wow.
Before long, the racers started coming in. WEDALI had a pretty serious lead, but Alpine Shop showed up looking fresh and strong. In this photo I think Carrie is actually timing how long it takes Doug to piss. She was definitely in charge.
I found it interesting that he wasn't using a mapcase.
And people call me stupid..
Well, look who it is!!
Kelly Sumner shows us where Adam can have a seat
The day wore on and all of the teams finally made it into the 1st O-section. Scott continued pouring knowledge into my brain and the world was right. Day became night, and teams slowly began to make their way back from the trekking leg. WEDALI finished the 23-mile o-course in about 6 hours. They were kicking the shit out of everybody out there.
"sighs"
I turned to see what they were gawking at:
Yeah, he must work out
The next day, Scott asked if I wanted to help him clear the course. I tried not to shit my pants with excitement, then changed clothes as quickly as possible. This was why I came out here, and I was PUMPED.
Still not a cloud in the sky
It was a good time, and I learned even more as we trekked thru the woods. Scott explained to me the benefits of the thumb compass and how much easier it is to “thumb” the map while you’re using one. You can see what I’m talking about in the photo below:
With the thumb compass, you dont even need to break stride. You just look down at your thumb, which you are already using to keep track of your location on the map.
Then he started to show off a bit, trotting effortlessly across this tree:
He almost makes it look easy, and yes, he is jogging
I tried it, but didn’t have quite the same finesse. I wound up having to dry-hump my way across, but thankfully there were no splinters waiting for me.
It just doesn't look as cool
Trust me, I was just as surprised as anyone.
When I got back to the truck, Scott wasn’t back yet and that mean it was time to celebrate. Justin had foolishly left his cooler in my truck, so I reached inside to grab one of his beers….. but instead found this:
Oh Justin... you should've known better.
Next thing you know, I’ve got a belly full of Irish whiskey and I’m riding shotgun next to “Special K” from Orange Lederhosen in a U-haul truck loaded down with about $50,000 worth of mountain bikes.
**Pause for a moment and let that picture burn itself into your mind. Seriously, I couldn’t make this up if I tried.**
Him, Derrick, Justin and I were transporting bikes back to race HQ. It was a lot of work, but we got them all hauled back to HQ just in time to almost be late for the award ceremony/dinner. The food smelled amazing and tasted even better. Most everyone was dressed nice, so it was a little awkward being all sweaty and dirty, but then I realized these people are adventure racers… and they couldn’t have cared less. It was a great way to end a great weekend.
- “Fine dining” with the Golden Girls and Kelly
Checkpoint Tracker Nationals is going to be in West Virginia in 2012, and we’re gonna do everything we can to put at least one Virtus squad in this kickass race. I’m just not sure how it could be any more fun than it was in 2011. I could not have had a better time.
Forgotten Trails
Hopefully by now, you know we’re putting together the most badass Monstercross ride/race of all time. This sort of thing takes a lot of time to coordinate, and a whole lot more elbow grease to make sure the course is ready on raceday. In addition to gravel roads and National Forest land, The Cedar Cross will traverse several miles of what I have come to call “forgotten” singletrack. This trail system, for whatever reason, seems to have been completely forgotten, which is both sad and exciting. Sad because so few people know these trails exist, and exciting because SO FEW PEOPLE know these trails exist!!
Today, Pepper and I set out to clear one small section of the race course. Here’s what went down.
On South Mill site road, there’s a trailhead just to the side of the road right before it becomes someone’s driveway. I suspect this piece of trail is forgotten because it’s fairly remote and just a bit hidden. This photo was taken while standing on the trail looking out at the road.
Trailhead, my ass. Keep a watchful eye for the grey diamond on the tree.
From here, it’s a short downhill to yet another hidden trailhead. I’m not kidding, it took me 30 minutes to find it the first time I was out here. The trail goes almost straight down into a semi-dry creekbed.
Where I'm standing, it's dry.
This is where the work started. Can you find the trail in this picture?
It's frickin' shameful, isn't it?
A bit of heavy lifting and one broken rake later:
- Pepper is such a camera whore
This is what I came up with for the water crossing. The water should pass under these rocks and roll off the trail. I’m still a beginner at this type of thing, so if anyone has a few pointers, I’m ready to learn a better way.
All flat-rock, water would be coming right-to-left
I bet it took over an hour to clear a piece of trail that people will ride in about 30 seconds, but it’ll be worth it on raceday.
After clearing “Pepper Hill”, I turned my attention Northward. Check out this Before/After shot:
The dog doesn't even know where the trail is..
***Leaf-blowing sounds***
Well how about that 
Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done, but this course is going to be worth it. There will be no admission fees, but there WILL be prizes for top finishers, manned SAG stops, bbq at the finish and a special SHAT trophy for the one racer who truly earns it. I’m still trying to nail down the race-date, but it I’m hoping to make it happen on March 25th
This race will be awesome.
Two tired, hairy animals.
