After taking several years off, one of the toughest races in Georgia made it’s return this winter. Boasting teams from across the USA, this early season race is a favorite among those who like to suffer the best terrain and worst weather race director Tony Berwald can come up with.

Checkpoint Zero/MPGear.com -- photo by Robert Milks

The Berwald curse, as it is affectionately known as, assures that no matter what weekend the race is held, it will be the worst weather of the season. Past races have had freezing temperatures with snow, unseasonably warm weather, and this year, rain…light, heavy, sideways, cold, it was all there.

Everyone on the team wanted to do this race, so we sent two squads and loaned Jenn out to nuun Feed the Machine. They gave us a cow and 10 bushels of corn. We knew there would be a little extra competition there, but the rest of us hoped the rocks we put in her pack would slow her down enough that we could keep ahead.

Right out of the starting gate the pace was fast, not that we didn’t expect it, but it’s always a rough wakeup call after an over indulgent holiday season. However, being the team captain meant I had the authority, much to his dismay, to send Paul Cox on the prologue run. Huffing and puffing up the hill, Paul came in about 10th and we didn’t waste any time getting into boats and valiantly paddled as hard as we could to keep the leaders in sight. Throughout the paddle we slowly fell back, trailing by about 30 minutes by the time we got back to the TA.

Our transition was made easier by the fact the other Checkpoint Zero squad was exceptionally fast on the water and was gone before we got in. That meant our support crew was able to devote their efforts to kicking us out of there as fast as they could. Jumping on our bikes, we sped off in hot pursuit of the teams ahead of us. Along the way to Fort Mountain we had one flat tire which was somewhat disappointing as it was road the entire way, but that’s how things go sometimes.
Upon reaching Fort Mountain, we said hello to our crew again before heading off on our bikes onto the single track through the park. We elected to take the shorter route heading south and west, dropping down the insane power line descent and winding around the mountain clockwise to collect out points before heading off to the first trek.

As we rolled into the trek TA we were greeted by our teammates Paul (the Kiwi version), Allen and Michele where they sat us down, stripped off our shoes and stuffed hot noodles in our faces. This assistance greatly sped up the transition and got us on our feet quickly. The ensuing trek was largely straightforward, with the exception of CP14. This was one of those points one knew from the beginning might be hard to find, and could end up making or breaking the race. Turns out we nailed it on the first attempt and made a quiet exit as we saw other teams scouring the mountain side in search of the flag.

Getting back to the TA, we were pleased to know we had kept our time gap to the leaders about the same, and made haste to get back on the bikes to ride back to Fort Mountain by way of Mulberry Gap. The folks at Mulberry Gap were extremely generous, supplying us with fresh water and hot soup, before sending us back out into the cold wet night where we were to make our race killing blunder.

It couldn’t have happened at an easier spot. We simply had to ride (push) our bikes up the Pinhoti trail, cross highway 52, and connect back into the same trail we took to Fort Mountain the first time. I’d run the same section of trail a month earlier, and didn’t anticipate how hard it would be for us to find the connection. We lost at least 45 minutes exploring every road and trail before finding the sign markers showing us the proper way. We figured we weren’t the only ones to have trouble there, but it really put a damper on our spirits as we knew we’d be hard pressed to gain back any of that lost time.

We finally made it back to Fort Mountain and put on what few dry clothes we had left for the final trek. We opted for a counter-clockwise attack, starting to the south to get what we figured were the toughest points out of the way first. Little did we know this was a good move because we moved much slower than predicted. The route allowed us to skip the furthest out point but still make it back before the cutoff. We finished 5th in the co-ed category with our fellow CPZ mates finishing just ahead of us.

If this race had been held just one day earlier, or one day later the weather for most of the race would have been beautiful. As it was, the Berwald curse held true for yet another year. In spite of the weather the race was an excellent showcase of how tough north Georgia can be and a worthy installment of the NGAR races. About a week later, all the bad memories have faded and I’m ready to go out and do it again, and that’s what it’s all about, right?