Primal Quest Montana - Trek 4 - Bridger Range

This was hte make or break trek for most team. It was long, grueling, and it was a little past midway in the race. It started with long climb up through Corbly Gulch. The trail was good - but it cossed the stream with realtively deep crossing quite a few times - so you were going to have wet feet for a lot of this trek. It was here we (Team Blue) ran into TravelCountry.com that had been having difficulties. The story is at

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2008/06/29/travelcountrycom-comes-off-the-course/

they were on their way back to the TA. We continued up and up to CP21. One of the most exciting moments of the race was dropping back down over the southern pass into the bowl past Sacagawea peak. The ridge here had too much snow to travel, so we glissaded down the incredibly steep pass and took the low trail. This trail had a lot of climb and descent - we were always going either up a steep slope or down a steep slope.

At Ross Pass the major navigation decision of the trek (and for many teams the race) was to take the low route which involved climbing up and down 6 major ridge lines OR take the ridge trail which was both shorter and had less climbing and descent. As it was getting dark we chose the less treacherous route - the low one.

Ridge Route: Shorter, less climb, treacherous footing, no water for entire length

Low route: Longer, lots of climbing, easier trail, plenty of water

This is also where some teams had issues. The third place team was evacuated due to tendonitis in a team-mate. I definitely could sympathize there - I was developing severe tendonitis pains in the same section.

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2008/06/27/breaking-news-team-peakadventurecom-evacuated-from-bridger-mountains/

My team-mates helped me through this section and I owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. The decision was to push on to the TA, I wanted to stop and rest. The team was right and once daylight came I felt much better - but for a while it was pretty dicey. Kent even gave up his red bull to help me through and trust me we carried those as emergency pick - me - ups, so to give yours up for your team-mate is a major sacrifice.

Coming down the last hill past the M was agony for me and also tough on the rest of the team. I felt they were worried about me - though they simply kept resolve and kept us moving. From CP 22 it was all road and that was less punishing - Kent was navigating and I was bordering on in and out of lucidity. This was alarming as we were on a road and I kept wavering into traffic (or so I was told). The TA was a welcome site, there the medics patched me up for the next leg ( a bike leg). We wanted to sleep at this TA - but it was too hot in the camper so we took about one hour of sleep and headed back out on the bikes.  We had about an 8-9 hour bike ride and then sleep for the ropes course.

http://www.ecoprimalquest.com/wp-primal/2008/06/30/keep-on-keepin-on-day-7/

Montana - Primal Quest

Primal Quest Montana - Trek 2 - Gallatin Range

Primal Quest Montana - Trek 3 - Crazy Mountains

Primal Quest Montana - Trek 4 - Bridger Range

Primal Quest Montana - Trek 5 - To Ennis Lake