With The Traverse looming less than 2 weeks from now Chris, Jeff, Craig and I headed out to take on the Main Divide. For those of you that dont know what The Traverse is, here is a desciption from the Warrior’s Society website.
“40+/- miles, 8,000+/- feet elevation gain
The ride will begin from the end of Black Star Canyon Road at 7:00 AM. You will ride up Black Star Canyon Road to the Main Divide Road and at this point you will traverse the Santa Ana Mountain range via the Main Divide Road hitting all the peaks (including Modjeska and Santiago Peaks) until you intersect with the Trabuco Canyon Trail. You will then descend down the Trabuco Canyon Trail to Trabuco Creek Road and out 4 miles to the finish line at Trabuco Canyon Road. You must reach Aid Station 1 located at the intersection of Maple Springs Road and the Main Divide Road (4 corners) by 11:00 a.m. to be allowed to finish the course. You must also reach the intersection of the Main Divide and Lower Holy Jim by 12:30 p.m. to be allowed to finish the course. If you do not make the cutoff times and refuse to return to the staging area you have violated the terms of your participation and the Warrior’s Society will no longer responsible for your safety. Your emergency contact will be called and notified that they will be assuming all responsibility your safety.
The Traverse will be a fundraiser for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund. The Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund honors the bravery and dedication exhibited by Americans in our Armed Forces who have sacrificed life or limb defending our country by providing educational scholarships to their children.
If you plan on camping out at O’Neill Park the fee is $15.00 dollars a night and are available by reservation (which we suggest you make ASAP before they sell out). The day use fees at the park where we are staging at are $5.00. For more information on O’Neill Park see their web site.”
Sounds like fun right? NOT. Why o why do I do such things? I guess part of me enjoys the challenge and park of me is probably out of my mind. Last year the temps were near 110 degrees and a good number of racers did not finish, some even fell victim to heat stroke and needed help off the mountain. I am hoping for some cooler temps this year. Back to our ride… None of us had taken on the section between The Motorway and 4 Corners which is suppose to be one of the toughest sections of the course. We loaded up and started from Blackstar with hopes of making it past 4 Corners and maybe over Santiago Peak. Chris snapped only a few pics from the ride as we were all pretty focused on trying to make good time.
Jeff and I making our way through Blackstar.
