Endless Mountains Adventure Race ran through Clinton County
RENOVO, PA-Rootsports presented a 5-day adventure race “Endless Mountains Adventure Race” that went throughout the area with a notable stop in Renovo.
The 120 hour race served as a US Qualifier for the 2023 Adventure Racing World Championship series as nearly 100 international participants took on the challenge. The opening stage kicked off in the Tioga Hammonds Lake while the final course snaked through the Loganton Valley.
As if hiking, biking and paddling weren’t difficult enough for the 300-plus mile event, the often sleep deprived participants do not know what the course brings until given a map just before the start. Prior to the receiving the map, they have no idea how much of the course is comprised of the three disciplines.
A compass is all that the teams have to navigate the course as electronics are prohibited. For safety and tracking reasons, participants are hooked up to GPS devices that the organizers can follow all of the teams’ progress.
A four team whose home base in Colorado was the first to make it to Renovo Thursday afternoon. By design, the team had no idea that they held a ten hour lead over the second place team. Teams arrived throughout Thursday and Friday as organizers noted those that arrived overnight in the dark, likely had a difficult time staying awake as they trekked down the Susquehanna River from Renovo to Lock Haven.
One participant noted that this teams’ goal was for each member to take in 250 calories an hour for 22 hours each day.
The route that led the teams through Renovo came via Ole Bull, across the Whiskey Springs ATV trails to the Flaming Foliage Festival Lot. There, riders broke down their mountain bikes, placed them into boxes, before inflating their boats and entering the river. Support vehicles trucked the bikes from there to Lock Haven to await them as they finished the 30-mile paddle.
Bend Racing, the first team to enter Renovo would win the race with a time of 92 hours as Who Dis, the final team that finished was given a time of over 117 hours.
