River Gorge Trail Race

Made the drive to the Prentice Cooper Wilderness Management area near Signal Mountain, Tennessee for the Rock / Creek Outfitters sponsored trail race.  They do a 6.5 and a 10.2 mile trial race to raise funds for the Cumberland Trail Conference.  The drive up to the event was fine until I approached the Chattanooga area as it started to rain lightly.  The closer to the starting area I got the harder it was raining.  During check in the 250 or so racers were all huddled in their cars or under the tents that were used for check in.  As the starting time approached I made my way to a point about 2.5 miles from the start to photograph the racers.

Dirty Duathlon

Saturday was the first Blankets Creek Dirty Duathlon event as a fund raiser for trail construction costs of the new North Loop Trail at Blankets Creek trail system. The event was organized by Lisa Randall of team Enduraventure. Lisa did a fine job of getting this event off the ground floor and selling out all 200 race entries. The race consisted of a 5 mile trail run, followed by a 12 mile mountain bike loop.

In order to photograph all the racers I picked a spot on the trail near the 4 mile mark that would allow the racers to spread out enough to get them individually instead of a big pack. The spot I picked was at a turn in the trail and going into the rising sun. This area also worked for the mountain bike leg.

I used the 80-200 2.8 to allow picking them out and getting full frame images without having to be too close to the runners.

The event ended with a race on clown bikes to win a great brand new mountain bike. There was so much swag that they just lined everyone up and gave them 10 seconds to grab a prize after all the winners had their shot at the prize tables.

Event Stats: 70 miles driven, 552 images

Storm Chasing

Yesterday there was a lot of big storms in the area and I decided to grab my camera, then head for high ground. The goal was to attempt to photograph the tornado that was reported in the area. It traveled on the other side of the hill about 5 or 6 miles away. After the storm looked like it passed I headed to the area and shot some images of the damage . Trees down everywhere, houses destroyed and vehicles damaged. After making my way around or over downed trees I was able to shoot some images of the aftermath and talk with some people that survived their brush with the storm.

Checkpoint Zero Adventure Race

The Checkpoint Zero Adventure Race was a 30 hour suffer-fest in the North Georgia mountains with high winds, snow and freezing temperatures. The weekend started off with the drive to Hiawassee that was rainy and windy. During the check-in process at the River Bend Campground the rain stopped and I was able to talk with the racers and have some BBQ for dinner that was supplied by race management. Because of the weather the pre-race briefing was moved to a hotel in town. The race management had supplied me with a room for Friday and Saturday night. THANK YOU!! But I told them no need for a Saturday night stay as I would most likely spend it on the course. The hotel was nice as it was windy and raining most of the night and I got to study the maps in my room.

Saturday morning I arrived at the starting location at 6:15 am, the weather was cold and windy. No rain!! The forecast was for snow showers. Race management had hot coffee and the racers started to arrive at 6:30am for the 8:00am start. They would start with a paddle to the race check in location. The paddle was up the lake to the headwaters of the lake then up a strong small stream. After a short run the racers headed to the canoes that were lined up along the beach and straight toward me. My goal was to photograph the canoes from the water so I waded into the cold water with a 24mm 2.8 lens to get the start images. I tried to get as low to the water as possible so that it looks like I was at water level. After all the boats were gone it was time to get dressed and head to the stream section.

Big Week End

This week end is a very big one for adventure races. There are 3 races: Checkpoint Zero (30 hour), Challenge Four (6 hour) and Palmetto Swamp Fox (12 hour). There is also the North Alabama Whitewater Festival going on. The weather is predicted to be crap for Friday, better on Saturday and good on Sunday.

Since there are all these great events going on at the same time I have to make a decision as to the one that I want to photograph. They all have their good points BUT I can only do one event. And the event will be………….Checkpoint Zero Adventure Race. The down fall will be the forecast high for Saturday….a balmy 39 with snow showers.  Should be fun in the mountains and the paddling sections in North Georgia.

I wish that these events were spread out a little more. I have wanted to attend the Alabama Whitewater Festival for a few years and have done the Challenge Four before. Maybe next year.