News Flash: Mountain Bike Course Change (why didn’t we did we do this earlier?)

After our volunteer meeting tonight, Padden Transition Captain, Mike McAuley, had the great idea that we should simplify (but doesn’t shorten) the mountain bike course. It was an executive decision that makes sound sense. Please make sure that your mountain biker knows that the course has been modified and to follow the arrows and course markings. McAuley has this to say about the course revision, “this year, racers will start fast and finish hard.” We wish them luck.

Have fun. Be safe. Play nice.

Dear Chinook,

We applaud your efforts. This course was designed with you in mind. Here’s some special treatment to help you out during the day:

Take care of yourself. There will be one water stop on the first run, otherwise you are on your own for food and water. We will have water at the transitions if you need to fill a bottle or have a quick cup. This is a challenging course and we try our best to make it safe for you so you can have a ton of fun.

Gear distribution:  At each Transition Area you’ll have a designated location to place your equipment so you can easily get in and out. You may have 1 support person in the area helping you out.

Gear pick-up: We will be providing FREE Bike Delivery if you are unable to pick your bike up before the times listed below.
The bikes will be delivered to the Finish Line at Boundary Bay so you can get them there.

3:00 pm Mountain Bikes picked up from Lake Padden delivered downtown to finish line.

4:00 pm Road Bikes picked up from Fairhaven (Cascade Joinery) delivered downtown to finish line.

New kayak cutoff time: The cut off time for boaters to be in the water is 5:00 pm = You must be in the water by 5:00. period.

We hope you enjoy yourself.

The Traverse Team

We what we think are the most important bits of information:

Packet Pick Up – Friday night & Saturday morning.

Fundraising – Raise money for your favorite local and regional non-profits.

Traverse Prizes – We call this the Bait. (download pledge sheet)

Traverse Times Table – Here’s an idea of who’s going to be where when.

Course Changes – Please read this for most updated information (published on 9.11).

Transition Areas – This is where it all comes together.

Our Spawnsors – These strong supporters help make this possible.

The Results – If you want to see your time, please check in with our timers at the end of each leg.

Required Gear & The Rules – If you’ve got it, bring it. Be safe, have fun, play nice.

Northwest Traverse blog – Get insights into what’s happening around this crazy event.

Created for Adventure Capitalists

Our mission is to connect active people. By leveraging our Spawnsors generosity, we are able to provide BAIT as incentive for our participants, known as Spawners. You get to keep as you earn. 100% of your donation goes to the charity of your choice. At $500 you get a raffle ticket to enter to win one of the Big Catch items listed below. You must be present to win.*

$100 – Gift certificate - La Fiamma Pizza / Fiamma Burger

$250 - Bellingham Traverse Tee shirt
These are really cool. We got a bunch of second hand t-shirts and printed on them. Sustainable clothing. RE Use. (some tech tees too)

$500 -Bellingham Traverse hoodie & 1 raffle ticket to win Big Catch prizes below.
These are brand new and we’ll be taking orders for your size. We don’t have enough $$ to buy all these ahead of time. 
(You may buy extras for $25 / $30 w. shipping)

Raffle ticket to win one of the BIG Catch items:
For those that raise $500, they get a raffle ticket to win one of these great items.

REI Bellingham

Featured above from: REI Bellingham

Delta 10 kayak

Novara Buzz One

REI Base Camp 4 tent

REI Half Dome 2 tent

REI Traverse Backpack and REI Traverse Trekking poles

Contour GPS Wearable Camcorder

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Kulshan Cycles - Trek Allant Bikes “HIS & HERS”  (featured below)

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* Must be present to win. First ticket picked gets first choice of the Big Catch items listed above; Second; Third and so on.

Big thanks to Kulshan Cycles for hooking us up with His and Hers Trek Allants this year.

See them on display inside the Boundary Bay Brewpub.

Stay tuned to The Traverse Network

Here’s what we’ve come up with for the revised Road Bike and Trail Run routes and transitions.

See the Road Bike or Trail Run pages for updates and information.

This change was due to how difficult and unsafe it has been to have the road bikes end at the Fairhaven Park Transition.
Now we should have plenty of parking. Parking details still unfolding.

Over the next couple of weeks (since we’re 16 days out) we’ll be hanging “Traverse BAIT” from the ceiling in the Boundary Bay brewpub. The prizes are to encourage YOU to raise money for local and regional non-profits. Here are our favorites:

RE Sources
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
Kulshan Community Land Trust
Whatcom Land Trust
Sustainable Connections
Whatcom Parks & Recreation Foundation
People for Puget Sound
Conservation Northwest

See complete list

In order to get the stuff across town this morning, I had to put plastic bag man (thank you Iain D. & RE Sources) on my Kulshan Cycles TREK Lime and I rode the new single-speed REI Novara Buzz One bike to Boundary.

Next, while being heckled by staff, plastic bag man as adroitly placed in the cockpit of the Delta 10 and the Buzz made it up there as well. (this was done before opening, so none of these people were able to witness the “process”).  We ran out of time to get the rest of the REI Adventure Package up there. Stay tuned to see what other great stuff is out there to encourage fundraising.

GO FISH!

- Todd Elsworth

This morning we were getting ready to hang the new Delta 10 up in Boundary for display and we had to test out the built in feature for beverage transport. First, we tried the growler. It fit perfectly. There was even room for ice.

The to go jug with handy tap was a bit tighter to get in.

We’d recommend going with the growler.

Each year we work with regional Spawnsors to come up with incentives (aka BAIT) for fundraising. For the past 3 years we have been working with REI and Delta Kayaks (out of British Columbia) to offer some great prizes for those that raise $500 for the charity of their choice.

This year we have a Delta 10. It is a brand new boat design that I just couldn’t pass up trying out tonight after I picked it up. Check out the Delta 10 specs.

Here’s the view from the boat:

We’re a week away from the 2nd Olympia Traverse.  If you’ve done this before or something similar you probably have an idea of how to do it.  If you’re new to this or unfamiliar with the area, here’s some information to help you have a fun, successful race.

Packets will contain detailed driving directions to navigate to/ from the Transitions.

The course for the Olympia Traverse (OT) starts 13 miles from Fish Tale Brew Pub in downtown Olympia.  Here’s an efficient way do the race with your team:

From Fish Tale or the downtown area, go to West Bay Park and drop off your watercraft. Do this by 8:30AM.

From West Bay Drive to Middle Waddell ORV Parking area for the start.  The mountain bike leg begins here.

If you have a very fast mountain biker, you may want to stage your road bike at Mima Falls Camp prior to the start.  Mima is about 10 minutes away by car (6 miles), but consider everyone will be leaving and heading that way at the same time after the mountain bikes leave.

The mountain bike course is 9 miles long. We estimate the fastest riders might be through in about 35 minutes- that would be an extremely fast time!

Get to Mima and watch your mountain biker arrive.  Parking here should be on Marksman road just as you approach the area.  Volunteers will help you with parking just outside of the transition area.  We want to avoid congestion and interference with the course and other users who may be in the camping area.  Road racers will be exiting on Marksman road.

After the road racer leaves and you’ve collected your mountain biker and gear, head for West Bay to drop off your paddler.  The quickest way back is to head out to I-5 and north to Olympia.  This will also keep team cars off the road course.

There is no parking at West Bay during the event.  We recommend you drop your paddler/rower off (remember- your watercraft should be here already) and drive to Swantown.  There’s a great viewing area of the water from the large parking area at Swantown Marina just west of the launch were paddlers will be exiting the water.

Mima to I-5

Road biker rides to next transition after tagging paddler/rower- When the road biker arrives at West Bay they will ride out of West Bay and over to Swantown to meet the rest of the team.  This is an easy, mostly downhill route to Swantown.

Paddlers/rowers race ~3.5 miles to Swantown. Runners will depart Swantown and head for Priest Point Park via a dirt pat along the water to  East Bay Drive. Teams can pick of their watercraft and head to the final transition when the runner leaves. Teams can park in a large lot at this intersection.  This is an excellent place to watch runners heading out and returning.  The Trek starts here and is .5 miles from the Finish.

Runners return on East Bay Drive and partway back on the dirt path to the final transition at Jefferson and Marine Drive.

That’s it!  Trek to the Finish line at Fish Tale and have more fun!