Cold, cramping, and soaked, we soon found ourselves in the woods standing in another line. There was no obstacle in sight. The steady rain continued as we waited, shuffling forward as the queue moved. Finally we came up to the start of the day's longest challenge, Obstacle #21: Hold Your Wood.
It should have been called “Wait in line. In a swamp. In the rain. Carrying a 20 to 50 pound log.” At the starting line, you either grabbed a log off a pile of waiting wood, or got a log handed off from someone finishing the loop. This obstacle was not so much difficult as it was frustrating. On a clear course, it may have taken 5 minutes to power through this obstacle, possibly less. With the bottleneck of people trying to crowd down the narrow paths, it ended up taking more like 30. The hardest part was a steep descent halfway through the loop. People slipped and fell, or dropped their logs creating a knee clearing avalanche below. Then we had to climb out. Traction was non-existent due to the rain and thousands of feet smoothing out the terrain. But mudders don't whine. We happily passed our log off to the next poor souls and continued on. The end was not far.
Obstacle #22: Logjammin was strategically placed to get your cramping muscles good and mad at you. Climb over a stacked log wall about 5' high, then crawl under a log wall with about 2' of clearance, repeat 10 times. Bob and Steve went first, followed closely by Erick and me. As Erick and I waited at the end of the obstacle for Tim and Jicha (Jicha employed the “stop, drop, and roll” technique to get under the walls due to his stiff-as-boards hamstrings), the rain picked up from a continual sprinkle to a full-on downpour. We agreed it was time to hurry up and finish.
(Justin’s first failed Everest charge)
But first, Obstacle #23: Everest stood in our way. A quarter pipe, 18’ high, and slick with water, mud, and the plastic coating on top, Everest is a formidable foe. At least for me. I had a run up, and failed, my arms slipping through the dangling hands of fellow mudders taking a turn on top of the wall to pull people over. I tried again, and fell again. Bob, Tim, Erick, Jicha, and Steve all made it up on their first try. I was humbled, and took FIVE tries to finally make it up.
(Bob and Erick take the hill, from dual angles!)
(Tim conquers Everest)
It should have been called “Wait in line. In a swamp. In the rain. Carrying a 20 to 50 pound log.” At the starting line, you either grabbed a log off a pile of waiting wood, or got a log handed off from someone finishing the loop. This obstacle was not so much difficult as it was frustrating. On a clear course, it may have taken 5 minutes to power through this obstacle, possibly less. With the bottleneck of people trying to crowd down the narrow paths, it ended up taking more like 30. The hardest part was a steep descent halfway through the loop. People slipped and fell, or dropped their logs creating a knee clearing avalanche below. Then we had to climb out. Traction was non-existent due to the rain and thousands of feet smoothing out the terrain. But mudders don't whine. We happily passed our log off to the next poor souls and continued on. The end was not far.
Obstacle #22: Logjammin was strategically placed to get your cramping muscles good and mad at you. Climb over a stacked log wall about 5' high, then crawl under a log wall with about 2' of clearance, repeat 10 times. Bob and Steve went first, followed closely by Erick and me. As Erick and I waited at the end of the obstacle for Tim and Jicha (Jicha employed the “stop, drop, and roll” technique to get under the walls due to his stiff-as-boards hamstrings), the rain picked up from a continual sprinkle to a full-on downpour. We agreed it was time to hurry up and finish.
(Justin’s first failed Everest charge)
But first, Obstacle #23: Everest stood in our way. A quarter pipe, 18’ high, and slick with water, mud, and the plastic coating on top, Everest is a formidable foe. At least for me. I had a run up, and failed, my arms slipping through the dangling hands of fellow mudders taking a turn on top of the wall to pull people over. I tried again, and fell again. Bob, Tim, Erick, Jicha, and Steve all made it up on their first try. I was humbled, and took FIVE tries to finally make it up.
(Bob and Erick take the hill, from dual angles!)(Tim conquers Everest)The quest continues:
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