We had a blast at the wilderness 101. The weekend was full of unexpected happenings, good and bad. Our first night there most of the racers turned in around 9:30 pm, so we thought it best to take off for a bit, so as not to disturb anyone. We needed to find our way to the tunnel in Poe Paddy State Park, to take pictures there during the race, so we headed over the mountain. On our way we noticed a man walking down the road and we stopped to ask him for directions. He offered to show us in person if we would take him home afterward. We agreed so he hopped in the back and we continued on our way. On the way we learned a lot about our guide. His name was Jack and he is a retired biology professor from Eureka, CA. He spends his summers here in an old CC camp that has been in his family for many years. After finding the tunnel (which is very cool to see at night, and a little creepy) we took Jack home and he invited us in for a beer. Jack showed us around his camp pointing out the flying squirrel he has in a hamster cage. He explained to us that he accidentally caught the flying squirrel in a trap while trying to catch red squirrels. We had a great time hanging out with Jack; he was a really cool guy. It was getting pretty late so we made our way back to Coburn Park and called it a night.
The next morning we told Jay Heverly and John Majors about the little adventure we had the night before, and our wish to free the flying squirrel. Then we started preparing to get some great shots of the race. We made our way around to some of the best parts of the course to get our shots, and saw the awesome technical skills of the top riders. At the first tunnel we wanted to get shots of Jay and John. We waited for a while and started to wonder if something happened to Jay. The last time we saw him he was doing extremely well and should have come through already. When John came through we asked if he had seen Jay, and he informed us that Jay’s frame had broken.
We went to the finish line to find Jay, watch the rest of the racers come in, and see the awards. Jeremiah Bishop came in first with a time of 6:52:07 setting a new record, followed by Harlan Price in second, and Tinker Juarez in third. John Majors took first in the Men’s Masters clenching the endurance series title. After the awards we decided we had one more mission this weekend and that was to buy the squirrel’s freedom. We gained the support of John and Jay and went into town to buy a six-pack, hoping that Jack would accept it as trade for the squirrel’s freedom, and journeyed over to Jack’s. We pulled into the driveway only to find that Jack was not home, so we went back to Coburn Park. Disappointed by our failed mission we all went to bed. Overall the weekend was a success we got some great shots, and although we didn’t free the squirrel we have faith that Jack will release it before he ventures back to California. To see more pictures of the of The Wilderness 101 and also Ole Bull Midnight Madness visit www.serenafranck.com. Race report written by Eric and Serena Franck
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