Green Mountain Adventure Racing Comes To NEK

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Created on Tuesday, 12 October 2021 19:03

Written by Hailey Morgan

WESTMORE - Some come to the Northeast Kingdom to observe nature's beauty during the fall season. This past weekend some people came down to use nature to measure their inner strength surrounded by the fall colors. In the "Test Your Nettle," three hour race hosted by Green Mountain Adventure Racing.

Green Mountain Adventure Racing is a non-profit organization based in Vermont. The non-profit was formed in 2003, and their goal is to get people outside and active. Their events include racing, biking, hiking, camping, and even kayaking. They raise money through donations like membership fees, charity, and activities they put on throughout Vermont. Donations go to the organization putting on events all over the state.

This was the first time the team has done a race in the Northeast Kingdom, and participants were eager to get on the trails. Sixteen teams attended the event, taking place at Lake Willoughby. The day started off with racers meeting at the Notch House Inn at eleven o'clock. Teams had an hour to trace out what routes they wanted to take. The race was a combination of kayaking and trail walking.

Most racers ran to the Kayaking station first, to retrieve their boats before heading off to the woods. Each team leaving in a boat took about forty five minutes to come back to shore. Some even sank in the process of trying to add an orange flag to their list.

The trails included many obstacles, racers even had to travel off route to find an orange flag. The terrain consisted of many uphill and downhill walking. The highest peak racers could reach was three thousand feet. Lots of participants brought walking sticks to make sure they could make it through the woods. Some even spent as long as thirty minutes trying to find the hidden flags. Each course spanning for three miles, the goal is to peg as many orange flags as you can. Each team had three hours to finish, most racers said it was everything they expected and more.

Racers Heather A. and Rachel H. have done races before, and attended the event to help themselves get better at races like this one. "Trail or water? The trail was rugged, yeah, a lot more intense than we thought. A lot more bushwhacking, I thought there would be actual trails that we would know what to go on but there was not."

Paula Griesacker and her daughter Jessica Cauley have been doing adventure races for twelve years now. It started as volunteer work, and after a while they just decided to start participating in the races. They usually do at least two a year, and jump on the chance to join a race anytime they can. The two decided to come to Vermont because they thought the race would be a good warm up for their next one.

"It's always a very humbling experience because we have these grand plans of all the points we're going to get. We have it all set out now, and we have a backup plan, and we'll go here.. Then we'll go here and get that one, and then get that one. Maybe we'll skip that one." Griesacker explains, the two ended up finishing just twenty minutes before the race was over. They said it was a good challenge for them before they go off to their next race. Green Mountain Adventure was happy with the turn out, considering they had two races going on at the same time. The group shared they would definitely bring their races back to the Northeast Kingdom again.