The Desert Rage II Camp Verde (just outside of Sedona, AZ) turned out to be more of a mud fest than an adventure race. It rained like crazy and was perfect weather for a day of racing. The course took my teammate Jim Johnson and I through a beautiful part of the Verde valley. It started with a 4-5 mile run to the boat transition. We put in for the start of a wild, swollen river paddle that would take us about 5-6 miles. Half way through we realized that my boat, an inflatable was losing air so I spent about 2 miles freaking out about whether or not I was going to have to swim to the end or not. Thankfully I made it though I looked awful funny. We took out and had a 1 mile portage back to the main transition area. Jim designed some great kayak carts out of pvc and pneumatic tires from Home Depot. We got the design off the web! There’s nothing like passing about 20 people arguing about the best way to carry their kayak. We ran with both kayaks for the full mile and jumped on the bikes for the final leg of the race. It included a nice hill climb to a hike section where the navigation skills kicked in. Well, sorta. We’d been given a hint that CP 6 was off the trail and off the trail it was. It took us a while to find it but we did and made our way back on a shortcut route to finish in 4:28. This was Jim’s first race and he did great. I was glad to have done the race and love getting new folks involved.  - Jason Taylor

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