Owasippe Edition
September 23, 2023
4 or 7-10 hours

(durations to be determined before May 2023)

Teams of 1-4
Bike, paddle, trek, orienteer
Owasippe Scout Reservation,
Twin Lake, MI

Gather your team and get ready to experience classic northern Michigan terrain by bike, canoe/kayak and foot, without having to drive “up north.” The race takes place just 20 minutes north of Muskegon and less than one hour from Grand Rapids.

Mountain bike miles and miles of top-rated singletrack on Owasippe’s bike trails. We’ll pick the easier trails for the 4-hour race and add some challenge to the longer race.

Trek and orienteer through beautiful woods. It’s “Goldilocks” terrain – not too steep or too flat, not too thick or too open. Defined, often runnable terrain. We’ll keep you away from briar patches and swamps. Super detailed LIDAR maps and vetted checkpoints.

Paddle scenic flat waters with a bit of navigation to keep you on your toes. The lakes within the reservation are beautiful! Calm water and lots of scenery to enjoy, but don’t get distracted too much! Enough paddling (but no portaging) to break a sweat but not too much where it feels like a slog. We want to make sure you have plenty of time to enjoy the biking and trekking! Bring your own canoe or kayak to save money or rent at a big discount off normal rental costs.

Celebrate after the race with food, awards and raffle, sharing epic stories of success and what you’d do differently next time.

You Can Do This. Here’s Why…
You and your teammate(s) will race together to find as many checkpoints as you can in the time period – or come in early if you’ve had enough and rest up for the post-race feast and awards. Don’t let the duration keep you from an incredible experience. Just adjust your pace, maintain a positive attitude and make sure you know how to follow a topographic map and use a compass to find off-trail checkpoints. We can help you get ready with a free clinic and lots of online resources. If you are new to adventure racing, scroll down to the bottom of this page for a short tutorial.

Video of race experience
Video of racer testimonials

Divisions

• Solo: females, males
• 2-person: mixed, females, males
• 3-4 person: mixed, females, males

What’s Included
See the Register page in the drop-down menu above for entry fees and youth or military discounts. Entry includes:

• Tech shirt (or pick our stainless steel pint, or buff/headwear)
• Post-race food
• Chance at over $2,000 worth of top finisher prizes and dozens of raffle prizes
• The first place team in each division will receive handcrafted wood team trophies and a prize (gift card or gear). All top finishing teams will receive wood individual medals and a prize (depth of placements determined by number of teams in each division).

Skill Levels & Approximate Mileages

• Biking (and Bike Orienteering): Incredible singletrack on the spectacular Owasippe mountain bike trail. We’ll keep the short race on the tamer sections. The longer race will have more miles, more challenging terrain, and likely add in a nice mix of gravel and paved roads. The faster you go, the more challenging it gets. We’ll have many checkpoint flags in gullies, peninsulas and on other defined terrain along the way so you’ll need to “stay in contact” with the map as you fly through the trails!
  • 4 hour: x miles
  • 7-10 hour: x miles
    • Optional shorter course will reduce the mileage by x miles for teams behind schedule

• Trekking (On-foot Orienteering): Gorgeous Michigan forests with rolling terrain and views of marshes, lakes and valleys. Fairly thin vegetation in most places and several two tracks interspersed will help you move faster and relocate if you are having trouble finding a checkpoint. Detailed LIDAR maps for all sections. Thanks to Southern Michigan Orienteering Club for help with the LIDAR base map development.
  • 4 hour: x miles. Mostly beginner level with a few intermediate in difficulty; all optional so if you can’t find one (or don’t get to one of the trek sections), you can move on to get back “on schedule” or finish the race early.
  • 7-10 hour: x miles, 3 sections. Mostly intermediate level; a few somewhat more subtle placements to test your ability to process many types of information (contour shape, elevation, vegetation types, man-made features, distance, direction, water features, etc.). One trek section will be several miles of biking away but will act as a “short course” so your team can skip it to get back “on schedule” or finish the race early if your team is “only” ready for a 10-12 hour race.

• Paddling: Beautiful flat-water paddling. No paddling skills required. No portaging. Good navigation should help. It will not be a particularly long paddle; we want to give you lots of time for the amazing biking! Rent or bring your own canoe/kayak in any combination (everyone can be in their own kayak if desired but a canoe is often faster).
  • 4 hour: x miles
  • 7-10 hour: x miles

Timeline

4 Hours
Check-in, maps handed out:
Start: 
Finish by: 
Dinner: 
Award ceremony and raffle: 

7-10 Hours
Check-in, maps handed out:
Race briefing:
Start: 
Finish by:
Dinner: 
Award ceremony and raffle: 

Directions
Owasippe Scout Reservation, 9900 Russell Rd, Twin Lake, MI 49457, north of Muskegon, less than one hour from Grand Rapids.

Lodging

• Cabin and tent site rentals will be available on site at the Owasippe Scout Reservation.
• Grand Rapids and Muskegon have lots of lodging (hotels, vacation rentals) options as well.

Required Gear
See the Required Gear page for details. Required gear will be standard adventure racing gear (bike, hydration pack/containers, compass, emergency blanket and a few other small items). Scroll down to see other suggested items, many which are smart to have, but not mandatory.

Canoes & Kayaks – Own or Rental
You may bring your own canoe(s), tandem kayak(s), or solo kayak(s), in any combination depending on your team size and stage it along with your paddles, PFDs at the start of the paddle before the race (near the race start). Your watercraft will be in a secure position at the venue after you finish your paddle.

If you will be renting watercraft, you MAY BE ABLE (TBD) to rent any combination of kayaks or canoes for your team. Life vests and canoe or kayak paddles included. If you are a 3-person team, you can rent a canoe with a person in the middle, a canoe and two kayaks, or three kayaks (no tandem kayaks available). They will be ready for you along with paddles and PDFs at the start of the paddle and you’ll leave all paddle gear there when you’re done.

4-hour rental ONLY (TBD). Because the paddle section is an out-and-back and some teams will finish before others arrive, we can rent fewer watercraft than there are teams. We pass this savings on to you with rental fees at a XX% discount! In past races there has been either no wait at all or just a wait of a few minutes, but be aware there could be a wait (or there might not be the perfect combination of canoes and kayaks you desire at that moment) so if that’s unacceptable, consider borrowing or bringing your own.

Transition/Aid Station Areas
We will have water and Gatorade at multiple locations. You will need to carry all the gear and food you need but we’ll have plenty of fluids at the transition areas (TAs) where you switch between biking, trekking and paddling. Your bike will be your mode of transportation between sections. Volunteers will watch your bikes at the TAs while you are out paddling or trekking.

Navigation/Race Preparation Clinic
Navigation 101/201 clinic, Saturday,  September 16 (tentative), Seidman Park, Grand Rapids. RSVP here. Includes in-field practice. 1.5 hours. Free. If you can’t make it, check out the Navigation 101/201 clinic presentation and other sources on our Learn More page for tips.

Shirt
Tech shirt, pint or buff comes with early or regular entry (late entrants get pint or buff; can swap for shirt if desired at the end of check-in). Men’s/adult crew or women’s v-neck, same shirt as our other races.
Women’s shirt specifications
Men’s shirt specifications

Merchandise
Shop and pre-pay online during registration and receive at packet pick-up or shop in person the day of the event. We may also have skull caps and tech shirts available at the race (but not online).
Hoodie – $35
Multi-functional headwear/buff (green or gray), $12
Stainless steel pint, $12
Sticker (classic oval or compass-cut), $2

Rules & Age Limits
Please read through our standard race rules. Special rules that apply for certain races will be listed in one of the race updates you’ll receive. Obey all traffic laws. This is an open course so you may encounter vehicles and pedestrians at any point. Racers must generally be at least 14 years old due to biking in traffic; a parent may discuss the possibility of an exception with race organizers. Racers under 18 must be accompanied by an adult and have a parent or guardian sign the waiver/consent form provided during online registration.

After the Race
We encourage you to hang out after the race. Your entry includes a post-race meal. We’ll have top finisher and fun awards, a raffle, and share stories of the day. Guests can pay for the meal under the Purchase Event Items on the registration site.

________________________________________________________

For Beginners: How an Adventure Race Works

Adventure racing is like no other sport! It involves a mix of brains and brawn, individual effort and teamwork, speed and endurance. For such amazing rewards, it requires a little effort to learn how it works and get better over time.

The goal of adventure racing is for you and your teammate(s) to find as many checkpoints as you can in the time period. All checkpoints will be pre-plotted on topographic maps. The race will be broken up so that you’ll do one activity for a while, then another, etc. so your body (and brain) will get nice breaks. Usually your bike is the consistent mode of transportation from one place to another throughout the race, from start to finish. You’ll stop at various “transition areas” to leave your bike with a volunteer to paddle and to trek/orienteer on foot before returning to your bike to continue on.

Checkpoints may be out of view, tucked behind trees or a hill, but generally are not intentionally hidden (except in public areas to minimize risk of theft). Check your map to see where the point is located and consult your race instructions sheet for the description which will help you determine its more exact location. Some points will require use of your compass, topographical map and an understanding of how to read that map. Others you can find from just looking at the map. Each checkpoint will have an orange and white flag with a punch attached to it.

The goal is to maximize the number of checkpoints on your passport within the time limit. A team that gets 25 checkpoints with seconds to spare will finish ahead of a team that gets 24 checkpoints with one hour to spare.

• Check-in. We recommend arriving to check-in early as we will hand out maps then and you can get most or all of your route complete before the pre-race meeting.
• Pre-race meeting. We’ll go over rules, safety issues, answer any questions.
• Race instructions/clues. The race instructions lists key rules, describes the course and the activities, and provides hints about where checkpoints are located along with the numbers of each checkpoint corresponding to the map, passport and punch.
• Passport. The passport is the piece of waterproof paper you’ll punch at each checkpoint to prove you found it. You must not lose it! You will turn this in as your scorecard when you finish racing.
• Checkpoint flag (aka “control”) and punch. You are looking for orange and white 3-sided orienteering flags (technically called control markers). You must punch the correct box in the passport so we can verify you were indeed there. The punch will have a number on it corresponding to your passport. Check it to confirm you got the right one. Each punch has a unique barb pattern to prove teams made it to that flag.
• Maps. The map(s) are topographic, showing the shape of the land and terrain details. Sometimes the map is lower resolution USGS. Other times it will be high-detail LIDAR. They are pre-plotted with the checkpoints on them. While not every trail in the area will be on the map, the vast majority usually are. You can waterproof your map with packing tape or contact paper and/or keep it in a waterproof map case or zip lock baggie.
• Map reading will be critical. You should also know how to use a compass (baseplate or sighting – with a straightedge), although you may be able to manage without if you can navigate well with your map. Attend our free clinic (see details earlier on this page) or learn online here.
• Order. Checkpoints are usually optional and often times can be found in any order within a section.
• The goal. Maximize the number of checkpoints on your passport within the time limit. If you arrive after the time limit, you will either receive a severe checkpoint penalty or not be counted in the final standings, depending on whether the race is beginner level or not.

Questions? www.facebook.com/miadventurerace is a great place to ask questions and get answers so others can learn from your question. For questions specific to you, email Mark VanTongeren, race director.