Fall Foliage 2025

 Its always the absolute best when everything comes together. The location, the teammate, the weather, the vacation, the race, the results; it all came together perfectly in this year's Fall Foliage put on by Broad Run Off Road. Having been my 3rd round taking on Allen's renowned autumn adventure, I knew it would be a good time, no matter the details, but nearly every detail was flawless. 

First and foremost, the location of the race was one I have dreamt of since I started playing around with this thing called Adventure Racing. My family has vacationed in the area of Harper's Ferry for the past 30 plus years. I have so many core memories of the stunning fall leaves, swift Shenandoah waters, historic towns, challenging mountains, and just overall outdoor joy in the areas surrounding that tri-state point. The trails and waterways have nearly screamed out for an adventure race director to take on the challenge of organizing an event. While it sounds like it wasn't an easy task, I'm so thankful to Allen and Jeremy for the efforts they put into the course. It was everything I had dreamed of. We have moved our basecamp of vacation adventures downriver to the Brunswick Family Campground over the years. The clincher to the awesomeness of this year's race was that our base camp was one of the main transition areas and gear drop off point for the event. 

Next up was the teammate. I've always said I love racing with my husband, and it's so true. Every race just adds to his arsenal of abilities, and he's been accruing some stellar improvements over the past few years. Not to mention his fancy-shmancy new bike he bought recently. That sucker was enviable. We worked together comfortably, compatibly, and consistently throughout the 13 hours on the course, and the time surrounding the race.  His realism combines with my irrational optimism and keeps our goals obtainable and realistic. My optimism keeps him moving forward, just occasionally with a few choice words of grumbling. 

The weather was indisputably ideal. Honestly, I've lucked out the past few races I've entered and have been spoiled with meteorologic racing perfection. Following a slight sprinkling of rain early in the morning, the skies were clear, the sun was bright, the temps were fall-level perfection, and the breeze was nearly always at our backs. The few times I started to feel overheated we were either on a refreshing river that could dish up some cooling waters, or we were at the top of a mountain with life-giving gusts of wind that were so welcomed. 

The vacation can't be overlooked. Planning out a few days before and after a race for family fun makes these Adventure Racing trips a highlight for the whole family. With the race being on Saturday, we opted to arrive in the area on Thursday and set up our commune of tents and trailers along with my 73 year old mother, who would hold down the fort with the kids while we were out racing. Our good friends the Offen family and the Huber family also booked sites in the park. While we had really wanted to have our sites together, so many other racers and fall enthusiasts also had the forethought to stay at the campground, so sites were limited. Thankfully, the Dolder clan was able to get the sites we always love to call home.  

Now, onto the race. 

As I mentioned earlier, our beloved Brunswick Campground was the gear drop off site for the night before the race. How easy was it to pause in dinner prep and walk our bikes and gear over to the pavilion and check in for the race. In a welcomed surprise, we were also given our maps the night before the race. I've only ever been spoiled with such an advantage by Rev3 races, so this was a coveted treat! Being able to delay an alarm on race morning will always make me happy. While our beef stew simmered in the Dutch oven over an open fire, Chris and I chose our routes and plans of attack. I don't think the smile ever fell off my face that whole evening. I went to bed in our tent that night bubbling with excitement for the adventures of the next day.

Chris and I were the first to leave the campground on race morning, other than race staff that were also calling the campground home. We arrived to Harpers Ferry National Park as the sun was just beginning to peak out from the eastern horizon. Racers were twittering here and there, race staff was hanging twinkling lights, and there was the standard electric energy that surrounds a race start. We walked over to the tent for Adventure Enablers and claimed our e-punch and tracker. With a comfortable time cushion before race start, we headed back to the warm van to do some last minute coffee sipping and pack adjusting. Eventually, we spotted a few familiar faces and we emerged from our cozy car into the brisk morning air. Allen and Jeremy made a few updates and reiterated key points for the course. We were treated to a crash course in rafting safety and tips by a true river rat of a rafting guide. Finally, we were corralled over to two waiting buses that were going to transport the teams in waves over to Boliver Heights, just across route 340, where the race would begin. 

We were able to make the second wave of buses and climbed to the back of the bus where our buddies Jonathan, Andrea, and their oldest son, Jonny, who were representing the Delmarva Adventure Sports team, joined us. After a less than 5 minute ride, we emerged into the brisk morning breeze whipping across the open fields of Boliver Heights. Racers gathered in clumps discussing what Allen may have in store for us with his inventive prologues. A few racers paced around getting a lay of the land in preparation for the race start. It all looked just as the map laid it out to be, I love it when it works out like that. There have been races that I still hadn't found myself in the map when the gun went off. 

The prologue ended up being pretty straight forward with a lock for each team whose code could be found by reading clues off the plethora of historic info boards along the open foot path in front of us. Once everyone had their locks in hand and understood the assignment, it was unanimously decided to begin the race just a hair early at 8:55am. The mass of racers shot out across the open noll and claimed their copies of the clue sheets and then dispersed among the 8 info boards. The prologue did its job of spreading the field out, and by the time Chris and I were heading toward CP 1,  the pack had thinned out and we all had room to breathe. 

Leg 1- Trek 7/7 CPs

The first trek covered approximately 6 miles of open battle fields and winding punchy forest trails. We ping ponged with a few teams and punched all 7 CPs hidden among cannons, an abandoned lodge housing a 8 foot yogi bear inflatable and a bowl of candy, along with a few CPs hidden off trail. It was a great warm up, and Chris was even willing to jog a few of the miles. We caught up with a team of familiar faces I had seen at countless other races. I knew the team to have a combined experience level beyond nearly all the other teams out on the course, and I felt like just being along side them gave me some sort of osmotic AR knowledge. After cruising along for some distance together, the woman, Diana, on their 3 person team suggested our teams link up for the upcoming whitewater section where we would need to form "super teams" of anywhere from 4-6 people for the rafts. I eagerly accepted her suggestion, knowing they were sure to be a great team to navigate with along the low waters of the Potomac.  This serendipitous alliance proved to be clutch in our paddle performance.

Leg 2- Paddle 7/7 CPs

As we were trotting to the TA where rafts, paddles, and PFDs waited for us, I heard an unmistakable "KoooWee" coming from the river. The entirety of other Delmarva Adventure Sports teammates had linked up together on the paddle and were calling out a greeting to us! Jonathan, Andrea, and Jonny had timed their arrival perfectly with Dennis and his son Dawson to the TA and were a good 15 minutes ahead of us. I knew they would clear any trek section faster than us, but I didn't think they had gained that much of a lead on us. It didn't phase me all too much with the knowledge that we are strong paddlers, and while they had youth and vigor on their side, we had paddle experience. While our co-paddlers had chosen the team name "Old and in the Way" they proved the point that AR is more about experience and grit than brute force. (Though they had that too!) Within less than 2 miles of river we had passed our Delmarva teammates and sailed off with Jeff calling out perfectly orchestrated instructions to the rest of us in the raft. We didn't miss every rock and hang up on the Potomac, but we maintained a hearty lead on our friends, and passed no less than 7 other boats along the 9 mile route. I loved chatting with them and taking in their tales of AR legend. 

As we neared the take out and second TA of the race, I started singing out the family call to alert Mom and the kids that we were arriving to the campground. Owen, Arthur, and Christopher waved to us from the shoreline and further in the distance the  remaining entirety of the Offen/Dolder kid clan enthusiastically Koowee'd out greetings to us. We hauled up our raft to the top of the boat ramp as Mom came skidding up on her bike, phone in hand to snap pictures of us in our hasty transitioning. I know I was all smiles to tell her we were currently ahead of the rest of the Delmarva pack. Chris and I thanked our new friends Diana, Jeff and Eric for such a wonderful and adventitious paddle and we headed over to grab our bikes and sped over to our campsite where we had our own transition area set up. As we rode down the gravel road to C5, I caught sight of Andrea and Jonathan pulling their raft up to the top of the ramp. I knew our lead was coming to an end as quickly as it had began. But man! It was fun while it lasted! Chris and I dried off, changed, and refilled as quickly as we could and headed over to the bathhouse to pee before storming out onto the first bike leg. While I was waiting for Chris to finish up, the Offen crew came running out of the bathrooms and careened off from the TA ahead of us. We were all smiles and enjoying the fun competition!

Leg 3- Bike 8/10 CPs

Leaving the campground, we headed left, choosing to drop our first point of the race. Although it would have been an easy grab, just a mile or so down the flat and fast tow path, we figured it would take more time than it was worth to get it. I would say about half the field chose to drop the point. In hindsight, I kinda wish we would have grabbed it, but honestly, our race turned out so well, I think we made a good decision. 

Having vacationed in the town of Brunswick for years, I didn't need to follow the map to get to the first point on the leg. We caught up with the Offens and a pretty large group of other racers at the newly groomed trail of Brunswick City Park. I chose a less direct route to CP 16 and by the time Chris and I popped back on the roads, we could see other racers hauling up to the top a STEEEEP hill ahead of us. Through a few alternative route choices, we all arrived to the trailhead of River's Edge MTB trail system nearly simultaneously. After punching the initial CP at the trailhead, we swooped, skidded, and shredded our way through CPs 18, 19, and 21. Chris and I opted to drop 20, which was located in a known fun section of the system, but didn't seem time-cost-effective to us at the time. We had actually considered dropping CP21, and had decided to eye a possible bushwhack to the point from a trail intersection. My plan worked perfectly and we punched the CP faster than we would have if we had gone over the trail we had initially thought about using. When we emerged from the park I felt hot, flushed, and shaky. I knew I needed to prioritize nutrition more than I had so far, so we paused under a tree, swapped out my maps, and downed nearly an entire bottle of tailwind. 

We hauled it back to the Tow Path, thankfully missing any interference of trains as we crossed the tracks at the Brunswick Train Station. Knowledge of the tow path worked to our advantage on our ride back to Harpers Ferry. While I didn't immediately know where all the CPs were along the way, I was able to think clearly on where to keep my eyes open for small side trails that lead to the points. Like I said earlier, Chris had bought a new bike, and so, I inherited his Trek Xcaliber, a serious upgrade from the Cannondale Trail I have been riding for a few years. Between his Superior XF, and my new-to-me Xcaliber, we were able to maintain a pretty clippy pace for the 7 mile ride back to the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah. I had a mild snafu at CP 25 due to my inattentiveness and forgetting the flag was a mini-itty-bitty version of the normal flags, but with the clue "lock tunnel" it was indisputably where I thought it had to be. And it was. 

Leg 4- Trek 7/9 CPs

After battling though the dangerously oblivious crowds, we made it to TA 3 and dropped our bikes. Leg 4 boasted a major elevation factor. Like more elevation in that one section than the entire Spring Bloom event, and it came through with that promise. We've climbed the Maryland Heights trail for years and years, many times with one or more children strapped to us, so we were no strangers to the trail. I had suggested a short cut from the tow path up to CP 26 by following a reentrant. Once we arrived to said reentrant, Chris shot that idea down hard. While it would have saved us like half the distance, the boulders, fallen trees, and rapid elevation gain at the bottom of the reentrant was not a welcoming sight. We chose to follow the well maintained trail and hop into the reentrant further up. The plan worked out well. Even though I over shot the CP and came dangerously close to crossing into private property, a moment of reorienting myself and taking in all the geographical clues led me back to the CP we had trouped directly past on our way up.  We reconnected with the main trail and picked off CP 27 without a hitch. We maintained the counterclockwise route for this leg and braved the crowds at the lookout point for CP 28. As we slogged back up the steep ascent we had just descended for that CP I voiced out loud how we probably should have dropped that point. I think it took us at least 30 minutes to grab it. Chris very honestly answered "There is no way you would have left a CP at point lookout." And he was right. Not that I am a deep deep traditionalist, but it would almost be sacrilege to not go out there while being on that mountain for any reason. I am thankful we did it, even with the quads and hamstring misery. 

We went on, further up the mountain to CP 29 where I shot a bearing from the closest trail intersection. I kept the heading well, but when I reached the cliffy- bouldery site where I assumed the CP would be, it was not. I looked around in desperation knowing I had veered off pretty far from the trail when ta-da! There was that cute little orange and white flag dangling from a rock about 30 meters west of where I was standing. It made me realize I was fighting with a faulty declination setting, yet again. If I would just take the time to REALLY understand it, it would pay off in leaps and bounds. As soon as I punched the CP, I called out a KooWee to find Chris and was surprised to hear a definitively feminine Koo-wee returned. It was Andrea! They were attacking the same CP but from a clockwise route! I love crossing paths with other racers on different route choices. 

I reconnected with Chris and continued on the trail to the CPs at the 100 pound battery and Old Stone Fort. We opted to drop the CP that was located about 100 feet down on a questionably recognizable old logging road. If time weren’t an issue, and I had more navigational confidence, I would have loved the challenge of shooting for that CP, as well as the two point CP to the far west of the trail. But time was, indeed, an issue. As we were traversing the western portion of the old stone fort trail, I was hit with some deep hard belly pains. I can say now that it was the gummy fruit strips I was shoving into my face, three at a time that caused my woes, but I was starting to think it was a dreaded GI bug. My discomfort was enough that I was totally cool dropping even the next CP that while not on trail, didn’t look all too far off. As we walked along I kept thumbing the map, keeping a rough idea of how far along the trail we were traveling. At one point, and I’m still not sure what hinted me to it, I decided to veer off the trail and start edging over toward the obvious drop off in elevation. I think I was assuming that by walking the edge of that ridge I would be able to spot the CP more easily. I could still see Chris on the trail, so I knew I hadn’t gone too far off when suddenly I had the distinct instinct to start heading further into the woods. As I came toward a cluster of rocks I saw another racer pop out from behind them and knew some sense had lead me in the right direction at the right time. I’m still not sure whether I would have really succeeded in that find if we hadn’t arrived just as another racer was leaving the CP. However it happened, it gave us another point. 

Leg 5- Trek/Bike 10/11 CPs

We followed the trail back down to the main trail and headed back toward the TA. As we came upon the distinct bend in the trail where we had veered off for CP 26 I couldn’t keep from speculating a clutch move. The race director had given us all the green light to grab a cluster of 3 “bike points” while we were out on the trek section. With that permission, all we had to do was hop the reentrant in front of us and maintain a heading directly toward CP 37. While we were standing there, another 2 person team ambled up near us, obviously contemplating the same thoughts. I looked over at them and we both kinda winked at each other and set off on a bushwhack that would serve us so well. Not only did that little move save us at least a mile of travel and no less than 200 feet of elevation, but somehow we literally dropped right on top of the CP. I wish I could say I totally knew it was going to work out that way, but again, it was a slight surprise to see the CP hanging from the branch of a tree along a wisp of a trail I barely even noticed. We went on to grab the two other points on this little tract, albeit not nearly as directly as we grabbed the first. 

Prior to the race start, we were told there was a time cut off for returning to TA 3 to start the last bike leg. The purpose of this cut off was to ensure everyone was off of Maryland Heights Trails by 7pm, since there was a sort of curfew in place by the national park system. We figured it wasn't a problem if we strolled in a little late since the sun was going down while we were searching for the three "bike/trek" points located off of Maryland Heights Mountain. Juuuuuust to be safe though, we jogged back to the TA down the road and scooted in by 7:10, without any comment from the race staff. We eagerly filled (and chugged and then filled again) a few water bottles and headed over to our bikes. My maps were nearly shredded by this point. I hadn't perfectly sealed the map case while we were splish-splashing along the Potomac River, and the constant changing from map case to map board was beginning to puree our plans.

 I pieced together map 3 and 4 and we took in our options. The road that lead to the next cluster of points looked dauntingly steep when Chris eyed it from the base of the TA. He didn't flat out refuse to head toward that section, but he certainly wasn't eager. I knew we still had a good cluster of points to get on the final trek leg at Murphy Farms at the very end of the race, but we still had almost 3 hours left on the clock. I saw a single bike point blessedly located on the flat tow path just to the west of the TA and suggested we go get that point and then just take a gander at the faint "older or abandoned" trail that could lead us up to Fort Duncan and Huckleberry Hill.

We easily cruised down the tow path and painlessly punched CP 43 housed in a old stone ruin. We rode on the tiniest bit further to a lock that appeared to be at the base of the aforementioned "trail." We parked our bikes along with a smattering of other teams and surveyed the dark hillside. There was absolutely nothing that could even be remotely defined as a trail. But. But, but, but, CP 42 looked to be right at the top of a small-ish incline. I convinced Chris it wouldn't be too hard to leave the bikes here at the base, do a short scramble up the hillside and grab just one more point on this section. He acquiesced, and we started our scramble. It wasn't clear, it wasn't easy, and it certainly wasn't fun, but we dropped right on top of CP 42. As we caught our breath from the endeavor, Chris said "there is NO way I'm going back down what you just drug me up." And with that I formulated a plan to grab nearly the entire cluster of points on Huckleberry Hill. We followed a super faint trail, passed our paddle pals Old and In the Way, as well as the Offen crew and made our way to CP 41 that was housed in an abandoned and dilapidated building literally in the middle of the woods which were reclaiming the structure. We went on to grab CP 40 on the edge of an open field and finally CP 38 located on a pond edge. As we neared the CP an unusually brave deer stood motionless within reach of the path I was fording to the point. I almost wondered if it was debating about charging at me and throwing me into the muck pond just for giggles. Thankfully, it merely observed my antics with a calm, slightly bored gaze. 

We chose to drop CP 39, but later heard it was a pretty easy find. From CP 38 I made the decision to follow the stream which flowed off the pond all the way back down to the tow path and then we would jog back to our waiting bikes at the lock. It worked. It worked out so well I have to thank Chris for his refusal to take the road I had initially planned on using. Seeing everyone up on Huckleberry Hill pushing their bikes through those less than clear trails looked miserable. But we were able to pick our way through all those fallen trees and high vegetation with relative ease. Good call, my love!

When we returned to our bikes, we saw that many other racers had taken the same approach and bikes were scattered all along the lock clearing. We hopped back on the bikes and hauled off into the dark heading towards Harpers Ferry. We passed a few other teams while keeping a brisk pace. By the time we got to the foot bridge, I felt like we were pushing our pace a little too aggressively. We cruised through the sleepy streets of downtown Harpers Ferry and easily nabbed CP 44 which I had assumed would literally be "cliffside" but was elated to see it wafting in the late evening breeze at the foot of the cliff. We completed the final bike by bopping CP 45 and serendipitously scaling a small dirt path that lead directly to the back of the final TA before our last trek leg.

Leg 6- Trek 4/6 CPs

We dropped our bikes in the make-shift corral and immediately headed back out into the night. It took me a few seconds to clear the cobwebs out of my head and return to navigation mode. Seeing the finish line and all the yummy food and relaxing tables set up for race end was hard to walk away from with creaking muscles and tired eyes. But on we marched to both CP 46 and 47. Once we emerged from the woods and out into the open fields of Murphy Farms we met with Becky, a dear AR friend who is always a welcomed sight. We commiserated for only a few moments before Chris and I headed out for a few final points.

 I had originally thought all the CPs in this leg looked navigationally challenging, none appearing on trails or with obvious geographical clues. However, at some point during the race I found out the 5 hour racers were also using this section as their trekking leg, so I had to assume the points would not be quite as difficult as I had assumed. We decided to grab 3 out of the 4 points, leaving the one that looked to be a good haul out into the distance. We had less than an hour left on the clock and refused to fight for a point we might lose because of poor time management. As we were walking down a trail that wasn't making sense, we met up with Dennis and his son Dawson for the first time in hours. They asked how we were making out and I told them "we're doing well enough." Can't give away our exact CP count at that point! Especially with them heading to the finish.

We eventually realized we were on a gravel road that paralleled our intended trail, but it would work out better for us than our original plan. We grabbed CP 51 across an open field by shooting a bearing from a trail intersection and headed on to 49. I was nearly dragging myself to go forward at this point. Between another bout of stabbing belly pain and just pure exhaustion, I was hurting. We dove into the woods at the end of the trail we were on in hopes of stumbling upon CP 49. Alas, I ended up converging with a nearly vertical foot path, so steep it was lined with a fire hose to help hikers ascend and descend the less than ideal trail. For the first time in the race, I checked my altimeter and saw that I was roughly 45 feet shy of what I thought was the plotted elevation of the CP. Probably shouldn't have relied on my uncalibrated watch for such info. I descended further and further down the fire hose trail until I was nearly on top of the train tracks located at the base of the cliff. Weeeeellll dang. I finally goofed. Like goofed so bad I was ready to give up. But I still had to turn around and now pull myself up, hand over fist back to the top of this ding dang vertical trail of doom. With no other option, I started back up. By the time I could see the top of the trail I was so spent I could have sat down and waited for daylight. I called out to Chris "I give up. Lets call it and head back." As I glanced to my right my headlamp caught the slightest reflection. Are you serious?! There, less than 50 yards from the ding dang trail of doom I had just pointlessly subjected myself to, was the final CP I was going to punch for the race. I giggled as I beeped the e-punch and slowly finished the climb to the main trail. I reached out for Chris to pull me up the last bit of incline. He was kind enough to guide me and together we walked hand in hand back along the Gravel road that traversed the farm. We left 2 CPs out on that leg, and no part of me regrets it. I was almost totally spent. We returned to the final TA up the same steep sandy trail we had ascended with our bikes and saw a table full of our friends chowing down on pizza and sandwiches. I weakly and pitifully called out our greeting "Kooooooweeeee" and they all turned to see Chris and I shuffle to the finish. We crossed the line with only minutes to spare. I gave Allen a high five and told him it was an absolute blast of a race and I enjoyed every minute of it. Of course I could say that! It was over and we had done our best out there.

We trudged over to the Adventure Enablers tent, downloaded our e-punch, handed in our tracker and stood back to see where we were lining up divisionally. I couldn't believe it. We were currently in 1st with only minutes to spare! We had gotten 44 out of 52 points! There was a team ahead of us with 48 points, but they were apparently disqualified for bending some rules a little too aggressively. Over the next few minutes our ranking dropped to 3rd, but it was still worthy of elation on our part. In the end, after close inspection by race staff, we were given the final results of 2nd out of 12 teams in our division and 26th out of 88 teams overall. I. Am. STOKED!! While I've been on teams with higher overall standings in the past, I think this is the highest ranking Chris and I have had as a team to date! Our buddies on Delmarva Adventure Sports also got 2nd in their division but 21st overall! 

We filled our plates with pizza and Panera sandwiches and headed over to the table with all our friends. After hearing a few stories from their races I realized Chris and I had done comparatively well out there! Jonathan and Dennis both have a few more years of navigational experience on me, so I naturally compare myself to their abilities in these races. To know I had come within 2 points of the Offens was awesome! I know I have plenty of room for improvement, but I'm exceedingly happy with how we did out there. Chris and I enthusiastically accepted our ever so fashionable Fall Foliage baseball caps as prizes for our podiuming and congratulated the others. Our paddle pals also podiumed in their division so I gave Diana a big hug and thanked them yet again for our clutch alliance on the river. 

We slowly gathered up our belongings and headed to the van. As we were packing up the bikes on the rack, I struck up a conversation with a young girl parked just to our left. She was a highschooler who had taken on the race with a few of her classmates. I asked her all about their AR club, which is the only one in the country, and was in awe of her enthusiasm and excitement for the sport. While we all share a love for one of the coolest sports, it isn't exactly mainstream. Her excitement, along with her classmates and the entire next generation of the Delmarva crew, are ensuring this AR thing will continue on. I can't wait to see where we all go next.