Craftsbury Checkpoint Challenge
In true Craftsbury style, Oktoberfest’s Checkpoint Challenge on Sunday was surely an event to remember. Most people don’t know what a checkpoint challenge is; I didn’t either until recently.
The best definition I can give is that it is pure fun. Fun is a subjective term though because not everyone would consider running 6-8k on Craftsbury trails, looking like a fool catching chickens, and getting covered in swampy water, sand, and hay a fun time. The challenge consisted in nine checkpoints in different areas along the trail system and each team had to complete the activity or take a 15 minute time penalty before moving on to the next checkpoint. All of the checkpoints were divided into groupings of three and shown on different maps that were distributed to the 12 teams. This prevented the teams from showing up at the same checkpoint at the same time, but everyone eventually got all three maps.
My team, Concept 4, consisted of GRP members Phil Henson, Jamie Chapman, Kyle Lafferty, and myself. We had some tough competition, including last year’s winners and master trail-builders/maintenance crew/wily athletes, the Craftsbury Crazies. However, following some team pump up antics, we were ready to take them on.
At the start we got our first map, which turned out to be the same one that the Craftsbury Crazies got, so we booked it down the trails after them to get to the Black River swamp, where the first checkpoint was to find containers of hidden legos and build a structure with them. Because we arrived second, the easily spotted legos had already been grabbed and we were left stumbling around aimlessly in the muddy ground. Seeing nothing after a few minutes, we rallied, took the time penalty, and ran off uphill to get to the next challenge, the infamous chicken challenge. We proved to be adept at this challenge, though perhaps we also created a spectacle of ourselves…
Regardless, we moved on to the third challenge on our first map, which turned out to be starting a fire to cook our egg that we had gathered at the chicken challenge. We got right to work and were feeling pleased with our fire starting skills when suddenly the Craftsbury Crazies sprinted out of the woods carrying kindling and immediately ignited a blaze and finished cooking their egg almost as soon as we did. Uh ohhh…
On our next map we had the balance checkpoint by the Pump Track and all four team members had to balance on it for several seconds without standing on the middle five boards. We had no problem doing this and were soon off to find the next challenge, which turned out to be hidden off the trail system in the middle of the woods. After scratching our heads a bit we bushwhacked in to the sounds of music and found the station. This checkpoint was to memorize Ein Prosit, a short song in German that is typically sung at Oktoberfest celebrations. Following this solid team effort we were off again to find the subsequent challenge somewhere on Duck Pond. The shortest route was straight through the woods, so when our single track path got confusing we took off through the brush using only our directional skills, which turned out to be spot on and popped us out into giant piles of hay. Here we had to find a knitting needle somewhere in the stacks. We also got news of the Craftsbury Crazies, who it turned out had taken the time penalty because they couldn’t find a needle. We were elated to still be in the game when we found our own needle soon after and took off back to the starting tent to pick up our final map. At the tent we earned 45 seconds of bonus time for our heartwarming rendition of Ein Prosit.
Next up was the ball checkpoint, conveniently located right next to the start line. The challenge was to get 10 balls into the bucket in the middle of the pond in front of the Touring Center, with everyone on the team being the last one to touch at least one ball. Phil led Concept 4 here by suggesting we all touch our balls, put them in a milk crate, and he would swim to the bucket, thus saving the rest of us from a chilly dip. Shortly we set off down the trails again to find our next checkpoint, which turned out to be creating a jump rope and jumping it 10 times. Jamie led the way on tying together cattail greens and Kyle took the leaps before we headed off to our final checkpoint at the biathlon range. We dallied a bit here doubting our shooting abilities before deciding to take another time penalty and booking it for the finish.
We made the killer uphill climb to the finish only to find the Craftsbury Crazies already triumphantly waiting for us there. Despite being the second team to reach the finish, A Team eked into second place by a narrow margin because they had fewer time penalties. However, Concept 4 finished first place for coed teams and we are already plotting how to up our game next year!
For full results check out the Craftsbury website.
http://craftsbury.com/grp/grp/news/OktoResults_131008.htm
I wasn’t able to adequately document the event because electronic devices are not up to the Checkpoint Challenge. For more photos check out WCAX’s coverage of the event at http://www.wcax.com/category/166239/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9385528