Appalachian Adventure Racing Camp
Copyright© 2025 by Canairs90s
Scene 1 — Lindsey
Day 2 necessarily started before dawn, with alarms going off at 4:30. The first thing Lindsey noticed was that it had rained the night before.
“Nice, it rained overnight, that will make the creek a bit deeper and the mud should be nice and soft to hide in,” Cal said as he climbed down from the upper bunk.
Lindsey, not exactly a morning person anyway and knowing she was likely to end up covered in mud soon, replied with a less than enthusiastic “Great,” before heading to the bathroom to change into her outfit and do her morning routine.
Cal followed suit once she was done and they headed for the start. They noticed on the whiteboard as they passed the order of the teams for the day was 3, 1, 4, 2. So their friends Cara and Bailey had decided to go third. The married couple were going to lead off and use darkness, leaving the men with the second slot.
“Shit, I forgot about our clothes on the porch, those won’t be dry anytime soon,” Lindsey lamented as they exited the cabin.
“At least our underwear upstairs should be dry,” Cal offered.
“Are you always this positive in the morning? I’m not sure I’m a fan,” Lindsey replied in a tone that was half joking, half still actually grumpy.
After all the teams were assembled for the start, Pierre took the lead on explaining the day’s first challenge by reviewing the rules from last night. Team 3 selected Bailey as the HVT and the organizers gave her a loose fitting pair of white pants and flowing long sleeve shirt that appeared to be made of some sort of cheap linen-type fabric to wear, and directed her to change in the old shower building near the start. Everyone else except Cara was given a padded suit, which were black and resembled wetsuits with some extra padding built in. As Laurie had explained it made it a little harder to move around but not too much. Lindsey guessed she could run about three quarters as fast as she could in normal clothes. Next came the rope tying together the teammates from Teams 1 and 2. Laurie explained: “The bindings are not actually rope, just strips of nylon, they’re decently durable but will break if you try to clothesline someone or do something stupid. Breaking your bond means automatic disqualification for your team from this round so don’t push it.”
Once Bailey returned in her white outfit her five defenders created a quick plan: the guys from Team 1 would walk in front since they were the most physically imposing and likely to have the first encounter, Cal and Lindsey would follow behind Bailey in case there was an attack from the rear and Cara would be the last line of defense as needed.
“Hey, did anybody notice what they are wearing?,” Dillon asked. “So Tommy and I know what colors to be searching for.”
The group looked at each other with a bit of an ‘oh shit’ look. Clearly nobody had really taken notice in the early morning twilight. Lindsey did have to give props to Dillon to see him actually thinking beyond basics though.
“I think it was just dark colors, like navy blue and black?” Cara offered, clearly not confident.
Deciding to simply do their best they set off, as expected they passed the first bridge without incident. Lindsey felt the tension building as they approached the second bridge, the most likely spot for an ambush. To the group’s surprise, they crossed it without being attacked. They were 30 meters further down the trail when all of a sudden they heard movement in the creek behind them. Lindsey and Cal whirled around, and saw Annie and Stefan emerge over the bank of the creek. It was hard to see in the low light but at least Annie seemed to once again down to her underwear. Their body language suggested THEY had been taken by surprise. ‘How was that even possible,’ Lindsey wondered, ‘what else could they possibly have been doing?’
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