Elite international racers answer questions at pre-race Adventure Racing symposium at Northern Outdoors

The Untamed New England Adventure Race “100 Mile Wilderness Edition”, presented by Plum Creek, will kick off at The Birches Resort on Moosehead Lake in the Maine Highlands on Wednesday, June 18, 2014.  A portion of Plum Creek’s land in the region is part of this year’s challenging New England Untamed adventure race course.  Participants from 11 different countries racing on 40 different teams congregated Tuesday in The Forks at Northern Outdoors, the Rafting and Peak sponsor of this year’s race, for check-in and the all-important unveiling of the race course.  Course information and full live coverage will be available at www.UntamedNE.com/Live starting Wednesday morning.

The race will kick off with a short orienteering circuit before teams jump into canoes and paddle across the chilly waters of Moosehead Lake.  After facing  trekking and ropes challenge on Little Kineo, and a trek on Mount Kineo Island, teams will paddle to the Mud Brook Camp in Lily Bay where they will have a chance to taste test sponsor Good To-Go’s “ready to eat” meals.  From here teams will transition to mountain bikes for the leg to take them to the Gorman Chairback Lodge where they will do both an orienteering relay course and a small conservation project.  UNE 2014’s Destination and Peak Sponsor, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), opened the lodge in 2011 as part of their Maine Woods Initiative, which included the acquisition of 70,000 acres of land across 5 townships.  Cutoff #1 will be all lodge activities completed by 7:00pm on Thursday.

From Gorman Chairback, teams will continue on mountain bike to Transition Area 2, from which they will head out on the Abenaki Lost World Trek, summiting three peaks in the Shaw Mountain Range while crossing land owned by AMC and by presenting sponsor Plum Creek. This forest is dense, damp and steep and will challenge teams’ navigation skills.  Plum Creek owns and manages more than 865,000 acres of working forests throughout Maine, including in and around the Moosehead Lake Region that hosts part of the race.  About 96% of Plum Creek’s land in the Moosehead Lake Region falls under a permanent conservation easement that will forever keep it as a working forest rich in wildlife and unique plant habitat and with free and open access for the public to enjoy.   “We’ve long known our working forest lands provide exceptional recreational opportunities, and this race will help highlight what the Moosehead Lake region in particular has to offer,” said Mark Doty, community affairs manager for Plum Creek.  “We welcome these world-class athletes to give it their all as they compete in mountain biking, canoe and kayak paddling, trail running, off-trail trekking, across this untamed terrain.”

Teams will exit the forest back at the Mud Brook Camp on Lily Bay where sponsor Kelty will have tents set up for teams desiring a rest.   This camp also serves as cutoff #2 – teams arriving after 7:00pm on Friday will be shuttled to the Moose Mountain (formerly known as Squaw Mountain) Ski Area.

Teams making the cutoff will canoe to the Town of Greenville where they will do an “urban” orienteering course in town and set off on foot to the Moose Mountains.   After a trek over the mountains teams will set out on bikes to The Forks, rushing to make the third and final cutoff —  6:30pm on Saturday at the start of the White Water rafting section.  From there, the course will move to a packraft/trek section through the Dead River gorge, followed by a final bike leg to the finish at Northern Outdoors.