Cape Ann Crusade AR

It’s become a bit of a tradition the last few years to do some sort of adventure over Memorial Day weekend. I’d been trying to get a couple friends who had never done an AR before to join us on an AR like adventure, and ended up going down the rabbit hole of just designing an entire 20 hour course for us to tackle. The usual suspects and newcomers Ben and Nick joined us on the adventure.

Course Flyover

Course Map

Pre-Race

I probably went a bit overboard when I started to plan this, but all the segments really started to come together, and Ryan and I had done something really similar about 4 years prior in the area. I love finding adventures in your own backyard, and being able to start and end at our house seemed really cool.

The goal of the course was to collect at least 3 Geocaches from each leg. I had maps printed up for each section to give to everyone, and our “crew” team dubbed “TA5” (aka my parents) were going to be carting around gear for us all day.

Stage 1: Trek

Reading Forest Footwork

We met at Ricks house at midnight to do initial map distribution and for me to reveal the course to everyone. The group was pumped, and the weather was looking really nice for 20 hours of adventuring.

The first section was a 13+ mile foot section that passed through 2 major wood systems. The goal was to capture one geocache per wooded section, and then make our way to the Ipswich River put-in to the north.

All spirits were high during this leg, and finding the geocaches at night was a great challenge. We got some funny looks from cars as we were running along the road at 1am.

Stage 2: Paddle

Ipswich River Rumble

As the sun came up, we pulled the paddle gear I had stashed in the woods and prepped for the water. This was really glorious, as the sun was starting to come up and the birds were chirping.

Biggest issue during this stage was Dave and JP flipping a boat into the water around 6am. The water was cold, fortunately our crew (Ricks parents) were kind enough to come and get to us early with a change of clothes for them so we could continue our journey down the river.

The last section was going through the Ipswich Wildlife Sanctuary which was really lovely.

Stage 3: Road Bike

Essex County Expedition

After getting off boats, we transitioned to our road bikes and started to make our way all the way out to Rockport. This was a fairly uneventful bike leg, it was just fun to stretch the legs and be out of a boat!

Stage 4: Trek

Dogwood Forest

Our timing was a bit off getting to this forest, so we only had time to try and capture one cache point. Unfortunately, as much as we hunted, we couldn’t find it!

We didn’t want to dally too much, so we went back to our bikes. Dave had to take off for a wedding at this point which left the rest of us for the final few bike legs.

Stage 5: Road Bike

The Long Way “Home”

I had a fun treat in store for everyone on this leg. I had secretly put a CP at Woodmans, a fantastic seafood restauraunt in Essex, and invited everyones families to meet us there. It was a really great pick me up in the middle of the day.

The rain started to set in at this point, and we faced 2 popped tires on teh way to TA5. One was in Ipswich, which we were able to fix, and one was like 2 miles from the TA. However, we eventually made it, and Ricks parents had bacon cooking, snacks, and a warm fire to get us ready for the final leg.

Stage 6: Mountain Bike

Mountain Bike Mayhem

Last but not least, about 15 miles of mountain biking back to the start line. Rick took the crew on a bit of a different route back, to keep the biking interesting and to keep us off main roads. At the finish line, everyones family was waiting, and beers and pizza were well earned!

Course Video