White-knuckle ride

By SEAN FORBES Chronicle Sports Writer

BIG SKY - Only in Montana can portions of the course of “The World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition” be seen from the side of the road.

ALTON STRUPP/CHRONICLE Joe Moerschbaecher, racing for team Hunky Dory's, holds on tight as he approaches the end of the Gallatin River stretch in the Primal Quest race Tuesday afternoon. Throughout the narrow Gallatin Canyon, cars and people lined the pullouts overlooking the river, as Primal Quest competitors tackled the most intimidating obstacle during the second day of adventure racing, the Gallatin River.

Participants launched into the river as early as 5 a.m., after the lifting of the “dark zone” established to keep people off the water before first light. From Taylor Creek - nearly 15 miles south of Big Sky - to Moose Creek - 10 miles north of Big Sky - teams navigated the flooded, brown river in inflatable two-person kayaks. At Moose Creek, the boats were traded for riverboards, and teams continued through the remaining section to Storm Castle, basically boogie-boarding the rapids.

The surprisingly spectator-friendly extreme sport attracted the attention of race enthusiasts and passersby alike.

LeRoy and Diana Schramm, from Helena, were traveling to Yellowstone National Park, but stopped to watch and take photos of the race along the way.

“It’s hard to imagine using those kinds of boards here,” said LeRoy Schramm, “it’s pretty fascinating.”

Diana, camera ready to catch the next participant to come bouncing through the whitecaps, said, “it does look kind of fun.”

The Gallatin River is listed at a flood stage of six feet by the USGS National Streamflow Information System. Decked out in pads, wetsuits, and flippers, PQ participants were tossed around like so much flotsam in the current. While some took the rapids for speed, others kept to the shallows of the rivers edges and eddies.

Assistant race director Tim Holmstrom said he overheard one racer suggesting the course designers were crazy for putting racers in the high water.

“They’re fearful,” Holmstrom said, describing racers who had lost boards, or had been separated from their teams in the roiling water that moved downed trees as easy as leaves. Holmstrom also saw one group clinging to a tree in the water that was still attached to the bank, apparently trying to catch some rest in the powerful current.

A last-minute change made mandatory the suggested portage of the House Rock rapid.

Scott Pleban of team Hunky Dorys, described the water as, “pretty intense, big water for sure. It definitely makes you feel like you did something.”

When asked about the cold water temperature, he said, “the cold was not so much of an issue, if you dressed for it.”

Pleban and his team, racing to support a suicide prevention charity, were hoping to reach the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley before the dark zone is imposed at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

From the transition area at Storm Castle, teams advance through the mountains to Trail Creek. There, they pick up bicycles left by their support crews and pedal to Emigrant. Then teams kayak the Yellowstone past Livingston to Big Timber. The Yellowstone River is also listed at flood stage.

Crossing the length of the Crazy Mountains and then the Bridgers (along the Ridge Run trail), teams will be returning to the Bozeman area perhaps as early as Thursday.

Painful or impressive, the extremity of race conditions keeps people interested. Big Sky resident Geoff Calef drove down to spend the afternoon along the river to watch the racers.

“These guys,” he said, “are nuts.”

Sean Forbes can be reached at sforbes@dailychronicle.com.

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