Baja Travesia Preparations

I leave on Friday for Baja, Mexico to race in the Baja Travesia expedition adventure race, 370km in 3-5 days - it includes kayaking, trekking/canyoneering, mountain biking, ropes and a desert auto rally. Yeah that's right desert auto rally! Needless to say I am stoked! It's our last race of the season... then I take the rest of Dec off and get ready for some ski mountaineering races and life in the mountains. What is crazy is no matter how many adventure races I do I always seem to have to buy new gear for each race. I'll be getting everything I can at the best little gear shop in Seattle - Second Ascent. This time around my list looks like this:

• A bivy (I've been eying the Black Diamond Lightsabre for over a year now)
• USCG approved strobe (we each need one)
• 30m 6mm climbing rope (for the canyoneering sections)
• 36" sewn sling (the two I have are 24")
• a dry bag big enough for ALL my mandatory gear

Starting Monday (Dec 5th) you can follow the race on Sleepmonsters.com.

On a more exciting note I have been working with Epic Kayak Paddles on a sponsorship deal for the team. Epic make the best kayak paddles on the planet. Today I ordered 3 paddles to be overnighted to me for Glenn, Seegs and myself.. we're getting the 2 Piece Mid Wing Full Carbon Paddles - this could be the most beautiful and awesome paddle ever made... I'm pretty sure.