Snow!

Our first hike with a full set of trampers was along the Ahuriri River and up the Dingle Burn.

We started late in the day with a short hike up to the first hut. While we were packing our bags it went from cold and windy to cold and windy and snowing, and the snow had started to stick on the grass.

(Pic: bad weather ahead.)

I spent the hike walking downwind of Wesley to avoid the blowing snow. This worked surprisingly well.

We were supposed to spend the first night at a hut but when we got there we found that it was packed to the rafters with people from a Christchurch tramping club, so we camped outside by the hut and built a fire to warm up by. We were in a stand of beech trees so there wasn't much snow on the ground, but it was a cold night. I was happy to have a good  sleeping bag.

(Pics: our camp; ice on the tent in the morning.)

The tent didn't let any moisture through, but I did sort of fall out of it in the middle of the night: my sleeping pad slid downhill on the groundcloth and I woke up with my feet outside the tent. I was confused.

The morning showed us a bluebird day and beautiful mountains that had been hiding in the clouds the day before. This is when I actually started to take pictures, because I started to be able to feel my fingers again.

(Pic: NZ landscapes are best seen as panoramas.)

To be continued.

First trek: Lake Rotoiti

After a comfortable night at Lewis Pass we headed to Nelson Lakes National Park with the goal of hiking the Travers-Sabine circuit. We hiked in three hours the first night to stay at a hut, where we met a friendly group of outdoor education students. We also met a hungry, inquisitive kea who popped up by the table where we were cooking, looked us over, and promptly stole as much cheese as possible when we turned around.

My journal for the day says: three introverts went for a walk. It was quiet.

The next day we started with the goal of hiking 8 hours to the Upper Travers hut, but ended up staying at the John Tait hut due to completely excessive amounts of rain.

Ostensibly it was a five hour hike from our first hut to John Tait, but we spend a few extra hours crossing flooded creeks and finding new paths when the river ate chunks of the trail. We all ended up with wet feet and switched to splashing through puddles instead of going around them, and we were all soaked despite ostensibly waterproof gear.

Irony is: carrying a bottle of waterproofing spray in your backpack in case it stops raining long enough to waterproof your jacket.

(Pause for everybody who has seen my jacket to say "I told you so" about it not being waterproof. I'm waterproofing it again tonight and I'm optimistic.)

We made a fire and some food at John Tait Hut, and decided to stay the night there instead of pressing on through continuing rain. There was one lonely German at the hut, as well as two friendly Kiwis. When we walked in the German was sitting in front of the wood stove halfheartedly trying to start a fire. When Nathan Golshan took over making the fire the German moved into a corner and didn't say anything the rest of the time we were there.

The rain lasted for at least fifteen hours.

The next day we decided to hike back down the river and go to another hut at the head of the lake, aptly named Lakehead Hut. The other hut nearby was called Coldwater, which was also extremely opposite. The trail was the same for half of the trip and then crossed a swingbridge to the other side of the river. The hike was much shorter and much more pleasant without the rain: we spent a lot of time commenting on sections of the trail that had been streams the day before. The most shocking thing was that all of the sketchy gullies and creeks had fully dried up.

We made it down with dry feet and a lot of spare time, despite a stop by the river for Nathan to wade in and fish. Wesley and I watched and commented on how cold the water looked. No fish were harmed.

The same outdoor education group was at the hut, along with a group of high school kids out on a school trip. We tried to explain the American health care system and government shutdown to the Kiwis, then gave up and drank hot chocolate instead.

The next day started rainy and stayed that way. We had a cruising hike along the lake during which Wesley swore at the rain and said helpful things like "It's wet. And cold."

We were motivated by the vision of fish and chips when we hit town, so it was a crushing blow to find the fish and chips shop was only open for three hours a day on Friday and Saturday. We crossed the street to one of the only other buildings in town, which was a hotel and restaurant, and dried out by the fire while we read Top Gear NZ.

During lunch a lightning bolt hit a telephone pole across the street.

At the end of lunch we unanimously decided to stay in and watch the rain through the windows of the adjoining hostel rather than soak ourselves for another four hours to reach a hut (and a further four coming down from the hut in the morning).

All told, it was a fun hike.

New Zealand!

Oct 21

Day one: we picked up a bunch of food and dropped off a few people. I'm going hiking with Nathan and Wesley for a week, then picking up Darren and Anna for two more weeks of hiking.

We drove out of Christchurch and camped by a creek near Lewis Pass. Dinner was lamb on rice with sweet chili sauce, served with a pear cider each. We each have an individual tent, so we set them up side by side and made fun of each other.

Wesley's tent is definitely going to be the most waterproof, since it actually has a floor. On the other hand, it's not quite a Wesley-sized tent. You can see his knees touching the sides when he's in it, and there's no room to sit up.

Nathan Golshan's tent has the advantage of having been tested in New Zealand weather before. Downsides: it takes a bit of time and fidgeting to set up, and it's also pretty small inside.

My tent is a product of Nathan Golshan's time and sewing machine, but has the advantage of being much larger. It's the only tent with any real room in it, which is good because I'll be sharing it with Anna on the latter part of the trip. (Golshan says it's a "1.5-person tent".) In theory it should be easy to set up, but my first time around it was definitely the wrong shape. It has no floor but has a groundcloth, and is better than the tent we had last race because it's actually made out of waterproof cloth. Both my tent and Golshan's are pitched with trekking poles. My tent did well against wind the first night and I was very cozy.

Our goal is to go to the Nelson Lakes Wilderness and go for a multiday hike there.

After the race: bubble wrap and beer

We've bubble wrapped the car and dropped her off at the airport. We've been hanging around the hostel bar, representing America at trivia night, and watching terrible movies. Next stop: New Zealand!

Pics: bubble wrap; bubble wrap; Wesley "gangster rims" Ford; confined spaces.

Final photos

Ian after driving the last shift; celebrations at the end of timing; bro tanks in Australia; Nathan!; Anna getting ready to drive across the ceremonial finish line; ceremonial finish in Adelaide.

We have crossed the ceremonial finish, been thrown in the kiddy pools that are taking the place of the usual fountain, taken showers, and traded shirts. Now we are eating, chilling, and settling into a few days of relaxation in Adelaide until the closing ceremony.

Race day four

You all know how this ends, but here's what I wrote at the end of day four:

Another day of tailwinds and crosswinds let us go fast again. Luminos handles well in the wind and all there drivers said they felt safe in the wind.

We started to catch up on Twente on the segment before Coober Pedy. By Glendambo we had shaved twenty minutes off the gap between us. They broke down briefly on the way into Glendambo-as far as we could see, their rear fairings broke in the wind-and they replaced fairings and a tire at the control stop, which is against race regulations. We're waiting to see if they get a penalty for that at Port Augusta.

We camped about six minutes behind them and will be up bright and early tomorrow for what we hope will be the last day of the race for us.

Fourth place!

We finished WSC!  We drove 3000 kilometers across the continent in a solar car and came in fourth place. We didn't break down a single time on the race.  It was excellent.

I'm in Adelaide now, and I need to go get a shower and some food.

Nathan showed up at the finish line with a box of donuts and no prior warning that he wasn't still in America.

Sam D'Amico also showed up in his old solar car bro tank.

Glendambo

Race day three

We hit Ti Tree, Alice Springs, and Kulgera. We camped at kilometer 1891. We had a stiff tailwind in the afternoon that let us go much faster than expected.

Michigan is at least an hour and twenty minutes behind us. I believe the closest team is Punch Powertrain. Twente also did well with the wind and increased their lead on us slightly in the section after Alice Springs. Nuon is still in front, with Tokai behind them.

Today we'll be heading back into familiar territory. The first control stop of the day will be Coober Pedy. I will probably post this when we get there.

Just left Alice Springs

Race days one and two

Day one: had a clean start and struggled through the usual chaos in the first leg of the race. I was in scout and it took us almost three hours to catch up to the solar car because we had to pass every car behind ours. We only left about half an hour after Luminos, if that.

Ian drove the first shift. There was a ton of passing: we passed the two teams that had started in front of us (Kogakuin and Arrow) and Nuon, Tokai and Michigan all drove aggressively to make up for their starting positions. Nuon got in front of us, and we then passed them when they stopped in the middle of the steepest hill on the race to push their car up. They must have passed again before the first control stop, because they have a commanding lead right now.

We later talked to an observer who said that Nuon had to stop on the hill because of traffic in front of them. They couldn't start again because of various technical details about their motor. Their observer said that they needed to push because staying where they were was unsafe. The officials are not assessing a penalty because what they did was in the interest of safety. I will refrain from commenting on it until the race is over.

Tokai ran at 110 or 115 out of Darwin and must have passed like mad because they were in fifth place by Katherine.

Twente must also have been running fast. They started in fourth and were in first place by Katherine.

Michigan started fifth and we played cat and mouse with them all day. They would pass, then we would pass, then they would pass again. We were running at about the same speed.

At the end of the first day the order was Nuon, Twente, Tokai, Stanford, Michigan. We stopped eight kilometers before the control stop at Dunmarra. That was control stop number two. We were within shouting distance of where Michigan stopped, but ahead by about 500 meters. (There is a ten minute buffer for stopping at the end of the day that lets you stop at a good campsite. However much time you take after five is time that you spend waiting at your camp after eight am. We used one minute of that.)

After Tennant Creek I took the trailer ahead to find the best stopping point around, with the best clear spaces for array standing.

I will explain array standing and how we choose a campsite later.

In the morning we put the car on the array stand, charged, took it off and put fairings on, drove 8 km to the control stop and then took the fairings off and put it on the array stand again. An interpretation of the rules that Nuon found means that teams are now array standing at control stops to get more power. It's a lot of work for our team but worth it for the power. It's also making us happy that we practiced all of this on the way north, because we can go from array standing to driving in under four minutes. Teamwork and training are helping us here.

Tokai pulled out of Tennant Creek a minute before Twente even though Twente got there first. We think that Twente made a mistake as they got ready to leave that cost them a minute, and that Tokai was ready to go as soon as the officials said they could. Nuon was still in front.

We spent the segment from Dunmarra to Tennant Creek driving with Michigan only five minutes behind us and matching our speed. Our trailer stayed behind them to keep an eye on them, and they sent a scout forward to sit behind our chase and do the same.

I took the trailer forward again to lay claim to a good spot for camping and charging, because we expected to be within a kilometer of Michigan again. We wanted to end the day in front of them if possible, in fourth place.

We're 21 kilometers outside of Ti Tree, the next control stop. Tomorrow morning will be very similar to this morning.

We went into town to check times at the control stop and found out that Michigan is about 70 km behind us. Rumors are running through camp but we have no concrete information about what happened.

As of writing this we are in fourth place. Wish us luck, clear skies, and tailwinds!

Written October 7, 22:06 Darwin time.

P.s. No pictures in this post because I want it to upload fast with our limited internet access.

Race day zero

Today we did dynamic scrutineering and our hot lap. Ian shaved three seconds off his best time to finish in 2:07.7. This puts us in third place for the start of the race, behind Kogakuin University (2:06.8) and Arrow (2:00.1).

Twente did their hot lap in 2:10. Nuon did a fairly slow hot lap and failed the brake test. They just now passed. Tokai spun their car once on their practice lap and again on their hot lap. They had to do a five point turn to get back onto the straight, and finished in 2:48. Michigan will also be behind us at the start of the race tomorrow.

At 8:00 the Cruiser class cars will start the race, one minute apart from each other. Challenger cars will start at 8:30.

Quick update

We passed static scrutineering after tweaking settings on our camera. We had to return again after our system passed because they wanted a picture to show that our camera was mounted soundly. The original plan was to mount it securely to the license late, but we don't get a license plate until we pass scrutineering. It's a chicken and egg problem, but we're past it now.

Tomorrow we have dynamic scrutineering. The day after we start the race.

This evening we went to a reception with some of the other teams. Tokai was there and we got a picture with them.

I look very short here because Toby decided to stand right behind me. Or possibly because I am short.

We also hung out with our new friends from the University of Western Sydney. We're looking forward to hanging out with them more after the race.

Heading north

Highlights:
- Camels chilling on the site of the road the first day
- A stop at Devil's Marbles the second day, where we climbed around on the rocks and got a group picture
- A peacock standing on the roof of the roadhouse at Ti Tree
- Real live kangaroos hopping on the side of the road at night! We see a lot of flat kangaroos on this road, but very few live ones. These were the first live kangaroos I've seen outside of a zoo on either trip to Australia.
- Meeting Michigan array standing by the road on the third day. We didn't get to talk to them much, but we'll see them again at the racetrack.

Pictures:
Greg, looking classy; Eric after eating a slice of bread slathered with Vegemite in one go; weather near Alice Springs; some pictures from Devil's Marbles; Ian rock climbing; team vehicles.

Static scrutineering

Today our team went through static scrutineering along with other Challenger class cars.  We passed all of the tests except for the rear vision test, which we failed due to miscalibrated white balance on our camera.  We are returning to scrutineering tomorrow to pass that final test.

Mock race redux

Blogger ate my last version of this post and left no trace. Proper behavior in the wilderness, but less helpful on my phone.

Mock race day one: started in Port Augusta and ended in Coober Pedy. We fell short of where we wanted to be due to headwinds but it was still a good test of our strategy.

The solar car almost hit an emu, and another ran between the solar car and chase.

Harry called out an emu as a bird on the radio; Max wisecracked that if Harry ever told us there was a lizard on the road, we should expect an alligator.

Mock race day two: down to Port Augusta and then north again. Ended about 50 km out of Port Augusta. Primary excitement came in the form of a full sized house coming down the road with a police escort. This is a normal enough occurrence that the race officials warned us about it at the driver briefing last time, but it's always an astonishing and impressive sight.

I was driving Luminos at the time so I don't have any pictures of the house, but instead I have a picture of another thing we saw on a truck on the Stuart Highway. This digger takes up one and a half lanes and also has a lead and a chase vehicle.

We camped on the side of the road for the first time and watched the Milky Way appear in the sky. The stars in the outback are incredible. I can't wait for calling during the race, when we will actually be in the middle of nowhere.

We had Luminos up on sawhorses for a mech check and a very strong gust of wind at the beginning of a storm blew her off the sawhorses and onto her left side. The sawhorses crumpled in the wind.

Luminos didn't have any tires at the time, so she landed on her left side. We called off the mock race so that we could do repairs properly during the day instead of hacking at night. In the end we got really lucky: the only damage was two bent brake rotors and a cracked taillight.

On day three we started at noon, after a morning of mech checks and repairs. I was in scout and we pulled ahead with the trailer to fuel up at Pimba. The trailer had one driver and no passengers, contrary to our usual protocols, but we thought this was fine because we had already been through that stretch of road three or four times.

This turned out to be mistake.

Scout headed out first to catch up to the team at the control stop in Glendambo, and trailer was supposed to leave five minutes later.

An hour later, at the control stop, we got a call from the trailer that made even Wesley facepalm. Jason had managed to drive south out of Pimba instead of north, and had driven 110 km before he figured out that anything was wrong. He was pulled over a whopping 17 km north of where we had started the day.

The Stuart Highway runs directly across the center of the continent. There are no turnoffs that our team takes. The gas station was on the highway. There was a giant green sign that says Darwin one way, Adelaide the other. Somehow none of this changed anything for our hapless trailer driver.

We changed plans and decided to spend the night in Glendambo. Wesley told Jason to not budge and Greg, Anna and I went down in scout to pick him up. We didn't want him driving another four hours and possibly into the night with an expensive car and our team's trailer, in light of what had already happened so far.

Greg drove back with Jason. I don't know what happened in that car.

I predict no end to the jokes about this in the coming days, but in the end nothing was lost other than hours of time and a lot of gas. It could have been worse.

Next time: cross-country driving!

Pictures: Touareg and trailer; sunset reflecting in the bubble, with and without photobombing; slothing around; the Stuart Highway at high noon, in both directions; a very large digger.