From the rugged backcountry of New Zealand to the high desert canyons of Oregon, Louie Burger is carving his path on the world stage of expedition racing. In May, he took on Expedition Oregon, known as America’s Toughest Race, with a brand-new team, diving headfirst into days of nonstop endurance adventure. With GODZONE on the horizon, this race was a proving ground. Curious what it feels like to push through days of orienteering, trekking, biking, paddling, and sleepless nights? Louie’s race report pulls you right into the heart of it.
How it all started
I wasn't really sure what to expect last month when I set off to the US to race Expedition Oregon (EO), a multi-day expedition race and one of 12 in the ARWS (Adventure Racing World Series) circuit. I was racing in a completely new team consisting of Andy Magness, Jack Wilson, Isabelle Schwarzenbach and myself.
Andy (director of The Magnificent expedition race) reached out to me a few months prior and said he was keen to get a team together for EO. It would be Andy's first race in 7 years and on a couple of new hips. He was wanting to have another crack at racing, so his twin brother's event in Oregon was a no-brainer.
Andy was also eager to give some kiwi youth their first international racing opportunity. I was super keen, and Jack - a 20-year-old shepherd living in Te Anau - also jumped on board. Isabelle, a mate from school who I've raced with a lot with as part of our Motueka High School AR squad, was a very welcome late edition.
I knew Andy from competing in The Magnificent race earlier this year but hadn’t met Jack before leaving NZ. So turning up in Redmond a few days pre-race was a good call - it gave us a bit of time to get to know each other, chill, sort gear and shake off the jetlag.
We managed a short training session on a local orienteering course which ended up being our first and final team training before the race. This went well and we were feeling good about our team dynamic heading into the event.
Day 1
The day before race start was the briefing and prologue, we biked around Redmond visiting some local places downtown and ticking off local landmarks. The prologue was mandatory for all teams and was very relaxed and social.
The race kicked off at 9 am with a peloton ride. Everyone had to stay in the group until the first TA, so it was basically a transition race to start. We’d practiced putting our bikes into the boxes quickly as we were aiming to get onto the water fast. The river was small, and we knew it could be a bottleneck. We were happy to make the river in second place behind Team Expedition Canada.
Paddling the whitewater
We expected Team Disco Inferno would catch us on the paddle; they had two strong whitewater paddlers in their team. And sure enough, they did. We managed to hold on behind them through the trickier sections, following their lines made things much smoother for us. The river was small for double packrafts, having to make tight grade three moves to get through the large boulder gardens. We did a fair few portages when there was simply no way for the rafts to fit between the rocks. We were getting glimpses of Team Canada and Disco often and the race was feeling good.
Into TA1, we assembled bikes quickly and did a short challenge for a token. Tokens were optional to get but could be used for an advantage later in the race.
Next we were off on a big bike leg, sitting in 3rd behind Canada and Disco. This leg was long with heaps of high quality singletrack. Super fun riding. At one point we caught sight of Canada who had made a small nav mistake.
The first real test
Unfortunately we made our own mistake soon after, stopping just under a checkpoint and then biking right past it. Eventually we found the CP, only ten metres above where we had stopped almost an hour earlier.
This mistake was probably the first real test of how we would deal with issues as a team. It's pretty gutting to lose that much time and cover unnecessary ground, but we were super calm and continued on, putting the mistake behind us. It wouldn’t really matter too much anyway at this stage of the race, as there was a compulsory dark zone coming up. This prevented teams from getting on the next water stage until daybreak.
A few hours later we made another annoying mistake, riding straight past a river on the way to a rogaine. With no other water options, we had to double back which probably cost us 40 minutes. It was frustrating but again we put it behind us and kept racing hard.
The next rogaine was flat and the nav was tough, we slowed it right down using all our tools - pace counting, bearings, and just navigating methodically. Andy and Jack did great with the maps, and Isabelle was very good at pace counting.
Don't focus on the competition
We got all the controls we needed and headed back still in third. The teamwork was really good. We were establishing more clear communication and just moving that tad slower so we could always hit known points. This kind of set the tone for the remaining race strategy. Don't focus on the competition, make sure everyone is on the same page, and keep being methodical, especially when it comes to navigating.
That night, one person from the team had to do a cliff jump into a cold river, and swim to retrieve a token. I volunteered, although Jack and Isabelle were also up for it. Stripped down, jumped, got the token, swam back trying not to drop it. Then we ran up a canyon for another CP, biked for a bit and reached the dark zone. We cashed in our two tokens there - each one would let us leave the dark zone 15 minutes earlier the next morning.
Day 2
We inflated our rafts and made our way down to the Deschutes River. This section was epic. Massive canyon walls, fast-moving class 3 water. We were in second for most of it, only 20 metres behind Canada at one point. It was all smooth sailing bar one minor raft repair after I ripped off the packraft’s seat strap dumping water. It was just a pinhole, so we patched it fast.
The flatwater section saw us lose ground, Disco and Canada strapped their rafts together and put the hammer down. Still, after the portage and a few CPs we hit the next TA only 15 minutes off 2nd.
A nail in the tire and chocolate milk
We rolled out of the TA feeling good and pace lining down the road- one of the few things we had practiced as a team. Andy pointed out a sweet shortcut. We took it, a dirt track through the classic high desert terrain we were starting to get used to. Then Andy called out from behind, he had a massive nail sticking out the sidewall of his tyre having entered through the tread. (It's actually crazy how good tubeless sealant is!) Andy rode on the nail for a few kms. We then quickly pulled it out, utilizing some c02 and tubeless plugs and we were back in business!
On this bike ride we passed through a town, stopping for chocolate milk and sandwiches, the first real (which is a relative term here) food we had had all race. We hit the TA and completed a small mountain bike rogaine on some more epic singletrack.
Going downhill
The next stage was called the High Desert Prison Break Trek, 27 km across a rough route escaped fugitives would take back in the day. Pretty cool! We somehow left all the water purification at the TA so drank from some stock troughs - I'm still quite puzzled that I didn't get sick afterwards.
It was dark finishing the trek, but we continued on the bikes. Fatigue was setting in and our pace dropped a lot. We peddled for a couple of hours and reached a cliff jump which the whole team had to complete. We decided to sleep and do the jump in the morning. I was keen to do 1.5hr but we ended up agreeing on 3. This in hindsight was a wise decision for us. We were going downhill and needed the reset.
Day 3
A few hours later after some quite average sleep we were up putting on our frosty shoes and packs. We later regretted not sleeping in the nearby public toilet, having not expected it to be this cold. As you can imagine the cliff jump was unappealing, but we got it done and it proved to be a good way to wake up.
The next bike ride was rough - a mix of awesome and average singletrack. We reached the final TA with only three stages to go, two big treks and a short bike ride to finish. The first trek was very cool with a climbing section, a lead and top-rope, and a funny Lego challenge cognitive test to show we could safely climb in our sleep deprived state.
A werewolf face in a tree
The final trek was big. We knew Canada and Disco were only halfway through it when we started, so probably 4 - 5 hours ahead. We weren’t catching them, bar any big mistakes on their side. Keep going hard and consistently, there was always a chance to make up a place. The top 2 teams hadn’t slept much, and if they made a big mistake we could catch up.
Keeping to our strategy we stuck to bearings and the barometric altimeter. On dark I started hallucinating pretty good, even seeing a werewolf face in a tree. I apparently couldn't walk very straight either. That night we slept 90 mins in a cave/overhang with the roof covered in bat shit - I thought this was disgusting but the others weren't too worried.
Fenix lit the way
In the morning, we had a bit of an issue finding one control along a line of bluffs. All having Fenix lights of similar models running the same batteries, we had brought plenty of spare power. This definitely saved us a lot of time. All shining around with plenty of lumens we eventually found the control.
We completed the last rogaine just as the sun came up. We’d heard that Disco and Canada had finished and the next team behind us was hours away. Podium was basically locked-in if we could hold it together.
The final bike ride started with a sweet singletrack and some trickier town nav. There was even a short caving section where I managed to get some grit in my eye. I’d obviously scratched something as it gave me a bit of grief post-race.
A memory that amuses me is biking down the highway on that final stage feeling pretty spent. I was peddling alongside Andy and he asks me if I'm sleeping? I reply that I am managing to stay awake, and I then see him drifting off while still biking along.
We crossed the finish line in third place. All of us were stoked. Wrecked but not totally broken. I don’t think we could have raced it much better. We stuck to our plan, focused on teamwork, and raced our own race. The team dynamic was awesome. It was a huge learning experience for us racing with Andy, and Isabelle and Jack were terrific. First international race for us - three youngins, and to be honest, podium at a World Series race even with a small field felt pretty bloody good.
Big thanks to the local community, business and brands who backed my race including Fenix lightning!
Photo credits: Guillermo Gutierrez & Iona Yuan