Primal Quest: The desert at dawn

The Fourth Annual Primal Quest Endurance Race began in Utah on Sunday after a weekend of gear check-in and skills certification under the hotter-than-hot 100 degree sun. Bob Heady and Mike Bitton report from the desert in southeastern Utah. 

The first 12 hours of Primal Quest Utah 2006 saw adventure racers push the desert in two stages, on horseback and on foot.

The first leg of the journey was an equestrian desert crossing. Only one athlete from each team was allowed to be on horseback. There were reports of athletes being bucked or kicked, and a horse fell on one racer, but volunteers said that all the competitors were able to continue.

Four teams completed the first leg almost simultaneously — Nike PowerBlast, Spyder, Merrell Wigwam Adventure, and Supplier Pipeline — causing what volunteers described as "stop-and-go traffic on the high-desert plain." Though it wasn't even high noon yet, thermometers were flirting with triple digits when the leaders came through TA 1 shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday.

The second leg of the day’s journey, a 23-mile desert trek, turned torturous as afternoon heat punished the athletes.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on Sunday, thermometers at TA 2 showed the mercury still at 100 degrees in the shade. Volunteers said all arriving athletes complained of inadequate stores of water.

Brock Foreman, a member of the Primal Quest Media Team, described the scene at TA 2 during a cell phone interview with headquarters.

"Athletes are saying they had their required two 100-ounce bladders, plus water bottles, and they still suffered," Foreman said. "They're saying they could have easily gone through 800 ounces of water on this trek alone."

Blistered feet were the biggest problem medical teams reported on day one of the race.

"There is no shade out here," Foreman said. "This trekking section is pretty desolate. It’s just sweltering."

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Gordon Wright reports on the chaos at the starting gate on Day 1.

It was with considerable majesty — and a bit of comedy — that Primal Quest Utah commenced this morning. A caravan of four school buses containing the 356 athletes rolled out from the Red Cliffs Lodge just after midnight, surrounded by a convoy of race staff, volunteers and sponsors.

After disembarking in a trackless nowhere south of the town of Price, the racers selected their horses at random — one to a team — and gathered on a broad, shallow canyon.

A horse section to begin an adventure race borders on the audacious: not only are some of the competitors less-than-superb riders, but a gathering of 90 horses at first light was bound to incite some equine passion. The good news is that despite a number of tumbles and spills, each team got off the starting line with no injuries reported. 

The bad news is that it looked a bit more "Blazing Saddles" than "Horse Whisperer." The start was heralded by three wranglers who rode onto the plain, fired a rifle in the air, wheeled around, then pelted south — with the largest field in adventure racing history close behind.  Add in a few passes from the television helicopter and the result was a glorious sensory overload.  Very quickly, several horses lost their riders and galloped astray and ahead of the field.  Other horses bolted, giving their riders the rides of their lives.

One thing became very clear in the tumult: the wranglers turned out to be dead-solid cowboys.  In a whipping-fast display of horsemanship, they turned several strays, remounted the riders, pounded back across the desert, roped careering horses at a flat gallop and in general put on a display of horsemanship virtuosity.

They seemed to be having a ball as well, as if they had been waiting for a chance to charge around the desert aggregating the roiling start of Primal Quest.  Even some of the racers who had been tossed were ebullient.  One member of Team Too Much Fun Club ran back toward the start line through the dozens of spectators, and said, "Anyone seen my pet?  Big thing?"

As the dust (literally) settled, the plains once again grew quiet, and the rising sun warmed the red rock — ushering in Day One of Primal Quest.

Stay with Adventure Beat for the latest from somewhere in Utah's desert stretches.