Off Duty, Sports, Hunting, Fishing - Army Times

Are you ready to take the Wilderness Challenge?

Nothing like a bumpy, grumpy, 14-mile hump through the mountains of West Virginia to get the blood flowing.

Throw in a five-mile mountain run, a 14-mile mountain bike race, a 13-mile whitewater raft race, a half-mile river swim, a mountain hike and a seven-mile kayak race — all stuffed into two grueling days of competition — and you’ll be lucky if your blood is pumping at all.

But if it was easy it wouldn’t be the Wilderness Challenge, an all-military endurance event scheduled for Oct. 4-6 near Fayetteville, W.Va. Now in its seventh year, the challenge is open only to active-duty military members and space is guaranteed to only the first 60 teams who register, so time is of the essence.

“We are extremely excited about the popularity of the challenge and glad this event brings out our military commands and teams that are excited to earn bragging rights for the title,” said Mike Bond, the event coordinator, in a release from the Navy’s Mid-Atlantic Region Morale, Welfare and Recreation Department. “It is not an easy competition and only the strong survive, so the winning team will be the best of the best in outdoor recreation and physical endurance.”

Divided into six events, the races are timed trials that don’t end until every member of a four-person team has crossed the finish line. Each team must include at least one female member.

Individual event times are totaled at the end of the competition, with the fastest overall team claiming bragging rights for the year. Last year’s winning team was a Coast Guard group from Seattle.

If you want to know more about what you’re in for if you sign up, check out our coverage of the 2006 competition.

The cost for registration is $650 per team. The Wilderness Challenge Web site provides extensive registration guidelines, downloadable entry forms and a variety of information for potential competitors.

Further information on the competition is also available by calling the event staff at (757) 887-7256.