[Author’s Note: This is the sixth article in an 11-part series celebrating legendary aid stations. You can read about the series here.]

The Vermont 100 Mile is a basic race held within the southeast nook of the state every July in one of the vital idyllic New England landscapes conceivable. The course is a mix of gravel roads, singletrack path, transformed snowmobile path, and cross-country sections. Whereas there aren’t any enormous sustained climbs such as you would discover within the Western U.S., the course is relentlessly rolling because it packs in over 15,000 ft of climbing within the 100 miles. The crux of the race, in my view, is the ten Bear Loop, which is a 26-mile part from miles 44 to 70. Initially and finish of that loop is the enduring Camp 10 Bear help station.

The Camp 10 Bear help station, with its personal tagline, “it’s so good you go to it twice,” is ready up on a small triangle of grass that’s on the confluence of three grime roads. Some 364 days of the 12 months, it’s merely a nondescript crossroads, however on race day, it turns into the largest social gathering on the course. The help station is hosted by the Path Animals Working Membership (TARC), the biggest and most lively path working membership within the U.S. Northeast. In keeping with Vermont 100 Mile race director Amy Rusiecki, “TARC all the time brings their particular model of aptitude, enthusiasm, and expertise to make Camp 10 Bear THE social gathering on the course.”

The Camp 10 Bear help station on the Vermont 100 Mile is a hive of exercise. All images: Bruno Hamann

Rusiecki goes on to level out, “Runners go by Camp 10 Bear twice throughout their race. The exit (after Camp 10 Bear #1) is identical roughly half mile as the doorway (earlier than Camp 10 Bear #2), and due to this fact it’s a spot the place runners from the entrance, center, and again of the pack all work together and cheer one another on. It additionally implies that, say, the highest runner shall be coming in and doing a crew cease at Camp 10 Bear #2 on the identical time that mid-packers, sub-24 hour hopefuls, are having a crew cease at Camp 10 Bear #1. That many people, and that intersection of various elements of the sphere on the identical time, are what makes this place actually particular.”

TARC does face a major problem in managing the help station because the grass triangle is comparatively small and runners’ crews all come to hang around there to attend for his or her runners. Automobiles park up and down the three roads main into and out of the help station, offering a gauntlet of crews and visitors for runners to navigate. It’s an superior spectacle, which pumps up the runners, but additionally a bit overwhelming with a number of vitality in a really small area.

Crews line the roads out and in of the Camp 10 Bear help station.

I requested Amy to share a narrative with me that exemplifies the spirit of Camp 10 Bear, and he or she shared this:

“I keep in mind listening to one 12 months the place the cut-off time at Camp 10 Bear #2 was approaching, and there was one final crew anxiously awaiting their runner. One of many TARC volunteers ran out on the course to search out the runner, and inspired them into the help station forward of the cut-off so they may proceed on. I simply can’t emphasize sufficient what a tremendous crew TARC is, and the way superior it’s to have skilled runners at help stations alongside the Vermont 100 Mile course to make sure that runners get this kind of remedy and help.”

Anybody who has run the Vermont 100 Mile has a Camp 10 Bear reminiscence because it actually is among the most significant locations on the course. And for anybody eager to expertise this particular place themselves, the race registration lottery opens in December annually.

Bottoms up!

AJW’s Beer of the Week

Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, is mostly acknowledged as one in every of America’s most interesting craft breweries. Celebrating their fifteenth anniversary this summer time, they’ve launched a collection of anniversary beers. Considered one of them, fifteenth Anniversary Blonde Ale, is a straightforward, but basic blonde that’s crisp and clear with only a trace of bitterness. An ideal summer time beer weighing in at 4.4% ABV, this anniversary blonde is ideal on a scorching summer time night at Camp 10 Bear.

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