The Wilderness Traverse is Canada's largest and most competitive 24 Hour Adventure Race. Hosted annually in Ontario, teams of 3 or 4 navigate 150k of Canadian Shield back-country by foot, mountain bike and canoe.

Race Director's Message:

I believe the very essence of adventure racing is captured with phrases such as “teamwork”, “wilderness navigation, "route-finding strategy”, and “overcoming physical and mental limits”. These are just words on a page until you get out there and experience it for yourself. Believe me, there is no greater feeling of satisfaction (and yes, relief!) when you cross the finish line in a classic adventure race.

My goal in the creation of the Wilderness Traverse is to place a challenge before your team that captures your collective imagination and no matter what the outcome, gives you an indelible memory of a very special place in Canada.

You will love it. You will hate it. You will feel powerful. You will want it to end. Then, when it’s all over and you’re back to your regular day-to-day life the following week, you will crave to do it again.

I will do whatever I can to get your team to the finish line. All I ask is that you come to the start line, face the racecourse with an open mind, and push like hell until the time is up. You’ll be glad you did, I promise you!

Sincerely,

Bob Miller

Event Organizer

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Links to Race Reports from the 2011 event:

Pete Cameron - Salomon-Suunto (2nd place)

Cathy Gallagher - STORM/Beowulf (4th place)

Harper Forbes - Running Free (6th place)

Chris Piller - Team Shed Coffee Bar (8th place)

Richard Ehrlich - Team Shed Coffee Bar (8th place)

Stephan Meyer - Adrenaline Rush (12th place)

Nathalie Long - Team Spirit (18th place)

Dave Hitchon - Team Spirit (18th place)

Rob Taniwa - Bugs in Teeth (28th place)

Mike Simpson - Bugs in Teeth (28th place)

Kristen Harrison - WTF - Reynold Cycle (unranked)

Alex Provost - Team Kinetic (3rd place)

 

Testimonials from the 2011 event:

I just wanted to thank the race organizers, staff and volunteers. That was an excellent race. The course was fantastic, I appreciated all the route options and challenging terrain and navigation. I truly appreciated all the details that went into to making this such a great event, simple registration and logistics, pre-plotted maps, great volunteers, timing sticks, etc. Well, well worth the trip out to do this event, one I would highly recommend, THANKS!

Scott Covey Team #40 Running Free – Old School

 

On behalf of Team NaturalSelectionAR I'd like to thank Bob, Barb, and all the event staff and volunteers who helped make this event happen. It was an unreal experience for our team. The chance to see and race against this many fast teams was truly humbling. It really shines a light on our weaknesses and helps us become a better stronger team and I hope events like this can continue to be successful.

Thanks, Nat from team NSAR

 

On behalf of team Kinetic to all staff, volunteers and racers: thank you for a great race week-end. Congratulations to all participants. Authentic AR spirit. See you at WT2012 ;)

Alex Provost, Team Kinetic

 

Bob, thanks for another great race. You and your amazing band of volunteers really know how to bring it all together. The Bugs in Teeth boys salute you!

Marcus Olson, Team Bugs In Teeth

 

Just want to say that the coverage has been great. I've enjoyed following the teams and getting the updates through FB, the leaderboard and SPOT Tracker. Thanks for keeping us informed and sounds like the race was a huge success.

Brian Mathews, Online Spectator

 

Thank you, Bob, for a wonderfully organized, challenging and exciting race! I was very impressed with every aspect of the race. The registration was effortless; the volunteers were incredibly helpful; and the race staff were very professional. Although the day did not unfold as planned for team Terra Firma, we enjoyed ourselves every minute we were out on course. It was unfortunate to have to start the day as an unranked team of two and to DNF due to our inability to properly fix three flats on the bike! However, we gained valuable experience navigating and will learn from our mistakes. It was a pleasure to have been a part of the day and I look forward to the challenge of getting to the starting line and finishing the race next year!

Aaron Weir, Team Terra Firma

 

I just wanted to send you a big thank you on behalf of the Stubborn Sloths. You have shared your passion and enthusiam for Adventure Racing by creating an incredible 30 hour experience that for us was simply a great treat. I assume your challenges in getting the WT off the ground were great and that you probably needed to butt heads with people more than once, yet you still did it...and therefore allowed 4 people from North Bay to challenge ourselves in incredible ways.

Danny Webb, Team Stubborn Sloths

 

Links to Race Reports from the 2010 event:

Team Untamed New England, by Pete Cameron

Team Bugs In Teeth, by Rob Taniwa

Team Running Free, by Harper Forbes

Testimonials from the 2010 event:

I just want to tell you that that was an incredible race, definitely one of the races I'll remember for a long time.

Nat Couture, Team NaturalSelectionAR.com

 

Great race you put on! I enjoyed every minute of it and it left me wanting more! Can't wait till the next race!

Mike Duncan, Team Caledon Crushers

 

I would like to thank you and your team for putting on a great event... it was heck of an Epic race and glad I was able to take part of it :) The canoe section was one of the toughest I have ever done.. but it was way more fun then a paddle fest! I learned a lot on this race and have gained some valuable experience, which will definitely help our team to succeed in the 2011 Wilderness Traverse. We will be back!

Carl Buchmann, Team Hyper-Active

 

Just wanted to say thanks for a great race and excellent course. It really kicked our butts. It’s too bad the crappy weather kicked in… You and everyone working with you did a great job…registration was simple, everything was on time, maps and instructions were perfect, TA’s were very well organized and a welcome reprieve with the food and water.

Joe Gabor, Team Running Free/Breathe Magazine

 

Awesome Race! Just wanted to drop you a note and let you know our team had a great time. The cold rain and mud ended it early for us, but sometimes that happens. We still had a blast and enjoyed the true wilderness of the course. Thanks to you and all your staff and volunteers for a great race experience. Definitely a TRUE ADVENTURE Race!!!

Luke Osborn, Team Infiterra Sports

Just wanted to say thanks again for putting on a great course. We had a blast and are looking forward to next year's course. From what I heard from some people I knew following along from home, the updates were superb. That, with the pre-plotted maps and update stating the course and time estimates were awesome. I loved the fact I could get to sleep by 11pm.

Harper Forbes, Team Running Free

 

I just wanted to say a sincere thanks for all the help/courses you held before the race, and kudos on what was a great race. The nav courses you gave have definately helped me improve in that area. I hope to build on it and get better in the field with some more exposure so that I can contribute more in that aspect. As for the race, it was a really top-notch event. All the volunteers were awesome. The race information packages and instructional info were really clear and concise, and there just seemed to be so much attention to detail with everything. I don't know how many times I heard from the folks we shared the website with of how amazing that was. My wife said to say a huge thanks to you for having the foresight do to the live updates as it kept her mind at ease the whole weekend. All of our team heard a ton of positive feedback from those we shared the links with. The Spot may not have worked flawless, but with any new technology I am sure it will only get better. And to me it was pretty damn cool to be able to come back and see where we went wrong, what the top teams did etc.

Rob Taniwa, Team Bugs In Teeth

On behalf of team Raidpulse.com I would like to thank you and all WT team for the race you guys have put up last week end. It really felt you guys knew what racers like us are looking for and you guys just delivered that, a professionally crafted, challenging and rewarding course, with very simple and straight forward logistics. Again the weather came in to play his part, but that's what makes AR epic. I personally highly appreciate timing details and tracking, it is crucial to analyze our race to improve.

Alexandre Provost, Team RaidPulse.com