At the end of what turned out to be a 24 and a half hour race, the top three teams in the premier coed division had clearly separated themselves from the field. Overall winning team, Rootstock Racing took first place with 37 checkpoints in 24 hours, 29 minutes and 30 seconds.

All teams knew at the beginning of the race that they would need to save time at the end to collect as many checkpoints as they could on the mountain bike trails close to the finish. The trails at McCauley Mountain contained the densest concentration of available points of any leg of the course.

As teams finally made their way into Transition area 5 at a bridge crossing of the North Branch Moose River, many were racing right on the edge of their capacity.

With the 44 mile mandatory bike route and the optional 15 mile, maximum-difficulty orienteering trek behind the field, teams are starting to feel the burn.

If a 44 mile rolling gravel route weren’t enough of a challenge for teams, the race provided an extremely difficult orienteering section situated about 2/3 of the way through Leg B.

Leg B of the Longest Day 24 hour adventure race had racers on their bikes for a 44 mile route through the Moose River Wild Forest.

The Longest Day just started and while everyone is out on the first trek, I did a little informal mountain bike map board survey of the teams. Here are the results:

In a remote parking lot, surrounded by wilderness, The Longest Day 24 hour adventure race started off with a sprint. This short trek, consisting mostly of optional points would be a warmup loop for the long bike leg to come next.

These are the official maps for the 2025 Longest Day Adventure Race

The Rules of Travel and all pertinent information for teams at the 2025 Longest Day Adventure Race

McCauley Mountain Ski Area was the host for the 2025 Longest Day Adventure race and our early morning accommodations were quite spacious - the entire base lodge. While the mountain and surrounding areas were socked in with fog in the early hours, the skies would brighten and clear for a 9:00am start time.

The 2025 edition of NYARA’s Longest Day 24 hour adventure race starts tomorrow morning from an undisclosed location. Adventure Racing Insider is packed and ready to roll out to the Adirondacks once more to follow the race.