Teva Mountain Games: Team BACKPACKER
Four BACKPACKER editors kayaked, ran, and biked (road and mountain) for miles in the grueling Teva Mountain Challenge. Photos by Caleb Tkach and Ted Alvarez.
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First event: kayaking. The team’s purple ducky was nicknamed “Violet Violence.”

It was assistant online editor Ted Alvarez’s first time in a kayak. You couldn’t tell.

Here, the Violence led him astray. But he only capsized once.

Assoicate editor Shannon Davis was inadvertently entered in the women’s division of the trail run.

He placed 20th amongst the ladies in his age division over the 10K course.

Map editor Kris Wagner took the third leg, mountain biking.

The two-loop, 11-mile course had plenty of technical singletrack.

Sporting the full BACKPACKER kit, assistant map editor Mark Harrison finished the mtn. challenge.

Somehow, the team finished 4th (out of 12) overall in the amateur division.