For more than a decade, Tracy Roth has kept coming back to Wilderness Traverse, one of Canada’s toughest adventure races. Held annually in Ontario, the competition is a 24-hour adventure race that sends teams of three or four across more than 150 kilometres of rugged Canadian Shield backcountry, travelling on foot, mountain bike, and canoe, and navigating the entire route using maps and compasses.
This year’s race takes place September 26 and 27 in the Algonquin Highlands. The race is so challenging that simply reaching the finish line is considered a major achievement, and Tracy knows that better than most. Her first attempt, back in 2013, didn’t exactly go according to plan:
“Myself and two friends decided we wanted to up our adventure race game and try Wilderness Traverse, but our first year went horribly,” she remembers.
Fortunately, that wasn’t enough to keep her away. Over the years, different teammates have joined her for the challenge, and the team has evolved into The Breakfast Club, an all-women team that will once again take on Wilderness Traverse this year while raising funds for Outward Bound Canada (OBC).
Finding The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club’s current lineup of Tracy, Kat, and Heather is actually quite new. Over the years, unforeseen circumstances have led to changes in the team’s lineup, with new members stepping in to take on the challenge. Kat joined the team last year, while Heather’s introduction was even more last-minute. Longtime teammate Emily was injured just three days before Wilderness Traverse, leaving the team scrambling to find someone willing to jump into an adventure race at almost no notice. Heather was willing to give it a shot.
The women knew each other through the Mountain Bike Exchange, a program that brought women’s mountain biking clubs from across Ontario together and helped Tracy connect with other adventurous, like-minded women. Still, with two rookie racers and one of them joining with only three days’ notice, Tracy admits her expectations weren’t particularly high. Instead, the three women quickly found their rhythm as a team, and by the end of the race, Kat and Heather were already eager to come back and do it all over again.
Their team name comes, appropriately, from The Breakfast Club, the cult 1985 movie about a group of people with different backgrounds and experiences who find themselves thrown together and ultimately become friends. It’s a fitting name for a team whose current members found one another through a shared love of adventure and ended up taking on one of the toughest races in the country together.
The strength of an all-women team
Although The Breakfast Club has occasionally raced as a mixed team, including during Tracy’s first Wilderness Traverse, the women prefer the dynamic of racing together as an all-women team.
“Racing an incredibly challenging race as women, I think, demonstrates our resilience,” Tracy says. That challenge is a big part of what has kept her coming back to Wilderness Traverse since 2013. For her, adventure racing is also about learning to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, pushing through the moments when you’re tired, cold, wet, or unsure of what comes next.
Over the course of the race, teams have to make route-finding decisions while dealing with fatigue and whatever conditions the wilderness throws at them. There’s no marked route to follow: navigation and strategy are part of the challenge. And when things get particularly difficult, Tracy says it’s the team spirit that keeps everyone moving.
Racing to fundraise for Outward Bound Canada
The Breakfast Club has also turned the challenge into an opportunity to help more young people access outdoor education. Since around 2019, the team has raised funds for OBC as part of their Wilderness Traverse journey.
Tracy first became familiar with OBC through friends who participated in programs while she was growing up, but it was through Wilderness Traverse that she learned more about the organization and its work.
“I liked the idea of racing and fundraising, and I like the programs. What I had learned about Outward Bound kept me motivated to keep supporting it year over year,” she says.
For Tracy, there’s a clear connection between the Wilderness Traverse experience and what OBC programs are all about: taking on challenges, working together, and discovering what you’re capable of with the support of others.
“I think the entire Wilderness Traverse journey represents the OBC values,” she says. “Teamwork, challenge… there are some real lows, especially late at night or early in the morning. You’re cold and wet and hungry, but it’s the team that pushes you to keep going.”
On September 26, Tracy, Kat, and Heather will be back at the starting line, ready for another 24 hours of navigating, biking, paddling, trekking, and probably wondering at some point why they signed up for this again. But they’ll also be doing what has kept Tracy coming back year after year: taking on a challenge together and using it to help more young people experience their own adventures through OBC.
Want to cheer them on?
Learn more about the Wilderness Traverse and donate to The Breakfast Club in support of OBC.
