Checkpoint Zero is happy to welcome Kinesys to the stable of companies supporting the team for the 2006 season. We don't pursue or accept sponsorships from just anyone. These guys were a no brainer.

We spend a LOT of time in the sun while racing, often on open water, and that poses not only a long term health risk, but can impact the team's performance during the race. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails like a nasty burn. Thanks to Kinesys' performance sunblock we won't have to worry about that ever again.

Of course this also means we have one less excuse to use when we don't win :-)

A week after racing at the Michigan Coast to Coast, several members of Team Checkpoint Zero were back in action with friends the weekend of June 10 in various events in the Southeast.

Team captain Jon Barker teamed up with Mighty Dog racer Rob Howell to win the two-man canoe division of the Back to the Chattahoochee Race in Atlanta. Tim Abbott and fiancee Gina Nungester finished second in the two-person coed canoe division of the race.

Meanwhile, Paul Cox joined friends and fellow Atlantans Bryan Goble, Lisa Randall and James Holmes of Team Enduraventure/Maplewood Farms at the Adventure 24 race in Southeast Tennessee. They came away with a win after about 16 and a half hours of running, paddling and biking in the beautiful Cherokee National Forest. It was hot -- very hot, but Paul was cramp-free thanks to the nuun active hydration in his water bladder.

Never much for being idle, Michele Hobson ran/hiked "like 20ish miles." Then she spent most of Sunday at her 7-year-old niece's birthday party, which was "more tiring than an adventure race, I do believe," says Michele.

Next on the team schedule ... Midnight Rush Aug 19-20 in Clayton, Georgia.

Here's a warning to all snakes and ill-minded creatures. Don't mess with Michele Hobson. She swings a Diet Mountain Dew bottle like Barry Bonds swings a Louisville Slugger.

Apparently about 13 miles downstream from the city of Atlanta, MI, on the Thunder Bay River, a snake decided to take a ride in the canoe paddled by Checkpoint Zero teammates Michele Hobson and Scott Pleban. Michele can't say how the snake got into the boat -- though it probably dropped in from a tree limb -- just that she first felt the snake crawling across her bare feet in the front of her canoe.

Michele, not a snake lover by any stretch, immediately took action. She tossed her paddle in favor of a much better reptile whoopin' weapon: an empty Diet Mountain Dew bottle. After taking more than a few violent swats to the noggin, the snake apparently slithered to safety through a crack between the canoe floor and the front bulkhead and wouldn't come out. Good decision.

Meanwhile, a flash thunderstorm was lighting up the sky and dropping buckets of rain. Jon Barker and I, who were in the other canoe right behind our teammates, chased down the paddles lost to the river during the commotion and helped ferry Michele across the water to a flat shoreline where we took shelter at the home of a kind elderly couple who whipped us up some warm coffee and hot chocolate. Not wanting to be in aluminum boats on a river during a thunderstorm, the team decided to wait until the weather calmed down and figure out how to get the snake out of the boat.

Understandably, the snake didn't want to tangle with Michele again, so we couldn't get him to crawl out. So, the team decided to plug the small gaps between the canoe floor and the bulkhead with some newspaper given to us by our friendly river couple. We wanted the snake to at least stay put for the rest of his river ride.

And Michele, choosing to give the snake a second chance at life, decided to let Jon and me paddle the boat with the snake the rest of the way. Lucky snake.

- Paul Cox, not the team reptile hunter