By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
It was a cool overcast but calm morning at Lake Maloya and Sugarite Canyon State Park as The Purgatory 4 Adventure Relay took to the trails and water Saturday morning September 10, 2022 for its inaugural run.
The Purgatory 4 Adventure Relay took the place of the Master of the Mountain Adventure Race that had been held at the lake in years past. The MOM, as it was known, became a victim of the pandemic in 2020 and was revived when Jared Chatterly picked it up as the new Director of Recreation in Trinidad and renamed it The Purgatory 4. The name comes from the four events and the Purgatory River which traverse the area.
The event trail run is still the same as the MOM which is a six-mile trek up and around Horse Mesa. The race begins at the boat ramp and goes around to the north side of the mesa and up and back down from the south and back to the boat ramp. The contestant then jumps in a kayak and traverses about a 3-mile course around Lake Maloya. Once back at the boat ramp contestants grab their bikes and head out.
With The Purgatory 4 being much the same as the MOM it does now change and ends at the TSC Prator Gun Range east of Trinidad where the shotgun portion of the event is held. From Lake Maloya to the gun range is a long way as most people would think. However, this is where the bicycle portion of the event becomes more of an adventure as it takes Las Animas County Road 85.5 north up and over San Fransisco Pass and down into the Nile Canyon area where it meets County Road 22 and then takes County Road 24.6 up to the gun range. The new route is about 15 miles versus the 25 mile road course that the MOM had.
This year the event had 48 registered participants but one team and two individuals had to cancel leaving 44 participants. Chatterly noted he was going to be happy with a smaller number of participants yet became ecstatic as the numbers grew and went over 40 contestants.
