Brunswick teens head to Canada for 30-hour wilderness race
- Sofia M
- Oct 10, 2025
- 4 min read
By Sofia Montoya-Deck
Published in the Frederick News-Post on July 26, 2025
Just a few years ago, four Brunswick teens had never heard of “adventure racing.” Now, they are travelling to Canada this weekend to compete in a 30-hour adventure race that includes trekking, mountain biking and canoeing.
Jared Monge, 18, Jeremy Bel, 18, Jossalyn Henry, 17, and Lillian Cheesman, 17, make up team “Full Steam Ahead.” The competition will involve roughly 22 miles of trekking, 53 miles of cycling, and 19 miles of paddling.
Teams must navigate their way through the Canadian wilderness course, locating checkpoints using only a map and compass.
The teens’ interest in the sport was sparked by Jeremy Johnson, an adventure racer and history teacher at Brunswick High School.
“He would come in after races and tell us stories about it, and we were like, ‘Is there a way we could try that here?’” Bel said in an interview on Wednesday.
In 2021, Johnson formed the school’s adventure racing club, “Full Steam Ahead.”
“The idea is to just get the kids outside, get them engaged in physical activity that both mentally and physically challenges them,” Johnson said of the club. “They develop a lot of grit and self resilience through that process.”
Full Steam Ahead will compete in a 30-hour adventure race, called Wilderness Traverse, in the Sudbury Region of Ontario, Canada. Wilderness Traverse is hosting this year’s Adventure Racing World Series North American Championship.
The team was invited to participate after appearing on an adventure race podcast and gaining recognition from coordinators of the Canadian competition.
“I was a mix between excited, like ‘Oh, my God, that’s so cool,’ and ‘I don’t think I could do that,’” Cheesman said of receiving the invitation.
According to Johnson, the four students were selected to represent Full Steam Ahead because of their dedication, as well as their physical and mental abilities.
“They’ve never shied away from a challenge, so we knew they were ready,” he said.
How adventure racing works
Adventure racing typically combines three disciplines: biking, paddling and trekking. The race also includes orienteering elements, requiring participants to navigate unfamiliar terrain relying on only a map and compass to reach checkpoints.
Adventure races can range from a few hours to over a week.
Competing teams are made up of groups of three or four, and are ranked among varying categories, such as premier mixed division, premier open, all-male and all-female.
As a co-ed team of four, Full Steam Ahead will compete in the premier mixed division at Wilderness Traverse. The competition will feature a total of 74 teams, varying in size and gender composition.
According to Wayne Leek, an assistant race director at Wilderness Traverse, this year’s participants range in age from 16 to 57.
Wilderness Traverse will be Full Steam Ahead’s first co-ed appearance. Bel and Monge have raced together on an all-male team and Henry and Cheesman have raced on an all-female team, but the team of four has never competed together in an official race.
Race preparation, such as dropping off bikes and checking gear, will commence early Saturday morning. Racers will then be locked in a room with no cellphones to receive their GPS trackers and maps. After having time to study their maps, teams are put on a bus and transported to the starting point.
Aside from short rest breaks, racers are continuously active throughout the 30-hour race.
“In a 24- to 30-hour race, if you try to sleep more than 10 or 15 minutes here or there, you’re definitely losing your competitive edge,” Johnson said.
Teams that finish before the 30-hour mark are subsequently ranked according to the number of checkpoints reached, as well as timing. Teams must compete and finish the course together to avoid disqualification.
This weekend’s race will be the third professional adventure race for Cheesman and Henry and the seventh for Bel and Monge. Cheesman and Henry have previously competed in an 8-hour race, while Bel and Monge’s longest race was 15 hours.
Full Steam Ahead’s goal going into the competition is to complete the race and become an official finisher.
“Being able to break through that mental barrier, doing something I didn’t think I could do before, I love that feeling after a race like this,” Monge said.
“My favorite part is after the race: the feeling of accomplishing it and being able to share your story,” Henry said. “Everybody has a different story. We all have the same points on the map, but we all have different ways to get there.”
Full Steam Ahead’s training
Full Steam Ahead has been training for the upcoming competition since May, when they first found out they would be attending.
“They’re not just getting fit for a race — they’re mentally being challenged every step of the way to prepare for this,” Johnson said. “That comes to nutrition and hydration and sleep.”
At a recent training, the team biked from Brunswick to Harpers Ferry, then hiked to Sweet Run State Park in Loudoun County, Va. The training took place overnight and required members to be awake the entire day prior and stay awake the next day, as well.
At Brunswick, Full Steam Ahead hosts multiple races each year for club members and other students to participate in. According to Johnson, the club has 88 active members and typically hosts 40 to 50 students on race days.
“They come back changed kids,” Johnson said. “Something about being in nature and being out there on their own trying to solve this problem with this map definitely improves their grit.”
Club meetings focus on education and training, covering topics such as how to use a compass, decision-making skills, the proper gear and equipment and how to safely navigate around woods.
Bel and Monge, who graduated from Brunswick in the spring, will attend the University of Maryland and hope to start their own adventure racing club there. The pair have already signed up for fall races and plan to continue training together.
Henry and Cheesman, going into their senior year at Brunswick, will continue to participate in Full Steam Ahead as part of the club’s leadership team.
Cheesman said her favorite part of adventure racing is the bond built between teammates.
“People say that you either ruin a relationship or it brings you closer together than ever,” she said, “and I truly see that the people I race with are some of the people I trust the most.”
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