2020 MR340 --- Strangers in the Night ---
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| Bitchin' graphics from Courtney this year! |
A.K.A - Wasson’s guide to finishing the 340 and having a great time doing it!
A few thoughts and whatnot:
This was my fourth MR340 and I must say it was one of my favorites. Not because of an amazing finish but in much the same way that year one was so good, the prep and execution were just enjoyable. The thing is- I love being on the river, I love having something to plan for, to train for, to stew about, to find gear for, to have gear for and so on and so forth. To me much of the fun is the preparation and having the flexibility to do the preparation. On the river, there are good parts and not as good parts- ups and downs but when the sun is setting on whatever day and the swallows are out (at least that’s what I’m calling those birds that fly around the river at dusk) and you are exhausted from from a full day paddling - that is this river nerds paradise.
Courtney is my river partner and we are married, this is the second time we have done this, we enjoy each other’s company- even after the second 340.
Goals:
I think it’s important to outline what our goals were. We did not approach this as a “competitive” run. We have finished before and were looking to finish better, 60 hours was the time goal, or really Thursday night. But ultimately, the main goal is to enjoy ourselves, work hard and push ourselves. It is a lot of work to organize your MR340 effort, my mom watching our kiddos (Thanks Mom!), and our friends ground crewing for the first time (Thanks Rick and Pam!). A lot of people have made it possible for us to do this, taking time out of their schedules to pitch in (Thanks Kevin for the rudder help!) and in my mind I want to honor all that with a good attitude and hard effort. We want to enjoy the experience in parallel with the hard work and to me that is a fundamental building block for success. We all walk away having enjoyed a week on the river!
The logistics of ground crewing and making sure the kids were taken care of is no small task and we are eternally grateful to my mom for spending the week with the kids - Thank you!
Being the Ground Crew for a 340 team is no joke either, no matter the approach, it is a lot of work. Driving, walking, waiting. Thank you Rick and Pam for spending the week on the river with us!
Ground crew schedule overview:
We used a schedule that had us meeting Rick and Pam a couple of times a day. They had some work stuff to do at home on Tuesday, so they did some juggling and were still able to meet us twice and stay at their house Tuesday night. They saw us off at Kaw Point then made two out and backs to meet us that day. On Wednesday our first meet was at 2pm, another at dusk and an unplanned meet around midnight, then they stayed at a hotel in Jefferson City. Thursday we met in the AM, the afternoon then another midnight meetup, they stayed at the hotel in St. Charles Thursday night.
I think this is a decent technique for a first time ground crew. Sometimes camping for the Ground Crew is not an option and I think this worked out pretty well. We take the sleep setup on ourselves which adds a bit of shore time and weight in the boat but it also adds a little adventure and fun factor!
This year I’m as proud of us for all the work we did leading up to the race as I am for finishing the race. We committed to making lifestyle changes- eating better, exercising regularly, cutting back on the alcohol and generally taking better care of ourselves. The MR340 was the initial goal for those changes but the more those changes became the norm the more we looked beyond the 340. Courtney said it best- the 340 isn’t our destination anymore, it’s not something that we are going to finish and say ok- back to eating out and not exercising- it’s something we are doing and we look forward to the next something! The 2020 MR340 was different, I felt more capable and finished feeling spent but in a good way and I think that was directly related to all the work we did since the first of the year. Cheers to Courtney for all the things- she is an amazing adventure partner/mother/ human that I love and I love getting to do these things with her.
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| Solo start |
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| My seat and my og shoes, I reckon I have about 1700 Missouri River miles in these shoes. |
Day1: Kaw point to Dalton Bottoms
Ground crew meet at Missouri City then Waverly (sleep gear at Waverly)
The ramp seemed slow this year. The first year we got in really early and sat on the opposite bank for an hour. The second year we did something similar, third year was just right. This year the line was slow moving and the Kaw was fast, so it was a bit of work to hang around the Kaw. We got in the water just in time to paddle out, get sunscreen on, get pointed in the right direction and then it was on! We waited just a little and had a good line through the confluence, no problems. We did see a three man boat get crowded or bumped? and tipped, either way they were in the water. They got going again quickly and were off. After that it was a nice morning on the river. We have done this 50 mile stretch so many time but I still love cruising through downtown KC.
We saw Rick at Missouri City, had a shore potty break, it was the longest pee ever. Cruised on to Waverly, we got there at 6:40 ish. Seemed “close” with a cutoff of 8pm but we were good, still tracking on our schedule, prolly stayed at waverly a bit long. There was a line at the port-o-john… The river was way up the week before the race and then dropped Sunday night to acceptable levels. I should have known the banks would be sludge, making pee stops near impossible. Next time we will bring the She-Wee. At Waverly we loaded up our sleep gear and next morning food bags.
The plan was to get to Dalton Bottoms. Now, in hindsight, if I had advice for myself I would say assess the situation when you get to Miami. It’s 36.7 miles from Miami to Glasgow. Dalton Bottoms might be an ok target but have someone scout it first. If you hit Miami at 10:30pm just go for Glasgow. If it’s past midnight at Miami, might as well take a break there. Miami sucks as a stop but I feel like we should have taken a break there this year. Don’t plan on staying all night but get a rest and just keep motoring from there.
We had wind! The wind was unbelievable, I don’t even know when it started but it was later in the day and it went on forever- into the night. We really struggled in the wind. Even though I finally added a rudder to our boat, which was super helpful keeping her pointed in the right direction, our speed suffered. Maybe it was just us but the wind seemed to just zap our progress. We fell off schedule a little after Waverly, such is life. I still had Sam’s laminated race schedule from 2013. One side was the main race plan- the other was the windy race plan. The wind was definitely a factor for us this year and we were in the windy race plan by Miami.
We got through Waverly and stopped at Hills Island for a 15min break to get our night gear situated. I love Hills Island, it’s so cool and I want to camp there (I say that everytime…) It was getting chilly as the sun went down so Courtney got out her hat and gloves and 2nd layer of pants/shirt, we got lights on and the spotlight ready. The weather this year was chilly! Unseasonably chilly, Courtney had a tough time staying warm, even though we felt prepared for it.
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| I believe this is Hills Island, night one. |
We got into some fog, I thought it was going to get too gnarly but as long as we could see the shore we kept going. We did a good job of navigating the safest route we could. Still, there were moments that the fog would get thick and I would think this is it, time to pull over, then we would pop out of it. Slow going for sure. We made it to Dalton Bottoms at 4:30am ish. It was a total mudhole, I spent way too much time trying to get the boat secured in the muck of the ramp. At one point I was up to my knees in mud- trying to get my sandal free. Not a great experience. We plan for 2.5 hr sleep but by the time we lay down it's 5:15am. I woke up panicked cause it felt like we overslept- I ripped open Courtney’s sleeping bag and asked her what time it was. Her eyes tell me that I should have looked at the phone that was in between us first. An hour and a half left on the alarm, I couldn’t get back to sleep so I made hot coffee. I chatted with another guy at the ramp while I tried to let Courtney get some more rest but the damage was done she couldn’t sleep and our chatting was not quiet so we got out of there, again futzing around in the mud to get going. She was only a little mad, sometimes, about my rise and shine moment.
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| I had just woke her up, might as well get a pic! This is our sleep setup, tarp/pad/sleeping bag. heating up water for hot coffee. |
Hindsight:
-If your partner is struggling, take a break- even if it is at Miami.
-Pack Claritin
-pay attention to the timing of Miami-
Day 2: Dalton Bottoms to Hartsburg
Day 2 has historically been a struggle for me. This year I choose to look at it as a sort of recovery day. We had made peace that our plan was changing. The weather was decent, wind like crazy again but it came and went and the breaks in the wind were really enjoyable. It was a good morning, we were tired but functional. At this point I knew I would not make it long into the night, on what little sleep we had I figured I would maybe even crash midday or might be crabby but I think overall we held it together.
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| Don't forget sunscreen on the back of your hand and the tops of your feet! |
At the Boonville bridge we passed a beast of a barge. I think it was nine barges being pushed upstream. We got a text alerting us so we were ready, we have passed a lot of barges this year- at least one on each training run sometimes two. We got over in the slack water- the barge goes by and we watch a couple of Kayaks pull back into the channel and continue on so we begin to do the same.
We were planning on paddling through the non-channel span of the Boonville bridge but by the time we got closer to the bridge the wake was much bigger than it first appeared. At this point the wake was coming at our side and we were approaching the bridge pier, I figured if we kept on course the wake would surely topple us. We point it into the wake and towards the channel. So now we are paddling our asses off to get not only through the wake but also to get into the channel span of the bridge- definitely don’t want to be near that bridge pier in this wake! Not really a close call there but I was very conscious of where we were, those piers sneak up on you. When we got between the piers the wake was returning from both sides. It was scary. Wake seemed to come from all directions and we were just bouncing around in it. The wake was over 4’. I’m in the back of the canoe watching Courtney up then crashing down, bow submarining- none of the stuff in our canoe was tied down, we had been messing with stuff all morning and we were just about to meetup with Rick and Pam. It was a moment of my inner voice saying “Get your shit together!”
We made it through, ultimately unscathed. Courtney did a fantastic job, calm and cool and ready to kick ass when we needed to. Good Job to her! Afterwards we had a good laugh but my heart was still beating a little fast, it freaked me out- but we were good.
Took a 20 min break at Franklin Island, and continued on to Coopers Landing. I think we had decent water into Coopers landing, I know we got there around dusk. We went under the I70 bridge, passed another little barge- saw the bluffs. That evening I was fading, still in good spirits though! We had tacos at Coopers and took a little break, the plan was to meet at Jefferson city but we got to near Hartsburg and decided to call it a night. We were both beat- and we were ready for some rest. Rick and Pam met us at the Hartsburg ramp and we had a glorious 5 hour sleep. We slept hard, it was chilly but we had spot in the grass and it was really nice. We got back on the river with the sunrise, hot coffee and we were off.
Hindsight:
-keep the boat tidy and ready to tip
-no tacos at Coopers landing
-get past Hartsburg if you want to finish Thursday night
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| That's us, Hartsburg Ramp, morning day3. |
Day 3 Hartsburg to Klondike
The thing I love about day 3 is that by this time I am thoroughly exhausted and have probably slept a few hard hours. I really think it takes a certain amount of energy to worry and to overthink things and when that energy is not there you literally cannot worry or think about things other than what you are doing and what is right in front of you. Maybe a bit of a Zen moment. That is the morning of day 3 for me. We had 132 miles to go, it would be a big day but it was possible. We decided to see how the day went. I don’t remember much- stopped at Jefferson City -offload our overnight bag, got day 3 PM food bags. Next meetup was Hermann. All in all a pleasant day- our pace was down a bit. We hit a lot of wind starting at 15miles out of Hermann, Courtney had all kinds of funny jokes about being angry at the wind- I was sick of it too and ready to throw a toddler tantrum… But I did not.
The Osage river (I think?) confluence was so cool, the water of the Missouri meeting the Osage looked like cream in coffee. We tried to take pics and videos but it didn’t do it justice. Stopped at Hermann, ate a burger and back at it. We needed that break- that wind was killing our morale. Maybe the stop at Hermann was a little long but it was good.
The New Haven ramp looked really great, maybe a stop next time if Herman is crowded. We were passing right as night was falling and noticed some lights on the river behind us. A guy from shore yelled out as we were going by “Barge Back”. We totally didn’t understand, I think we even yelled back- “what does that mean?” by and by the lights got closer. Then we started getting spotlighted then the spotlight would go to either shore. I would turn around and get blinded by this light! At first I thought it was a safety boat and couldn’t figure out what the hell was happening! I was exasperated and yelling into the night “what do you want us to do!!! Finally we paddled over into the slack water and just waited to see what was going happen. It was a big ol tug motoring back to get barges I reckon. Either way it was wild, we pulled in behind her and followed their lights for as long as we could.
The rest of the way was pretty uneventful into Klondike, even the wind was manageable. Dipped in to Washington to stretch our legs and ate all the Werthers Originals I could find. We must have rolled into Klondike at 2;00AM-ish? Courtney had started us doing 5 mile chunks, we were tired and the 5 miles at a time was palatable, such a good idea!
Rick and Pam met us at Klondike with our sleep stuff. At this point we could have kept going but we were fading pretty hard. We wanted to take a 2 hour sleep and finish it. We overslept by an hour, we had the alarm set and must've hit snooze or off or something. Either way I’m not sorry about it, that final morning was fantastic! Tiny bit of fog, temps in the 70’s no wind and we were cruising along at a good pace. We gave it our all right at the end- the last 6 miles or so. And finished at 8:32 am. This time I loved that last little section to finish! We got wrangled into some questions by a news reporter, I’m sure we sounded kooky but whatever, we were all smiles. I even told her I was ready to go back to the top and do it again! And I was serious. It was a good run, no matter what we planned for there always seems to be something else to deal with. We didn’t have any one major setback but all the little ones add up. I am proud of us for adjusting, and continuing.
We had a few moments here and there where we started to feel discouraged, seeing how we were off our initial plan. Luckily I had plan B printed out, which was a total fluke, I brought it just for the distances between stops and cause it was laminated. It was nice to have on hand to keep us pushing and on some kind of plan.
This plan is not one that is going to win any medals but it is a plan that can be executed by most anyone. That said, there are no easy ways to the finish of the MR340 but to me acknowledging that it will be tough and committing to getting through allows me to thoroughly enjoy it! Our overnight technique is slow but we like it. It also allows our ground crew to stay in a hotel and not camp if they don’t want to. We did “real” food, which we’ll outline below. I think this years food was the best we have ever done. We did get tacos (which I would skip next time) and we had a burger at Hermann (which I would not skip). I would at least pack the She-Wee, we declined to take it but wished we had, with all the mud a simple pee stop turned into quite the affair at a couple of places.
Notes:
-pack allergy meds
-pack clothes for 15 degrees colder than the forecast low. (for Courtney, I was good)
-paddling specific PFD’s - we have been using a waist band inflatable. After the fog and the barge I want us to start wearing a vest.
-put the extra GPS batteries in the boat not the ground crew spares box… (amatuer hour for me)
-Werther's originals were a hit- especially in the evening on day 2 and 3. Keep them rationed- i have no self control with those.
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| We did it! |
Food:
Courtney handled the food prep and she did a fantastic job! It was perfect!
Coffee (coffee was my job) - I made a batch of cold brew coffee. Divided it up for each day, that stuff is a concentrate so we either cut it with almond milk and ice or with hot water in the AM.That cold brew method is supposedly less acidic, it never caused any tummy issues. I had a little MSR stove and a tiny canister, it would boil water in just a few minutes so that’s how we had hot coffee. It was great, a luxury I would not cut out. If it had been hot we would have just stuck to iced coffee.
Courtney did AM and PM food bags then AM and PM snack bags. The thing about exerting yourself for 3 days is that you have to keep a steady intake. I think the other thing that worked is that this is stuff we eat normally so it didn't upset our stomachs.
AM was a half bagel/two hard boiled eggs/blueberries/ Belvita nut butter biscuit and crackers. (the crackers didn’t survive, skip those next time)
AM snack was a smoothie pouch/protein bar/nuts/jerky
PM was a sandwich on sprouted wheat bread/grapes/
PM snack protein bar/Doritos/ some other stuff that I have to ask Courtney about.
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| This x3 more or less. It was perfect! |
We froze 6 Smart Water bottles and used those in our food bags- getting water and Ice for our jugs at the meetups.
We used Salt Stick electrolyte capsules every couple of hours.( stretch that out to 4 times a day if it’s mild weather) And Excedrin..
We kept small boxes under our seat where we had sunscreen/Chapstick/flashlight/glasses/sunglasses/emergency card.
The little plastic box kept it from getting wet in the bottom of the boat. We’ve always used one and it continues to work well.
Gear and notes for next time:
We knew it was going to be chilly (un-seasonably chilly), and Courtney gets chilled fast. I thought we had a decent gear setup.
The clothes we wore- sunshirt/pants then we had a Merino wool layer/ then a fleece layer and a jacket.
Courtney also had warm tights and a pair of pants for over that.
Smartwool undies were a great choice for me- I've battled monkey butt in the past and this was a winner.
Courtney also packed gloves, great call for her.
Wool socks! We both needed wool socks, and they dried out easily each night.
The rudder controls are aluminum and got cold at night- maybe plastic next time?
Rudder control wire needs changed to actual control wire not paracord.
Cheers --Phil
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| Final Sunrise. |
