July 13, 2013

our final training run for 2013. kaw point to waverly, 74 miles. the story of this trip was the amount of activity on the river and the epic, ceaseless, demoralizing headwind. right out of the gate we had headwind, not a good sign, the wind was coming out of the east/southeast and since we were heading in an easterly direction that meant a long day lay ahead. oh well, good training right? under the broadway bridge we spotted a beaver crossing right in front of us, so sam raises his paddle and gives the water a good whack while yelling "beeeaverrrr" and he may have startled the couple on the jogging path. such is life.
  we also saw 2 bald eagles, 12+ basketballs, 2 river camps, 2 dozen or more fishing vessels, 1 gar, 1 dredge , 1 moving sand barge, and 1 kayaker going upstream.
  my food supply was a little light this trip, i really needed 1 more savory item and i would have been fine but as such the last few hours or so were spent thinking about this big ol burger i was going to have once we got to waverly. i kept talking about it to sam, and as we rounded the 2nd to last bend coming into waverly (still 4 miles out) i could almost smell the burgers, then i could almost taste the burgers. i am telling all this to sam and we are laughing and carrying on but then he smells it too! just then we realize there is a cabin on the north side of the river with a grill going the deck cooking burgers. we did not ask for one but they were very nice and remarked about us having a good ol time out on the river.

 even though there was a miserable headwind we managed to keep a pace that was the same or even slightly better than last year. all hope is not lost but our dreams of a 65 hour finish may be in jeopardy. as i write this 2 days later i'm a tad sore but am ready to get back on the water. for whatever reason time on the water went by pretty quick last weekend, maybe there was less to worry about? the moon? who knows, regardless a week from tomorrow we are going to give it a whirl.

  our lovely spouses have agreed to ground crew for us this year, i want to thank them publicly in advance. i hope they know what they've gotten themselves into.

taking a break in the headwind, sam trying to demonstrate how windy is was...

river doods at waverly.

bitchin sunset at waverly.

JULY 6. 2013

Sam and I put in a 50 mile training run last Saturday, Kaw point to Lexington, MO. The river level has dipped to about 11.5 feet at the KC gauge, near where it was last year and about 4' less than out last outing. This run presented a more realistic view of what we are in for this year, slower water speed, headwinds, horseflies, heat - all the stuff that makes an adventure an adventure. Our gear seems pretty tuned in, need to add a few things to our supplies, athletic tape, more advil, spare shades but i feel like we are fairly prepared with our gear. I wish we could have gotten more miles on the river to date but such is life and we are where we are.
  I have found myself talking about how the sense of adventure isn't quite the same this time around. It feels like it is not quite as mysterious as last year, which is to be expected i suppose. Our goals have changed, i feel like we are fairly prepared, the river still feels good and i love being out there but once you are on the river a large portion of the challenge is mental. What i found on last saturday's run was that it's really not easy to get into a mental state that allows you to sit still, in a boat, and paddle for 8 hours. Last year leading up to the race the training runs were a great time to think about all kinds of things relating to the race and it helped pass the time and i remember the start of the race last year getting all antsy and getting all our stuff together and getting in the boat the starting gun going off and boom, sit still for the next 18hrs. On saturday it seemed like it took me a good 3 hours to get into the "zone" but i had a hard time staying there seemed like it would come and go. Maybe that is the challenge this year, focus on the task at hand. This race is a really great exercise for living a lifestyle that is less distracted, more focused. At some point on the river, probably near the end of the first day, all the nervous energy will be spent and it will be easy to focus on the task at hand-- keeping it pointed down stream.

ft. osage railraod bridge looking upstream.

kaw point, looking up the kaw river.

June 9 2013 training run

Our first river run this year. The USGS river gage at K.C. read 15.75 feet which is about 5 feet higher than the river was most of last year, and 10' lower than last week- which would account for the debris and silt on the boat ramps. 

  It's interesting to get back on the river, carrying the boat down to the ramp at Kaw point reminded me of the MR340 last year, and about the wacky amount of gear we had started the race with last year.  It was nice having so much tuned in already, having our race boxes, water jugs setup, long sleeves, shades, hats etc. all the stuff we were figuring out last year was already done. 

  The weather started out gloomy but cleared out nicely to be a partly sunny day in the low 80's a nice breeze at our back. It didn't take long to realize we have been out of the boat for way too long, shoulders were stiff and my lower back was sore (saturday spent moving motorcycles didn't help that). The river felt good and familiar, all the buoys seemed to have been washed away but we managed to navigate just fine without them. We thought we would shoot for Lexington but decided to exit at Ft. Osage, a nice 30 mile paddle to get back in the swing of things. 

  A few thoughts from the outing:

-get more comfortable, sporty sunglasses. the wayfarers look cool but when you are sweating and they are sliding down your greasy nose it's just not cool.

-rubber hose or noodle or something for the gunwales. this boat is much narrower than the grumman but all it takes is one sloppy stroke and it's instant hurt knuckles and a p.o'ed paddler...

- pack ibuprofen, paddling with a headache sucks.

It was a good day, it feels like we have most things in place now we just need to put some time in on the water. The difference from a year ago to now is almost comical, I can still see Sam and I unloading the Wasson led sled. with a couple of Dick's sporting goods paddles, zig-zagging our way up the Kaw with the kayaker (Doug?) watching us trying to give us pointers on how to paddle in a straight line. and how epic it felt to paddle " all the way" to Missouri City. The adventure is different this year but it is an adventure just the same. I always come off the Missouri river feeling this way and it sounds dorky but it really is a beautiful river, and i really love being out on it.  

  

the boat. kaw point 8:30 am

henry inspecting the boat while enjoying a chocolate milk. 

somewhere between la benite and mo. city. turned out to be a great day.

Saturday on Lake Olathe

Sam picked up the new rig for this years race, a Wenonah Minnestoa III. Kevlar layup maybe? Either way it is a whole different class of canoe when compared to the Grumman. It tracks amazingly straight in my opinion and turned relatively easy, at least compared to the C2 we tested out previously. You still had to make a pretty wide arc but last time I checked there weren't many hairpin turns on the MO.

And here we are almost a year to the date from our first outing in the aluminum Wasson-canoe. We got out and motored like a couple of seasoned amateurs. You can see the extent of my cool weather active gear, flannel. Warm weather is right around the corner looking forward to getting this boat out on the river and see how she performs.

Beach party

Henry and I and the dogs got out this last weekend for a Missouri River beach party. It was chilly but as long as we got out of the wind we warmed up nicely.

2013 - MR 340

Sam and I are on the boat hunt for the 2013 MR 340. Sam got a line on this C-2 for sale here in town. It was a balmy 50 degree day, seemed like a perfectly good idea to try out a new boat, sure the water might be a little chilly if we were to tip it over but I was totally confident in our ability to stay dry. And we did stay dry, a few moments felt as though we were certain to tip but we settled in nicely. While this boat was significantly faster, tracked amazingly straight and didn't feel too bad once we got moving it doesn't look like the boat we are after. I think the first 50-100 miles wouldn't be too bad but the lack of room and the stability issues that one would encounter on day 2-3 really concerned us, so the search is refined and the hunt continues. Thanks for letting us try out the boat krista.

Adventures continue

Sunday 8-12-12.
  my buddy andy and i got in another new stretch of missouri river. from just above the i-435 bridge down to kaw point. most of the adventure was getting the boat in the water. had to do a little portage/drag/bushwhacking  just to get into the water... pics were shot with the waterproof cover on so most are dingy.

one of the many benefits of an aluminum boat.

small hill no.1 no problem...

portage

train, that's andy in the weeds.

one more small incline to get to the river...

i got that shirt for canoeing across the fine state of missouri, official river rat shirt now.

being that i invited andy to get a little river time in i should have been better prepared, at the last minute we decided to go "a little further" upstream to check out a few things along the way. turns out it was more like 8 river miles upstream, our original plan was t just do 10 miles.  not that big of a deal but we didn't get in the water till almost 7pm, so it got dark on us pretty quick. we made time to stop and smell the roses though...

stopping to check out cool shit

and have a smoke