We decided to do a little leisure paddling as opposed to our normal racing/training paddling this weekend. Early Friday afternoon Travis, Ed and Dan were sitting on the patio talking about the plans for the upcoming holiday weekend. Well it just so happened that Dan had his canoe already strapped to the roof of his jeep with all his fishing tackle in the car. Naturally they came up with the plan to float down the Nashua River starting at Rt. 117 and ending in Harvard where we normally put in for our training runs. This was an idea Travis and I had talked about a million times while we hammered up and down the Nashua in the spring time this year so it was awesome to finally get a chance to do it. The weather was perfect and the whole entire weekend was ahead of us so why not have a friendly fishing competition from the canoes? The teams were Ed and I in our “barge” and Dan and Travis in Dan’s canoe. Travis and I navigating the river, while Dan and Ed fished. The river was up nicely so the paddling was easy and slow and the fish were in there even though Dan and Travis couldn’t seem to find them. Ed and I on the other hand were nailing those tiny suckers, by the end of the excursion Ed caught 5 and Dan caught zilch!!! Not only can I read rivers but I also know where the fish are hiding, ok, that might be an exaggeration but you wouldn’t have known it this day.
First catch of the day, a baby pickeral!! Hey I mentioned above that these things were tiny alright!
Its not a leisure trip if you aren't taking photos of the beautiful flowers
Dace # 1
Dace #2
In Dan's defense he did decide to quit fishing for awhile and just relax in the boat.
Dace #4 was a fiesty one!
Sunday afternoon after sitting around and talking about all the fish Ed and I caught I think Dan wanted a rematch. We packed all the gear up again and headed over to another training favorite of ours South Meadow Pond. This time we had more company and more vessels but the same amount of fisherman. Jess (Ed’s wife) and Jen with Roxy her little Chihuahua (Dan’s girlfriend) came along and paddled with their significant others while Travis and I paddled around in the pro boat. Now anyone following the blog knows we spend a lot of time on this pond. We have been bragging that we know where all the fish like to hide because we are constantly scaring them up as we speed over the top of them chilling out in the coves. The water was warm and the pond was down about two feet from what it normally is so the fish seemed plentiful to me. The water level was down so much because some knuckle head in town accidentally ruptured a 150 year old cast iron pipe that feeds water from the adjoining pond, Coachlace , down to the Main St factories. This accident caused quite a bit of water to drain from both ponds in no time at all. Luckily enough no properties were damaged in town even though the fish and any other wildlife are a little constrained now. The draining has slowed since volunteers from town went out with sandbags and plywood and built make shift dams till they figure out a real fix for the issue. We had such a great time paddling around with everyone and enjoying the lake and the fish even though we weren’t reeling them in ourselves. Ohh yes, just in case your wondering Jess and Ed were victorious over Dan, Jen and Roxy’s fishing abilities with a whooping score of 8 to 3. Sorry Dan, better luck next time buddy.
Ed pretty excited about his first catch, a large mouth bass
Dan's first catch of the day, also a nice large mouth bass
Floating about
Ohh look a Crappy!
This ones as big as Jen's head
Ohh and this ones as big as the dog!
Pretty Heron we always chase around the pond, he thinks we are chasing him anyways
Roxy was pretty cozy for the trip, she even passed out here for a while
Another nice one, at least these fish were actually measurable
Rafting up to float and enjoy the views on the lake, what a great paddling weekend!!
This week’s blog post will be a joint effort. I (Travis) got voted to write most of this week’s blog post because I had a pretty good weekend racing last week. Terese added in some tidbits of info along the way also.
Saturday we headed out to Charlemont Mass for the Deerfield River race.The Deerfield is another home river for me.I grew up, and my parents still live, about 25 minutes from the river.I have been paddling on this river since I was a little kid.I always look forward to racing down this river every summer.Terese and I were racing together in preparation for the Downriver Nationals which will be held on part of the Deerfield course in a couple of weeks.
We had an “incident” prior to the start.I had to pee so I figured I would jump out on the shore and go.When I went to step out of the boat I lost my balance and felt myself falling over the side of the boat.In an attempt to save the ship I tried to jump out.This didn’t work; I ended up flipping us over.We were right next to shore and the race was a not starting for a bit so other than our pride taking a hit we would be fine.Our heat started shortly thereafter and we were off.We shot off the line right from the start and tried to keep a nice hard tempo, I think the extra adrenaline rush from the cool dip in the river might have helped with our explosive line speed.The river level was up nice and high due to all the recent rain, that day the water was running at approx 2500 CFS compared to the normal 850 CFS.We had an uneventful run, finishing with the fastest canoe time of the day in 34:16. Any run under 40 minutes is a good time during regular water levels.This may be the fastest time I have ever had at this race, certainly the fastest time ever in a plastic recreational canoe.When I was about 15 years old I raced with another junior male in a Whitewater XX (a very fast racing whitewater racing canoe) we had a similar time but I can’t remember exactly how fast it was. We dont have any photos from the Deerfield race since its tough to bring cameras with you and race and no one was with us who had a camera. You will just have to imagine the beautiful river.
We spent the night out in Western Mass at my sister and her husband’s place.We had a great pizza at Roberto’s in Northampton, highly recommended!!!
Sunday we went to Jack’s NECKRA Race (great name) at Holyoke Rows.Jones Ferry Boathouse (the actual name of the building where they store the rowing sculls) is a “green” rowing boathouse with great facilities on the Connecticut River. They have a beautiful spot right on the river and the building itself is very pretty to look at from the water. The roof of the facility is part of a government funded “greenroof project” where they have eight different varieties of sedum thriving happily on the slightly slopped roof tops. Below is a photo of the roof from the race day, the plants almost looked like they were in bloom but it was tough to tell from the angle I was standing at.
You can just see the plants on the roof in this shot
Solar panels on the portion of the roof that wasnt covered with plants
I was racing with Del Cummings.I have wanted to race with Del for years.I have always thought our paddling style would mesh well.Terese was racing with Jeff Defeo.The course was a 9.5 mile double loop course on the Connecticut River (even though Jack said it was 8 miles we heard otherwise from paddlers with a GPS at the end of the race).The gun went off and Del and I pulled away and cruised to a 2 minute victory over all the other canoes racing that day.Terese and Jeff had a great race also holding off the Warner’s right at the finish line for a third place finish. The river was up nice with all the recent rains we have been having so the downstream section of the race was a quick ride and the upstream portion wasn’t so bad either with the shallows being deeper than normal for the Connecticut river this time of year.
Connecticut River view from the Jones Ferry Boathouse
View of the start, yep its that white barrel out there in the middle of the river
Post race lunch/awards Jack and his family put on. The prize at this race, homemade maple syrup!!
Two races, two top finishes, it was a good weekend!We are enjoying the shorter races.I think they fit us better than the long stuff.We have a few low key races over the next couple weeks before the Downriver Nationals on the Deerfield River.Terese and I are looking for some revenge, in 2006 on the same course we were 4th, a mere 8 seconds out of 1st.We are fit and optimistic about the challenge ahead of us this year. I also have secured a Mad River Screamer (A fast whitewater C-1) for solo race and a ringer for the Men’s race (Peter Heed).It should be fun. Terese is planning an attempt at the woman’s C-1 championship as well.
So we have had some good and bad racing weekends behind us that I should catch up on. 6/11 was the Goose Chase Race on the twisty, shallow, Housatonic River out in the beautiful Berkshires of Western MA. We didn’t have the best race here to say the least, the Housatonic river is very challenging and technical and I (Captain Terese) wasn’t feeling my best at all. Normally we love a good technical river but when you aren't feeling well its just tough to keep it together when every corner is almost a 180 degree turn. After about an hour of racing we ended up pulling out early as we cruised past the start/finish line. We needed to make an unscheduled pit stop at the sani-cans. I won’t bore you with the details but I think the DNF had something to do with the drink of choice that day, Powerade. I will say one thing, the local racers in this area put a good whooping on everyone and really ran away with the race. Great job to all the Housi paddlers, they know their pretty little river well!!
The following weekend found us on the Nashua River for a really great little race. We spend A LOT of time on this river but we paddle a different section of it upstream in Harvard. The race course was on the lower section in Groton, and it’s a fun little course because you paddle upstream at the start of the race, turn around a bridge abutment, paddle downstream to the start/finish line and buoy turn around the finishing buoy and head upstream a short while to turn around another buoy and come back down and finish where you started. Kelly Zablonski was at the race once again doing another fantastic job capturing the whole event with her camera. I can basically tell the story of the race through her photos because she was able to catch us at a few different spots. We finished out this race 1st in the mixed category and had a great time drafting back and forth with the ladies pictured below Carina Peritore in the stern of the boat and Christina Wilson in the bow. These gals are a force to be reckoned with and nabbed us at the end as you can see. It was nice to win the mixed race this year because we have always been the bridesmaids so to speak in previous years coming in 2nd and 3rd.
Great turnout at the 2011 Nashua River Race
All the C2's on the starting line
Waiting for the gun!
And were off!! Not one of our best starts this year. There was a little ramming going on here
First buoy turn on the bridge abutment, Carina and Christina are right there with us. I love this photo cause you can really get a great view of how much you can lean a pro boat without actually tipping over.
Us coming into the second buoy turn which is also the finish line after the second loop is completed
Sneaking in on the inside
Headed back upstream for the second loop
Sprint to the finish with Carina and Christina
And they happened to get just ahead of us at the end. Nice job ladies!!!
So after a fantastic day on the mighty Susquehanna river for the Aluminum mixed relay on Sunday we were awake and ready at the butt crack of dawn to paddle the 70 Miler on Memorial Day.
There is some history behind the General Clinton Canoe Regatta that I feel like sharing, sorry if this bores anyone but history always interests me. The first time I ever made the trek out to Cooperstown for the regatta we paddled over to this old plaque that is at the start of the Susquehanna River, the plaque was there to memorialize Brigadier General James Clinton and Major General John Sullivan. The story I heard from the folks I was with was that the two Generals devised a plan back in 1779-1780-ish to dam up the trickle of a river that was coming out of Otsego lake and once there was a big enough pool of water they would break the dam and ride the wave down attacking the Iroquois Confederacy along the entire section stretching from NY to PA. At first thought this sounds amazing but once I got down to researching this whole thing it was pretty sad to read of the devastation these two guys brought onto the Iroquois Confederacy. Many areas in Upstate NY are full of interesting battle stories between the Native Americans and the White men and canoeing is of course a huge part of that since it was an easy way to transport supplies for troops back in the day before we had hummers and tanks. I won’t bore you with anymore of the sad details of their campaign. If you’re interested just Google it, there is tons of info out there on it.
* This photo is from Paul Gruber on Facebook, I do not know him but I know this is one of the best shots of the start!
So back to the whole point of the trip, to race a canoe 70 miles! We had one of our best starts I can remember at the race this year. The 70 begins in Cooperstown NY at the base of Otsego lake as I mentioned in earlier posts. After the national anthem is sung we are off charging full steam ahead towards a pontoon boat lying out in the fog of the lake. We made it to the boat without any issues at all which is pretty amazing considering there were around 60 racing canoes on the starting line with us. The buoy turn around the boat was clean and we were on our way towards the mouth of the river, we entered the mighty Susquehanna in 8th place overall and second mixed, which is about the best I can recall us doing, great way to start the day!! The first thing shortly after entering the river is a short portage around the dam at the hospital. This portage is so fast that you barely have time to think about running with the boat before you are back in the water about ready to enter “the swamp” We were lucky enough to have Neil my father in law pitting for us (bringing us fresh drinks and anything else we need throughout the course), not only is he a great pit person since he is a racer himself he also managed to get some awesome video for us. Below is a clip of the start out to the boat and then a clip of us coming down the lake into the swamp.
*Just a note at the beginning of this video we are the team to the left of the bright neon green guys, we are wearing white. Just as the gun goes off a team pulls in back of us for a few seconds but we pulled away nicely once we were under way
We had paddled this section of the course on Saturday but nothing really prepares you for the mayhem you can run into on the fast moving currents as you whip through S turn after S turn. They release water from the dam at the hospital so what debris was once pinned securely the Saturday before the race can be wedged lose and sent floating along with the 60 other boats and yourself, exciting!! Not only are you watching out for everyone else as you paddle at top speed but you have large floating and attached obstacles to contend with. After some good jockeying back and forth with a few other mixed teams and some men’s teams in the swamp I was proud to see that we were in 1st place in the mixed division at our first pit stop which was about 2 hours into the race.
We continued down the river drafting men’s teams where we could hoping we could somehow make it up to the leading men’s pack and pull away from the other mixed teams behind us. It was about 3 hours into the race when Dennis and Emma caught up to us, this meant we had 1st and 2nd place together, or so we had hoped. It was nice to have them to chat with and the draft was great at this point in time. Dennis and Emma were good company for us through the wider section of the river known as Goodyear Lake. Neil happened to get some more good video here of us drafting along together with Carina and Andy not far behind.
We had a great portage at the Goodyear Dam, it is pretty steep and was a little slick since the ground was pretty well saturated from the thunderstorms they had been having the week leading up to the race. We made it down to the Oneonta portage without any issues at all. Now from this point on in the race its gets to be a little tough mentally, 4 hours into the race and about 4 hours to go for us. As I mentioned before we changed places quite a few times after the four hour mark going between 1st and 3rd place with Jeff & Kristin, Dennis & Emma. I was surprised how well I felt because I have been prone to stomach issues in these longer races but I think I have finally found out the perfect fuel for the long distances, I could tell you my secrets but then I would have to kill you.
We were now into familiar territory on the river since we had spent a lot of time on the lower 35 the day before by participating in the relay. Believe it or not it helps to come up to something that looks familiar so you can say to yourself “ok I only have X amount of miles till the next relay exchange” It doesn’t mean anything in the 70 but it’s sort of a way to notch off the miles in my head.
The next video is a clip about 4 miles before the finish of the race, we made a great move on the other two teams in the Green Acres shortcut and we gained some distance on them. We decided it was time to make a move with the short distance we had left in the race and the big distance we had on the other teams. This is the toughest part in any canoe race from what I have experienced, knowing when to make a go for it or save enough energy to hold off the other guys is a fine art, we are still perfecting this whole thing but I swear it’s something you can only learn thru experience.
As you will be able to see from the last clip we blew up and did get reeled in by Jeff & Kristen at the very end and Dennis & Emma were not far behind us at all. I was really happy with our finish and the whole race in general. As I mentioned in the beginning of the post its pretty amazing that after 8 hours of racing and a dog fight at the end we finished just as we started going into the river, right next to Jeff & Kristen!
Finishing times on the link below but the first four teams were all from New England and the first three teams were only 8 seconds apart!!!
We just came off of one the best paddling racing weekends of the year this past Memorial weekend. The General Clinton Canoe Regatta is out in beautiful upstate NY on the Susquehanna river. The mighty Susquehanna makes its start at the base of Otsego lake in Cooperstown, NY, yes the baseball hall of fame town. The small baseball obsessed town becomes a canoeing mecca for one weekend a year and we are lucky enough to get to enjoy the weekend with some of the best paddlers and friends we’ve got. Teams come from all over North America to compete in tons of races starting on Friday with the shorter races going on both Saturday and Sunday ending on Monday with the 70 mile canoe race, yep that’s 70 miles all in one shot!
We arrived on Saturday morning to the most beautiful summery weather anyone could ask for. After picking up our race number and chicken dinner tickets for the 70 miler on Monday we headed up to our favorite spot in Cooperstown, Cooley’s Irish pub, to wait for the rest of our friends to show up. After a relaxing cocktail and some chicken wings the rest of the Berkshire Outfitters Mixed Nuts (our aluminum relay racing team) arrived in town. We have a tradition every year to paddle “the swamp” the first section of the race which is windy, pushy and full of nice big strainers for practice on Saturday. This section of the river becomes much faster with the water release they have for the actual race day so it’s fun to float thru at a nice pace chatting it up with our friends who we haven’t seen since the winter months.
After finishing up our float we decided we would head back up to Cooley’s pub for some food, now this is in integral piece of the weekend. As we were hanging out in Cooley’s having some dinner, I received a text from one of the other Mixed Nuts teammates saying his partner who would be doing his leg of the relay tomorrow morning wouldn’t be able to race with us. This was a bummer so we all sat and starting texting other paddlers we knew hoping we could fill the spot last second. We jokingly mentioned our problem to our waitress, Hannah, whose ears perked right up, we said “you busy tomorrow? Interested in doing a canoe race?” Now this waitress was not a paddler but she seemed to be in good shape, we found out later she was a big track star and coach, perfect!!! After waiting for all other prospects to answer our texts we decided that the waitress was as good a fill in as anyone and she was more then happy to help us out and super excited that we asked her. Berkshire Outfitters Mixed Nuts team was complete and ready for the race tomorrow!!!
left to right : Travis, Hannah, Terese, Julie, Jessie, John, Terry, Marge, Jeff, Neil
Now this year we are high tech so I was able to video tape all the exchanges of the relay legs so you can really get a firsthand glance at a well-oiled machine known as the Berkshire Outfitters Mixed Nuts aluminum canoe racing team!! We finished out the 35 mile race on Sunday with a time of 4 hours, 14 minutes and 28 seconds, 6th place out of 31 teams, not too shabby at all!!!
Here are just a few photos from the Ashuelot river race up in Keene NH from 5/7, kind of old but finally getting them up here on the blog. They were taken by a spectator Kelly, and she does a great job with catching the race. This river is one of the most beautiful spots to paddle on and even more fun to race on. It starts out nice and windy and a little shallow up in the center of Keene NH, and then opens up down below to a wider still shallow river that meanders through fields. We did the pro race which is a 20 mile course mostly downstream with a buoy turn at the finish, then you paddle upstream for a good while, turning to finish downstream at the place where the buoy turn was made earlier.
Waiting patiently at the start of the race
Good portage for TnT shortly after the start, 2nd place at this point in time
Just after the portage we are about to head under the bridge with people hot on our tails!!!
After 2 hours and 19 minutes of paddling it was neck and neck for 4-5th place with Dennis and Emma
They got us right at the end!!!!
GPS view of the course but only the down stream portion, you turn and paddle back up in the pro race and then turn at the red covered bridge to head back down.
So we finished out the race really happy with our effort (even those Dennis and Emma nabbed us at the end haha) and decided to paddle back up stream to town where our car was. I cant recall the exact time but it was about a 4 hour day on the water total with 2 of the hours at racing pace. Great training day for the soon to come 70 Miler we just completed this past Memorial day weekend.
*Just a note on this blog post, all of these awesome photos of the race came from other paddlers or paddlers significant others. Thank you for the blog materials!!! :)
OK so its been a while since we have updated the blog on our racing/paddling so I figure the best time is now before we get to far along here.
We have been training as usual of course so I won’t bore you with all that talk, plus I don’t have any cool pictures or videos from those adventures so it’s best we skip over it.
Two Saturday’s ago was pretty much the largest professional canoe race that we have in Massachusetts, the Run of the Charles; it starts in Dedham and ends in beautiful downtown Boston on that dirty water we all love, the Charles River. Going into the race we felt great and well prepared for the task that lied ahead of us. About 10 minutes into the race was a whole other story. After a pretty good start where we found ourselves on some good drafts with some really fast teams Travis started to get a little twitchy up in the front of the boat. I knew this couldn’t be good but tried my hardest to ignore him and focus on staying on the wave that we were cruising along on. Now this race involves quite a bit of portaging which for all you none paddlers out there following the blog, that is when you get out of the boat and carry it (while running at full speed during the race of course) around some sort of obstacle. Usually the obstacles are dams or other rocky areas that you just can’t paddle thru. As we got up to the first portage we were in a pretty good pack of basically 3rd place thru 6th place unfortunately Travis was cramping pretty badly in his legs so things weren’t looking good. The cramps continued throughout the day for him moving all over his body from his hands all the way down to his feet, while I felt surprisingly well. As anyone knows from paddling a canoe even for fun you aren’t going to get anywhere fast when one person is feeling well and the other isn’t, it’s a team sport and the team needs to be in sync. We did finish the race unfortunately in last place but we managed to stick out all 26 miles and finished in 3 hours and 48 minutes. We did have some of our best portages in this race and had a few good moments of drafting during the day so it was not a total loss even though you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at the results. T&T paddle on and hope the next race is better for us, that’s about all you can do after a bad day on the water. A good quote from Travis at the end of the day “Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the nail….today I was the nail”
Another week in the books, 5 weeks till the General Clinton and we are feeling good.This past week was kind of blah week for Team TnT.The weather was rainy and we had a little let down at the Westfield, making what comes down to a mental mistake.I second guessed our prerace decision to run the Hill and Dale Rapid. I asked Terese above the rapid whether we were going through or around in the slower bypass.My fearless captain replied that we were charging through as planned. It had been years since I had run the lower Westfield section with that much water (probably over 4000 cfs).Hill and Dale rapid was huge, we filled up and limped to shore to dump out. Looking back, perhaps I should have went with my gut and went around.Disappointing, but that is the reason I love whitewater racing, it is unpredictable.Anything can happen, in the search to be fast and dry you can sometimes be slow and wet.
We had another good week of training, including a nice 3.5 hour rain soaked 40 degree effort on Saturday. It was nice to put away the heavy boat and put time in our pro boat.The whitewater boat will make another appearance later this summer at the National Championships on the Deerfield River.I also ran a bit more this week than I have been.The added volume of the paddling hours has cut into my running time, but it was nice to get few runs on the trails around the reservoir.
This week will be stay loose, stay healthy week for us.We have the Run of the Charles on Saturday which is the biggest professional race of the year in Massachusetts.We will only paddle once with some portage practice and rest up.I have to go to Florida for work on Wednesday, down, to a meeting, and back, in one day.Let’s hope that doesn’t knock me down too much, but I should be fine.As far as expectations for the Charles we don’t really know what to expect.We know there are going to be a lot of fast teams there.We also know we have twice the hours we normally have due to our Florida trip.We feel like we are in shape and ready to go.
Alright so this weekend was the big Westfield river race weekend, a great yearly tradition for the whole Wheeler family as you can tell from Travis’s earlier post. We arrived late Friday night to Goshen where we would be staying the weekend at the Wheelers house. Saturday was an early busy day for everyone, we decided to make an early practice run of the expert course with Jay and Neil because Neil would be heading down the Novice course with a newbie and he wanted to make sure he was at the start of the novice course in plenty of time to get ready for that race. The river was a little low on Saturday but we had a fairly clean run and didn’t have anything major go on so we felt as if we were ready for the pro race on Sunday. After our quick jaunt down the expert section we jumped into the car and quickly changed into something warmer and drier so we could catch Neil and Megan’s race down the novice course. After watching Neil and Megan finish the race unscathed we quickly headed back up to Hill and Dale to catch the show. The weather was a little rough on Saturday to say the least, cold, damp and about 40 degrees most of the day. We saw some sites this year in Hill and Dale rapids, this is a class III rapid so many of the novice paddlers have a tough time handling this section of the river. I have pieced together a little video I took from the novice race with some great examples of how to go thru this rapid and some even better examples of how NOT to go thru this rapid. We even saw a few kayakers go in this year which is a rare occasion. (The video I made seems to be to large to upload directly so you will have to click the link below and watch it on youtube)
Jay, Travis, Terese and Neil before our practice run on Saturday
After getting in our full share of laughs at Hill and Dale we headed up to Travis’s Grandparents house on the rivers’ edge to start the big annual party and rest till tomorrow when we would be racing.
Overnightwe had a pretty good storm roll thru the area and dump about 2” of rain so we knew that the course would be interesting the next day after hearing it pour all night. Sure enough as we made our way down from the hills of Goshen we saw all the little tributaries just gushing water out of the woods, the whole area is pretty ledgey so when it rains hard it basically just pours out of the hills right into the river. This rain overnight wouldn’t change the expert section of the race since we start out behind a large dam, this allowed the Army Corp of Engineers to basically control the height of the river and keep it right at race level as it is every year. We tackled this section pretty cleanly and didn’t have any major problems aside from a few little waves which should have been avoided but all in all the top section was really similar to other years. The novice section of the course was a different story however, there isn’t any dam that controls the west branch of the river so when we got down to the railroad tracks where the two branches of the river meet there was a serious amount of water ripping down. Now don’t get me wrong, I love big white water, it just makes for an interesting run when you are going for time not fun. The river really changes when it is up and this year was a great example of that, there was a lot of waves where it is usually flat and the corners were pushier then usual but we talked it out a lot and worked our way thru the course. We did make one pretty large mental mistake which cost us a little bit of time, right at the top of Hill and Dale rapids Travis asked what the plan was, there is a bypass around this section that you can take and avoid the rapid all together. In a quick moment we decided we would head straight thru the middle of the rapid as we had done the past two years. I was thinking that the rapid would flatten out with so much water pouring thru but for some reason it was almost the opposite of that. We got into the middle line of the rapid and were riding 4’ to 5’ curlers, half of these waves either going right in Travis’s lap or over his head. It was tons of fun surfing these big waves, at one point Travis was about 5’ below me down in the hole of a big wave, great adrenaline rush aside from the fact that we are racing not out for a pleasure cruise. After handling the rapid and waves the best we could we quickly pulled over at the bottom, dumped the gallons of water we picked up and jumped back in to get back on course for turtle bend, a good sweeping corner with a large boulder in it that lies just below. We didn’t swim at all but Hill and Dale definitely slowed us down this year, I guess we didn’t choose wisely and should have taken the bypass after all. Lesson learned for the next time the river is up that high. The rest of the course was uneventful for us aside from the occasional whirlpools and squirrely areas that seemed to just pop up under us. We also had really great portages which I am proud of, that was always a trying area of the race for me when I started it years ago, that boat is heavy and the portages are rocky in some areas. We finished out the race with a time of 1:18:16, 3rd place in the mixed division and 8th place overall.
Terese, Travis, Neil and Jay before the start of the Pro Race on Sunday
Emily followed us along the course and got some great video in a few spots. I have peiced it together and posted it below, the only thing we are missing in this video is Hill and Dale rapids. If I find it out there on the great big world wide web I will attach it to the blog later on cause I bet it looked awesome from the shore seeing us bob thru those waves!
Of all the races I do throughout the year there is one that stands above all the others.Every race is different but no race has quite the feel of the Westfield. My father taught me how to paddle on that river, and together we learned to race.This year will be my 22nd consecutive Westfield River Wildwater Race.I did my first Westfield in 1990 at the age of 9.The Westfield will always have a family feel to me.My grandparents still live on the riverbank.It’s because of this family feel the Westfield will always be unique and always be my favorite race.Another thing that makes the Westfield unique is the format, which is more time trial style racing then mass start, each boat starts out a minute after the next so you have to pick your own way down the course.Most of the racing we do is in flatwater racing canoes on relatively calm rivers and lakes, the Westfield is a whitewater race.The Pro Race on Sunday is the only one of its type in the country to my knowledge.Racers are required to all use a similar style boat and compete for prize money over a 12 mile course with Class II and III rapids.The whitewater is a great equalizer.Faster teams that are less confident in the rough water are naturally slower.Knowing the river also gives you a huge advantage because certain areas are easier or faster than others.Over the last few years Terese has learned the river and her and I are always surprised by the good flatwater teams that we can beat at the Westfield.Anything can happen in a whitewater race!!!
Today we are running the course to make sure we have our plan all settled, then we will had down to watch my Dad race in the Novice race with a new paddler.He always likes to go with new people and do what he can to help out beginners.After that we have a big shin-dig at the Wheeler house.It should be a great day.
Well its now a week into the official racing season for T& T and I am trying to be diligent here and keep up with the training and racing updates thru out the season. So here we go!
Wednesday night found us back down on the Charles River at the bird feeing area in Newton. It was great to get some paddling time in with our friends who live closer to Boston. Jeff Defeo made the trek out from Western MA to paddle with Carina Peritore, The Millers brothers Seth and Steve were out and we also had the company of Adam Gelinas and Andy Hall for the night. There were the usual kayakers and a few C-1’s as well but the group seemed to be all over the river so we didn’t see them as much as we normally would when we are having our casual self timed Wednesday night races. We paddled down to Waltham and back up to Wellesley as we normally would chatting along the way pushing the pace for fun in the shallows where we could and riding along toughing out the wind in other spots. It was a pretty windy paddle especially where the river is wide down in the Waltham section, seems as if we have been fighting the wind the whole season so far. We ended out the night at the Skellig, a nice Irish pub, in Waltham for drinks, burgers and my favorite the Shepard’s pie. It was good to catch up with everyone after the long winter and hear all the stories about what people did to stay in shape and pass the time till we were all back on the water again.
A good view of the many different types of boats
Saturday was Rat Race Day starting in Athol and ending in Orange on the MillersRiver! If you have been following the blog you know we do quite a bit of paddling on this river throughout the year. Now click the link below which will take you to a video of this years start. 2011 River Rat Race Start
There is a great view of Travis and I (maroon boat towards the bottom left of the screen) about 32 seconds into the video trying to avoid the chaos around us and find a nice clean line. You can also see Neil (father in law) and Jay (brother in law) in this video they are in a teal boat and started right around us as luck would have it.
Quick rundown on how this race works for anyone who hasn’t heard or seen video before of this race. Basically every boat is entered in a drawing the night before for a starting position on the shore of the river regardless of your speed, ability or vessel of choice as long as it is 18’ or under. I mention the boat length because this is important to know, most of our racing during the season is done in a 18’6” pro racing canoe, this boat is not allowed in the rat race. You will see ALL sorts of boats in this race, the fastest being a “rat boat” where they take a really fast sleek pro racing boat and chop off 6” thus making it a “rat boat” and 18’, you will also see some boats that couldn’t be more then 15’ where the people are basically sitting in each others lap, see photo below hahah (not to fast as you can imagine) These guys were still siked and thought they had the fastest vessel by far.
Travis and I usually take “the barge” our plastic 17’ Sundowner unless we happen to draw an amazing number the night before and then we try and scrounge up a rat boat the night before the race since we don’t own one ourselves. The barge is actually a great boat for this race, it is sea worthy and battle ready so it can handle mostly anything that can come our way and its not that slow if you really put some OOOMMMMFFF into it. We also take this chance to get some steering practice in at top speed since we use this same boat in the Westfield Wildwater river race the following weekend. This year we drew 115 out of a total of 265 boats so we were right in the middle of the pack. The cannon fired to signal the start of the race and the mayhem ensued. We worked hard to get free of the mess of boats and made our way down the right hand shore which was a little different from previous years where we seemed to find our holes in the mess of boats on the left hand side of the river. We drafted the faster rat boat teams where we could and powered thru the open water when we found it. It was a fairly successful race for us and we finished out 36th overall, first to cross the line in a plastic boat and first in a 17’ boat so I think we accomplished a lot! We got some compliments from paddlers at the end on our speed in a recreational boat as well as some insight on what I needed to focus on before the Westfield, mainly cutting out the zig-zagging which can happen in a boat that turns easily. Another great Rat Race down in the books and we were on to enjoy the party at the end for some good live music and sunshine!!! On a sidebar we not only won a little cash at this race we also won the grand raffle prize which was a giant tub of liquor and basically everything you needed for a camping trip, tent and sleeping bag included!!!
Just the liquid portion of the winnings
Neil and Travis, he is a proud rat father :)
Sunday we decided we wouldn’t do the Rat Pro/Am race in Athol/Orange and opted for a long paddle with the Millers brothers on the NashuaRiver instead. It’s more beneficial at this point in the season we thought to get in some good hours since we won’t be able to do any long paddles the following weekend while we are out at the Westfield Races. We met up with Seth and Steve in Groton and put in feeling a little crotchety and stiff from putting in a good hard effort in the heavy boat the day before. We had great weather and plodded our way up stream towards Ayer, we usually paddle quite a bit on this river from Harvard to Ayer but it’s a nice change of pace to paddle from Groton up to Ayer. The river looks pretty similar to the upstream portion we spend a lot of time on but there is a little more current so it tests the technical skills needed to make your way upstream in the pro-boat We also got a chance to check out a small tributary to the Nashua River called the Dead River which wasn’t much of a “river” but it passed the time. After paddling back up to the spot we turned at the first time which was, a shallow rocky section of the river where the water moves pretty swiftly we made our way back to the car and ended the day out with a little over 4 hours in the boat. One more successful training session for the upcoming Run of the Charles, which will be our first long race of the season in the pro boat.
Thursday we headed down to SouthMeadowLake in our home town of Clinton. We took out the barge for one more training run before we make the trek out to Western MA and the Westfield Wildwater race this weekend. We made a quick lap around the outside edge of South Meadow in no time and decided that we would go thru this granite tunnel under the railroad tracks (which always gives me the creeps I am not going to lie) and head over to Coachlace Pond for a quick lap just to make sure we got a good workout/stretch out. We paddled along at a good deliberate pace and we made sure to pay special attention to steering and feeling how the boat responds to wind, waves, and leans cause all of these things play a huge factor during the race on Sunday. We also discussed the race course and how we would be handling certain areas and began our mental attack on the pro whitewater race we have ahead of us. Ohh yeah I can’t forget to mention the wildlife we saw on this short paddle, obviously we saw the normal 5-6 ducks but we also spotted a beautiful large deer who stopped to watch us paddle by, as well as an overfed raccoon who looked like a fat house cat hanging out on the shores edge of the lake. Wild animals in Clinton aren’t starving, that’s for sure.
I am going to try and get some great video and photos of this weekend’s race and keep the blog updated, the whitewater races are a blast so stay tuned!!
