5 Weeks Out!

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. 

Westfield Wildwater River Race weekend

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)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBjZbnMWMs

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.

Overnight we 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, 3^rd place in the mixed division and 8^th 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!

Westfield River Race Weekend!

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.

Catching up on the blog, Training and Rat Racing!!

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 Millers River! 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 36^th 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 Nashua River 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 South Meadow Lake 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!!

Assabet, Nashua, Millers!!

So we had a pretty good paddling week and hit three different rivers to changes things up a bit.

Wednesday night we made it over to the Assabet River in Hudson, this is a great spring time training spot with lots of hairpin turns and a good amount of water in the Spring. We hadn’t been on the river since last spring so of course there is always the anticipation of what lies around the next corner, i.e. trees down or any other obstacles that can shift in the river over a years’ time. It was pretty easy going for about a half an hour to forty-five minutes and then we hit a little snag, a spot in the river that was always a little sketchy and tight to begin with had been pretty well clogged up this winter. Either the beavers were starting to dam it up or an old beaver dam washed down stream. No matter the case we had to turn around way short of what we wanted to and ended up doing a couple loops on the open section just for time sake. It’s on the agenda to go back and open up our old spot we used to squeeze thru once the weather warms up. We did see a lot of wildlife on this paddle, 4-5 muskrats playing in the grass and in the water of course, 2 swans, lots of Canadian geese, a few red winged black birds, and last but not least a medium sized grey heron who just looked out of place without all the nice grass for him to hide in.

Saturday we headed over to our regular spot on the Nashua River in Harvard, it was a pleasant surprise when we arrived to the parking lot being wide open, the snow has finally all melted and we were able to park in our regular spot right next to the put in. Walking thru 3-4’ of snow with a canoe is always a great time but I am glad to see its over for another year. There was a pretty good rain/snow/sleet storm on Friday so the river was up nicely and still had a good amount of water pouring into it even as we were paddling along. The one drawback to this gorgeous spot is the fact that Deven’s Army reserve base is on one side of the river. Basically every weekend they run reserves training and with this comes constant rapid gunfire and sometimes larger explosives which sound like bombs or rocket launchers. I like to pretend I am paddling along in a war torn area and often shout commands at Travis to reload and fire at will just to pass the time, he really enjoys this treatment. We were able to make it down to the dam in Ayer pretty quickly and were feeling great to have our regular training spot all thawed out and accessible once again.

Sunday found us on the Millers River again, we went down with the anticipation of paddling with a big group but we put on the water just about 3-5 minutes behind the pack of about 10 boats and were quickly left behind in everyone’s dust. We decided we would work hard to catch up to everyone but each corner we turned it seemed we couldn’t quite catch up. Everyone was pretty well packed up and if you don’t know this already the pack is always faster then a single canoe no matter how hard you push yourself. After the hard work out up to the starting line of the Rat Race in Athol we finally saw the group all resting and getting ready to head back down. We decided that since we chased them the whole way up the river they could chase us down. We made the turn a little ahead of everyone and started a mad dash down stream towards Orange, it wasn’t too bad of an idea actually because the Rat Race is next weekend and what better time to sprint the course then a week before hand. We were finally caught by three boats, all men’s teams, almost at the end of the course which wasn’t too bad at all considering the strong gusting wind that was in our face most of the way down stream. We didn’t get much drafting practice in but we surely got a great speed workout which will only help us in the long run. Its tough work being the rabbit for those speedy mens teams. 

Above are a few shots of the finish line of the Rat Race happening in Athol Ma next weekend. I will try and get lots of pictures of the chaos and post them for your viewing pleasure. You wont believe the difference in the view from this weekend to the race weekend.