Friday, August 04, 2006

Sounds of Silence

Sorry, this blog has been pretty silent lately. I've been on vacation. I returned last week from a long family vacation in Hawaii. I had a great time! But all things come to an end, and I'm back at work. It's been incredibly busy for me since. Haven't even put in much paddling time.

I am trying to ramp up my training for the MS150 bike ride in NewBern NC on September 9-10, you may have noticed a link to my training log. The log is my joint venture of fitness and bike training, and trying to lose a few extra pounds.

I did hear of a very interesting kayak and canoe adventure race, the Missouri River 340. An adventure style paddling race across the state of Missouri, from Kansas City to St. Charles, covering 340 miles. I sure wish I had heard about this race earlier (but it'll be on my radar for next year). How do people find out about these adventures? I'm always looking around for just this kind of thing.

The race started this past Wednesday with 6 teams and 10 solo paddlers, finishing at noon on Sunday 8/6. Two of the solo paddlers are women, including Dawn Keller (TurtleWoman), who paddled with me in an ad hoc team during my first WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. See article I wrote about that Challenge. Fellow WaterTribe member Marek Uliasz (Wayfarer), of the MoutainWayfarer website and blogs is also competing, we can expect some nice photos on his site when he returns. The current race leader, Wes Hanson from Austin Texas, is paddling through the nights and is expected to finish today (Friday afternoon). Thus thus far only 15 of the original 22 paddlers remain in the race. The race website is not posting updates, but I've been able to keep up somewhat by just googling "Missouri River kayak race" for news briefs.

This race, unlike the WaterTribe races, is on a moving river, 3-6kts, it allows the participants to have ground crews, and has no required checkpoints and deadlines along the way. This doesn't mean it's easy, 340 miles is a long way.

This sounds like a perfect adventure for me and my Kruger DreamCatcher next year.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We just returned back from Missouri and I am downloading pictures ...

Heat, severe thunderstorms, strong headwind.

I haven't seen results yet, but West Hansen finished on Friday (11am?). He slept only 30 minutes.

Next group including a fast tandem kayak, and two solos including myself finished around noon on Saturday, and the rest of paddlers finished on Sunday. I am not sure how many dropped out.

It was an interesting race. There will be many stories.