Log Jams

I started the morning with a great cup of coffee and an interesting conversation with my roommate. We talked about the road blocks in life that keep people in a place where they don't really want to be. I referred to them as "log jams", things that clog up the free flow of life and limit us from reaching our dreams. How do we clear the jams and move forward to accomplish our wildest dreams? As we talked we thought about ways to compile best practices and how to take the best practices and well, practice them.

Who in your life has had the most profound influence on you? Was there a specific event that moved you in the direction you most wanted to go? When did you realize what you really wanted to do? Do you feel like you have a log jam in front of you now? What is causing the log jam?

We talked about asking these questions to people we know and compiling best practices or events that could be duplicated to help others clear the log jams in their lives. Maybe you took a yoga class and it cleared your mind or you found a spiritual group that brought you closer to enlightenment, or you visited a far off place and it changed your outlook on the world. What ever path you chose your experience may help others find the path for them.

We Did It! We completed the Texas Water Safari in 82 hours

Four Months ago we made the decision to train for and complete "The World's Toughest Canoe Race" the Texas Water Safari. We knew that it would take dedication and commitment to reach our goal of paddling, non-stop, 262 miles from San Marcos, TX to Seadrift, TX. We knew it would be a challenge, we knew it would be hard, but we did not really know the full extent of everything that would happen on this adventure. During our training we often asked paddlers who have finished the race before how they did it. What did you wear? What did you eat? How did you pee? Did you have any hallucinations? What else can you tell us that might be helpful along the way. Without the advice from our fellow paddlers and friends I am sure that the experience would have been much more difficult. As I recount all of the things we learned and all of the things we experienced along the way I am overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment and a sense of relief that we were able to do what we set out to do.





I could not have asked for a more committed, up beat, go get em paddling partner than Joy Emshoff. Throughout our training Joy would always say "If other people can do it, we can do it!" If you have seen our boat you know that we have a bumper sticker on each side of the boat that says "We can do it!" We used this mantra over an over again as we trained, ran into rocks, hit gravel bars and experimented with food and clothing options. Anytime something went off track Joy would say "We're ok, We can do it!" As we prepped the boat one of the veteran racers said something to Joy that was also a key to our success. He said that when he was in the military they focused on staying positive and avoiding negative words. We took this positive thought process to heart and reminded ourselves of it anytime we would start to feel the heat of the day or pain resonating from our sore bottoms.



Throughout this experience Joy and I have had many conversations about the things that keep people from full filling their dreams and from doing the things that they want to do in life. Most of the things we talked about are simply decisions. I can choose to go out and paddle my canoe or I can choose to sit at home and watch the evening news. We all have the same amount of time in the day, it is simply a matter of how we choose to use the time. I am thankful that I have wonderful friends and family who were understanding when they realized that I was going to do this race and it was going to take a tremendous amount of time on the river to get it done. The level of commitment that we dedicated to the race has taught me a lot about how I can go after a goal and accomplish it with the proper amount of focus. When we started training I had doubts if I could really paddle that far, if I would be able to paddle with very little sleep or if I would be able to avoid getting sick on the journey. The very first 25 mile run from Palmetto to Gonzalez was extremely difficult and I was sore for days. Prior to race day the farthest we had ever paddled in a day was 54 miles and that was with a two hour break. So my mind wondered how we would make the jump from 54 miles to 262 miles? For me this was one of the most amazing experiences of the race. I knew that I was not going to get out of the boat and that we were going to be on the river for multiple days. By removing the thought of getting out I also removed the anxiety of worrying about where we were on the river. We focused on getting to the next check point and getting fresh water and ice. Our team captain Brad had a bright orange shirt on and we experienced an immediate up lift in our spirits every time we came around a corner and saw his smiling face on the shore. Brad, his wife Coleen and Joy's son Josh made up our amazing ground crew. They would ask if we were drinking enough water and if we had anything to eat every time they saw us.

On the first day of the race our plan was to start with only a couple of small water bottles and to have our team captain Brad give us the large bottles farther down the river. We wanted to get over the portages the boat as light as possible and leaving out some of the water and ice definitely helped. We made it through Rio Vista dam with many people cheering us on. On the upper San Marcos river we faced a couple of challenges that we quickly overcame. At "Old Dam" we took the left route and got hung up on a rock. I had to bail out of the boat to get us over the obstacle. Luckily I was able to jump back into the boat and we paddled to the left side and were on our way.
At Martindale we successfully portaged over the dam and headed towards the low water crossing. There were two boats stuck on the rock under the low water crossing and as we approached they made it off the rocks and moved on. Our plan was to portage at the bridge and get water from Brad. At the last minute I said to Joy, "let's run it... We can Do it!" This turned out to be famous last words as we missed our mark and hit the rock on the right hand side. I had to jump out of the boat and I was pushed into the rock.
Luckily we both bailed out of the boat and were able to swim it to the shore without tipping it over and without wrapping it on the rock. We had to dump water out of the boat and we ended up taking a couple of minutes to have Brad give us water jugs and ice. During this mishap the 1944 Novice boat with Greg and Wes passed us. We made it our mission to catch back up with the guys and we succeeded to catch them right before the Staples dam portage. Our portage over this dam was one of my most memorable moments of the race. Greg and Wes portaged on the right side and we were set up to portage on the left. We joked that they wouldn't even see us go by and we were correct. We slipped down the left side of the dam and passed them without them noticing. We found out later in the race that their team captain saw us go by but it was still fun to think that we made a strategic maneuver early on in the race and used our portage skills to put us in the lead.
We had visions of being the first women's team ever to win the novice class and we did everything we could to try to stay in the lead. After about 30 hours of paddling we finally pulled over to sleep. We only rested about 45 minutes and later learned that we really should have slept more after the first day of paddling. Brad and I talked a lot about our sleep patterns after the race. If we would have stopped for 2 or 3 hours that first night we would have had a lot more energy to maintain our boat speed during the day. As it was we were so excited to be in the lead that we focused on keeping the boat moving down the river at any speed. Brad woke us at daybreak after about an hour and a half nap under the Cuero 236 bridge. Just as we pushed off shore Greg and Wes pulled into the checkpoint. The day before we ran short on water and I knew we had a long stretch ahead of us leaving this checkpoint. I asked Brad to load us up with a lot of water and ice and he did just that. Brad really wanted to make sure we had enough supplies so he hooked us up with extra water and a cooler full of water and ice. This sounded like an excellent plan at the time but it proved to be a challenge as the extra water and ice added weight to the boat. We left the checkpoint with Diane and Santo in boat 52 and maintained a good pace keeping up with them as they were paddling a much lighter boat. Unfortunately lack of sleep eventually caught up and Greg and Wes came out of no where with Superman paddles flying through the water. It only took Greg and Wes about an hour to catch us. They flew by and never slowed down. We kept thinking they would wear themselves out at some point but it seems that they maintained a strong pace all the way to the end. We tried to stay up with Diane and Santo and finally ran out of steam mid day about 14 miles from Victoria. We made it to Victoria in the early evening and we were happy to see our friend CJ made it to the dock to cheer us on. Although we were exhausted at this point in the race we knew we needed to paddle as far as possible before the sun went down. It took every ounce of energy to make it through the third night of paddling. Our light was not much stronger than the moonlight and I had to use my small flashlight to constantly scan for small stumps and obstacles in the river. Our first goal was to make it to a spot where Brad was at so we could sleep and make sure that someone was there to wake us up. We ended up tying up to trees in the middle of the river twice during the night to take short naps. Earlier that day a paddler warned us that this part of the river can be very frustrating because you can hear the Dupont plant and see lights for a really long time before you ever get there. The river also has a lot of cuts off of it in this section that could easily get you off track or lost. It almost feels as if you are going in circles for about 4 hours. This section also poses a challenge with steep muddy banks that do not allow you to get out of the boat and alligators who are happy to swim by and shine their eyes at you. We joked about using our "she-we" before the race and we really didn't realize how vital the personal peeing device would be until we got in this section of water. After a gruelling night of paddling we made it to the checkpoint just after dawn. The Horny toad #69 boat was tied up to the shore when we left the checkpoint. About an hour later Chris and Jon paddled up to us and we were extremely happy to have another boat to paddle with. Chris and Jon are a father and son team who were determined to finish the race. Chris completed the race last year and he talked his dad into doing the race this year. We ended up paddling with the horny toads for the last 12 hours of the race. Our last two challenges included pulling our boats through 6 water lily road blocks and crossing the bay with 2-3 foot waves. It was very helpful to have the other boat with us as inspiration and companionship during both of these challenges.

I want to personally thank the following people for helping us out along the way: Our amazing team captain Brad and co-captains Josh and Coleen for following us all the way down the river! Bob for inspiring us to do the race and teaching Joy how to drive the boat! Sara for supporting me and understanding my schedule during all the crazy training runs! Jenny, Nick and Dillon for running shuttles and cheering us on! The amazing TOWN ladies for always encouraging us to go for it! Deb and Ginsie for their companionship on and off the water and for all of the advice along the way. Grady, Mike and Scott for hanging with the girls on some training runs. Phil for always encouraging us and telling us we could do it! All of our friends, family and other paddlers who encouraged us and had faith that we could do it!

Photo credits: Sara Sanford, Brad Belk, Bob Spain and San Marcos Daily Newspaper

Safari Supplies

What do you eat on the Texas Water Safari? We have asked this question to every veteran racer we have met and we have found that the answers are all very different. Of course most racers agree that a mix of liquid and solid food is the best. They all tell you to make sure you have a good mix of electrolytes and some type of protein and carb drink mix. Some people take a mix of salty and sweet items to get them through the day. We have made our list based on other peoples suggestions and our own trial and error of eating things on our training runs. We had to find food that would last for the entire trip that we could handle eating while paddling. Every time we went into a store over the last few months we have searched for lightweight food options that we can handle eating on our trip. After much thought and we used a seal-a-meal machine and put together the following packages of food.

12 ramen soup
4 tuna
6 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
36 Perpetum and Cytomax drink mix
16 cliff bars
10 peanut butter crackers
4 saltine crackers
6 Frito's
6 Cheetos
6 granola
24 Hammer Gu
3 fruit bars
6 Cheerios
3 pop tarts
1 beef jerky
2 NUUN electrolyte drink mix packages

Other items that we have to carry in the boat.
Safety kit - 3 flares,zip ties, duct tape
Lights - 1 dive light, 2 headlamps, 2 flashlights, many heavy batteries!
Clothes - 2 rain jackets, 2 extra shirts, 2 tights and 2 shorts
Personal items - sunblock, sanitary wipes, glasses, sun glasses, chapstick, Boudreax's Butt paste, Hydroglyde and Dr. Bonners soap.
First Aid kit - bandages, antibiotic cream, snake bite kit etc.
Spray Skirt
Sleeping sling for canoe (allows us to lie down in canoe like a hammock)
2 life jackets
1 waterproof ipod stereo system (this is our one luxury item to help us through the monotonous Guadalupe river on day two and three)
4 large water bottles
4 sports water bottles
We learned last night that the boat is quite heavy when fully loaded. We lifted the boat and Joy just said..."We can Do It!"

Palmetto to Gonzalez again...

This is the third time we have paddled this section of the river. The first time Joy and I did the paddle was on March 30th and it took us 6 and a half hours to complete the section. I remember coming home after this 25 mile paddle and questioning how in the heck I planned to paddle 260 miles. I was very sore after this paddle and I knew I had a long way to go to get ready for the race. This last weekend we did this stretch in 5 hours and 45 min. When we got off the water I was still ready to paddle some more. It is wonderful feeling the level of progress we have made over the last three months of training. We are now in charge of the canoe and we can pretty manage past any obstacle that comes our way. We were pleased to see that the "river faries" had come and cut a path through one of the log jams and that the large log jam is almost at a level that we can pass through it. We know that we will complete this section at night so it was great seeing it one more time before the race. This trip was extra special because Deb and Ginsie paddled along with us using single blades. It was great having company on the water. We had fun laughing about our adventures in training over the last few months.

Memorial Day Weekend Paddling

We encountered a new river obstacle this weekend - Texas Tubbers! We started our training at City Park on Saturday morning around 9am. We later found out it was a great idea to start early with the onset of tubbers in the early afternoon. On Sunday we attempted an afternoon paddle in our kayaks and had to weave our way around about 200 tubes! During the paddling sessions we worked on our portages of Rio Vista dam, Cummins dam and Staples. We were very excited this weekend when we learned an effective way to run through "Old Dam" rapids. We are still working on our plan for Cottonseed and that is on our list for the last weekend of training. This weekend ended up being a good technical weekend with plenty of time to rest and relax at the Shady Grove campground. We camped Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and enjoyed many hours of relaxing in chairs in the river! Joy, Brad, Coleen, Jenny, Nick and Dillon all camped out for the weekend. My friends Casey and Chris joined us on Sunday night and a good time was had by all. For the record Joy makes the best breakfast around! We had a good time with good friends all weekend long! We ended up paddling short distances this weekend but the knowledge we gained from practicing the portages proved to be very important! We are looking forward to a few more weekends of training and then the big race

Paddling Friends!

We have been very fortunate to meet other people who are crazy enough to do the Texas Water Safari. There are only a few all women teams that compete in the Texas Water Safari and we have really enjoyed paddling with and sharing stories with our friends and fellow paddlers Ginsie and Deb. Ginsie has finished the 262 mile Texas Water Safari race 7 times and is a seasoned veteran to the sport. She has paddled the race 4 times solo, 2 times in all women's boats and 1 time in mixed boat. This is Deb's first run at the Texas Water Safari. Deb is an avid Adventure Racer. I met her last year when I completed the Adventure Race Girl Challenge directed by Deb.

ADVENTURE RACE GIRL CHALLENGE
ALL GIRL ADVENTURE RACE

The 2008 ARG Challenge will take place in the historic and beautiful town of Bastrop Texas, located 30 miles southeast of Austin. Racers will experience challenges on the Colorado River and in the Lost Pines, a terrain unique to this part of Texas.

Deb and Ginsie put the number 18 on the canoe, "She Ra" to indicate Deb's first Safari and Ginsie's 8th Safari. At one point they said they might put the saying "She Ra rides again" on the boat because this is not the first run down the Safari course for this boat. Deb and Ginsie are an incredibly competitive team and an inspiration to all women paddlers. Ginsie's expertise and advice have really helped us to prepare for the race. We often discuss food options, sleeping options, clothes options and of course the art of peeing in and out of the boat!

The support that Ginsie and Deb and our other fellow paddlers have given us during the various training sessions on the river is tremendous. Deb and Ginsie paddled from Rio vista dam to Zedler Mill on the weekend that we did our 45 mile stretch from Staples to Palmetto and they were so kind to call and check on us to make sure we made it off the water safely. I am very excited to see how we all do on the race and I look forward to many great adventures on the water!

Cuero Dam

We drove a lot farther than we paddled this weekend to see the Cuero dam. This was the last large obstacle that we needed to scout before the race. We made the trip to Cuero and paddled a 15 mile stretch of the river on Saturday. Our friend Grady came along with us on the trip which worked out great for shuttling boats. Total paddling time was only about 2 and a half hours. The Cuero dam does not require a portage. To get around the dam we paddled around a large metal obstacle and took a quick right to follow the river flow. This section has quite a few trees and limbs in the water but it is pretty easy to navigate past the obstacles. We talked a lot about the last minute preparations we are all making to get our boats and our bodies ready for the race. Grady shared with us some of his food ideas for the race and we shared some of the tricks that we have applied to the boat to get it race ready. Joy made a sling to go across the boat that acts like a hammock so we can sleep in the canoe during the race. Our goal is to have one of us sleep while the other one keeps the boat moving down the river. We feel prepared for the race and we are excited for the continued adventures to come. Our plan this weekend is to camp and paddle different stretches of the upper San Marcos river.

"Stick in my ass" 45 mile paddle Staples to Palmetto

Joy said "I have a stick in my ass" and for some reason this ended up being the theme for our paddle yesterday. We started at the Staples dam with our new friend Liam in who was in a Wilderness Systems kayak and us in our trusty canoe. Joy immediately commented on how low the water looked. Little did we know the impact the low water level would have on our results for the day. Liam attempted to use his rudder and was having difficulty in the first stretch of water. He was knocked over twice in the first mile and after losing his hat and pumping water he decided he better turn back now.
We were sad to see him go but we also understood that the low water levels would reveal many obstacles along the way. I can't even count the number of times that we came to a dead stop on rocks and had to get out of the boat and walk it yesterday. Each time we moved the boats over the rocks we were expending extra energy and taking extra time to move down river. Our friend Grady passed us about 3 miles from the Lulling 90 bridge. He started at Rio Vista and he was moving along at a good pace. He asked if we were going to stop at Lulling and we said we hadn't planned on it. He said he would see us there and he paddled on ahead of us. We saw Grady just past the bridge and then again at Zedler Mill. We were very thankful to him for waiting for us at the end. Grady made it to Palmetto just before dark and we did not get there until well after dark. Not long after the Lulling 90 bridge we encountered a dead cow in the water. Between the smell of the cow and the smell of gas this section of water was not fun to paddle. As far as other wildlife for the day we encountered 3 or 4 snakes. I was very glad that I did not see one of the snakes. Joy saw the snake it was half on a branch and half in the water and Joy said it was about a foot from me as we paddled by. We started on the water at 10am and we were hoping to be off the water by about 7:30pm, before dark. Well our plans didn't go exactly as scheduled and we ended up on the water until 9:30pm. At Zedler Mill we contemplated pulling out and getting a ride to Palmetto but we knew this was our last scheduled long paddle before the race so we continued on. Right after Zedler I made a bad call thinking we could go under a log and we got into a bit of a sticky situation. The log was high enough for the boat to go under and it had two pieces of barbed wire going from the shore to the log. I was lucky to miss the barbed wire and we both ended up getting out of the boat to move past the obstacle. It would have been a much easier route to go thru the shallow water on the left. The good news about our late night travel is the headlamp packed in the safety pack. The bad news... I only had my prescription sunglasses making everything past about 5 feet blurry. Our new goal was to make it to Ottine dam before it got dark. For anyone who has paddled this stretch of the river you know that this dam is very difficult to see and it has a rather tough portage. After 38 miles of paddling we found ourselves pulling with all our might to make it to the dam with a little light left to make it around the dam. We succeeded in getting there and pulling the boat around the portage just as we lost the last bit of light. I put my headlamp on and we jumped back in the canoe. I have had paddlers tell me a headlamp does not work on your head and I quickly realized how right they were. All of the bugs on the river come right at your head and you are left with a blurred sea of annoying flying things around you. Joy passed me a quick tie and I rigged the headlamp to the front of the boat. The hole that I rigged the light to was on the right side of the bow giving us a good idea of what was on river right and no idea what was on river left. Somehow we managed to navigate past all of the small obstacles and we enjoyed an exhilarating ride at the very end of the trip when the water picked up and we followed the flow with very little sight and no control as to were the boat was going. I laughed at one point and said "this is great, we not only have a crappy light but you have a bow person with blurry vision telling you how to avoid the obstacles. After surviving the quick moving water we both looked ahead and said "what is that?" There was something across the river and we really were not sure what it was. A minute later we laughed at ourselves as we realized the Palmetto bridge was right in front of us. We got about 10 feet from the bridge and bailed out of the boat getting ready to lift the boat onto the bridge. We were very thankful that a couple of paddlers showed us this trick the first time we came to the bridge. The water is only about 2 feet deep and by jumping out and holding the boat we can nose it onto the bridge with minimal effort. We had a wonderful surprise of a grilled up dinner when we made it up to camp. Jenny, Nick and Dillon had dinner waiting for us when we arrived.

Texas River Marathon and Barrier to Bay Races

This weekend we entered the Texas River Marathon and the Barrier to Bay canoe races. The Texas River Marathon is also known as the Texas Water Safari Prelim race as it determines your starting point in the Texas Water Safari. The River Marathon race runs 40 miles from Cuero to Victoria. This stretch of water is known to be some of the fastest water on the Texas Water Safari course. Of course the speed of the water is determined by the river flow and so far we have encountered a lot of low water. We averaged about 5.6 miles per hour on this stretch of the river. This is one of the longest section on the river between checkpoints when doing the Safari. We had fun navigating the rapids and it was nice knowing we did not have any portages for this race. We have also learned the value of having a great team captain! Captain Brad not only fetches us water but he yells out encouraging words as we fly by. Brad came prepared with a spreadsheet tracking all of our times and he was excellent at estimating our arrival times at the various bridges. Brad and Colleen also graciously shared their sleeping quarters with us. It was wonderful having a place to change and rinse off after the race. We entered into the Women's division for this race and ended up taking 3rd place out of 3 teams. We knew this would be the result because the other teams are paddling much faster and longer boats. To our surprise if we had entered the Novice division we would have taken 1st place in the Aluminum Novice. We had two other Aluminum boats chasing us for much of the race and we were bound and determined to keep the boats behind us. We only got out of the boat once during this race and we were back in the boat about 2 minutes later. I learned that I need to find shorts and tights with no seems on them to ensure I avoid any excessive rubbing or sores. We also learned it is a good idea to cut a V shape in the seat to keep it from rubbing. By looking at all of the other boats we also picked up a few more tips for rigging up the boat. We learned that it works great to use a hole punch and zip tie your GU so that it is within easy reach. One of the biggest challenges is maintaining the right amount of food and fluids to sufficiently keep the body moving during the race. Every racer has ideas on what works for them. We are using an assortment of electrolyte drink mixes, GU and solid food to keep us going. Some boats have multiple spaces in foam blocks with various vitamins, energy drinks and fluids to keep the paddlers going. The River Marathon race was a good test of endurance and stamina. We did not stop paddling for the entire 6 hours and 50 minutes and we did not get a chance to stretch our legs. I found my legs cramped up after about 5 hours but I also figured out a few stretches that helped alleviate the cramps. We finished the River Marathon in 6 hours and 50 minutes and the Barrier to Bay race in a little over 4 hours. On the Barrier to Bay race we encountered very high wind with 2 to 3 foot waves coming directly at us, this was quite a challenge. We constantly had waves crashing over the boat. The waves taught us that our cover needs extra water proofing and our bilge pump needs some work. We ended up paddling against the wind with a lot of water in the boat. Despite the challenges we finished the race with smiles on our face and a 3rd place trophy.

Zedler Mill Race

We entered our first canoe race on Saturday April 26th supporting the Zedler Mill foundation. Our sponsor was "The Coffee Shop" in Lulling, TX. The race had several classes to race in including a pro class, novice class, Tri-County challenge and business class. We raced in the Business class with 28 other canoes. The race started with a LeMan's sprint to the boats. Our boat was #005 so we only had 4 boats to the left of us at the start. As we launched into the boat we had a boat hit us on the left rear. We quickly moved away from the boat and behind another canoe that turned sideways at the start of the race. Only one other boat was in front of us as we picked up speed and hit the fast moving water on the river right. We quickly passed the other boat and never looked back. Our race time came in at 1 hour 4 minutes. We ended up finishing almost 10 minutes ahead of the other boats. Our biggest success for the day was having a time only 21 seconds behind our friends Cindy and Mike who won the Tri county challenge. Congratulations to Cindy and Mike and to Deb Richardson for winning the womens solo challenge! Over all it was a successful race and we are excited for the Texas Water Safari prelim race this weekend. Thank you to Bob Spain for directing the race! We were also excited to have Brad and Coleen make it for the awards ceremony! Brad has volunteered to be our team captain starting next week with the Prelim race. He helped us out this weekend by getting our drink jugs rigged up so we can easily mix drink packets in them! We were happy to have Dillon and Jenny on the bank cheering us on! It is wonderful to have so many great people helping us out and supporting our racing adventures!