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.