Day one of the MR 340 requires hitting 2 checkpoints by 9 pm. The second of these is in Waverly, 73 river miles from the starting line at Kaw Point. This means the boys absolutely have to make it to Waverly on day one before they can even begin to think about making camp. So this weekend in true Paddlephiles fashion we set out to make it to Waverly in 2 days.
It's not that one day wasn't doable. We just like to sleep in and we dilly-dally a lot so the guys weren't oars down until 7:30 Saturday evening. I think this is good for them though. There had been a number of other teams out that day who had started much earlier. This gave the Paddlephiles a chance to get used to being reminded by every passing fisherman that they were way behind. "I hope it was a staggered start" was my favorite.
A perfect day.
Saturday, 7:30 pm: Putting In
It's my first outing as ground crew and already I'm learning things. The first thing I learned is that if you want to spend 30 minutes dawdling around with your canoe on the boat ramp before you put in, you better turn around and make sure there aren't 20 fishermen lined up at the top of the hill waiting for you to move your ass. Sorry guys, we're still learning, won't happen again.
Saturday, 8:00 pm: These Radios Suck
Everything Motorola says about these things is a lie. 25 Miles my ass. Out of sight pretty much means out of radio contact. The people at the Cracker Jacks company are going to get a very nasty letter about this. Luckily, cell signals are pretty good so far.
Everything Motorola says about these things is a lie. 25 Miles my ass. Out of sight pretty much means out of radio contact. The people at the Cracker Jacks company are going to get a very nasty letter about this. Luckily, cell signals are pretty good so far.
I didn't fully process how little time the 7:30 start leaves me to get to Cooley Lake and set up camp before dark. There is enough food on hand to get the boys through the night and shoved off in the morning so I'm abandoning efforts to find a store and heading directly to the campsite.
Saturday, 8:30 pm: Cooley Lake Access
The instructions on my new tent suggest setting the tent up prior to your first camping use so you know what the hell you're doing when the time comes. Unfortunately it never gave any indication on the box that I should read said instructions prior to my first camping use. It's too bad, because it's sound advice. For one thing, this tent calls for 2 people to set it up and I am alone in the wilderness. This should be fun, it's already dark in the spot I picked thanks to the stupid trees. Now where's that Deet?
The instructions on my new tent suggest setting the tent up prior to your first camping use so you know what the hell you're doing when the time comes. Unfortunately it never gave any indication on the box that I should read said instructions prior to my first camping use. It's too bad, because it's sound advice. For one thing, this tent calls for 2 people to set it up and I am alone in the wilderness. This should be fun, it's already dark in the spot I picked thanks to the stupid trees. Now where's that Deet?
Saturday, 9:30 pm: Camp Paddlephiles
I've somehow managed to get my tent up and even pitched Mike's little pup tent thing mostly by lantern light. I have a small flashlight that I tried holding in my mouth at times but flashlights attract a lot of bugs and bugs have no qualms about flying into your open mouth. We'll just put that away. I'll have to get a light I can position more easily for the race.
I've somehow managed to get my tent up and even pitched Mike's little pup tent thing mostly by lantern light. I have a small flashlight that I tried holding in my mouth at times but flashlights attract a lot of bugs and bugs have no qualms about flying into your open mouth. We'll just put that away. I'll have to get a light I can position more easily for the race.
Just had a text exchange with the guys who are at La Benite park changing into warmer clothes. It's getting chilly and we're expecting a record low temp tonight. Patrick happily texts that they've run 8 mph. It saddens me to correct his math, they're running about 6.25. I hope that doesn't discourage them, it's a perfectly fine pace. They are off again and I calculate that they should make camp around 11:15.
I want to get a fire going but I ran out of daylight and can't find any good wood laying around. It's not that bad out so hopefully some lantern light and something out of the JetBoil will do well enough.
Saturday, 10:45 pm: Camping is Boring
Grabbing a beer and heading down to the ramp to attempt radio contact and guide the boys in. It has gotten colder than I expected and at last contact they were pretty desperate for fire. I underestimated the need for it and failed them. I'll have to attack the fire problem more aggressively in the future. It's already past the dew point and what wood I can find is now wet.
Grabbing a beer and heading down to the ramp to attempt radio contact and guide the boys in. It has gotten colder than I expected and at last contact they were pretty desperate for fire. I underestimated the need for it and failed them. I'll have to attack the fire problem more aggressively in the future. It's already past the dew point and what wood I can find is now wet.
To make matters worse, the ramp is covered in creepy crawly little centipede things that seem to be migrating from the river to the stink lodge across the parking lot. Maybe they lay their eggs in there. If the light were better I'd start filming a nature documentary on them. Instead I just blindly squash them by the dozen as I make my way down to the water. Gross.
"Paddlephiles? You got your ears on? come back..."
These radios still suck.
Saturday, 11:30 pm: Land Ho
Looks like Batman really let himself go.
Important lesson: Mile markers are impossible to find and read at night. It must be disorienting out there not really knowing where you are. Luckily my calculations were reasonably close and I saw their bow lighting from a long way out. It just took a few flicks of my flashlight to guide them in. I imagine that will be a lot more difficult when there are a lot of other boats out there and everyone has the same lighting scheme. They averaged 6 mph over the last 4 hours, the dark slowed them down quite a bit.
They are cold and wet and Jeff immediately spots a deer trail and trots off into the woods and comes out with firewood. He has a fire going in about 10 minutes and then goes back into the woods and whittles us a coffee table. I begin to question my outdoorsmanship. Maybe I'm not fully qualified for this. Also I set up Mike's tent wrong, he takes it down and does it over.
Oh well, from now on I'm just going to get to camp earlier and sort this stuff out during the daylight. We eat, have a couple of beers and turn in.
Tommorrow, part 2
Oars?????
ReplyDeletethat's right, oars.
ReplyDeleteExpectations met.
ReplyDelete