Ok, Here goes Leg 2. This was a monster paddle leg. about 75 miles total. It was broken up in 3 spots by a team challenge, an urban orienteering course, and a normal foot orienteering course.
We made a quick transition from biking to boats and shoved off into the fast moving water. This past winter brought a ton of snow to the west, so the rivers were moving really well. This was both a blessing and a curse. on one hand, the river paddle would be faster than normal, on the other hand, fast moving water can be difficult to handle a heavy, loaded canoe in, as well as all of the rapids we would be seeing, would be even rougher.
The big yellow banana canoes that we were racing in were really comfortable. but they had a high center of gravity and were quite unstable. Trying to pilot them through even a class II rapid, while loaded up with gear was a difficult thing and required a lot of effort and skill.
Nonetheless we cruised down the river and found our pace, along side another team of friends. We spotted bald eagles and lots of pelicans. The first section of the paddle was wide open spaces, comfortable breeze, and pleasant sun. we made it to the first challenge, which turned out to be at an old fort, where soldiers had to fill a water cistern with river water via walking a bucket up and down a hill, so thats what everyone in the team had to do.
breaking up the paddle like this is actually nice, it gives your legs a chance to come back to life and get the blood flowing. Too often during a paddle i get numb legs and feet from sitting. We all dumped our buckets, got back into our boats and settled on back down the river. Our next stop was a nearby town where we had a short 4 point urban orienteering course. It consisted of a few historical markers, and a town bar, where everyone took a shot of whiskey
And then back onto the boats..again. My arms are really starting to hurt. I am an OK paddler, but its not from training, just from doing lots of paddling during races. the top racers all train to paddle, and with a race like this, with over 90 miles of paddling, that makes a huge difference. We were doing alright and just kept chugging along with sore arms though. The scenery moved from wide open grasslands into steep walled canyons. It really was beautiful out there. a few more hours and we were at the takeout for the next orienteering course. this one not in the city.
We spent some time climbing hills and rocks to get some points, where we had a view of the last section of the paddle. 20 more miles to finish, but the fast moving river emptied into a giant reservoir. We caught the beginning of the sunset as we finished the orienteering. Then onto the boats and into the night for the finishing paddle....sort of.
we made our way into the massive lake. The night seemed calm, and the skies were getting clear, with a waxing gibbous moon. once the sun was down we didnt need our headlamps, the moon and stars gave enough light for us to navigate the lake by looking at the skyline of the hills around us against the night sky. We were tired, and quiet. still paddling with tired arms, moving along and mostly thinking back on day 1. We were moving well and would soon get off the paddle and hop onto the mountain bikes, we were all looking forward to that.
I thought about how fortunate of a human being I was during that time. I mean, it was a long day, and I was tired, and sore, felt like crap to be honest..but I got to choose to do this. To come out here and try something that i know is going to turn every last bit of me into mush. I know that there are people who feel crappy every day and cant help it, they might not have a choice, but i did...so no matter how i felt i wanted to appreciate where i was and what i was doing, and who i was with. A lot goes through your mind when you are paddling in the dark, on autopilot.
The time approached midnight, and we were into the open center of the lake. When lakes get this big, they behave differently. almost like oceans. The high water this year changed the topography too. areas that should have been peninsulas, were flooded forests. We were at one of these points, surrounded by flooded trees, when the water started to change. All of a sudden ripples turned into waves, and we felt the breeze turn into a wind. The waves became whitecaps, and we realized that the lake had changed. We could no longer paddle gingerly and spend time reflecting. we had to act. Even though we were somewhat close to land, we couldnt paddle to the closest shore. That would put us parallel to the waves which would spell disaster. Capsizing in these boats in this lake at night is not something i wanted. There was some yelling between boats, but we quickly decided we needed to paddle into the wind and the waves and straight for the far shore. We saw some headlamps of the lead teams who were already on their mountainbikes, so we knew it was the right direction. we just had to get across the open water and land on the shore to wait for the wind to die down.
The adrenaline started to flow, and the pain in my arms was replaced with some new found energy. we took the whitecaps head on, in the pitch black. some waves crashed over the bow and we took on water little by little, each time the boat felt more and more unstable. We were at a tipping point about 20 minutes in, John had to bail the water out of the boat as i tried to keep us pointed into the waves. ever movement felt like we were going to capsize, but we kept it straight. More power, more paddling, I just kept thinking about how i didnt want to end up in the water, in the dark, so far from shore. The far side of the lake felt like it wasnt getting any closer, but we kept having to try. After at least 40 minutes of hard pushing we felt the shoreline coming close. the hills in front of us blocked the wind a bit and we were able to land the boat. There was water inside past my ankles. None of us were happy, but we were all relieved. That was hands down the most intense paddling i had ever done. The consequences were real, and we managed to get past them. Unfortunately we were still 4 KM away from the end of the paddle, but we all decided it was too dangerous to go back out. We emptied our boats and setup a small camp on shore...put on warm layers, ate some food, and decided to sleep for a few hours until the wind would die down. It howled at us through the night. I was laying on the forest floor, wrapped in my space blanket, looking at the trees above me swaying, thinking to myself "i hope i didnt just cheat death to get across that lake, just to have a tree crash on me here" but thankfully they stayed planted and the only thing that attacked me were the mosquitos.
after a few hours the winds died down a little, but mostly they changed direction. This let us get back onto the water and avoid the large waves that were keeping us from finishing the paddle. we eventually pulled into the marina to take the boats out, where we portaged up to where our bikes were held. Happy to be off the water and on to the next part of our adventure, right around sunrise.
the teams who were faster paddlers were able to avoid the wind event and got off of the lake before it turned. They all biked through the night and got a large time advantage. We were so close to getting off of the water, but just not close enough. We definitely made the right call though, as most teams who were with/behind us did. One team actually did sink in the middle of the lake. Their boat and equipment went straight to the bottom. they were able to grab their satellite tracker and call in an emergency rescue, but they were in the water for over an hour at night and were suffering from hypothermia. I cant imagine how scary that must have been. At this point it was better to be safe than to be taking risks to get further ahead in the race.