Comedy of errors

Ok ... so this weekend was a comedy of errors.

It all started when I got to my apartment Friday after work, too late to drive home to go camping as previously planned. It continued on Sunday, when I thought I could race my ICF on a wind blown lake, and culminated in my running through the woods with a canoe on my back!

I got to the St. Regis Canoe Classic with plenty of time to register and ready myself for the race. In fact, all was well until I walked past the sheltered parking lot. At the water's edge, my boat nearly blew out of my hands. No big deal, right? WRONG!

Madpaddler testing the waters about 40 minutes before the race start.

The waves were coming into my cockpit!

A quick test run revealed that it wouldn't be a good idea from me to paddle my Mohawk. So ... I was going to "chicken out" and go to Lake Placid to have dinner with some friends. As I was packing up, I saw MAC. Mac was very gracious and offered me his woodstrip c1.

The only catch was that I'd have to drive out to his place, pick it up, and drive back before the race started (ca. 15 minutes). He gave me directions, which I remembered as "turn right on Rte 30, drive to the 'T', turn right, drive 2 miles, and turn right." I followed his instructions and as it turns out, exactly 2 miles past the 'T' there is a a right hand turn onto a side road. I turned right on the side road and was still looking for his place when the race started. In short, I *shouldn't* have turned right, as MAC's place is about 2.1 miles past the 'T'.

After returning from my trip, I was 20 minutes late. My wife informed the race director that I had changed boats and was now paddling a stock c1. For the record, I have only ever raced a C1 once. No problem ... they are like kayaks with training wheels, right? Not true ...

I found that paddling a canoe in the wind has its own unique set of problems. Instead of getting swamped, the bow is pushed around A LOT more than the bow of my kayak. Save for the wind-cocking issues, the trip across the lake through spitfire and onto lower St. Regis was mostly uneventful.

As I was making my way to the portage, I looked skyward and saw a bald eagle frolicking in the breeze. I allowed my canoe to glide and watched in enjoyment. On the portage, the enjoyment of watching the eagle was replaced with agony.

I grabbed the wood strip boat, threw it on my right shoulder and began jogging, essentially barefoot. The path is a 1/4 mile route uphill on a narrow path through the woods, then is about another 1/4 mile on a dirt road. As I was running with my head-down uphill, I passed by an Adirondack lean-to, continued down hill, through a stream, next to a pond, back up hill, and then the trail disappeared! Suddenly I realized that I was not on the portage path! I backtracked to the lean to and found the portage path. I figure I ran an extra 1/4 mile or so ... (detour marked in red below ...lol)

I was amazed that I wasn't out of breath when I arrived at the put-in. I started to make my way back to Paul Smith's College. Within 5 minutes, I was passed by a C2. It was the C2 of Kennedy/Santor. [They were paddling the long course and I was at the back of the pack for the short course] We exchanged well wishes and then they were off.

As I made my way to the lake, wind-driven waves replaced the calm water of the river. I had a hard time surfing the c1 to the finish line. A c1 doesn't have a rocker profile nor the chines to permit surfing at angles of greater than 45 degrees to the direction of the waves. Surfing straight down wind and about 10 degree to straight is fine ... but 45 to 60 will make the boat heave and bob. In any event, I managed to make my way to the finish line.

Madpaddler in c1 stock at finish.

My GPS tracks.

I finished the race with a GPS time of 1hr 27min. I guesstimate that I can subtract about 3 to 4 minutes from this time (because of running on the wrong trail in the woods), which would also subtract about 0.25 miles from the 7.7 miles.

Distance 7.45 miles

Time 1 hr 25 min (?)