2023 Great Alabama 650

Paddlers' Place
#1

The Great Alabama 650 Paddle Race starts 9/30/2023. Here is the current list of entrants:

Female Solo
Salli O’Donnell
Brooke Vaughn

Male Solo
Bobby Johnson
Jim Lewey
Trey Reaves
Mirko Pruefer
Chuck Scheidt
Christian Logan
Jeff Matonis
George True
Brad Friesen
Goran Gustavsson
David Forshee
Sean Hawes
David Miner

Teams
Ryan Gillikin & Rod Price
Julie Ardoin & Carmen Gustafson
Gregory Peters & Corbin Peters
Matt Taylor & Myles Sumerlin

You can follow along using the tracking map here:

Great Alabama 650 Paddle Race | Alabama Scenic River Trail

Last year’s winners were:

Male Solo
Bobby Johnson: 6 days, 6 hours, 5 min (First overall)

Female Solo
Salli O’Donnell: 6 days, 11 hours, 28 min (Second overall)

Team
Jim Lewey and Trey Reaves: 8 days, 1 hour, 57 min (Fourth overall)

1 Like
#2

I got to see a little bit of that route this spring paddling on the coosa. I paddled up from fort toulouse, portaged into the lake and then portaged back out onto the main stem and back to fort toulouse. Nice area. I think that was around 24 miles and wore me out. I can’t imagine 650 miles in less than a week!

#3

I’ll be following the tracker with interest - several WaterTribe/Everglades Challenge friends are on the roster.

#4

I’ve never heard of the Alabama 650 before, but now I’m looking forward to following the race! I loved paddling in Alabama.

What’s the format of this race? I searched but couldn’t find any info.
Is it all-out start to finish, or is it timed stages?

#5

The race has a shotgun start at 10 am 9/29/2023. The race continues for up to 10 days. There are mandatory portage points and check in spots, with minimum times for the portage (which can be support team facilitated.) Support teams are required but cannot be in the watercraft. The watercraft types are limited to kayaks, canoes and SUPs. No motors, pedals or sails are allowed. Racers must have completed at least one qualifying race in the last 5 years (see list.) The race map is updated in real time via SPOT trackers.

At the bottom of the page I linked to (above) are links to the rules and additional information.

Sorry for the late reply, I was out paddling :slight_smile:

1 Like
#6

If you see Rod Price, tell him that Craig Fenner from the FCPA says hello.