Thanks,
We’ll do some rain dances between now and then.
You guys missed a good one (two days)on the French Broad River earlier in the spring.
Put it on your schedule for next year.
Jack L
The Labor Day scouting mission
cost me a few new scuffs on my carbon K-1 trainer, but river level was not necessarily to blame. Throughout the run I was glad to have had an over-stern rudder. To me, the amount of debris along the river seems to be accumulating lately, although there are signs of it having been cut, since power boats are not uncommon. There’s a log jam near the 20-mile finish, but there’s a portageable bypass. As Melissa mentioned, I’m switching boats for the race.
As of today the level
is a terribly low 1.97
Looks like a lot of pulling over sand bars and whatever !
No rain in sight between now and Saturday.
Jack L
Yep, have been checking…
Have been checking, and it does not look good to me… :(:(
Suwannee is pretty low too -a complete disappointment!
Lake Crabtree Race October 3
As an alternative to the Lumber Challenge, the Triangle Paddle racing Club is hosting a race at Lake Crabtree, just outside Raleigh, NC , on October 3rd. More info can be found at www.trianglepaddlers.com. and canoes are welcome. Distance will be shorter, only 10 km, but there will be a very competitive ICF K1 field. Lake Crabtree is also the site for the 2011 USACK Marathon Team trials in May.
Back to the Lumber. This morning the gauge was down to 23 inches (1.93 ft) and a flow of ~130 cfs with no rain in the forecast. It’s going to go lower… but I’ve been doing this race since 1998 in every water level possible and it can be run - even when it was a 40 mile course!
Good luck to to all those who’ll be on the starting line,
Do they have a ATV class…
at the Lumber ?
Jack L
At the rate it’s going
We’re looking at levels like 2007. IIRC, that’s the year you punched the hole in the canoe, Jack. And I believe Steve Knight broke his under stern rudder. A real drag, literally.
Still, we’re armed and ready… Moe in my safari-type solo, and me in the ultra-beater K-1, the one with the hole cut over my feet, and the aluminum tubes riveted on to reinforce the broken cockpit coaming.
Hope the rest of y’all will show up and share in the misery! It will be fun, in a certain sick kind of way…
That’s why we always pick the prize
goodies with the duct tape !
Maybe this year we can talk Lynn into letting us pick prior to the race. Or at least include a roll with our registration.
See you there
Jack L
Aaaagh
Down to 1.8 now
Race gear
Gee, the race is coming up and I haven’t even picked out my running shoes yet.
Should be a lot of laughs !
jack L
You made the right choice !
– Last Updated: Sep-20-10 3:15 PM EST –
It was the lowest that we have ever paddled it, and There were many damaged boats.
We paddled by two different epic V-10's with damaged rudders.
One had the understern rudder, and the guy was standing with the boat under his arm banging the stern up and down on a stump trying to straighten out the bend.
The other one who had the overstern sealine rudder had evidently bent that too, and was trying to straighten it out.
They both evidently dropped out or just did the short race, since we never saw them finish the 20 miler.
It would have been foolish to even attempt to race with a rudder in the down position with the majority of the river being about six inches deep.
Two guys that we normally race head to head with in our comp cruisers, who were in front of us, punched a large hole through the side right through one of the foam ribs, and then cracked another one in the stern. They also had to pull out at the ten miler since they couldn't get the water to stop leaking through the duct tape patch they tried twice.
We lost track of the sand bars that we had to get out and pull over (I can only guess a dozen) plus a bunch of logs, and then in other places a maze of tree limbs to slalom through.
If it wasn't sand bars it was deep water on the other side of logs where many paddlers swam trying to get over them.
We made the right decision to leave our cruiser at home and take the Jensen 17, and got through without any damage.
Absolutely amazing that the winning boat did the 20 miles in under three hours.
With all that said, it was probably the most fun "cross country water race" that I have ever done.
We never even swam although I took a good face plant when we running over a sand bar with the boat, and I stepped in a pot hole.
Now onto the Suwannee. It can't be any worse except for the distance !
Jack L
Who won
in comp cruiser C1 C2 and yak? Good race as always and for once I was glad I was doing the short course. Many thanks to DAvBart and the use of his Merlin2. I may have to investigate this differential rocker stuff a little further before I start cutting forms on my next solo.
Lumber River
Jack, glad you finished unscratched! Per your review, I realized I couldn’t run the river 1.8!
Regards,
I should have been there with my
beater Tarpon.
C-1 was Jeff, C-2 , Andy and Becky
K1 -don’t know his name, but he smoked the field, (think he was from Virginia)
Jack L
No, no, no -doesn’t that weigh a lot ?
there were many bars with a few inches of water that we could get over, where you would have to get out and pull it or push it, and a lot of them were a hundred feet plus or minus long.
We learned the fine art of bouncing the canoe ahead as our wake caught up to us.
I have always heard the pros talk about it, and now I know what they mean. - We never stop learning!
jack L
Goood thing I didn’t bet
I would have put money on Tim Jones or Ed Sharpe for C1 cruiser…
Who’s doing it this year?
This will be my first Lumber River Challenge. I’ve been fixing up the rec boat as you can see at:
Paddlingandsailing.blogspot.com
At least it is light and easy to drag of bars and logs.
Who is going to meet us there this year?
River level looks good for another fast run. A little more rain might help, but at this level there might be only one carry-over log for the whole 20 miles!
See you there!
I put info on my blog for those who want it:
Paddlingandsailing.blogspot.com