Water Safari 2005

 

Amiya and I once again set out to do the Water Safari in 2005. Our second season of marathon canoeing had started out with lofty thoughts about the Yukon River Quest, but when reality set in with respect to available vacation time we settled for the Safari instead. In the back of my mind I thought, doing the Safari again would be even better preparation for a Yukon adventure next year, but I think Amiya has now retired from marathon canoeing.

 

Anyway, we rented a nice carbon standard canoe from John Bugge in March and started some lake training and a few river runs. The boat itself helped us improve our speed on town lake by more than 10%. Another big improvement from last year was also a fancy LED diving light as our bowlight. We did a lot less training than the year before, partly because we knew the river, partly because of time constraints. At the prelim race we actually won a trophy for second place in the standard division. We also noticed that we got to know a lot more people amongst the racers. It is a nice community!

In the race we were off to a bad start: At the first portage, about 2 minutes into the race, one of my water sandals ripped, turning into a flip flop. Then we decided to run Rio Vista Dam to avoid having to wait in line to portage. We figured that even a flip would be better time-wise. We flipped, emptied the boat quick, but Amiya lost his glasses in the process and would have to do the remaining 259 miles with fuzzy vision. At mile 4, we almost dropped the boat down the 15 foot tall Cummings Dam, we just managed to slow down the fall enough that the boat survived. Root cause was probably additional weight in the boat and too much Desetin on Axel's hands. Needless to say, this was not going well!

 

Things stabilized from here. A perfect run of Cottonseed rapid and better portages at the next few dams got us back into the groove. Last year at Ottine Dam I was feeling pretty low, this year I think we felt a lot better. We got to Palmetto at dusk and set up for the night run close together with a group of about 5 boats - among them the singing women's tandem, our standard class competitors the Parkers, and Marek Uliasz in a solo. Our LED headlight was a great improvement over last years converted headlamp. We had a pretty good run into Gonzales, just interrupted by the US90A portage, a long slog through the grass past an amazingly large logjam, and the Gonzales dam portage, which was not too bad this year other than that we put in at an unusual spot. Our time up to Gonzales was very close to last years effort, except that last year we just kept on going. This year we rested at the checkpoint, figuring that sleeping in the boat didn't work too well and the current wasn't all that strong anyway. Gonzales is not great to sleep - it is pretty noisy - but we got some rest.

 

We got back on the river just before dawn. A layer of fog made paddling a little difficult at first. I think that we did not loose much time by sleeping here, the fog would have made paddling slow and mentally draining. The section to Hochheim is the longest and the Guadelupe was not flowing all that fast - it was here that we realized that we were going a lot slower than last year's pace. Going from Hochheim to Cuero was not much different - slow water, hot day, no landmarks to show progress until we finally reached the checkpoint. The next section included the paddle around Cuero dam, where the river had cut a new path last year. We followed 'Laughingstock' through a fully runnable but very tree-choked path around the dam. It was getting close to dusk when we reached Cuero 236. We altered our original plans for sleeping in Victoria and arranged for a meeting and overnight stop in Nursery. Alex urged us to be faster at the checkpoints, so we did our best and paddled off into the sunset. We paddled close to 'laughingstock' and passed the Parkers, who were resting on a gravel bar.

 

This section from Cuero to Victoria is usually fun and lively. In the dark it became quite challenging. There a many gravel bars in this area and the water goes in channels around it. Current in the channels is quite fast and occasionally the channel is obstructed by a strainer or an overhanging tree. Additionally it is not easy to tell where the current is flowing - all the bow-light shows is a white line indicating the gravel - until late in the approach. Amiya was of course paddling without glasses at this point and he was our man to call the direction - unless I called different. We were in the middle of this section when the fast current in a gravel bar rapid pushed us under an overhanging tree. This knocked me over and I lost grip of my paddle. Our boat flipped and we both lost our headlamps. A few loose things like shoes and sunscreen were floating around. I was very upset at this screw-up, it looked avoidable, but then again, we were running 'blind' - 'the blind leading the stupid' I guess.

We got the boat and some stuff on a gravel bar, but realized that we had also lost the spare paddle - one paddle was not enough to finish the race from here. Fortunately 'Laughingstock' was coming through and in their headlight we managed to find a few assorted items, my right shoe, Amiya's left shoe and, most importantly, the spare paddle. So we were back in business, our bow-light was still going strong, we had one more spare light, but we had to be extra careful from here - there were many more gravel bars and the Nursery rapids to come. So we soldiered on. Amiya's eyeball hurt, so he kept one of his eyes shut. Like that - without glasses, in the dark of the night - he was still trying to call the huts and the direction. As we approached more rapids, I was taking over the directing - essentially trying to stay in the middle. When a gravel bar approached and I could finally tell the direction of the flow, I was trying to stay close to the gravelly bank and away from the tree-lined bank.

Our bowlight needed a battery change at one point and we pulled over and very very carefully changed the batteries - figuring that if I dropped anything into the water we were toast and our race was over. The Nursery rapids were not too bad after the gravel bars - just friendly waves and no weird currents. And shortly after that, around 2am, we pulled into Nursery where Alex expected us and we spent 3 hours sleeping. This was badly needed - just like last year, doing this section of river really drained me. Paddling a slow tree choked section of the San Marcos just is not as demanding as doing it on a wide river where the current is substantial. In the future, I should make it to Victoria by nightfall and then paddle the slow meanders in the dark.

We got on the river before dawn, and who should we see - our standard class competitors the Parkers. While first place was clearly decided we were battling it out for second. It got light soon and the paddling got easier. As we came around a bend, we spotted a person in a tree. For someone who is sleep deprived it seemed at first like your standard hallucination, but this person turned out to be real. Zoltan Mraz had wrapped his solo boat around a tree and had climbed that tree. He was now directing traffic around this obstacle. We asked him if we could help - we ended up taking his paddle to shore and trying to do something useful with the rope that was attached to his broken boat - unsuccessfully. It was later recovered by the jet ski rescue team in a hilarious comedy of bloopers.

Also at this bend were Bob and Don, the two Canadians, camped out, slowly packing up for the day. We were surprised to see them as they were fast paddlers in a fast boat. We later realized that Don was badly off, suffering from heat and dehydration. They became our company for much of the third day. We passed through Victoria around 8 am. From here the river was very slow and it was hot out. Bob and Don would pass us when they were both paddling, but we'd soon see them taking a break in the shade and we would pass them again. Even when only Bob was paddling they would make time on us. We were plodding along, realizing that our speed was down to about 4 mph at this point, compared to the 5mph we maintained upstream. At times we'd pull ourselves together to increase the speed, but then back pain, fiddling around with food, a pee-break, would get us back to plodding speed. Unlike last year, we had hardly any boats for company over the course of the race. Mid-day we got to the portage around the temporary bridge at Invista and did it in our usual fairly quick style. It was muddy alright but that seemed no big deal at this point. We were probably encouraged by finally reaching a landmark and maybe by seeing that we were just not as bad off as the Canadians. Half an hour later we got to the Invista checkpoint, re-supplied with water and kept on going. It was 7pm when we reached the saltwater barrier, the last checkpoint. The mood is always good at that checkpoint, the smell of saltwater is in the air, the long drudgery of the lower river is over. From here there are houses, frequent landmarks, and only 10 more miles to the mouth of the river and the bay. Amiya kept complaining every time a wind gust was blowing, voicing his concern over the conditions in the bay. I have more of a 'que sera, sera' attitude, 'whatever will be, will be'. Anyway, darkness was falling as we paddled toward the mouth of the river. I had hoped that we would get a glimpse of the bay before dark to be sure of our proper direction. We didn't make it in time.

It was pitch dark by the time we got there. Not only that, but the wind was blowing and the waves were substantial and they typically get worse as one approaches Seadrift. With us in the little cove at the mouth of the river was MP Simmons in his solo boat. We had seen him before at the big portage on the San Marcos. We both put on spray covers, life jackets, ate a little, talked a little. He was fiddling around, probably not looking forward to dealing with this bay. We got our stuff done first, took a compass reading for our initial direction and set off on the bay in the dark. Bob and Don pulled into the cove just as we left.

We have experienced a bad day on the bay once in training - that surely helped with expectations. Progress is very slow and you just cannot let up. Now we added to that the darkness. We were not 100% sure of our direction, the few lights make bad landmarks. We realized later that we should have looked for a star after checking with the compass. So we followed a general direction, following some lights at times, until we could make out the outline of the land in the moonlight. It turned out that we had followed a good course so far. We paddled around the point of land that kept Seadrift from our sight and we spotted a flashing green light. The green light looked like it was coming from Seadrift so we aimed for it. Well, it turned out to be a buoy, but I think it got us going the right way. We knew which lights to aim for, but overall orientation was poor. The proper course is probably one that takes you further out into the bay to avoid the choppy waters and obstacles near the coastline. Alex saw us coming and helped us go around the last two obstacles, a pier and an anchored boat. From there we just paddled to the steps that mark the finish line of the safari. We had done it, it had taken us 3 hard hours to cross the last 5 miles of the bay and we arrived right at midnight. MP Simmons and the Canadians arrived hours later.

We actually passed the 'Laughingstock' in the bay and got within 20 minutes of the Parkers, who had gotten away from us as they paddled harder down the Victoria to Tivoli section.

It is amazing how your emotions change - going from Victoria to Tivoli was drudgery, and we were doing fair to poor in speed, but fighting a tough bay somehow made the whole race. It was an all out effort, difficult conditions, and that somehow transformed the perception of the race - we pulled into Seadrift in great spirits, just having dealt well with a tough challenge.

It took us longer this time, by about 5:40, but the conditions were much tougher. Lower water on the Guadelupe was the main reason, the bad conditions in the bay just added to that. The San Marcos was also lower than before, but we managed to maintain the speed due to a better boat. Tumping the boat at night was a new unpleasant experience, doing the bay at night was a new challenge, too. This safari was sure richer in producing stories and experiences - last year our best stories came from training runs.

Next up: a solo Safari run and the Yukon River Quest - we will just have to see when.