Wildcat Creek – The Empire Strikes Back!
As is so often the case with these things, it all started with a seemingly innocuous, beautiful morning, with lots of optimism in the air. But I should have seen the warning signs. I’ve been here before. A friend offers up their boat to use, apparently the perfect boat for the race. But it possesses a dark secret, and there is no time to work with the boat beforehand to exorcise the demons out of it. In this case the loaner was Pont, who offered me the use of his “experienced” C1 cruiser, a boat that had once been the possession of John Edwards. A possessed canoe I named Christine, after the 58 Plymouth of movie fame. I can only assume they must have been cousins. And it was set up for me by Skeet Craig, apparently intent on eliminating competition wherever possible (must have worked, as he won the C1 class).
My first clue once I was seated was its utter disregard for my directional commands as I tried to practice a little before the race start. I just figured I was an incompetent C1 pilot (also true), but by making use of the current I managed to get the craft turned and generally pointed in the correct direction. For the moment. Then the race started. The beast wanted to go every which way but straight, and it required some unusual paddle techniques, some choice bits of language, and a desperate cry to the Lord to keep it generally pointed where I wanted to go. For a while Vicki was paddling immediately off my right side, and I kept thinking to myself “Vicki – either move ahead or behind; I can’t control this thing!” Eventually everyone moved past me, and I figured that as long as I was dead last I might as well work on boat control. And enjoy the scenery. I will confess that being last is a lot less stressful than being first or in serious contention. I was able to set up my lines a lot better, avoiding all boulders, logs etc. An amazing achievement, considering how I typically sample most of the rocks along the path of these creeks. I did have one swim (as did several of our C1 paddlers), but you don’t really get the full experience of a body of water unless you sample it at least once. But I was still slow, as it was a beast controlling this thing. But then things changed…
Sometimes I’m slow – and not just in the boat. At about the 8 mile mark into this 9.4 mile race, I was analyzing things and reminded myself that canoes with poor directional control are typically bow heavy. Leaning back in my seat I verified that the boat smoothed up a lot. So pulling over in the nearest shallows, I moved my dry pack to the very rear of the canoe, and found I could slide my seat back (it was forward quite a bit). With the seat slid back and weight redistributed, the control demons were now exorcised and Christine became Chrissy (thinking of the easy-going blonde from Three’s Company), a sweet paddling canoe. My speed immediately increased 1 – 2 mph, and I had a great paddle the rest of the way in. But it was not so for everyone else…
As I was frantically trying to control my canoe in the back of the pack, Wildcat Creek was hard at work frustrating the efforts of the front runners. Bill Kanost and Ted Beatty were battling back and forth for the lead, when both of them hit logs. Bill’s canoe got a serious crease that leaked water, but he was still able to paddle it. Ted’s boat was “remodeled” with a massive hole that would fill the boat before he could go 100 yards. Wondering if he was going to have to hoof it all the way back, he hit upon a brilliant solution: he stuffed his shirt into the hole and held it with his foot. Not a normally recommended repair, but it held for the rest of the race. But alas, the twist of fate for Bill and Ted turned the lead over to Kyle for first overall, and Skeet for first in C1.
Tom Thomas and Larry Swift competed in fine form in C1 as well, with Tom almost catching Skeet at the finish. Skeet was only 4 seconds behind Kyle, and Tom was only 5 seconds behind skeet, with Bill 5 seconds behind Tom – quite the finish! Matt Conrad took K1 Sea Kayak Man, Vicki Tillotson won K1 Sea Kayak Woman, and a new to us paddler Math McMasters won in K1 Rec.
The grand finale to all the action was the celebration of Roger’s 83rd b-day. Quite a milestone achievement – and especially considering that Roger looks and acts like a much younger man! Bill & Betsy Arnold made the celebration proper by showing up with flourless torte (chocolate, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, & almond extract), along with home-made whipped cream and raspberries. Along with singing Happy Birthday, it was an outstanding way to celebrate an outstanding person!
Roger handed out awards with a bonus: cool gifts to the top performers. Kyle received one of Roger’s custom made knives for being first overall. Others who were first in their class got a prize as well (I’m not sure what it was, as I was at the opposite end of the list). A great way to end a fun, but very challenging race! Some of the folks headed out for lunch afterwards, but several of us had to head off to graduations. ‘Tis that time of the year! Many thanks to Roger (and Julie Birge) for putting on a great race!
Steve
Photo credit: Julie Birge
Results
C-1
Skeet Craig 1:18:50
Tom Thomas 1:18:55
Bill Kanost 1:19:00
Larry Swift 1:25:45
Ted Beatty 1:36:42
Steve Horney 1:45:48
K1 down river
Kyle Wills 1:18:46
K1 rec
Math McMasters 1:36:31
K1 Sea Kayak Man
Matt Conrad 1:22:08
K1 Sea Kayak Woman
Vicki Tillotson 1:32:16
