Missouri River 340

Last updated August 7, 2009 at 10:10pm.
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Once again, Hogan and his brother Henry have chosen to take on the Missouri River - they are racing in the Missouri River 340 river race.   About 270 other canoes and kayaks are racing with them to see who can make it from Kansas City (where the Kansas River meets the Missouri) to Frontier Park in St. Charles.

The race will begin at 8am on Tuesday, August 4th.   All racers must be in St. Charles by Friday at midnight to finish, but Hogan and Henry are hoping to finish Thursday morning or afternoon.   There are several checkpoints along the way, as well as a few places where Hogan and Henry will meet up with their ground crew (their dad).   Among their competition this year is Uncle Terry.   I will try to include information on his progress as well   Visit here often over the next couple of days to see how they are progressing.

RACE MAP

        I know that many of you are looking for a map for the race. Hogan's MR 340 race map (22 Mb size) is what I have used for the last 2 years of the race. I generally print it out and make minor modifications based on my proposed pace and any checkpoint modifications. This map includs rough driving directions to many locations/ramps, but I would double check them before just following. Please enjoy the hard work of my wife for putting this together. I hope it helps you out. If there are any problems with the link, please send me an email. contactSnorkie [ @ ] snorkie.com
        Personally I found the maps to be of little use. Its comforting to have them, so I would recommend printing them, but putting them away in a dry bag. The most important part of that document was on page 32. The grid with checkpoint times and distances. I will probably update this next time I do the race with the side of the river each item is on, and distance between points.

RACE UPDATES

HOGAN AND HENRY ON THE NEWS IN ST. LOUIS!!
See Hogan and Henry finishing the race in this video from FOX 2, St. Louis!

Friday 9:17am - FINAL UPDATE
They did it!!   The River Bouys completed their second MR340 race at 6:53am this morningwith a total time of 69 hours and 23 minutes.   And they did it in style - they were shown live on St. Louis FOX 2 News as they climbed from their canoe at the finish!   If anyone happened to have their TiVo running, I'd love to see the piece...

Thank you all for your support and well wishes during the race.   Another amazing finish - GREAT WORK!!

Friday 4:50am - Final Stretch!!
Good morning, race fans!!   Today is the day!!   Hogan and Henry have nearly completed their second journey from Kansas City to St. Louis on the Missouri River!!   (Can you tell I'm excited?!)

Overnight, the brothers went a bit faster than I expected and got in to the Klondike checkpoint at 1:20am.   So, I leave for Frontier Park expecting to meet them at 6:30am (total time of 69:00) to help pack them into the van, drive them home, and tuck them into bed.   I hope to update their final time for you by noon.   Please send you well-wishes by e-mail - I imagine we will be turning off the phones so they can get a good rest!

For those who are curious, the top times in the divisions are:


Thursday 5:20pm - Long Day
I spoke with Henry, Hogan, and Dan within the past hour.   They all sound a bit tired - to be expected after their tremendous efforts thus far this week!   They arrived at Hermann at about 4:30 and took a pit stop.   They are probably getting underway again as I type this...

I know several of us in St. Louis were hoping to be there as the guys pulled into one of their final stops.   At their most recent pace, they will likely be stopping at Klondike at roughly 1:30am, followed by a mad dash to the finish line at about 6:30 or 7:00am.   Personally, I am planning to get a good night's sleep, waking at about 4:30 to check their status and update this page, and driving out to Frontier Park to be there by 6:00 - just in case they get a boost of energy at the tail end...   Unless something major changes (or I get photos emailed to me), don't expect another update here until tomorrow morning.   Goodnight!

Thursday 7:30am - Well Rested
Hogan and Henry reached Jefferson City at about 2 in the morning and decided that they were ready for a break.   They got comfy in the front seats of the van and snoozed for about 4 hours before taking off again at about 6:45 this morning.   They are a bit stiff and sore, bit they are in good spirits.

As for the canoe, despite the issues with the rudder and thwart, First Draft is holding up like a trooper and continues to glide faithfully with NO LEAKS!!!

Wednesday 10:52pm - Rough Going
It sounds like Hogan and Henry are having a bit of a rough go of it.   Their vessel, First Draft, is proving to be just that...   First there were rudder problems.   Now one of the thwarts (the cross-braces between the sides of the canoe) has given way, leaving the canoe a bit less stable than before.   They spent a little time off the water trying to fix it.   The current plan is for Dan to pick up some duct tape before the Jefferson City stop so they can give that a try.   It is amazing how duct tape can fix almost anything!   Anyway, while Hogan and Henry were fixing the canoe, Uncle Terry pulled ahead of them.   I expect that Hogan and Henry will work hard to regain their lead.

On the sleep front, I think they are getting more than I expected.   It sounds like Henry slept a good portion of last night while Hogan and a couple of other paddlers in other boats kept watch for barges and other obstacles.   Hogan had some sleep this morning and then again this afternoon.   I'm sure it isn't the best sleep, but hopefully it will help them keep moving and get them in before 60 hours!   GO RIVER BOUYS!!!

Wednesday 2:10pm - Onward!
I heard from the team again this morning as they left Glasgow at 10am (but I was away from technology, hence the delay in posting).   They sounded like they were in good spirits.   Hogan managed a 90 minute nap this morning; Henry slept longer than that, but Hogan didn't say by how much.   They are currently about an hour behind the target pace, likely due to the extra effort they must put into steering now that the rudder is out of commission.

Soon after I got off the phone with Hogan, I called Dan to pass on a message from the guys regarding pizza (big surprise!).   Phone reception is spotty in the area where they are paddling now.   I couldn't understand everything that Dan was saying, but it sounded like somebody was trying to catch up with them because they had left a life jacket behind...   Oops!!

Wednesday 7:15am - Up and at-'em!
While the rest of us have been catching some Zzzzs, Hogan and Henry continued paddling through the night.   When I called them just before 7, they were at the 241 mile marker, a bit further than halfway between the Miami and Glasgow checkpoints.   I'm not sure of their checkpoint time yet, but it seems they may be a bit behind their high-speed pace now.

Here in St. Louis, we awoke to some pretty dense fog, but Hogan said that there wasn't any problem with fog out on the river this morning.   But if you happened to be watching channel 4 last night, apparently not only did they mention the MR340, but there was video of Hogan and Henry!   I missed it and have not been able to find it on-line, so if any of you come across the clip (or any other media or links you think I should add), please e-mail it to me (danelle.haake@gmail.com).

It appears that they are done with the rudder for this race.   The pedals were becoming too tight to push, perhaps due to water in the lines.   It seems we placed the rudder assembly a bit too low on the canoe.

As for some of the other racers we know, Uncle Terry was about 45 minutes behind Hogan and Henry as of the Waverly checkpoint.   Meanwhile, Hogan and Henry's training partner, JoJo, was tied for second in the women's solo division at Waverly a full hour and 15 minutes ahead of the Bouys.   Great pace, JoJo!!

Tuesday 9:15pm - Last Update for the Night...
Just had a call from the ground crew.   Hogan and Henry stopped at the Waverly checkpoint just long enough to check in and gulp down a couple of hamburgers.   They are well ahead of the pace they set last year and are still on track to meet or beat the faster target pace shown in the timetable below (once you remember to add in the extra 90 minutes from the rain delay to this morning's start).   We are all very proud of the effort these guys are putting in and can't wait to congratulate them when they come in on Thursday!   Goodnight!!

Tuesday 7:05pm - Already Ahead of Schedule
I heard from Hogan for a few moments as they left the first checkpoint - already 10 minutes ahead of schedule!!   Well done, River Bouys!!   Please note that the first photos are already up on the website.   I hope to add more as soon as I can get the files!

On a less positive note, they have been having issues already with the rudder.   I don't know the details, but hopefully they will be able to repair the problem.   If not, they will have a bit more of a challenge steering, particularly when one is paddling while the other sleeps...

Tuesday 12:35pm - They're off!!
After an amazing downpour this morning and a 90-minute delay, the race has begun!   When we saw them, the racers had spread out a bit, but the River Bouys paddling in First Draft were solidly in the front half of the pack!   This is a great improvement over last year when they began the race in the last quarter of the paddlers.   Uncle Terry was a short way behind with his partner.

As we cheered for First Draft, we could hear the gents of a neighboring 4-person craft asking when Second Draft would be coming.   We could not hear the response, but I can just imagine what Hogan may have said.   Whatever it was, the other paddlers got a good laugh at the response...

Tuesday 8:20am - Further Delays...
They have delayed the start of the race by another half-hour with the projected start time now at 9:30am.   Hogan and Henry are currently ashore, likely showing off their handywork (the canoe, First Draft) and trying to intimidate their competition.   OK, it's more likely that they will gain an advantage over the other racers by making them laugh until their sides split, but I'm sure they are all having a good time enjoying the rain!

Tuesday 7:15am - RAIN DELAY!
Due to heavy rain, lightning, and high winds, the start of the MR340 has been delayed by 1 hour.   The new start time is 9:00am.   I'm not planning to revise all of the times in the timetable - just add an hour yourself...

Tuesday 5:20am - Preparations
As I type, Hogan, Henry, and Dan are preparing to leave for the start of the race.   They packed their gear last night and got in a good nights sleep.   They have the canoe lashed to the van and are prepared for the drive to Kaw Point.   Thunder is setting an ominous tone for the morning, but the rain paused long enough for them to get the canoe loaded...

Once they leave, I will see them next as they paddle by our casino lookout area about 5 miles into the race.   After that, they will be passing under the I-70 bridge at St. Louis/St. Charles before I set eyes on them again.   I look forward to celebrating with them at Frontier Park!!

First Draft
Over the past several months, we have spent much of our time creating something beautiful.   Last week, we named our creation: First Draft.   First Draft is the newest addition to our fleet of motorless small water craft.   At just over 19-feet, she is by far the longest of our vessels and will bear Hogan and Henry swiftly on their next foray on the Muddy Missouri.   Learn more about our First Draft and how she was created!

Map of the River
Danelle was kind enough to spend a large portion of her free time in 2008 creating the map that Hogan and Henry used last year to navigate the river.   She also made some GPS waypoints to assist in finding the checkpoints and other places they might connect with the ground crew.   This year, the map and GPS required a few updates to keep up with changes in the checkpoint locations and cut-off times.

TIMETABLE/SCHEDULE
Location River Mile Distance Traveled 2008 Time 2009 Target (fast)
2009 Target (faster)		 2009 Actual Time
(Note 90-min delay of start)
Kaw Point 367.4 0 mi 8:00am Tu 8:00am Tu 9:30am Tu
Fort Osage 337.3 30 mi 12:40-1:00pm Tu 12:30pm Tu --
Lexington 316.5 50 mi 4:25-4:50pm Tu 4:00pm Tu 5:20pm Tu
Waverly 293.7 73 mi 8:35-9:00pm Tu 7:45pm Tu
7:30pm Tu		 8:55pm Tu
Miami 262.8 105 mi 10:20-10:35am W 1:15am W
12:15am W		 2:50am W
Glasgow 226.1 141 mi 5:00-5:32pm W 7:30am W
6:00am W		 9:57am W
Franklin Island 195.3 172 mi 11:00pm-6:00am Th 2:00pm W
11:30am W		 --
Cooper's Landing 170.4 197 mi 10:53-11:15am Th 6:15pm W
3:15pm W		 8:50pm W
Noreen (Jeff. City) 144.0 223 mi 3:45-4:12pm Th 11:00pm W
7:30pm W		 2:00-6:43am Th
Mokane 124.6 243 mi 8:20-8:45pm Th 1:45am Th
10:00pm W		 --
Hermann 97.7 269 mi 12:27-6:45am F 6:00am Th
2:00am Th		 5:24pm Th
Washington 68.3 299 mi 11:28am F 11:30am Th
6:30am Th		 --
Daniel Boone 55.5 311 mi -- 1:30pm Th
7:45am Th		 1:20am F
Weldon Spring 48.4 318 mi 2:41-3:08pm F 2:30pm Th
8:45am Th		 --
St. Charles - FINISH!! 28.4 338 mi 6:03pm F
total time 82:03		 5:15pm Th
11:30am Th		 6:53am F
total time 69:23
* Locations in bold are official checkpoints.

GPS FILE / GOOGLE EARTH TRACKS
This will be updated following the race.


RACE PHOTOS


Early in the race the River Bouys enjoy their trip in First Draft in the company of other interesting craft.
Paddling in tandem is now second nature to Hogan and Henry.

Racers are quite bunched together, even after several miles of paddling.
Uncle Terry takes a moment to smile for the camera.


MEDIA COVERAGE

The Marshall Democrat-News
Missouri River 340 racers find hospitality in Miami August 5, 2009
- Associated photos
Kansas City Star
Missouri River 340 race starts early Tuesday from Kaw Point August 3, 2009
Missouri River race to get underway this morning August 4, 2009

FOX (KC 4)
Paddlers Push Off for the 2009 Missouri 340 August 4, 2009

FOX (StL 2)
Fourth Annual River Race Ends In St. Charles August 7, 2009 - WITH VIDEO OF HOGAN AND HENRY!!

CBS (KC 5)
Missouri River 340 Race Gets Underway (with video) August 4, 2009

Columbia Missourian
Missouri River race presents daunting challenges August 4, 2009
Veteran racer takes on Missouri River for first time August 4, 2009

Springfield News-Leader
Paddlers prepare for Missouri River race in August July 14, 2009


LINKS
There are several other interesting discussion boards, blogs, and sites with information and photos from the race:



HOGAN'S LOG
Pre-Race
I thought about this race constantly for several months leading up to it. There was a constant focus of competing well. I was also concerned about the boat that I was building for the race. I wanted it to give our team an edge for more aggressive competition. What it ended up giving me was indigestion and headaches!

Saturday 8/1
Henry and I met our uncle Terry at Hillsdale Lake in Paola Kansas. We decided for a nice afternoon paddle to get our nerves out before the race. The idea was to paddle about an hour out and then back. This was just something casual, no racing. As it turned out, the lake was packed with weekend boaters and high winds. Perfect sailboat weather, but poor canoing. We braved the wind and water anyway going out where we wanted to and coming back without any issues. We both pulled our boats up on shore and proceeded to get our cars to load them up... Its a long story, but I backed into the boat trailer next to me and did damage to both vehicles. I left a note for the guy when he got back from the water and went home with my head down.

Tuesday 8/4
I was up at 3:30am to double check that the two alarm clocks I set were still set. While I was up, I heard rain and thunder. Back to sleep for 1 more hour. My alarm went off promptly at 4:30am and I was up for the day. A quick shower (my last till Friday), then to wake up Dad and Henry. Unlike last year, we were already packed in the van and ready to go. Once the boat was loaded on top of the van, the flashers went on and we were off down the highway at 50mph. We stopped at Quick Trip for a gormet breakfast and some fuel for the van. I was not as nervous getting to Kaw Point this year as I was last. I knew that our equipment was better this year and that our boat was faster than most.
    Henry and I packed the boat with supplies quickly and walked it down to the ramp to launch. This year we went across the shore to the mud to hang out for the race. Were were stoked to be ready to start the race. We reached the far shore of the Kaw before 6:00am and began the long process of waiting for the start of the race. We started talking to the few other people on the shore and watched more people load up. It rained with thunder and lightning. This caused the race start to be postponed till 9:30am. I felt silly being up for 5 hours before the start of the race, but I hate being late. Most of the people on shore with us waiting didn't have rain gear and got totally soaked. Our uncle Terry and Cade found us on the shore and came over to hang out before the start with us.
    By the time that 9:20am rolled around, most of the people on our side of the river had started piling into their boats and hanging out in the river. We also decided to follow suit and get comfortable in our boat. We found our place in the starting ranks and hung out gently bumping boats, staying behind the ramp as the official starting line. Once the count down from 10 started for the start of the race, we were more than ready. Henry and I got a paddling start to get momenteum from the start and we were off! Needless to say, it was a crazy mess. Henry and I had a goal of 55 hours to complete the race in. We planned the stops and the sleeping arangements. It was a tight schedule, but we felt that we were prepared and ready for it.
    We tried to make sure that we didn't start out too fast and I think we did a good job of it. We found that most people stopped at Miami for a few hours sleep the first night. That was where we were going to pass most people in the race and take our lead. So as we had boats passing us, we just took it in stride. Well, that's not completly true. There were 3 Mad River Adventure canoes on the river. At least 1 of them was of the 14 foot variety (same boat we used last year). The two guys in two of these boats were in front of us for most of the first day. Our experience has them as a slow boat and yet the occupants of them (with kayak paddles) were in front of us chugging along. There was also 6 person viking (chinook indian canoe) boat that was constantly in front of us. It seemed like all 6 paddlers were never going at the same time. They just seemed to be out on a party float. But they were still in front of us all day long with little effort.
    So around the 10 mile mark into the race, we came across our first problem. The rudder system was not working correctly. The pedals were stiff and un-responsive. I tried several things, but they just didn't want to work. I figured we could do without the rudder till the checkpoint at Lexington. We would just phone dad to get some WD-40 and spray it into the lines. So I just pulled on the string and pulled the rudder up. From there it would just hang out till we were ready to use it again in a fixed state... However I noticed that the boat still was turning strange. After looking behind me, I realized that we mounted the rudder in haste and the main mechanism was in the water. So the water line was higher than we expected on the boat. So Henry and I pulled off to the right side of the river where I promptly removed the rudder and stuck it in the back of the boat for another day. Removing the rudder marked the first change to our strategy for the race. We planned to sleep in the boat to keep on the water while the other guy paddled and steered with the rudder. The rudder would make the work easier. It needs to be mentioned that when I designed this boat, we took all the rocker out of the design. I knew that we were going to put a rudder in the boat and it would do the turning for us. So now the boat was going to be much harder to handle than we had anticipated.
    We pushed off from the shore a bit dejected about the rudder, and loosing time against all the other boats while we fooled with the rudder. I started paddling and decided that my seat wasn't just right. I turned half way around to get a better hold on the boat and move my seat when I felt something sharp on my finger. A quick qelp followed by a recoil of my arm found me in the same uncomfortable position with a bleeding ring finger on my right hand. I messed with the first aid kit cause Henry thought that there was too much blood to ignore the cut. The bandaid that I applied lasted for about 3 minutes before it was too wet to stick. The bleeding had stopped by this point, but I wasn't able to put any pressure on my fingertip for the rest of the race. So my righ hand was effectivly just my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers of use now. We did eventually fall into rhythm and paddle on. Lunch was dad's idea. We had cut up a block of cheese and a beef log and froze it. By the time we got to the food, it was melted/nuked cheeze that invoked an un-natural sense of gut rot. About half of my cheese went to feed the fish (hope it didn't kill any of them). We got into Lexington at 5:13pm ahead of our 55 hour schedule.
Lexington, Waverly, and Miami
    We spent a total of 7 minutes at the Lexington checkpoint before shoving off. Dad had water, replacement snacks and 4 hamburgers waiting for us at the stop. This was a great stop for time managment. After getting back on the water so quickly, we paddled out to the current and drifted while we ate our dinner and drank water. We were on the move and loving it. Our plan had also started working out already. Lots of people had much longer stops than us and we passed many people as they stayed on the shore.
    Early on in the race, we didn't talk much. We were bent on getting our good time, so we focused on just paddling and not much more. It didn't take long till we passed to Waverly and completed another quick stop and more hamburgers. Mike Smith was a year behind me in High School. His brother Greg and I were good friends. We had been in contact before the race and tried to catch up. It didn't really work out until some time around Waverly. He was in front of us, but we caught him. In fact, we got ahead of him at Waverly cause he was getting out of his boat and fell into the river up to his neck cause he was still attached with his water line to his boat. We again paddled mindlessly onto Miami.
    We left Miami at 10 till 3:00am. We were tired, but stoked that we had passed so many of the people in front of us while they were sleeping. That energy lasted until the checkpoint was out of site. Our excitement settled as there were still plenty of boats out on the water in front of us. Our plans slightly changed again as Henry was getting tired. He set in to sleep for a few hours while I solo paddled. We were supposed to sleep during daylight hours to maximize our safety. As Henry dozed off, I started to slow down myself. I kept us in the current, but mainly drifted in the river. I begun to notice a slight fog setting in on the river. This is a safety concern, but it wasn't too bad. I could still see a few boats around me. As the minutes drug on, the fog began to develop into something more serious. I was to the point where I needed to pull off the river. The problem was that the shore was not completly visible anymore. I could just barely see the stern lights of the boat in front of me and I decided that was my safety. So I started paddling very hard, gaining ground. I was playing connect the dots with the stern lights of all the boats in front of me. There was a sense of safety as long as their stern lights didn't go away quickly or here anybody shout. Several minutes after I started my active paddle, I caught up to Mike Theotis.
    I stayed up with Mike for several hours until I couldnt' take being awake any longer. I tried several times to wake Henry up before he finally roused from his slumber. He awoke confused and shivering from the cold. It is amazing how you can be completly warm paddling, but stop and sleep and your body shuts down! So once Henry finally woke up, I had him paddle from the front and I moved my seat around and slept from the back of the boat. My sleep lasted for around 90 minutes and I woke up shortly after sunrise started.
Glasgow     We spent 30 minutes stopped at Glasgow. The stop was longer than we hoped for, but there was a required stop for the facilities. We also stopped to talk to Jo Jo's ground support to see how she was doing. We fully expected her to be in front of us. When she wasn't, we were expecting her to catch up and pass us like we were standing still. We left Glasgow in a hurry being 1 hour behind our 55 hour pace. Things were starting to shape up for us. we made it through the first night. I got a frantic call from Dad shortly after we left, but the cell reception was poor. Something to the effect of Hogan, you left your PFD (personal flotation device or Life Jacket) at the stop. After the call, I remembered leaving at dad's chair while I went to the facilities. It just happened that we had a spare PFD in the boat. I tried to call dad and tell him not to worry about it, but he didn't get the call or the message. Mike and Theotis were still at the stop and dad gave them the jacket. At this point, we were trying to loose Mike. Not cause we didn't like them, but because they were great competitors and we wanted to be ahead of them.
    Our push to stay ahead of schedule and my lack of sleep started to take its toll on me. I finally told Henry that I coudn't take it anymore and I needed some more sleep. As we pulled to the side of the river to switch Henry to the back of the boat, Mike caught up to us. We had a brief conversation and they decided to leave the PDF for us at Franklin Island. That way they didn't have to make an extra stop for us and we were stopping there anyway for dinner. As we pulled out back into the river, I set my alarm for 90 minutes of sleep. 88 minutes later, I woke up and asked Henry if the alarm had gone off and what time it was. I was up and ready to paddle. As tired as I was, I was still interested in a good finishing time. This allowed me to be awake for the I-70 bridge. A short paddle later, we were at Franklin Island with 2 large pizzas waiting for us. At this point I had such bad indigestion that I ate the pizza, but didn't really enjoy a single bite of it. We made the unofficial stop a quick one and left. Mike was set to meet his brother and wife there plus get some sleep. We didn't figure we woudl see them again till after we finished the race and waited for them to come in.
Cooper's Landing
    As Cooper's landing came into view, we were paddling next to a women's tandem team. They were most pleasant to talk to and it sure made the time pass. We had also caught up to the infamous viking ship mentioned earlier. With three long boats heading to the same checkpoint at the same time, I didn't think it was a good idea. Henry agreed and we pulled ahead full steam ahead of the other boats. The best way to avoid the congestion is to pull in ahead of them and then leave before them. We got fully ahead of them with a commanding lead and then eased back to our normal pace to come in. Unfortunately for us, we still hadn't figured out how to handle the boat without the rudder. We tried about 6 times to pull into shore before we finally made it. During that time, both of the boats we zoomed past gracefully arked in and landed at the ramp. I forgot to mention that there are probably 200 people at Cooper's landing and they were all watching the boats come in and probably having pity for us.
    I wish I could say that the landing part at Coopers was the worst for us, but it wasn't to be. As Henry was getting out of his canoe, he placed his hands on the thwart (the cross-braces between the sides of the canoe) as he always does and one side of the thwart gave away. The nut on the bolt had come off and fell inside of the boat. We couldn't really go on with the boat broken so we had to do something to fix it. I searched all through the boat and couldn't find the missing nut. Henry came over and found it pretty quickly. Henry and dad went off in search of pliers and a screw driver to re-attach it. After coming back, we re-attached it only to find that the bolt was partially stripped. We had some epoxy in a tube that was supposed to be good for emergency repairs and figured there was no better time than now to test it out. We set the whole thing up and let it start to cure for 1 hour.
    Waiting while you are trying to do somethign fast can be one of the hardset things to do. Uncle Terry came in and left while we were waiting for the fix. We didn't see him again till after the race was over! Several other boats came and went while we had to sit idol. I had another slice of pizza, but my stomach didn't let me enjoy any of it. I would have ignored it, but I know that we both needed energy to continue the race. We gave the rest of the pizza to Terry and Cade before they took off. They felt great and enjoyed the nourishment. At least it didn't go to waste!
    Once we set off, First Draft was back in complete form. Dad agreed to wait for us in Marion at the ramp to make sure that we didn't need anything else. After the quick fix, Dad wasn't convinced that we would be alright. I figured the quick setting epoxy and two wraps of duct tape would set up up. Well, it lasted for a bit, but iti did break a few miles down river and we were back to a broken boat again and were getting worried. We talked to a boat near us that initally asked if we had any string or rope to tie around the outside of the boat. We had the same rope that was offered to us and figured we could do that at the next ramp with dad. The conversation evolved to "it would be nice if you had a ratcheting strap." Of course in the van at the next stop was the ratcheting straps we used to transport the boat to the start of the race. Our solution was just a few miles ahead at the stop. Thankfully Dad ignored our "we won't need you till Jeff City" talk and was happily sitting at the stop looking for us. As he walked down the ramp, I just smiled and knew that he was always there for us in the race! (Thanks again Dad!) I ran up to the van and selected a strap that would take care of us. Henry and I lifted up the boat and ran the strap around till it was where we wanted and cinched it up. I was so frustrated with the boat at this point that I cinched it tighter than I had ever done when transporting the boat. I wanted to break the boat on the inside. Thank goodness that the boat is tougher than I dared and it held together just fine. This is the fix that we would finish the boat with, ending the drama of the broken thwart. Dad was now free to go to Jeff City (Noreen) and relax till we got there.
    As the evening progressed and got darker, my body started begging me for sleep. I had only had 3 hours of sleep in 2 90 minute increments up to this point. I was still paddling, but I thought I could do much better with some sleep. I told Henry that I was really ready to crash for a bit. I wanted him to start thinking about a place to pull over and switch to the back. We started working our way to the side of the river. It was a very wide part and seemed to be moving rather quickly. For some reason we had our minds set on one spot of shore and just kept working towards it with no luck. This probably took 10 minutes of our time. I have been worried about our speed up to this point, but I was too tired to care that we wern't making any progress. We started paddling again very solwly and agreed that the river was too "wierd" to sleep. Maybe in an hour or two it would change and we could consider sleeping.
    Three boats came up out of nowhere from behind us. I say nowhere, but we wern't really paddling, so a snail's pace oculd have caught us. I heard "whats that up ahead". It sounded like Jo Jo, one of my training partners. I responded, "Its just us Jo Jo." We didn't really get a response, so we turned around and followed their flashlight beams to a HUGE 10 foot rock wing dike that was parallell with the river. Henry and I were rapidly approaching it and had to make a quick hard push not to run into it. After barely missing it, I looked back to see that none of the boats that were not passing us belonged to Jo Jo. That explained why we didn't get a response from any of them.
    I was tired, but on high alert at this point. I pulled out a 5 hour power and gave up on any thoughts of sleep. Henry also took a 5 hour power so we could just be awake and get through this section of river and through the night. Henry must have gone through a time warp or something, cause his 5 hour power only lasted him about 15 minutes before he just had to get to sleep. Neither of us wer paddling much and I just granted him his sleep. He was going to sleep laying down or sitting up, so I figured he might as well get the best possible sleep that he could. So I now began my second night's sleepless adventure. At this point in the race, we were so spread out, that there wasn't a soul around. I began belting out every song I could think of the lyrics to sing. Several of them had been sung twice. If anybody around could have heard me, they probably would have thought I was singing a child to sleep. Nothing like a loud "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to keep you awake at night! You could say I had just about had it.
    Many racers will talk about hallucinating during the long nights. I never really understood what they were talking about till this night. I expected this to include creepy crawly things on my arms and other things associated with Halloween. What I experienced in many ways was much worse! My songs ran out and I began just thinking inside of my head. Out of nowhere I turned my head quickly and I thought I saw something. A quick double take and nothing was there. My mind was making me double check everything to make sure something wasn't there. It didn't take long for me to start tuning stuff out to try and beat this. Every few times, I just had to turn to make sure that something wasn't there. As it turns out, when I turned my head back to in front of me, a dredge was parked in the river right in front of me. My first reaction was to turn right like I was driving a car. The added benefit is that I am stronger paddling in my left side (which makes the boat turn right). My mind quickly realized that I was not going to turn the boat in time and get by. Henry was still sleeping at this point and his help was very necessary to turn the boat any direction. I realized that I couldn't wake him in time to be of any help. He is slow to wake up and he might have panicked! I switched to my right side (to turn to the left) and started to paddle with all my heart. As the barge got closer, I realized that I just might make it. There were also the anchor cables of the barge that were up stream that I had to miss. I know that they are there, but I'm not sure that I even saw where they were. By the time the boat got to the dredge, I was a little more than a boat length away from it. My heart was racing and I continued to get away from it for additional safety.
    It took several tries, but I forced Henry to get up right after we passed the barge. He was confused when I woke him and didn't want to get up, but I told him I couldn't do it alone anymore without sleep. We were probably only 4 miles from the Jeff City (Noreen) checkpoint when I woke Henry up. I tried to explain the dredge to him, but I don't think he understood just how close we had come to being a statistic. We finally pulled into Jeff City at a nice sand beach. There was a beautiful fire going and Dad sleeping in his chair waiting for us with a blanket over his lap. After we pulled First Draft up on shore, I relaxed and felt energized again. A small part of me was urging me to get back out on the water as fast as possible and the sensible part of me said to call it a night. So around 2:00am we called it a night. I set my phone alarm for 6:00am and we slept in my van for the night.
Jeff City (Noreen)
    When my phone alarm when off in the morning, I was re-energized and ready to go! I had to encourage Henry, reminding him that we were in a RACE! It didn't motivate him that much, but I sure tried. I think the idea of getting back in the boat to him wasn't that appealing. Regardless, we got down to the boat and slid her in the water. I should mention here that the sand beach had a bit of a shelf on it. Our boat being exta long (19'3") added to the pain of getting it in the water. The boat was loaded and pivoting in the middle. I noticed the bottom come up a bit from all of the extra weight. I didn't think too much of it at the time. Fresh in the water, we broke out our breakfast sack. We planned on 2 sacks of powerded doughnuts for breakfast and bananas each day. The first bags were stale and I actually had trouble eating them. Dad bought another bag for some reason and provided it to us with one of the stale ones that morning. I ate the fresh doughnuts with gusto. Henry also had them, but I've always been a fan of them, so I probably had 3/4th of the bag. We gave the stale bag to some guys paddling alongside of us that were eating breakfast bars. Even bad doughnuts provided smiles all around. I'm such a nice guy :)
    We paddled off and on all day with a dad (James) and his son (Brent). We would get ahead, then behind, then stay together and talk for a long time. I remember talking about motorcycles and his boat business in Jeff City. Overall it was a plesant time. Of course our sense of competition kicked in and we got enough of a spurt of energy to take off and try to improve our time. Somewhere in this stretch, we finally left them for the rest of the race. I say that like we just left them in the dust, when actually we only beat them by one hour. Anyway, the most memorable part of this stretch was the last 5 miles coming into Herman Missouri. Once you turn the corner, the bridge for Hermann is visible for a little over 5 miles on the water. That is a painfully long stretch of river. All we wanted to do was get out of the boat and stretch our legs, but it just wouldn't get any closer. We probably spent 50 minutes on this stretch of water trying to get to the checkpoint.
Hermann
    This stop proved to be a bit longer than we wanted, but just want we needed. A reporter stopped us on the ramp up for to interview us for his blog. While it wasn't completly accurate, he was sure writing down a ton of information in a short time. Reading it back, it sure makes me laugh. I did say the boat was a piece of junk, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to try to fix it up and race it again! Its hard not to be emotional in the middle of a race like that. Henry and I each ate 2 hamburgers from the Boy Scouts at this stop. 45 minutes was probably too long, but the way we trained and the shape that we were in, it was just right! Henry and I spent our last night of the race at Hermann in 2008 and we didn't get in till after midnight, so shoving off before 5:30pm to head for the finish felt fantastic! We knew we would beat last year's time.
    Henry and I paddled together and relaxed for this stretch. We both knew that we completly missed our 55 hour goal for the race. Now we were in finish it before we crash mode. We had to paddle into the night one more time. I should mention at this point that I had been dealing with terrible indigestion for most of the trip. Dad had provided some antacid pills at multiple stops for me. I'm sure that my worry was related to First Draft and sinking. At this point of the race, the bottom of the boat had lost most of the stiffness. Every now and then two different parts of the bottom middle of the boat would pop up and back down. Henry couldn't see this or I think he would have been more worried than I was. The 5 hour power drinks didn't do anything to help my stomach, but they kept me awake. So again, we faithfully drank them down.
    Henry was able to stay awake until a mile or so after the Washington Missouri ramp. At this point he just couldn't stand to stay awake anymore. It wasn't a big deal to me. I was used to Henry needing sleep early in the night by now. I also had the wonderful company of David Hill. He was competing in the Solo Men's division. David was in a faster boat (kayak) than us (at least when I was the only one paddling). He and I talked all the way from Washington to Daniel Boone access point. He would paddle ahead of us, then slow down for me to catch him. I was frantically paddling with all I had to keep up with him, to the point where I was slightly out of breath. This went on and on...
    Suddenly Henry started to show signs of life. He was coughing and lightly snoring. Then he would rest for a few minutes. About this time, we had the lights of the Daniel Boone (Klondike) ramp in site, but still a decent paddle away. In one amazingly swift movement, Henry sat straight up like he wad doubling over to start a massive coughing atack. During this process, Henry smacked his head squarely on the thwart of the boat that he was sleeping under. The loud thundering reverberation was amplified by the shape of the boat, and had to be heard for quite a ways. I started to laugh like it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Inside it made me feel better for having paddled Henry so many miles in the dark. Of course I did ask Henry if he was alright as it probably hurt, but he never woke up. He was right back to sleep like nothing happened. I figured I had finally worn out David at this point and proceeded on solo. About this time a motorboat started up and headed straight for me. David was worried enough about the incident, that he called the support staff and sent out a safety boat to check on us and provide assistance. I kindly turned him away as we could see the ramp of the checkpoint at this point and woke up Henry to assist the landing of the boat.
Daniel Boone (Klondike)
    There were several people waiting for Henry and I when we got to the checkpoint, to make sure that Henry was okay. Dad walked Henry to the restroom while I tended to the boat. Henry just needed a break and lots of fluids! While I was hanging out at the ramp, David pulled his kayak in to check in. His support crew was amazing. Two of his sons and his wife were waiting for him with a chair and a back massage right at the bottom of the ramp. This is about the opposite of the experience with Dad. He is at the top of the ramp in a chair asking if he can do anything for us. Of course he offers us the chair, but the last thing we want is to sit down. I should mention here that I am extra thankful to Scott Mansker (the race organizer) for this checkpoint. I don't know that he could have found a hotter lady to check us in and out. She was so cute, I contemplated staying longer at the stop... With Henry finally straightened out, we prepared to shove off to the finish. We got a stern warning from the gentelman operating the safety boat about having to get rescued again. He had a point, but he also didn't want to get woke up again from a sound sleep again.
    The last stretch of the river has almost nothing for me to write about. We were passed by the tandem team "Alexander, Shea" and never could catch them. I think they were doing everything they could to pass us and stay ahead till we gave up... Once we slowed down, they seemed to do the same, but we never could recover the distance between our two boats. They ended up 19 minutes in front of us at the finish. We could never have caught them though. Most of the last section of the river was us trying to stay awake. I did one of the head snaps down and comes right back up like you do in school when you're really tired only to see Henry do the same thing right after me. So I have to wonder how long we were floating with both of us sitting up, but asleep. Its a good thing that the river is kind in this last stretch. Wide with few wingdikes.
St. Charles - Finish Line
    This is always the best part of the trip. As Henry and I went under the I-70 bridge to the finish, we noticed the TV news helicopter hovering overhead. They took video of Henry and I finishing the race and played it over and over again all day on the news. The story was talking about two twin brothers who finished/won the race overall and they were showing First Draft with us pulling up to the finish. What more could I ask for!
Some thoughts and conclusions
    I was looking back at my thoughts from the previous year and I accomplished many of the thing I wanted to. I built a better boat with a rudder (even if it didn't work). I got the better paddles. We got a "strong" flashlight which needed a new set of batteries, so it didn't really help all that much. I had great access to my map, but I used the same silly water situation from 2008 and it didn't help. It probably cost us an hours worth of time over the course of the race to continually re-fill the water bottles. I'm happy that I did get to do the race again, but I won't for sure in 2010 because of my 10 year wedding anniversary. Danelle and I are thinking about taking 1 vacation day to volunteer for one of the checkpoints. We should do something cause the race means so much to me! Not that I have built my canoe, I think I want one more try to do better. First I'll have to re-finish First Draft so it is usable again. Our time wasn't as good as I would have liked, but our training wasn't as good and there wasn't enough time in the boat to train. This is a race that anybody that needs a sense of adventure should undertake. Its safe if you practice and have good gear and it is a test of your will!

Terry Bryant and Cade Cruickshank
Terry is my uncle that told me about the race in 2008 and got me started. I talked him into the race this year. I have a mile by mile breakdown of their time. Terry is a distance runner and had his GPS running watch on to record how they did. They ended up beating us with a time of 61 hours 14 minutes. Time Breakdown


Last updated October 28, 2009 at 10:00pm.
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