There has been a kayak or two hanging under my deck for most of the past decade. For the past year or so I fished out of a Mad River Synergy 14’ kayak/canoe hybrid that I didn’t mind covering up to ten miles in a day of crappie or catfishing. It is a comfortable kayak and I find it functional and adequate for what I like to do. Covering 340 miles over four days or 88 hours or less has never been one of the things I conceived of doing.
In July when we received our issue of the Missouri Conservationist, Brett Dufur had written an article about the 2012 MR340 and the fire was lit in my brain.Finding Flow on the Mighty MO | Missouri Department of Conservation I wonder how many others I paddled with that week that were spurred into action by that article.
I could conceptualize the notion of paddling my 14’ kayak 340 miles, but had no knowledge of what it took. So over the next week I read everything I could on ultra-distance kayak racing. A trip to a local kayak store to buy a better paddle ended with my buying a new kayak in addition. I’ll address this decision later. The repeated idea that every writer or blogger had to say about the MR340 is that the accumulated advantages have to outweigh the accumulated disadvantages.
Trying to stack the “advantages” deck in my favor was the main drive in my purchase of a kayak by Current Design. Their Storm GT at 17’ long was 6.5” narrower than my fishing kayak and it had a rudder. Though it weighed only 2 pounds less than the fishing kayak, it cut through the water more efficiently and was comfortable. I had to do everything possible from the boat prep to gaining knowledge since I probably had less than 100 miles total paddle time for the year at the time I made this decision.
Another huge advantage one can have in a multi-day event is to have a support crew to follow along to give aid, water, food, rest,etc. That was to be my ever ready to jump into anything wife. This plan came crashing down along with the real crashing of her mom, that lives with us,falling down the stairs at the house. Thankfully, she only cracked her ankle, but it was a very important bone and had to be completely off her foot for six week. Advantage removed. Mom is alright and getting around well.
Spending all of my allotted funds on a new kayak and paddle, I didn’t have anything left for a hand held gps to govern my speed to make sure I would stay at a pace to finish the race in under 88 hours. I posted a thread in Missouri Off-Topic and asked if anyone had one they could loan or rent for the week. That is when the great nature of Crappie.com came out. Slab, Hooking-n-Cookin, LSLAngler, and others offered everything from gps’s to shirts to a bed to sleep in when I was in their area. Outstanding community we have in this forum and that goes double for Missourians.
For the sake of being brief, I’ll go through some highs and lows of the days of paddling down the Mighty MO.
Day 1. 7am start at the confluence of the Kaw and Missouri Rivers. The gun goes off and away we go. I’m still in the downtown KC area and everything in my body already hurts. Maybe this is from stress or only sleeping 2 hours from things running through my head, but if something could have hurt or been wrong, it was. My mind is in a panic thinking there is no way I will endure this, we are just starting, what am I going to feel like by midnight or later tonight in Miami over 100 miles downstream.
Just as soon as the hurt started I found my flow and things, including my mind, started calming down. I made the first check point in Lexington, 50 miles down, around 2:30pm with 2.5 hours before the cut off. That had me happy. I was greeted by Jr and Deb (Hookin-n-Cooking) I spent a few minutes there and launched on toward Waverly 23 miles down. Deadline there was 9pm and I pulled in around 7:30, grabbed some water and a hot dog from the boy scouts and took off again. The body is feeling great. The third check point was Miami another 32miles down. It got dark shortly after leaving Waverly so this is my first time paddling at night much less on the Mighty MO at night. They schedule this race during a full moon phase so that aided in navigation as well as the string of lights from the boats ahead of you. Miami came into view at 12:30 am Wednesday morning, 107 miles down,exhausted.
Day 2. Here is a big mistake that set me up for a tough day two. I was told to get something to eat and some water, but don’t sleep in Miami “head downstream to a sand bar”. I was now 9.5 hours ahead of the clock so I curled up by the kayak on my tarp, three hours later I might have slept 1.5hours, I was damp from the dew and cold. I launched, groggy, confused, and sore, downstream at around 4am. Starting to burn energy I removed my rain jacket to cool down then I realized a huge mistake, NO PFD!! I left it 8 miles upstream in Miami. I spotted one of eight safety boats on the course beached on a sand bar, the same sand bar I was told to leave Miami and go sleep on, should have listened, but I was too tired. The boat crew loaded me up and headed to get my pfd, no penalty since they didn’t take me downstream.
Glasgow was the next check point 36 miles downstream I checked in there at 11:35am Wednesday. This was the first time Lisa, my ground crew caught me. She was able to hire someone to check on her mom and the dogs and join me. We taped up my hands, got fed, and headed downstream towards Katfish Katy or cp#5. I had plenty of time banked, Lisa had a hotel room down the road in Columbia, I beached the kayak,removed valuables, and headed for the room. Safety boat crews build fires on sand bars where some stop to sleep.
Day 3. I got 3.5 hours of sleep a cup of coffee and headed back to the river at 3am. Just down from KK I hooked up with a couple of other boats to kayak in the light fog of the night. We covered good time and made Coopers, not a check point, but a nice place to break up the mileage. They stayed longer than I wanted so I launched and headed off alone. By the time I realized how close to Jefferson City it was too late to notify Lisa, she was too far away and out of sorts to get to me in time so I checked into Jeff City myself, got a Burrito and Mt Dew for lunch. There was a water tent so I filled my water bags and headed to the boat… then it hit me. I could barely stand back up. My hands shook, eyes blurred, sweat poured off me. I splashed river water on me at the ramp, wet my shirt and put it back on, grabbed my tarp and headed for shade. I passed out for an hour. When I woke I was groggy and weak. With assistance I got loaded and launched, too weak to do more than keep it pointed downstream and out of danger.
Lisa caught up with me at Franklin Island, a non-check point ramp. She gave me a fresh shirt, took care my hands, resupplied the kayak and I was on my way. I didn’t eat a meal here,just snacked and drank protein shakes. Ifelt fine and made Hermann cp just before sunset and LSL Angler(Mark) from St.Charles was there to meet me. I hung around there maybe an hour, longer than I should, but I was wore out. I did eat a meal here and about 8 miles down I hit that wall again, found a sand bar, and napped for an hour or two off and on. Shortly before or around midnight,the mind didn’t record details all that well by this time in the race, I seen a kayak’s navigation lights coming down the river so I shoved my sleeping gear in the hatch and launched after it.Attachment 132813That is LSL Angler (Mark) launching me after Hermann. I thought I had better pics of me and him together.
Day 4: About the time I caught up to about .25 miles behind that kayak there was a bend in the river,but it was cloudy and the moon was not out. I stopped paddling as I watched that kayak’s lights go from river left,shine the light, to river right, shine the light, down river, shine light, upriver, shine light. I was thinking to self, “This one is tripping from sleep deprivation and needs help so I picked up the pace and got close enough to call out. He was in rough shape, we partnered up, got pointed downstream and made some good time for a few hours. About3am we both hit a wall and there was a convenient sand bar river left with one kayak already there. I recognized it as Mat’s, a fella I paddled with day one. We laid on the sand bar and napped for an hour. Mat had a full camp set up, tent, fire, everything. After one hour the alarm went off and we headed back to the kayaks.
Not until now was I fully confident of my goal to just finish this. That confidence also made me realize that I might be able to come in under 80 hours. A huge thing for someone that in less than a month, decided to enter and was there doing something of this magnitude. 80% of those that enter the MR340 are just that, people like me that want to see if they have what it takes. Now I know I do and next year I will try to shave time off my time from this year.
I pull up to Kondike ramp and that kayaker keeps going saying if he stopped he’d not start again. I understood. Lisa was late,while waiting I emptied the kayak of everything I didn’t need. EVERYTHING. All I left Kondike with was four bottles of water, a Gatorade, and a BLT. ßSee that, a BLT. What was I thinking? Sure enough, about 5 miles down, I thought I would pass out and fall into the river, but I focused on two things, stay upright, keep pointing downstream. It took me an hour to feel my blood start to flow again.
(Headed out for the final 27 miles.)
I have researched the food effect on me during the race. The best analogy is a campfire. If you don’t put wood on the fire,it dies. Likewise, if you dump a huge load of wood, you smother it out, but it will re-start after it has time to work on the new fuel. That is what I was doing, dumping huge loads of wood on the fire at one time instead of putting a stick or two at intervals all along the race. One racer told me to feed it early, often, and regularly and don’t stop for a couple of days after.
That last 27 miles from Klondike to St Charles was emotional to say the least. I was amazed that what felt like weeks had only been a few days. My body was in full out “go for broke” mode with speeds over 8.5 mph for long stretches. I hit the sand in front of the boat house with that smiling face of my wife at 12:59 pm to give me a score of 77 hours and 59 minutes.
Across all entries, from the novice to the pros, from the $5000 boats to the $400 boats, 1/3rd of those that left the starting line didn’t finish. 10% of those that sign up will not start. This is the eighth year for this race, the first year there were less than two dozen. Now there are over 500 paddlers in over 340 The date for next year is looking like July 8-11th. See ya there!!
Another big THANK YOU! to Slab, Hookin-n-Cookin, LSL Angler and all those that cheered and prayed for me. That meant a lot to Lisa and I to have that many people keeping tabs on my progress.
Gordon
Not until now was I fully confident of my goal to just finish this. That confidence also made me realize that I might be able to come in under 80 hours. A huge thing for someone that in less than a month, decided to enter and was there doing something of this magnitude. 80% of those that enter the MR340 are just that, people like me that want to see if they have what it takes. Now I know I do and next year I will try to shave time off my time from this year.
I pull up to Kondike ramp and that kayaker keeps going saying if he stopped he’d not start again. I understood. Lisa was late,while waiting I emptied the kayak of everything I didn’t need. EVERYTHING. All I left Kondike with was four bottles of water, a Gatorade, and a BLT. ßSee that, a BLT. What was I thinking? Sure enough, about 5 miles down, I thought I would pass out and fall into the river, but I focused on two things, stay upright, keep pointing downstream. It took me an hour to feel my blood start to flow again.
(Headed out for the final 27 miles.)I have researched the food effect on me during the race. The best analogy is a campfire. If you don’t put wood on the fire,it dies. Likewise, if you dump a huge load of wood, you smother it out, but it will re-start after it has time to work on the new fuel. That is what I was doing, dumping huge loads of wood on the fire at one time instead of putting a stick or two at intervals all along the race. One racer told me to feed it early, often, and regularly and don’t stop for a couple of days after.
That last 27 miles from Klondike to St Charles was emotional to say the least. I was amazed that what felt like weeks had only been a few days. My body was in full out “go for broke” mode with speeds over 8.5 mph for long stretches. I hit the sand in front of the boat house with that smiling face of my wife at 12:59 pm to give me a score of 77 hours and 59 minutes.
Across all entries, from the novice to the pros, from the $5000 boats to the $400 boats, 1/3rd of those that left the starting line didn’t finish. 10% of those that sign up will not start. This is the eighth year for this race, the first year there were less than two dozen. Now there are over 500 paddlers in over 340 The date for next year is looking like July 8-11th. See ya there!!
Another big THANK YOU! to Slab, Hookin-n-Cookin, LSL Angler and all those that cheered and prayed for me. That meant a lot to Lisa and I to have that many people keeping tabs on my progress.
Gordon
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