2004-04-22 Bugs on the Rum River

2004-04-22 RR SR 2 – Bugs on the Rum River

This was only the second time I had paddled with Scott Richardson.  The first time was a few years ago in a Hoigaards Canoe Race when he had kept reminding me to “reach” further out so much that I nicknamed him Mr. Reachardson after the race.  The teams practicing tonight were:  Rick Lorenzen & Scott Richardson, Lee Jarpey & Keith Canny, Ed Arenz & Stephanie Larsen, Eric Canny & Todd R. Johnson, Marsh Jones & Peter Hansen with Jason Larsen in a C1 racer.  We also had sightings of Kathy & John Sullivan in their tandem canoe and Chuck Ryan in his C1 canoe.  The water was a few feet higher than last time because they had closed the dam in Anoka.  A cardinal scolded a grey squirrel high in a tree as it watched us take off from the Anoka Fairgrounds boat launch. 

Water splashed over the bow as we tucked our nose into the higher wave formed where the two V wakes met from two canoes side-by-side just ahead of us as we approached another shallows.  Once the sprint was over, Scott flipped opened the bailer in the stern and we heard the water being sucked out with every stroke we took.  Since I didn’t have any water on the canoe bottom in the front, we knew that our canoe was running bow up.

“Don’t go in where they did.” said Scott when we saw Todd and Peter go under a thicket of branches.  They made it, but Todd’s hat had been knocked into the river.  I ruddered us into the same thicket, in spite of Scott’s wishes, to pick up the hat as it drifted downstream in the current.  That put us a quite a few canoe lengths behind the pack who didn’t wait up for us.  As we approached the sandbar island, clouds of unidentified small white bugs, their wings illuminated in the last of the sunlight, made us bow our heads to keep from getting them in our eyes and keep our lips closed to keep from getting them in our mouth. 

We were able to stay on the other canoe wakes fairly well in spite of having some difficulty keeping the canoe pointed in the right direction.  The foot-high waves trailing the lead canoes in the shallows jostled us around and had their way with us on the way upstream.  On the way downstream, we did better at keeping the canoe lined up.  That may have been because we were staying in deeper water and didn’t have to contend with larger waves.  Or it may have been because we were adapting to each other more, or because I was using occasional rudders to keep us straighter.  

The bridge sprint started before we got around the bend and continued until Jason and Ed & Stephanie were the first ones under the bridge with Scott & I just behind them.   Scott & I were in the lead as we approached the fishing pier by the boat launch were we started when I raised my arms to cross an imaginary finish line.  Then the canoes all passed us and blocked out way to get to the shore.  When they finally cleared a path and we sprinted towards land and I jumped out to lift the front of the canoe enough to slide up on the grass.  Scott kept the canoe upright and I pulled it further ashore so he could step out.  We shook hands at the car and thanked each other for a fun time on the water.  Another practice run finished and another 2 hours of paddling accumulated.  You can never have quite enough hours of paddling in when you race canoes.