Avid Canoeist Chronicles : Serpent Lake Canoe Race

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Serpent Lake Canoe Race - Warning Thunderstorm

The difficulty of finding someone dumb enough to paddle the other end of a tandem canoe in a long-distance race has been a problem for many fanatical canoe racers in the past and the first Serpent Lake Canoe Race was one of those times. After a whole year of begging on my part, Warren had agreed to paddle the Mississippi Classic Canoe Race with me the previous year. I wanted a chance at winning the random drawing for the new racing canoe prize even though I wasn’t in shape for the four-hour race. I wasn’t even a very good racing paddler back then. In spite of these things, and because he’s such an all around nice guy, Warren finally reluctantly actually did race with me and that’s why I owed him. More likely, it was because all the better racers were paired up already.

Once again, Warren couldn’t find any better paddlers who weren’t already doing the race to paddle with him in a new experimental canoe race in Crosby that would start at 9PM and last all through the night. I was certain I wasn’t going to like this because I still wasn’t in shape for paddling more than 3 hours, but Warren called in the favor. That’s how I found myself a part of a 4 person team with “Old Man Canny (Keith Canny), and his rookie racing partner, Norma Newgal, (Melanie) the tall blonde bombshell Keith had recruited from the local gym that spring.

The sky had darkened ominously all evening prior to the start of the race as a huge bank of clouds came rolling in, but there had not been any lightening before the start of the race. Lightening is the only reason that a canoe race is cancelled because the race organizers normally shy away from the idea of a participant dying in a canoe race they organized. In fact, there was no sign of lightening during the entire first 2 laps of the race. There were only five 4-person teams entered in this race and it was a tag team event. Teams were to alternate their tandem canoes every lap. Each lap around Serpent Lake took approximately one hour and Warren and I were in the first heat.

In spite of Todd Ellison and Kjell Peterson’s attempt to drop back and let us use their wake to pull us up to the two lead canoes, it didn’t take more than a half an hour for us to fall into fourth place with the rest of the canoes so far ahead in the dark that we couldn’t see them. All the teams had to go around and past at least 3 different pontoon boats that were anchored in bays around the lake. At one point, another team passed us quickly in the dark and we later found out that they had flipped over when Kjell had paddled on top of their gunwale during a racing scuffle in the dark. Once we finally reached shore back at the starting point, Keith and Melanie took off just barely ahead of the fifth place team.

Over and hour later, the sky had grown increasingly nasty looking, but still no sign of lightening. Keith and Melanie had lost the lead and were at least 5 minutes behind the now fourth place team whose fresh tag team had already taken off into the night. We were going to have a shot at catching them. As we splashed across the first bay, the sky above us started flashing and loud crashes of thunder followed close behind. I hollered to Warren in the stern: “I don’t like this lightening!” He nearly managed to sound convincing as he said: “Stop worrying … it’s only cloud-to-cloud lightening!” That’s when I really began to doubt Warren’s sanity and wonder about the line between bravery and stupidity once again. But, I shook my head and tried in vain to convince myself that I probably wouldn’t feel it if we were struck by lightening.

The next ten minutes that it took us to get near the first pontoon boat were more and more scary. The flashes were brighter and more frequent and the booming thunder followed quicker and louder each time. Just as Warren finally agreed to pull in towards shore a bolt of lightening struck a tree at the very spot on shore that we were going to take refuge. After the deafening boom that we could feel in the hull of the canoe, we hollered at the grey-haired lady in the pontoon boat … “Where are the other teams?” She was obviously scared out of her wits and said that they had gone past her a few minutes ago. She also said she wanted to go in, but didn’t know how to run the pontoon boat.

It was pouring rain as Warren and I hauled our canoe onto over the metal rails of the pontoon boat. With the lightening flashing all around, I grabbed the anchor rope and pulled hand over hand praying that I wouldn’t feel the strike when it came. A miracle happened and I finally dropped the anchor into the boat and then tried not to touch anything metal while starting the engine. I used my more optional left hand to hang onto the steering wheel and followed the rescue boat that had been sent out to retrieve the frightened lady on the pontoon boat. Crashes of lightening all along the shore and rattling peels of thunder resounded as we ran the pontoon aground and scrambled for shelter in the building with all the others.

There was a local ham radio club helping out and one of them was standing under the eave of our building with a large hand-held metal antenna pointed skyward trying to get better reception for their communications. He sheepishly put it down when I asked him politely to move away from the building if he was going to keep using that antenna.

We found out the other four racing teams were huddled in a building near where the 2^nd pontoon boat had been anchored and that there were no injuries. The race organizers announced that we would wait an hour or so for the storm to pass before continuing the race. Even though I protested and tried to get out of finishing the race, Warren dragged me back into the canoe a couple hours later and we took turns with Keith and Melanie doing laps around the lake with each canoe all alone until the sun came up. The top three teams had stayed close together, but as always, the teams who weren’t as skilled at canoe racing worked much harder and paddled much longer than them.

So it had turned out to be even less enjoyable than I had expected, but I did get the most exciting pontoon boat ride of my life for the price of the race entry fee and a night without sleep.