New Trip Report posted by boconorm

Trip Name: MR340 2010.

Entry Point: Other

Click Here to View Trip Report

That report is an interesting read! It sounds grueling, challenging, maybe dangerous and yet some level of fun or enjoyment of the finish was there to be had. Thanks for sharing and may your next BW paddle be relaxing and downright pleasurable.

I probably missed this somewhere but was this mostly a kayak race or were there a number of canoes involved too?

There are canoes and kayaks. Mostly paddle, but there was a pedal division. No sails or other propulsion. There was also a dragon boat division that had something like 14 paddlers on the boat. Supposedly, they made the trip with only stopping for the check points. They did EVERYTHING on the boat and it was co-ed. A little too much bonding from my point of view.

Very cool. Never heard of this before. Too far from home for me to try but thanks for sharing.

I'm familiar with that race. I know it's a grueling one. I have no desire to do that race. I can't imagine paddling the river at night. I was born and raised between Marshall and Miami so I know the river well. A dream of mine is to paddle the Missouri River from it's beginning in Montana down to where it enters the Mississippi.

Epic! But better you than me. Ha ha.

Nice! a group from the ROTC program at the university does this trip every year. this past winter they all built kayaks for this years race.

If you look at the pictures of the start, there all kinds of "custom" rigs. We saw some completely homemade vessels and others that just had homemade parts. There were the sleek space age rigs and there were the old aluminum canoes.

By the way, nothing got us paddling again quicker when we were taking a breather than hearing the clank of an oar against an aluminum canoe.

LOL! can't get beat by one of those, eh? ;-)

My arms hurt.

My team "The Bald Avengers" was one of those aluminum boats in the race last year. We didn't do much clanking though, we were a well oiled machine. It's good to see another fellow racer on the forum. We finished in 77 hours and 45 minutes. I loved the race and want to be involved in the future. Next time it will be as a volunteer and not a racer.

I enjoyed your trip report, thanks for sharing!

@BWoods - I remember you guys well. Weren't you the ones that had the support crew selling jerky at the check points?

That was us!

Bwoods: "My team "The Bald Avengers" was one of those aluminum boats in the race last year. We didn't do much clanking though, we were a well oiled machine. It's good to see another fellow racer on the forum. We finished in 77 hours and 45 minutes. I loved the race and want to be involved in the future. Next time it will be as a volunteer and not a racer.


I enjoyed your trip report, thanks for sharing! "

I was just reminiscing about this trip by looking at my pictures. I think I have a picture of the Bald Avengers and your aluminum pleasure craft. Here is a link to the album to save you from having to search through the trip report.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/boconorm/albums/72157624969870844/page1