Just one year after we started racing canoes, my attention was drawn to a race in upstate New York - the General Clinton Canoe Regatta. This is a 70-mile brute of a race, which starts in Cooperstown, NY and travels down the Susquehenna River to the finish line in Bainbridge, NY. The sheer number of boats participating in the race is impressive - nearly 240 canoes and kayaks over three different start times. This was our sixth year and it was one of the hardest.The race starts on the shores of Otsego Lake with 80 canoes poised to sprint across the lake to a buoy turn before starting down the river. The starts are always chaotic with barely enough room to paddle. There are crisscrossing waves trying to throw your canoe off course and threatening to flip your boat. Because of this, we've adopted a "stay out of the crap" approach to the start by lining up far to the left. This works well and we usually don't have to deal with waves until we get close to the buoy turn. This year, however, we had a great start and made it clean around the buoy and didn't have to deal with the waves until we were nearly in the river.
The first part of the river is known as the Swamp. This section is twisty and narrow with a good amount of current and a lot of debris in the water. Every turn brings a new surprise with downed trees blocking your way and submerged trees lurking just below the surface. You are also dealing with many canoes and a lot of adrenaline since it is still early in the race. In preparation for this section, we pre-run a five mile section to see what we are in for on race day and we were pleased to find that it was the cleanest we had ever seen it.
Eventually, the river slows down, getting wider and straighter. This is the time to find a group of canoes to paddle with. Similar to bike racing, there is a substantial benefit to paddling in a group. Each canoe throws off waves as it travels through the water. If you paddle in front of the waves from another canoe, you can go faster while using less energy. This also serves as a sort of "pace car" since you are willing to put in a little extra effort at times to make sure you don't lose the pack.In past years, we've tried to join a pack of canoes, but we struggled to stay on the wave. This year was different. Our ability ride another wake has improved dramatically and we were in a large pack of canoes for a long time. This contributed greatly to how well we did over the first half of the course.
After the Goodyear Lake portage, there is always some good current from the dam release. This feels great after spending a few hours on slow-moving flat water. But there was a problem this year. For some reason, it didn't look like there had been a release from the dam. The big waves, which had scared us our first year, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the water was shallow and not too fast. Knowing that our weakness is shallow water, we knew we were in for a long day.The rest of the day consisted of finding the deeper channels when possible and dodging the rocks in the shallows. We were able to do this much better than in years past, yet we were still forced to get out of the canoe several times and carry our boat across some very shallow sections.
The lower section of the river seems to drag on forever and you are continually battling the ebbs and flows of your energy level. One thing that helps is the number of people cheering you along the way. In addition to the cheers of strangers, we had much of our family there, too, which is always nice.
After crossing the finish line, you pull up alongside a dock and try to get out of your boat. After ten long hours, you are tired and your legs are a bit wobbly. Though we did okay, we watched some people who could barely stand.In the end, we finished 15th out of forty boats - our highest finish ever. We felt strong for most of the race and we were moving forward within our class for most of the day.
And of course, we are already thinking about doing it next year.
