The Minnesota Paddling Opener is a series of canoe and kayak races held in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. We decided to take our paddling team up there for the events. Did I say team, yeah, that is right. Scott and Dot Merritt plus Danelle and I. We’re racing a C4 (canoe four person) in this year’s Missouri River 340 canoe race. This was one of our “training races” to get us ready for our main event in July.
Of the many races they offer, we planned to race two of them. The first race is the MR 145. This is the longest race offered. It is 145 miles long with multiple portages around dams. This presents an issue as our C4 canoe is nearly 26 feet long. Portaging a boat that large is possible but difficult. Fortunately for us, they offered a team relay division. We would paddle a C2 (canoe two person) and switch out the team for each of the 5 legs of the race. This race would start on Friday at 3pm and end on Sunday at 5pm.
The second race we decided to participate in is the MR 43. This is a 43 mile race starting on Sunday morning at 8am. This means we would need to finish the first race early to allow us to come back and start the second race. This is the 4th year of the race and this has been done a few times before.
Now that you know the plan, let’s see what actually happened to us……
When going far from home for a race, you need to think of all your supplies. Lots of packing and preparation. I took my canoe trailer to my local welder and had the uprights stiffened and braced to handle two canoes on the highway for the long trek. Then I put extra foam on the bars to protect the boats. When I purchased the trailer several years ago, the right tail light didn’t work. I ended up replacing the whole fixture to make sure we were properly visible on the road as well.
Danelle and I built a small frame to hold water in place on the trailer. This was a two fold benefit. First, giving the trailer extra weight makes it tow better. Second, we had familiar water to drink during the race. This turned out to be a good thing as the water where we stayed was soft water and smelled like sulfur; not something we would have enjoyed drinking.
I mentioned that the long race has portages. What I didn’t mention was just how long they are. The longest portage is over a half mile long. Several shorter ones, but we needed some way to move the boat easier. Lucky for us, I had a set of portage wheels I had never used before. Additionally, from seven years ago when I raced the Texas Water Safari, we had made (and luckily never thrown away) some cool portage straps to hold by hand or shoulder. Danelle and I practiced setting up the portage wheels and using the straps in the back yard. It took a few tries to figure out how to tie it up. One set of straps went around the cart and the boat. Then there is a metal lead on the cart that a second strap went through and then to a thwart that keep the wheels from sliding during pulling. This worked perfect. Then we just had to put the strap over a shoulder and walk hands-free with the boat!
All of that lead to us meeting the Merritts at their house on Thursday morning to combine our gear and start the drive. We arrived and I started by switching the trailer from our car to theirs. Having a minivan for 4 people instead of a small SUV provided us space to stretch out and not always have to worry about being packed just right. Or maybe just take less stuff (just kidding). With our gear combined and the boats loaded, it was over 500 miles from St. Charles, Missouri to our VRBO in Elk River, Minnesota. Having the trailer gave us space to put our bulky items and then the third row of seats was just our mess.
Danelle and Hogan with our third row full of supplies.
Scott, Dot, Danelle and Hogan with the trailer in the background.
The drive was pretty standard. We listened to a short audio book and chatted. A few stops for gas as towing uses a lot of fuel. Before long, we were settled in our space. We unloaded the trailer at the VRBO and went out for a pizza dinner.
Breakfast came early on Friday. We repacked the van with only the paddling gear, knowing we would not be back until Saturday afternoon at the earliest. Next, we drove to all of the portages and checkpoints that we could, then headed to the beach where the race would start. Several of the trips by the race landmarks were just a drive-by visit while others were for a more in-depth, longer look. At the end of the Sauk rapids portage, there is a large playground. You’re never too old to play, right?
When we were not playing in the park, we were driving through the wind and rain. Sometimes you don’t strap down the boat enough and have to use the sun roof to your advantage to stay on time…
We did walk the whole Brainard Dam portage as it was a long trek through the woods that we knew we would be doing at night. I had much higher confidence about the portages after walking them. I was confident that in the dark, they would not be too confusing. Our time running short, we went to the race start.
I can’t speak for the rest of the team, but I was feeling the excitement that comes with the start of a long adventure. I really just wanted it to start already. But first, we needed to unload our boat and go to the safety meeting.
First was getting the boat set up on the beach for the start. Danelle provided support as Scott and Dot make their final adjustments. Nice to have a safety pontoon boat in the background as well.
The weather was rainy and around 53F. We went up to the 2pm safety meeting before the 3pm start. The meeting went long, only providing about 8 minutes between its conclusion and the start of the race. Did I mention that I was cold?
32 years together, Scott and Dot are a cute couple that I caught in a quick embrace before the start of the race.
And with minutes to spare before the starting gun, they got the boat on the water ready for the start!
When the race started, the paddlers made a mad dash past the starting line to jockey for positions. After a minute or so, people get into the rhythm of a long paddle and settle in on a reasonable pace. The racers were going 6 miles upriver (really a lake as there was a dam nearby) to round a buoy before heading back 6 miles to the first portage of the race. Danelle and I drove out to the point where the buoy was anchored to watch the racers turn and continue on. When we got there, I walked out and got right back in the car. The wind was blowing fierce and I was still cold!
We missed the first boat round the buoy but caught 2 and 3. I had added a flannel shirt to help with the cold. We stayed long enough to see Scott and Dot round the buoy and cheer them on. Now it was time for a different strategy! We drove to a local supermarket and got some food for dinner. Danelle wanted some fruit and a loaf of French bread. I wasn’t certain about the bread, but that turned out to be a much better choice than a fast food burger I would have picked. Next was the drive to the Fort Ripley ramp. This was a small boat ramp right by the main road where we would swap paddlers at around 10pm. This would begin our first leg of the adventure. Not sure if you caught it above, but the race started at 3pm. It was now around 5pm and we needed to catch some sleep in the daylight before we began our night shift. We dozed off and on trying our best to be rested.
I eventually woke up restless from my nap. While the race had been started, our paddling part had not yet begin. I went for a walk to warm up because it was cold out. It helped get my blood pumping and my body warmed up. As an extra bonus, a few other St. Louis people were participating in the race. I met Bob Hines at the ramp. Bob was doing ground crew for his friend Dave Berni. Bob and I had some easy conversation while helping some other paddlers land. When one of the top three boats, a tandem kayak, arrived, their ground crew was trying to talk them out of continuing the race. The paddlers looked cold and wet. The discussion was on the weather and the low water. It turns out that they were in a borrowed boat and had damaged a few other boats this year. Ultimately, the paddlers decided to quit.
Dave came in and I helped pass supplies to Bob who went deeper in the water to help Dave do a quick touch and go stop. Before long, Dave was off. Bob made sure we were good before he headed off. Around 10pm, Scott and Dot arrived ready to take a break. The team switched out gear and before I knew it, Danelle and I were off paddling in the dark!
We had a 17 mile stretch to get from Fort Ripley to Little Falls portage. We agreed to take this portage solo to allow Scott and Dot to get much needed rest. But before we went more than a couple of miles, things got interesting. Because it was raining (all night) we had no moon to light the way. This meant that Danelle, being in the front, used the spot light as needed to help us avoid obstacles. While we had a GPS track (which I felt was 100% necessary), we still had shallow spots, logs, and boulders sticking up in the water. Unfortunately, the spot light was needed quite frequently to keep from slamming into the many boulders.
It wasn’t long before we reached a stretch that was too shallow to paddle. I’m guessing we walked about 1/4 mile in the river. We had a tandem men’s team pass us also hitting rocks and fighting through during this time. I think they had better lights to help their navigation. Danelle had about an hour of not paddling while holding the spot light. She was borderline hypothermic due to not generating body heat by paddling. She started generating heat by shivering. It was bad enough that I could feel the vibrations at the other end of the canoe. If there had been a ramp to get out, Danelle would have called it a race at that point. It wasn’t much fun.
When we found Little Falls portage it was a relief. The river pooled up behind the dam giving us a much easier time paddling with less worry about hitting stuff though it did get shallow. We handled the portage well and Danelle found some relief at a nearby port-o-potty while I prepared for the end of the portage. Back in the river after the Little Falls dam, there was more area with rocks to avoid as we were not pooled up again, but it seemed easier. Even so, I was on edge. At one point. Danelle adjusted herself in the boat and made a noise and I made a manly noise (okay, I let out a small scream and not the first of the day) until she assured me it was her.
Danelle was getting very drowsy as it was the early hours of the morning now. We decided to remember bits of songs and sing to each other. Only Danelle could field a full song, but it helped a ton. Eventually, we found the take out for Blanchard Dam. After the portage, we could switch and get some sleep. Coming into the portage, I started singing “The Wheels On The Bus”. I was told it wasn’t very good. I also learned that I woke up a through paddler with my horrible singing. Scott was there to help us with this .6 mile portage. Dot was on the other end getting the last amount of sleep that she could before paddling again.
At 4am, we turned over the boat for the team to take the next leg of the adventure. Danelle and I were almost ready to sleep. But first, some more photos. Note that the one below is not edited, just what came out of Danelle’s cell phone.
Time to get some sleep after being up all night. We had a few hours until we met them at the Sartell Dam to help with another long portage. So we parked, set an alarm and went to sleep. Remember Bob Hines from earlier, he spotted our van and came over to chat. When he saw we were sleeping, he posted a photo of us on Facebook and went back to the ramp till we woke up.
We had a good laugh when we saw it online. When the Merritts arrived, we promptly hooked up the portage cart. I put the harness on and started walking. Fun side note, there was a parade starting at 10am. We needed to hurry through the portage or have to fight the crowds. Just to make sure we didn’t get stuck in the parking lot for the whole parade and to make the most of our time, Danelle drove the van to the other end of the portage while the three of us walked. This meant that we didn’t have to walk back through the parade to get to the van. We finished about 9:45am, so generally perfect timing!
See us portaging with people lined up to watch the parade.
With this portage complete and about an hour until the next one, we had time to get to McDonald’s for a quick breakfast. I’ve been off daily caffeine for almost 2 months now to prepare for overnight racing stretches. That cup of coffee was magic for waking me up! I was ready to go and we were off to Sauk Rapids portage.
Danelle and I waited for our paddlers at the portage take out. It was another long one. I looked at our Garmin Tracker page and found that they stopped just upriver from where we were. We called, but it was too late. They and another group had gotten out and started the portage. This added some distance to the portage for walking, nearly a mile in total.To prevent a lot of extra walking, Danelle again drove to the downstream end of the portage and waited there.
Its worth noting that this portage is not around a dam, but just some potentially serious rapids in the river. In the name of safety, it was a required portage. By the time we got to the end of the portage, the weather was clearing up somewhat. Dot handed me her rain pants and some other items for the car. I promptly set the Red Bull and rain pants down on a bench and forgot about them 🙁
Less than an hour later, we met at St. Cloud Dam for our second and final turn in the boat. Its now 11:45am and we would have full daylight for our final section of paddling. Danelle and I got in the boat. At this point in time, we were approximately 2 hours behind our planned schedule. While it was just a plan, it was nice to know our estimating was fairly accurate! We wanted to paddle hard to make up some time on our schedule.
After our tiring and scary night paddle, we were excited to see the Mississippi in daylight. It did not disappoint. We loved the views, the changing scenery, and the wildlife which included a couple of deer as well as several bald eagles. We had to navigate through several boulder fields and didn’t hit any rocks. We had one spot where we had to get out and walk about 100 feet, but not too bad. We marked that spot in our heads as we would be paddling this same stretch tomorrow in the 43 mile race with the C4 canoe.
I learned after inspecting my paddle that the blade had de-laminated. This means that the carbon fiber had separated at the base of the paddle. This is my fault as I was pushing off the bottom of the river the night before in frustration. It may not be repairable. I switched to our spare paddle in the boat and continued on.
We gained 30 minutes back during our section towards our stated goal. We had a great time together and wanted to paddle more daytime!
When Scott and Dot pulled up at the finish, our team was 5th overall in the race. Of course having a team to switch out paddlers is a HUGE BENEFIT, but that was our place.
This was taken on Sunday at the post race festivities after we had time to shower and sleep, nobody looks this good after finishing a long river race!
When we finished the race, we didn’t spend much time at the finish line, it was time to get a meal and bed. We had to be up and out of the VRBO by 3:30 tomorrow morning to make the shuttle on time. We found a bar in Elk River and got dinner. Some interesting locals entertained us while we ate, specifically the loud guy sitting at the table next to ours. Back at the VRBO, we loaded supplies including the C4 for the race on Sunday morning. Then off to bed.
I remember waking up at midnight to use the bathroom and thinking that I get a little more sleep. When the alarm went off at 3am, I got up and started getting ready. By 3:10am, I started feeling bad. My breathing picked up to where I was nearly panting and I felt off. At 3:25, I went to the bathroom and puked my guts out. I’m guessing the bar food late night didn’t agree with me. Credit to the team for never uttering a single complaint about me being sick. I think we were all a bit happy to go back to bed. I woke up at 8:30am and felt a ton better. I think if I woke up at 7 like that, we could have raced. But as it was, the race was already 30 minutes old.
Feeling better, the team went out to eat breakfast. I stayed on the safer side with pancakes and had no issues keeping them down. We decided to take a chance and drive back to Sauk Rapids put in and see if Dot’s pants were still there on the bench. It turns out the pants were there, but the Red Bull was not. It was nice to get some gear back as they were higher end. Next up was a side trip to a store called Sierra not too far away. They have lots of outdoor stuff and none around St. Louis.
We each walked out with something. Danelle, Dot, and I got shirts while Scott found some new shorts. Next was a trip to the finish line to cheer on participants in the MR 43 race. We also wanted to see how our other St. Louis friends did in the race. We had many conversations with other paddlers and vendors enjoying the event. This is when we took the photo above of the team at the finish line. We’re all wearing our new clothes in the photo as well.
It was time for dinner. We decided to get a pizza and some beer and sit on the upper balcony of the VRBO and look at the Mississippi river before calling it a night. We had energetic conversation on the deck and relived portions of the weekend. A big surprise came when Dot came to look at our bedroom and we noticed her new shirt blended in with the wallpaper.
Monday morning came and we spent an hour or so having breakfast and packing up for the 500 mile drive back home.
Thoughts about the race
* We’ll probably be back, but register late to see about better weather and higher water.
* I wouldn’t mind doing the whole race solo to get the full experience.
* We need more team relay races. Having your team be your ground crew and being fresh for every leg was amazing!
Hogan Haake
Great write-up and what an adventure!
Nice write-up! Great job to all of you.