50 Years of the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race

Lani and I at drop 2 of Shopping Cart Rapids. Justin Russell Photography

One of my favorite things about competing in different events is what I learn about the event's history and the people, culture, and communities that host the event. This weekend, I had the privilege of being one of nearly a thousand participants to take part in the 50th annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race. In lieu of a lengthy race report, I think that a few interesting facts about the race and some great photos will suffice. This race speaks for itself, and a good picture says a whole lot of words!

Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race tidbits: (if someone has additional tidbits or photos, please let me know, I'd love to add them!)

• First run in 1967, the inaugural race was put on by Sonny Colburn and Lew Gilman.  There were 32 canoes and fifty thousand spectators. No, that is not a typo. Reports suggest that seven of the boats never made it to the finish. Sonny Colburn was present at the race this year to kick off the 50th anniversary of the race.

• The Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race is the largest canoe race in New England. Over the event's history, over 30,000 paddlers have participated. There were participants in attendance who have raced the event more than forty times. 

It is astonishing to see what thousands of people in the tiny town of Kenduskeag (population of about 1,300) actually looks like.

• The race covers a 16-mile stretch of the Kenduskeag that includes 9 miles of flatwater and 7 miles of class I to III whitewater with two mandatory portages (and one optional at 6-mile falls).

Lani and I making our way down the Kenduskeag. Photo Chip Cochrane.

• Canadian kayaker Trevor MacLean won this year's race in a field of 493 boats (921 participants). This is his 12th win, tying for the record of most times won.

Trevor MacLean paddles one of the narrow, sleek kayaks seen on the river. 
My guess is that most of these fragile boats portage the 
bigger rapids.
Photo Michele Barker Photography.

• Not all competitors are as serious, however; many teams come dressed in costume. The Gumby boat, for example, has been paddling the Kenduskeag since the early 1990's and was once featured in Sports Illustrated. We also saw Minions, Ghostbusters, zombies, superheros, bananas, ducks, and bubble machines traveling downriver. Some folks come to the Kenduskeag in traditional canoes ("recreational boats"), others kevlar race boats, and some war canoes.

I am pretty sure when we passed these gals, Lani yelled "who ya gonna call?". How original. Photo Whittling Fog Photography

I have no idea how the guy in the stern can see over Gumby. Lani complains about not being able to see over my big head. Photo Michele Barker Photography.

• The best place for viewing the carnage is at six mile falls, but by no means is this the only place where boats flip. In 2010, Hank Garfield of the Bangor Daily News did an informal count of vehicles of "river vultures" (a term used for spectators who follow the race by car to watch the carnage) at six-mile falls. He quit counting at 700 vehicles. Another popular viewing spot for river vultures is the rapid known as Shopping Cart, named aptly after several shopping carts mysteriously appeared on the riverbanks several years ago.

• WABI also covers the carnage on channel 5 for those who can't get out to watch the fun. This includes a full two hours of coverage from six-mile falls. My children were glued to the event from home.

I love this sequence of these two fellas trying so desperately to stay in their boat. I am not sure how things ended up for them, but I think I have an idea. It is worth noting that many people who take a dunk in the river get back in pretty quickly and put in a solid finish time.
 Photo Michele Barker Photography.

• I attempted to uncover statistics on the Dump Rate, DNF statistics, or some data on lost/destroyed boats each year. Obviously, data would vary depending on flow conditions, but it turns out, that there is no such data. On this search, I got distracted on a 2007 lost-and-found thread where people were posting information regarding lost boats. I stopped after reading about at least twenty lost boats from that year.

I can honestly say, I have never seen this before. Whittling Fog Photography

A z-drag rescue for an unlucky boat wrapped around a rock below six-mile falls this year. This would be an example of how people DNF this race. Photo Michele Barker Photography

As for our part, Lani had an awesome run this year! After losing our division in 2014 by a margin of just 31 seconds, we came ready to put it all out there. Putting in the 18th fastest time of the day (amongst all crafts- first in our division), we had our best day paddling yet!

Thanks Michele Barker photography for a cool action sequence of Lani and I in the final drop of six mile falls. I always look so serious in these photos. Photo Michele Barker Photography.

Super big smile for an awesome effort. The wooden canoes are the coolest prizes of any race! Photo Lani Cochrane.

Thanks to Michele Barker Photography, Whittling Fog Photography and Justin Russell Photography for catching fun action shots of the event. Also thanks to Hammer Nutrition (use this link for 15% off your first order) for great fuel and Spandits for my awesome tights and hat (use code SPANDITSLOVE and tell them I sent you for 10% off)!

This is my "I wish I wore a visor" game face. Whittling Fog Photography

Who Wants to Take up Whitewater Canoe Racing??

"Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism and never, ever, ever giving up." Amy Burfoot- The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life.

Arial shot of one of the rapids of the Penobscot paddled in the whitewater regatta. What look like little ripples are up to seven foot standing waves!

It is safe to say that I find whitewater intimidating. Very intimidating. Back in 1997, I had my first real encounter with whitewater when I learned to kayak at the School of Hard Knocks. My well-intentioned now-husband Dave introduced me to paddling, and often swimming, in big water in Idaho. For the most part, it didn't go well. Having swam through violent whitewater, enormous crashing waves, and the churning pour overs and holes of both the Selway and Salmon rivers during our summers in Idaho, I was forced to master the art of self-rescue in class IV rapids. Needless to say, long ago I learned to develop healthy respect for what the power of moving water can do to the human body. Upon moving back east in 2000, I turned my whitewater kayak into a flower pot.

So, fifteen years later, it is clear the logical thing to do would be to hop in an open canoe and sign up to race through whitewater. At Nationals. Seems about right.

The Whitewater Nationals Regatta is a 4-day event put on by the American Canoe and Kayak Association that is held annually on various rivers throughout the nation, most recently being the Nantahala River in North Carolina. When Lani and I heard that the event would be making a return to the state of Maine, we were curious about the possibility of registering a boat to see how we might fare. Besides the caliber of canoeists who would be competing in the ACA Whitewater Nationals, one of the more exciting aspects of this event was the fact that the race was to be held on a stretch of the Penobscot river that has only recently been open to paddlers. The waterway has been home to the Penobscot Indians for thousands of years and was used by tribal members as a travel route until the 1800's when the river was blocked by two large dams. In the last three years, the Penobscots have purchased and decommissioned the dams, returning the waterway to a free-flowing state that hasn't existed for hundreds of years. For the paddling community, the restoration work of the Penobscots and the class III whitewater that now stands in the place of these dams has been a much appreciated gift.

A training run on the third drop at the site of the former Great Works dam. I am pretty sure this is our friend Fiona paddling. -with Fiona Hamilton.

We knew that without a doubt we would compete against paddlers with years (or decades) of experience that we lacked in whitewater canoeing. We also knew that our inexperience working as a paddling duo would not work in our favor. Nevertheless, our desire for a new kind of adventure surpassed any real common sense that would otherwise dissuade us from registering. We immediately signed up and made our training plan.

The physical conditioning was the easy part... actual on-water training time? Not-so-much. Schedules, families, work, and sheer distance to moving water from our homes made it difficult for us to get together more than a dozen times from April to July to come together on the water to prepare ourselves for what was to come. When we couldn't paddle together, we made time on the water separately.  During our on-water outings, we worked on cadence, paddle strokes and technique, reading whitewater, and most importantly, communication. Having been close friends for years who have talked about just about anything imaginable along our adventures, it would seem that this would be where Lani and I would have an advantage. For anyone who has canoe-raced in a tandem boat, you must know that we were terribly mistaken. Instead, we were in for a steep learning curve. If we were going to survived this event, here are some things we would need to consider...

1) Who is in charge of making decisions? Who picks the line? If one person wants to go right around a hazard and the other wants to go left, the compromise is going straight over it. That kind of compromise is bad for everyone. Don't ask me how I know that.
2) How do you execute the plan once you have it? Who makes the corrections? Draw from the bow while the stern maintains forward momentum, or are correction strokes made from the stern? How do you make these adjustments while maintaining speed?
3) Here is my favorite one. "Left!!". What does that really mean? Does that mean to go to the left of a hazard, or watch out for what is on the left? Should I keep the hazard to my left, which would really mean to go right? I can't begin to tell you how many hours we spent working that one out.
4) Decisions in canoe racing are made on-the-fly in split seconds, involving more than one brain to execute a plan, albeit sometimes a questionable one. How do you keep both teammates in synch? How do you learn to trust someone else?

Our little team. A finely tuned machine....

So after some experiential learning, we determined that from he position in the bow, I would pick the lines. I would find the safest, fastest water on the river at all times. Lani learned to trust me (which I know was probably difficult, especially in the beginning). I would make the call, Lani wouldn't question or argue. From the stern, Lani was otherwise the captain. I learned to respond to commands like "draw", "cross-draw", "brace", "PADDLE HARD", "lean back", and "goddammit Shelley!" like a golden retriever waiting for a ball. And thus, our little team was born....

Once the preliminary training work was done, we headed over to Old Town to pre-run the race course, build our confidence, and make final adjustments as needed. Turns out, adjustments were much needed. Within about 400 meters of the 9-mile downriver route, we were out of the canoe and in the water. Swimming. 

From the looks of it, Lani and I weren't the only ones figuring things out as we went along. - Photo Tim Nutt.

Coming soon.... Part II: The Regatta.....