Memorial weekend was spent in Wimberley with, unfortunately, only one paddle on the San Marcos. The plan was to launch early at City Park (about 0.5 miles from the starting line), paddle up river to the Spring Lake dam, scout the portage, then turn around and run 46 miles down river to Zedler Dam. We've both seen the majority of this stretch before, but we REALLY needed to run the first 16 miles in the canoe to scout and practice portage routes. Our second priority was to run the first 40 miles of the course (to Luling 90) to get an idea of where we'd be in relation to the cut off time at that check point, which is 11 hours.
Time-wise, we did OK. Subtracting our “scouting” time, we made it to Luling 90 in 9:15. On a better day, with some intensity, we could have easily gone faster. This was not a “better” day. I won't go into all of our issues, because there's no reason to at this point, but needless to say, I've had my last run with liquid food. I've used Boost and Spiz in the past with mixed results (usually screwing up my stomach). I really wanted to run the first 40 miles of the race on a liquid diet, to save time and keep us moving. I thought I give it a try on this run...bad idea.
The first few hours of the paddle were not bad. We scouted portages, decided which route we'd prefer to run on race day and which routes we could run if necessary. No major snags while portaging, unless you count the instance when I tweaked my back. While portaging Thompson's Island I got a little too excited about jerking the boat out of the water and pulled a muscle in my lower back. Not good. It didn't bother me too much through the rest of the paddle, but I've been feeling it since then.
The rapids were not as bad as they could have been. Well, none of them were clean runs, mostly due to the low water and running aground before we could ever make it all the way through. We'll be conservative there on race day, since there will likely be a traffic jam and mass destruction all around us. Even the Staples to Luling 90 stretch (which is choked with stumps, shallows, and logs) was not too bad. We stayed out of the sweepers and basically bailed out of the boat any time thing looked sketchy or beyond what we could manage. Of course, some of this was a bit rough, but not terrible.
The holiday weekend crowd didn't make things any easier. I was amazed at their ability to span the entire river, leaving only a 6 inch gap in the channel to try to squeeze or monstrous, aluminum canoe between either A) the oblivious unattended children or B) oblivious beer swilling hippopotamus. Although, I can't say this was with out warning. About 1 mile upstream you start to hear either loud country music or loud tejano music...so you know what's coming. The drunken comments are entertaining the first time, but after hearing “stroke, stroke, stroke” or “paddle faster” or “that looks like work” for the 15th time, it's like “yea, I heard that 6 miles ago you unoriginal bastards”.
A bigger issue was my stomach. After 3 or 4 hours of Boost, my stomach had enough. No puking, but I sure as hell wasn't drinking any more. I started munching on the little bit of jerky that I'd brought..until the bag got soaked while we were emptying water out of the canoe...SHIT! To make things worse, Matt had gone through his two ½ gallons of water and started on the 1 gallon jug, which of course got spilled while emptying the canoe. Hmm, looks like the 40 mile mark is our stopping point today.
Also, I'd some how fallen behind on electrolytes. I guess I hadn't added enough to the Boost to account for the warm weather and tougher pace that I was trying to hold early on. By the time we got to Luling, we both felt like shit. Not very encouraging, considering we'd only paddled 40 miles of a 262 mile race course. I was having some serious doubts after this paddle. As usual though, you get over it fast. I got back to the cabin, ate as much food as I could get a hold of, drank plenty of water and got a little rest. I recovered quickly and realized what our mistakes were. In addition to the hydration and nutrition issues, we need to stay at a more conservative pace early on. We simply don't have the fitness, experience, or skill to fight these low water levels in this boat. Better to slow down a bit and conserve energy for the long haul.
Yes, I forgot to finish this post. We're heading to San Marcos for check in soon and I realize that, damnit, I haven't finished my last post. So, this is getting wrapped up quickly. I was working out in the bay Wed and Thurs and completely forgot about this.
Basically, we're hauling the canoe, all of our gear, and our crew up to San Marcos today. We'll unload, make a list of every single thing in the canoe, then grab an official for inspection. At 4:00 we have the mandatory safety briefing. Not much to expect there “there's about 2 inches of water left on the river and a huge log jam down south”. Yep, we know, this will be brutal. Friday night will be our last bit of luxury, the Best Western in San Marcos. After that, it's 3-4 days in the wild. When I get back, for better or for worse, I'll post up with a recap of the race. I can't guarantee when I'll get to what I can only assume will be an extremely lengthy race report...but I'll get there eventually.
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