It's been a few since the Canyon Race and I have yet to put anything up on the blog. Not sure why it took so long but here goes.
With the race coming up we had spent a few days during the week after work and many weekends getting laps in on Canyon Creek at several different flows to get a good memory of the rapids and the ideal lines for those flows. With Canyon being rain and snow melt fed it would be a guess as to what the rain gods would deal us on race day. What we ended up was nothing but spectacular. Weather turned out being close to 80 degrees. The water level was 3-4" below the unit. A great flow that would cover a lot of the rocks, make the holes just sticky enough to mess with those not familiar to the creek at that flow which proved an important strategy. Many good boaters got ate by the hole at the bottom of the boulder garden. One side note: while every drop on the run has at least one name, several 2. The boulder garden is just that. "The boulder garden with the hole at the bottom" Why is that? Several have commented,"it the only boulder garden on the run!". There is only one waterfall, "Big Kahuna". Why does it have two names it goes by. The world will never know:)
Anywho, back to the story. The evening prior to the race. I got a Migraine. Something I get to deal with unfortunately. It attacked me just as I was getting off work so I look my meds and made a run for home while I could still see where the heck I was going. Turn the lights off, crawl into bed and sleep for as long as I can usually is my only defense. It worked and by 9pm I was able to drive over to pick Devin up from his moms and back to my place and go back to bed. The next morning I could only hope would treat me well enough to at the least get Devin up to the race. If I ran Canyon myself I didn't care. I had not planned on racing but I did want to see him race at some point as well as get some shots.
By the time we drove to the take-out I was feeling 95% sure I'd be heading down the run. Yippee!! Thanks Imatrex!!
Once we got shuttled up to the put in after getting Devin signed up. Shuttle provided by Seattle Raft and Kayak and Next Adventure. We got geared up and made our way down the creek towards the first of the bigger rapids, "Swizzle Sticks". This would prove to be the first of many rapids that I immediately could tell Devin was having an off day for any number of reasons. Most likely just thinking too much about the race and lines down each drop. He dropped into the first hole in the entance and got a little surf session before pulling his way out only to drop into the big hole midway down the main part of the rapid. Once again he worked his way out but geez! This has never happened on the 10-12 previous runs in the past 3 months. I chatted with Devin for a minute or two seeing if he was OK and he claimed nothing was bugging him. "50-50" and "Terminator" didn't give him any problem and we made our way to "Prelude" or "Prelude to Thrasher". This drop changes quite a lot with different flows at 3-4" below the unit it tends to give boaters a bit of trouble. It's one of the most portaged drops and the only one that I have had the fortunate enjoyment of getting worked in without safety in place and swam out of. Not the best place to swim I might add with "Thrasher " awaiting 40 yards downstream. While Devin styled the drop as he usually does. I got flipped punching the hole and was glad to roll and pull myself out with the same stroke to paddle away from it. Dave Gridley who was next to run it after seeing myself and apparently the guy prior to me do the same things quickly paddled across above the drop. Got out of his boat and portaged it. Dave is a much better boater than myself by far but I'm trying to push myself to run it. If not, I will start portaging it every time and that's not cool with me. I believe 8-10 people got worked and swam out of "Prelude" during the race. A few boat even ran "Thrasher" before getting to the bank.
Race time: The racers were released every 60 seconds and they could step up in any order to the starting line. Devin was somewhere in the first 3rd to go. That made me feel good. He was relaxed and not nervous like I'd be in his place. I wish I had his nerves at time. Mike Long was the starter and someone Devin really respects though they've never boated together. Mike is in a lot of trip reports on Oregonkayaking.net. Devin's Bible you could say. Though Mike told me a while back at Pint Night to stop letting Devin read the reports. He knows all the creeks within a few hour drive and has a mental list of ones someday he wants to get on. One's he would not know of if such a site didn't exist.
I stayed at "Thrasher" for most of the kayaks starts so I got to see Devin run "Thrasher". Which to me was the most important drop to nail. He styled it as he has usually in part thanks to Dave Hoffman showing him his line down it and it seems to work quite well for Devin as well. I cheered him on after the drop as he paddled towards the boulder garden and he was gone. I knew I would not get to know how he did for some time and I was OK with that. He knows the lines and there was safety set at all the drops in case.
As the kayakers were winding down, I headed down river to "Big Kahuna Falls" to catch the rafts run it. I knew "Thrasher" would not be a problem for them so this should provide the best viewing of some carnage or styling of the 20' falls. It for sure gave a little of both. A little MiniMe missed the boof and plugged and flipped while the team that won from Seattle dialed the boof in like it was a hardshell kayak. A few others did the same.
In the end Devin ran a great race with a time of 6 minutes 6 seconds. Good enough respectivily for 15th in the Mens Pro Division or time wise 8th or 9th in the Advanced class that had 36 competitors in it. There was no youth class. There was only two this year. Devin and Robbie Virostek, age 17. Unless more race next year Devin would be the only youth so I'm guessing he will competing in the Mens class till he is truely a "Man" The only line has told me he missed was "Kahuna" where he didn't quite catch the eddie above the lip he uses to line up the boof flake with and plugged the drop getting pushed into the left undercut wall. Just getting over to the left side of the falls costs you 10 seconds. His time was within .2 seconds of Robbies.
To add to the fun after the race we all headed to Mike Olsen's place for a big party he throws after the Canyon Race's in past years and this one did not disappoint.
A special thanks to Ted Keyes, Devin's LiquidLogic Rep. for getting with Sam Drevo to loan us the Remix59 to train in and race down Canyon Creek. It was the a perfect fit for such a race. I believe I saw 3-4 of the Remix's out there in all there different sizes.
