The Elk River Challenge is something of a misnomer. While part of the course is on the Elk River, the majority of it is in sloughs and inlets of the estuary located at the mouth of that river as well as in a section of Grays Harbor. The Challenge part of the name is valid, however. The course has quite a few twists and turns. Coupled with the shallows, weeds and tidal currents this race does have its challenges.
This event is organized by Vern and Janet Heikkila, stalwart members of the Sound Rowers, and sponsored by a number of Westport, WA, area businesses.
Since Westport, WA is located about two and a half hours from my home I decided to take up the Heikkila's offer of free camping. I departed rather late Friday evening from the Seattle area and arrived around 10:30 PM. After setting up the tent trailer and putting the kids to bed I collapsed into my bed some time after 11 PM.
It was rather bright the next morning, with the sky clearing of the overnight clouds. In this part of the country that forecast the day would be clear and warm. This is somewhat atypical of the aptly named Grays Harbor County, even in summer. Still, we were only a couple of miles from the Pacific Coast, so the temperatures should still be fairly reasonable.
After a breakfast of chocolate almond milk, granola, and key lime flavored Vita Rain - boy, that sounds awful! - I got the rest of the family up and prepared to head over to the race venue. The other campers were also up and about, and we introduced ourselves. It turns out that there was another family with three kids staying there, and the children were soon running amok.
The race was scheduled to start around noon, so we took our time in getting ready and driving over.
Brady's Oysters, one of the sponsors of the race, provided the use of their waterfront and parking areas for the race. They also supplied raw oysters for those brave enough to eat them. The organizers thoughtfully provided other sorts of snacks as well.
It was a bit easier getting things ready for this race as my oldest son could assist in getting the Cadence off the roof of the Chevy van and onto the dolly. Unfortunately, his help soon disappeared as he and the rest of the family went off to explore the tidal flats.
After hauling the boat and safety gear to the parking lot staging area I registered for the race. Paul Rollinger was there, and he and I checked out the hand painted map of the course. Oh, oh...it was different from the one depicted on the Sound Rowers web site!
After much hemming and hawing and a bit of nudging from Paul, who as a rower was a bit more dependent on getting directions from his GPS than me, I reentered all the waypoints and rebuilt the route in my GPS. Since the waypoint locations were only approximations, Paul would just have to turn around and see where he was going once in a while!
At the pre-race meeting Vern described the route and the hazards we were likely to encounter. The route was very circuitous. However, that was not necessarily a bad thing, as the boats in the rear would be able to see the boats out front as they twisted and turned like some enormous water snake in and out of the fingers of the estuary.
The main things to be concerned about were shallow water, weeds and pilings.
The meeting concluded and my family reappeared. Apparently the kids had all run amok in the muck, as their shoes were now varying shades of muddy gray. My wife bid me good luck and headed off to the beach with the horde. So much for my cheering section!
I rolled the Cadence down to the oyster shell paved road that lead into the water. The tide was still coming in, so much of the previously exposed road was now under water. Unfortunately, however, the incline of the road was so slight that I had to take off my bike shoes and walk barefoot on the broken shells, wheeling the boat at least 100 feet down the road into the water before it was deep enough for it to float freely. Ouch! Where were my water shoes when I needed them? Oh, yeah--in the van my wife just drove away.
A helpful bystander gave me a hand in shoving off. He also was kind enough to take the dolly and carry it to shore so my poor feet wouldn't have to make another trip. Thanks!
Many of the other racers chose to carry their boats over the grassy hummocks to another area for launching. It seemed that the water got deeper more quickly there. Unfortunately, it would have been tough to wheel my boat there, and the barnacle covered rocks would be even harder on my feet. Sigh...
I paddled out away from the oyster shell road into less shallow water and put on my bike shoes. The wind and tide had been pushing the boat to the southeast, towards the bridge which would act as both the start and finish line, and into a bed of weeds. A few additional quick strokes with the paddle and the boat headed out into deeper, weed-free water.
The other racers were milling about the pylons and the area south of the bridge. I joined the commotion, snapping pictures more or less at random, trying to frame them through the translucent plastic covering the view finders. The plastic bags protecting the camera from water were a bit old, and crazed with wear. I'll have to remember to replace them before the next race.
People began lining up as best they could, considering the drift caused by the wind and tide. After we were more or less lined up the starting signal was given and we were off!
We had a fast start, considering that we were heading into the wind and tide. The GPS registered about 7.5 mph. Still, this was no match for Greg Gilda in his sit-on-top HPK (high performance kayak) and Rob O'Brien in his rowing shell. They made it look effortless as they seemed to motor on ahead of the crowd.
An OC-2 (outrigger canoe, two person) was right next to me, and keeping about the same pace. Another OC-2, this one piloted by Vern and co-piloted by someone I did not recognize, was slowly approaching on the other side. Rapidly we all converged on the first buoy, which promised some exciting times as everyone bunched together for the 180 degree turn.
Sure enough, several of the rowing shells were forced to the outside as others cut close to the buoy. The Cadence was able to execute a pretty sharp turn and not interfere too much with the others. Still, there was not much clearance!
Having such a sharp turn so close to the start in a race was rather interesting. For the first time I could see how the field had already spread itself out. It was also possible to get pictures of people who would end up far behind, yet see how they are doing at the beginning. This is somewhat like the criterium style races organized by the IHPVA (International Human Powered Vehicle Association). However, in those races the courses tended to have multiple laps around a much shorter "track", and the leaders would end up having to contend with lapping the slower vessels.
Our speed seemed to pick up a bit after the turn, as the tide and wind were now at our back. I was cruising next to a couple of OC-2's when I hit some weeds, and my speed seemed to drop precipitously. Exercising the standard weed removal technique (forward and backward pedaling), the weeds seemed to be excised. Unfortunately, the OC-2's were now yards ahead. Traveling with the speed of the wind it was also getting to be quite warm. Thank goodness I had my cool hat!
Shortly after passing under the bridge Michael Furtado caught up to me in his rowing shell. Another rower slowly passed me on the right as we headed south into Mallard Slough. His direction was relatively erratic, however, as he made numerous course corrections to avoid the shallows and other boats.
I saw an opportunity to cut out some of the distance to the next buoy. The other boats stayed mainly to the deeper channel, which formed something of an arc. By cutting across the arc, yet staying away from the marsh grass growing along the slough I could conceivably gain quite some distance on the other boats. The water looked to be clear of weeds, and the sandy bottom appeared to be several feet below the surface. Off I went!
This strategy seemed to be working when suddenly I felt my propeller hitting the bottom. Oh, no! The bottom was really only about a foot or so down!
I made a quick turn towards the channel and augered my way back to deeper water.
Did I mention that now with the wind at my back it was now quite hot? My head was dripping with sweat. Frequent gulps from my water bottle did little to cool me. Even dragging my arms in the cool water of the slough provided only slight relief. I was really looking forward to making the turn around the second buoy!
The cut-across tactic ended up costing me a bit of time. The front runners were already returning from the slough and I snapped their picture. Greg and Rob were still moving effortlessly through the water, with Steve Wells following in his Maas shell. The OC-2's were now a bit further ahead, and it did not seem likely that I would be able to catch them. Sigh...
The GPS started beeping and displayed the message that the second buoy should be nearby. Well, it wasn't. Apparently it was quite a bit further up the slough than I thought! Hopefully Paul would not have troubles with that bit of misinformation.
About a quarter of a mile later the buoy was in sight. The OC-2's made their turn, followed closely by the two rowers. Shortly afterwards the erratic rower returned along the same side of the channel as he arrived. This caused a few minor problems for the oncoming racers, but nothing insurmountable.
I made the turn, too, and rejoiced in the cool breeze now flowing past my body. Well, rejoiced for a few moments, anyway. Soon the wind made my cool hat a veritable pain in the neck as the brim and hat were buffeted about. I took it off and tried hanging it behind me sort of like a sombrero. This made it act more like a parachute, unfortunately. I ended up sort of sitting against it, which seemed to reduce the it had effect on my speed.
Returning up the slough the other racers could be seen stretched out one by one. This made it relatively easy to take their pictures as we passed, though it was tough to frame them or zoom in with my lousy view finder. Still, it was fun to be able to see and cheer them on!
The trip to the next turn, marked by a big green buoy, seemed to come a bit faster than the other direction.
One of the people in the OC-2's ahead was Vern Heikkila. You might think that since he laid out the course it would make sense for me to follow him. But noooooo! I had to try cutting across another arcing channel to try to head straight for what I thought was the next buoy in the course.
Yes, I was confused and realized a bit late that I had to go around the big orange "rum" buoy before heading to the one I had targeted. Of course, having gone the wrong way I also went through a bunch of weeds. Removing them slowed me down even more. Sigh...
The OC-2's and rowing shells were now hopelessly far ahead as we passed the halfway point in the race. I cheered Rob as he passed once again, with Steve Wells and Greg still on his tail.
A double kayak being closely followed by a single were catching up to me. Feeling a little dispirited I let up a little on my pedaling and let them catch me as I continued running into and removing weeds from my prop.
The OC-2's were still in hot pursuit of each other and made a mad dash around the 5th buoy. I cheered them on, but they probably couldn't hear me with all the splashing of their paddles.
Overhead a bald eagle was circling, looking for lunch.
The kayaks moved ahead as we came to the buoy. They couldn't turn quite as sharply as the Cadence, so I was able to catch them shortly afterwards. We headed back out of this slough in close formation until shortly before the next turn. I felt they weren't going quite as fast as I wanted, so off I went.
The race leaders were just returning from their trip up the Elk River. Rob O'Brien was definitely in the lead, followed by Steve Wells and closely followed by Greg Gilda. The OC-2's were now separated a bit, but it looked like there was still a chance for some finish line sprints to make things interesting.
The kayaks were still behind, but not far. We headed up the Elk River to the last buoy. After making the turn my legs were feeling pretty good. I took another swig from the water bottle.
Hmmm, this was a race, was it not? In that case, I was not working hard enough!
With about a mile to go I began putting a bit more effort into it. The kayaks were left in my wake.
I should have done it sooner, or with more greater effort. The distance between the Cadence and the OC-2's seemed to be shrinking with each passing minute. Not wishing to repeat my mistakes I followed their course around some ancient pilings and headed straight for the bridge. Closer and closer I came, and then I heard the sound of the horn announcing that they had made it across. Now every minute counted as I put even more effort into the pedals.
Downing the last of my water, I began to pedal furiously. Breathe, pedal, pedal, breathe, pedal, pedal!
Even with the finish line effort I managed to snap a few more photos. Ok, so perhaps the focus didn't work on one of them, but that was not my fault. Oh, well!
After an hour, 10 minutes and 4 seconds, and about 7.25 miles distance I finally crossed the finish line. Whew!
After crossing the line I noticed that the race officials did not seem to care exactly where one crossed under the bridge. If the racers knew about this they could easily cut 10 seconds or more from their times merely by turning early under the bridge.
The single kayak that had been following the double employed this tactic and finished with a time well ahead of the double.
I'll have to remember that tactic next year!
After cruising around near the finish line and taking more photos I decided to return to the launch area. As I headed there I went through a big floating mass of weeds, and my pedal speed dropped way, way down. Again, doing the forward and backward pedaling some of the weeds were cleared. In fact, during one of the reversals a plume of eel grass that had been chopped into 4 inch segments flowed past the cockpit! Still, some of the weeds seemed reluctant to let go. They would have to wait.
Upon reaching the submerged oyster road near the shore my water shoes had not yet magically reappeared, but my dear wife had. She waded out with the dolly and helped load the Cadence onto it. She then hauled it to shore while I gingerly stepped over the shells. Thanks, Kate!
Besides the standard place awards, there were drawings for numerous prizes. These included bags of fresh whole Dungeness crab, T-shirts, CO2 detectors, etc. I was lucky enough to win some crab - which was delicious, I might add!
Vern awarded a package of ground elk meat (elk burger) to the crew that most looked like they had been put through the grinder.
Vern awarded an elk desk set to the first place finisher, Rob O'Brien, and another set to the first female finisher, Charlene Shelfer, who was on board the first OC-2 across the finish line. Congratulations to both!
It was another beautiful day, and an excellent race. Thank you, Vern and Janet!
The complete set of photos I took during the race can be found here.
The course I followed during the race and some metrics can also be found there by clicking on the last image in the photo gallery, or the last picture above.