AuSable River Canoe Marathon

On Sunday, we decided to leave church a couple hours early and watch the 67th annual AuSable River Canoe Marathon. The AuSable river is the large river nearby that we love to canoe on, and it empties into lake Huron just south of town. We have skipped the marathon the past two summers, but we decided we couldn't skip it any longer--the marathon is just too cool. The marathon starts in Grayling, MI, 120 river miles away, and the paddlers run time-trials in the days leading up to the race to earn their seed positions. Then, at 9:00 PM on Saturday, they line up on the main street of Grayling and race with their canoes to the river. They paddle all night long, and once they reach the lower stretch of the river, they have to portage their canoes over 5 dams to continue on the race.

Here's a map of the racecourse. Absolutely crazy! We decided to sit at the bottom of the last dam on the river and watch the paddlers portage and then head down the river to the finish line. 

 When we got there, there were already lots of spectators and support crew there to cheer for their paddle teams. At the top left of the picture, you can see the people standing at the top of the dam. The paddlers beach there, then carry/drag their canoes down the hill, and start off again at the base of the far cement wall, after grabbing a little bit of food from their "feeders."

 Hank found a big rock and was determined to carry it to the water and throw it in.

 We got settled along the wall and cheered for the paddle teams.

 Here you can see a team dragging their canoe down the hill to the water. I can only imagine how exhausted they were at this point--paddling since 9:00 the night before (it was around 12:30 when we arrived), legs cramped from sitting in the same position for hours at a time, arms burning from paddling. It is a huge undertaking!

 One of the teams, back on the river, paddling for the finish line!

 We had brought along many snacks to help sustain us during the less exciting parts of the day--Hank enjoyed simultaneous eating and climbing on the huge boulders.

 Here was some major excitement! Two canoe teams set off from the shore almost at once. It was so fun to hear people screaming for their teams. There had been some discussion earlier about which was the better tactic--to set off immediately downstream but not in the current, or to head perpendicular to shore and try to get in the current right away. It was fun to see two teams at once because they tried the two methods and we along the shore soon had our answer.

 The guys in white headed out to the current while the other team headed straight downstream--and they quickly pulled ahead.

 I wished I was a bird so I could fly along ahead and see who was going to win out of these two teams--they were both really fast.

 Jed and I had a lot of fun throwing rocks and taking pictures together while we waited.

 Tragedy--this team got off so well from the shore and then immediately capsized!

 They swam their canoe back closer to shore and then dumped it out and relaunched. Their support crew was there to help, but there wasn't much they could do, because they weren't allowed to touch the canoe once it was launched, or the team would be disqualified.

 They dumped sooo much water out of the canoe! I felt bad for them--they had seemed to have a good rhythm before they tipped over, and once they got going again, they seemed quite disjointed. They were going to have plenty to talk about on their way to the end.

 Here again were two crews neck and neck down the hill. The first crew quickly outdistanced the second crew, though, because their second paddler had to be helped as she slid down the hill on her bum. It was hard to tell what was wrong with her at our distance, but whatever her injury, she was determined to finish.

 Undeterred, she limped into the river and was helped into her canoe.

And, off the two ladies went! I was totally envious of their arm muscles. Although her foot was injured, her arms were fine, and they were making great time as they went around the bend.

We left after about 2 hours, right before a MAJOR thunderstorm hit. We pulled into our driveway as the first drops were coming down, and then crazy thunder and lightning started booming and flashing all around. We got about an inch of rain in about half an hour--the rain was coming down in SHEETS. I kept thinking of the paddlers out on the river, struggling through the insane weather.

I am so glad we took the opportunity to go and see the race. It was so fun to watch the crews paddling along, working for their part of $50,000 in prizes, and hoping to come in at a decent time--the record is 13 hours, 58 minutes and 8 seconds. The winners today finished in 14 hours, 36 minutes and 18 seconds. Amazing!