Category: Kayaking

I’ve done this race a bunch of times, and it remains one of my favorites. The Adirondacks are gorgeous this time of year, the weather is usually pretty good, and I love the new two-pronged course they’ve been using for the last couple of years.

This year, the weather was the best it’s ever been. The sun was bright, not a cloud in the sky, no wind, and temperatures that were warm but not hot at race time. Also, there was a bit of fall color in the trees. Just perfect.

Unfortunately, some people I know didn’t show. Todd, John, and Mike all stayed home in Rochester. Adirondack transplants Doug and Roger didn’t show. However, there were plenty of people I knew and several I didn’t. In unlimited kayak, as well as Jim and Royal there was a guy in an ICF sprint boat, as well as a couple in V10Ls, his was a GT and hers was an Ultra. Another guy had a Stellar SR18 but and it looks like he registered in unlimited class although he was probably eligible for touring. Eric, the guy I unsuccessfully chased last year was also in his touring class Epic 18x. They started the touring class boats in the first wave, so I wasn’t going to get a rematch with Eric, which was too bad because I’m pretty sure I’m faster this year. So, as usual, I figured I was probably going to finish about fourth or fifth in unlimited and I just hoped I would make a good showing against the strangers.

When we lined up for the second wave, there was a lot of lineup creep. Over on the right side, people were about two boat lengths in front of the line. I was hanging back anticipating that Brian would get people to move back, but when he told people to move back and they barely budged, I moved up level with them. I believe in rules, but I’m also not a sucker. I heard him give a number of seconds to the start but didn’t hear the number, so I started my GPS just in case it was a small number. After 15 seconds I heard “30 seconds”, and then 30 seconds after that, I heard “15 seconds”, so my GPS was reading 1 minute about when the gun went off.

At the start, I immediately latched onto the wake of the C-2 that started right beside me. I heard a war canoe on my left say “go right, Epic” but I don’t think he was talking to me. Maybe the video will show that (Update: it was the guy in the V10L GT). Under the bridge, the war canoes finally got up to speed and started passing us. One passed to my immediate left. Its wake threw off the C-2 and I went to the C-2’s right and passed them. I was getting a good ride from the war canoes wake, although I was working pretty hard to stay with them. There was another war canoe to my left and just slightly ahead of me – I was trying to stay far enough ahead on the first war canoes wake so I wasn’t getting thrown around by the second war canoe’s wake. Ahead of both war canoes and to the left, I could see the lead pack of Jim, Royal, and the ICF guy. I guess I’d left the two V10Ls behind, although I had no idea how far.

Things stayed like that for about a kilometer. I had initial fantasies of being pulled up to the lead pack of kayaks in this wake, but it didn’t happen like that. The second war canoe (can I just call them wcs? I’m getting tired of typing out “war canoe”) got close enough to the first one that his wake was throwing me around a bit, and I dropped off the first wc’s wake and got on the second, but I couldn’t hold him for long. Soon I was on my own, just as we were starting to pass the first wave boats.

Rounding the first turn boat, I didn’t think to look back to see where the two V10Ls were, but I didn’t see them coming in the other direction afterward so I should have known they were close. Unfortunately, I’d just discovered that my drink system wasn’t working right and I could only get a small sip after providing a lot of suction. On a hot day, that’s not ideal, and it was distracting. On the way back to the bridge, there were lots of boat wakes. I could see well up ahead that Jim and Royal were still pretty close together, but the ICF guy was tucked into the wake of the last wc and they were having to turn into every boat wake as they hit it. I was trying to figure out if I was getting closer or further away – I thought maybe they were fading or having problems with the wakes.

Just before the bridge, I decided I really needed a drink and I stopped to fiddle with my drink system. It didn’t help. Then coming under the bridge I picked up a weed on my bow. So much for catching the ICF boat. Fortunately, there were still boat wakes around so I cleared it after a bit. But maybe a kilometer after the bridge I grabbed my drink hose for one of those “high suction and low return” sips, and I felt a tap on my stern. It was the black V10L GT. No idea how long he’d been there, but obviously stopping to fiddle with my drink hose had been a big mistake. He came through, and I glommed onto his stern wake.

On his wake, sometimes I thought I was working too hard and other times I thought I was recovering. My heart rate was in the high 150s and then down into the mid 140s. I couldn’t figure it out. About a minute from the second turn, I could see that this C-4 we were catching was on a collision course. We were on the inside line to the buoy and we had the right of way, and I kept wondering why they weren’t steering away. As a matter of fact, they looked like they were on a line that would take them inside the turn buoy, not around it. We got closer and closer, and suddenly it became apparent that they had absolutely no intention of turning away – as they got so close that the people paddling on our side of their boat couldn’t get their paddles in the water without hitting us, the sternsman yelled “keep paddling” at them. Their boat gave the V10L a small push on his stern, steering him briefly to the right. I had to go the long way around them to the left. I was livid. I swore at them something fierce for deliberately interfering with another race (ie ours). Then out of breath from swearing at them, I had to sprint up to the stern wake of the V10L just in time for the turn. He turned sharper than me, so I had to sprint back up again. Then stupidly I decided I needed another sip of drink, losing me the wake and forcing a third sprint. I was pretty beat. That was about when my heart rate monitor decided to show numbers in the 80-90 range, which I knew was about 80 beats per minute too low. It’s done this before, so I figured it would work itself out and sure enough, it was soon back in the more believable 150-160 range (although I did get some more glitches later on). It was as much as I could do to hold on to the wake and try to recover a bit. But at least at the turn, I was able to see the woman in the V10L was far behind us.

I stayed in his stern wake most of the way home. With probably 2 km to go, he tried to outfox me. He slowed right down, causing me to pull out to his left side wake. I grabbed my drink hose to take a sip rather than be forced to take the lead, so he sprinted off to the right. He would have gotten away from me too, but for some reason, he veered left in front of me, and I was able to get back on. He tried a similar move with about 500 meters to go, but this time I tried to sprint side by side with him and he got away. I really didn’t have anything left for the sprint. Official results aren’t up, but I’m sure he got 30 seconds or more on me. (Update: Official results are up, he got me by 21 seconds. And I was 3:41 faster than Eric!)

And even though the conditions change and the length of the race changes depending on where they decide to anchor the turn boats, I’m extremely happy with the fact that I’m about 14 minutes faster this year than last, and my average speed went from 10.5 km/hr to 10.9 km/hr. Next year I’m going to break 11.

I took a quick look at the video from my two GoPros, and I think it’s going to be a good movie. Watch this space.

So this is my third Lighthouse to Lighthouse (L2L). I did it in 2014, then they didn’t have the race in 2015, and I did it again in 2016. I had high hopes this year because I’ve been training hard with Tom Murn trying to fix some flaws in my technique and add some speed to my great base that I’ve built up by paddling all winter and spring with Jim M.

L2L is a great time to catch up with friends from Traverse City and with people I’ve met out west and here at L2L. We met a good crowd the night before at the Tavern on Seven and more at the race site in the morning.

Ok, some salient points in case you haven’t read my posts from the previous times I’ve done this race:

• It’s long. Nearly 22km.
• It seems to always be hot.
• It’s dominated by boat wakes from all directions rather than wind or tide driven waves.

As in previous years, the water was flat as hell when we arrived. It was also foggy. At race time there was a light breeze that was basically along the long part of the course between the two lighthouses – at our backs on the way out, in our faces on the way back in. The waves were small on the way out, and maybe about a foot high on the way back. The fog had lifted a few feet off the water so you could see the other racers and the landmarks.

At the start I did two things right compared to last year: I lined up sort of in the middle but one row back, and I didn’t go out too fast. I’d sort of hoped to keep up with Chris Chappell but he rocketed off the line so I settled into plan B and tried to find somebody’s wake to ride. After the first turn, I was behind a guy in a red Nelo. I’m not sure, but I think he was the guy who paddled a V8 last year with no shirt under his PFD.

I kept on his wake for a little while before dropping off. Then three more guys came by and I couldn’t get on any of them for any length of time. One of the guys was in a Fenn Swordfish, who I later found out was Ray Fusco (who organized the Mayor’s Cup races a bunch of years ago) and another guy had an Epic paddle with gold blades (possibly Yosef Dayan).

After the first lighthouse, we turned generally downwind. It was hot and humid but I was catching some waves. Cliff Roach from Goodboy Kayaks (they make really good v-racks) came up beside me and started chatting. I didn’t look back to see who he was talking to, but he told somebody else to slot into my stern wake – I think he called him Allen or Alex but I don’t see any likely candidates in the results. I looked at my video, and I couldn’t read his boat number. I also could not see him pass me either then or anytime after. He was in a black Stellar with orange tips – not sure if it was an SS20 class boat (SR) or unlimited. (Looking at the video from the start, it might have been Bradley Ethington.)

I was catching waves and I pulled away from them. I caught up to Ray Fusco again, and he also wanted to chat. I stayed with him and it looked like we were catching the guy with the gold paddle blades until the water got really choppy and confused. Then Ray and gold paddle guy pulled away like I was standing still. Soon afterward, so did Cliff. That always happens to me – the segment from the end of the last island to the second lighthouse and back is a confused mess of waves from all directions and I slow right down. I said to myself as it happened “oh, this is where I lose all the gains I’ve made so far”.

After the lighthouse and back to the island, but it wasn’t really getting easier because the headwind, while refreshing, was also throwing waves straight at our faces. There was a sea kayaker who was just a few meters ahead of me at the turn, but I just couldn’t seem to catch him. We paddled parallel courses for ages. A guy in a v14 came paddling by. When he had his paddle in the water, he was pretty fast, but he kept having to brace, and one time he let go of his paddle and put his hands in the water – I was sure he was going to lose it there. A classic case of a paddler who would be a lot faster in a boat he could actually put power down. But he managed to pull away.

The guy with the gold paddle blades was bracing a lot, and I was actually catching him. It was so unusual for me to pass anybody in the rough part of that race that I actually asked him if he was ok as I passed him.

After a while, it settled down a bit and I started to speed up. I passed the guy in the sea kayak – we had a brief conversation about camera mounts. Evidently being chatty with people you’re passing is contagious. I felt like I was catching back up to Cliff as well, but he had a substantial lead by this point.

After turning around the second last island to the lighthouse I was catching waves and it suddenly became fun again. I passed one of the Achilles doubles (Achilles is an organization for disabled paddlers) and I tried to say some encouraging words to them. I think the guy in front is blind – I’d seen him walking around on the beach before the race with a white cane. I thought about making some joke about him being in a chair with somebody blowing a fan and spritzing him with water, but I didn’t know how it would be received. As I got to the actual lighthouse, I was trying to plot a course between the lighthouse and a rower who was kind of zig-zagging around so I didn’t say much to the second Achilles double I passed.

Right after the lighthouse, this gigantic fishing boat cut between me and a woman paddler I was chasing (I found a picture on Facebook where I could read her number, and it was Linda Aragon in the SS20 category). I had to brace a bit when the wake hit me and I swore out loud – somebody behind me, either the Achilles double or the rower apologized, but I wasn’t swearing at them, I was swearing at my inability to handle a boat wake at that point. The wake make me brace, and when I got into the middle of their wake I hit heavily aerated water that you couldn’t really paddle hard in, but I sprinted over to the other side and caught a ride on it, enough to catch the woman and pass her. I was putting in a full-on effort – Cliff was up there, but I didn’t think I could catch him. I went a little too close to the last island and it got slow in between waves because it was so shallow. But I still had enough energy to sprint, but I never quite caught Cliff.

There was one of the official boats at the last turn buoy and it looked almost like the finish was there. It didn’t fool me, but Mike got briefly confused. I was already fading from my sprint, but I keep going with whatever I had left.

In the end, I ended up 32 seconds behind Cliff Roach, and nearly 9 minutes faster than last year and 7 minutes faster than 2014. I’m pretty satisfied with that. I think for next year I’ll have to spend more time in sloppy conditions. I don’t enjoy them, but I’ve got to figure out how to maintain speed when the waves are coming from every direction. I think I say that every year after L2L – one of these days I’ll figure it out.

Then after the race, it was time to eat and tell stories. They put on a pretty good spread at L2L. Really good chowder and chili. I’d tell you how good the hot dogs were but I dropped mine when I was trying to roll up my sleeve to show my tattoo to Tim Dwyer.

Ok, Final Cut Pro has finished transcoding my video, time to start editing.