Stroke! Stroke!

Yesterday morning I rolled out of bed before 6am, groggy and a bit grouchy, but positive at the sight of the sun peeking over the horizon. After a quick shower and some breakfast I was sufficiently awake and functional, and ready for the trek out to Appleton.

Joe and his friend were competing in an annual canoe race in a few hours. I know what you're thinking...we still have snow on the ground, why in the world would there be a canoe race? Well...I'm not sure. But it's a tradition here and after arriving to the launch site and seeing a number of father-son teams, I realized it was mostly a family tradition. If your parents raced, you raced. Of course not everyone was a descendant of a canoe racer, I saw a couple of younger guys in their cut off t-shirts, ball caps and sunglasses (even though there was no sun whatsoever). But for the most part there were locals. Lots and lots of locals--somewhere around 100 participants.

Needless to say, I didn't participate. I watched. There's a bridge in the middle of the roughly 3 mile stretch where families and friends gather to watch the canoes go over a small rapid. We saw one poor guy fall out of his canoe after hitting a rock in the first set of rapids. Thankfully he had a light vessel and was able to stand up in the shallow waters and move his canoe to a better spot before getting back in.

Joe and Pete had a rather close call of their own. They came dangerously close to tipping over into the cold water on the same rapids.



Luckily these guys in red were standing watch, ready to jump in after anyone that needed assistance. I though their suits made them look like they were about to clean up hazardous waste as opposed to jump in a freezing cold river, but I suppose the amount of protection needed for both tasks is rather similar.



The boys made it safely to the end. Their legs and feet were mostly numb from the cold waters, but after a changing into some warmer clothes, they thawed out just fine. We're waiting to hear their race time until it's published in the paper, but they're not all that worried. While some participants were in it to win it, they were merely there for a good time. And lucky for them, there's another race next weekend!