October 2, 2023
Hello my fellow beings!
Many molecules of water have flowed under the bridge since I’ve given you an update on some of the events I’ve experienced lately. It’s been a pretty busy summer, what with popcorn growing and harvesting, my first attempt at hard peach cider, and my aunt’s 90th birthday party, among other things. One of those other things was the Middle Loup River Challenge! The Loup River system is in central Nebraska and is a tributary of the Platte River. I was lucky enough to spend some quality time tubing on the Middle Loup River during my last BRAN and it was one of the highlights of that experience. I also have been enjoying some stand-up paddle boarding lately and I figured it would be worth the trip out there to enjoy the peacefulness and also improve my SUPing skills. I have gradually become better at SUPing, and I have developed a preference for river SUPing, although then you’ve got to have a way to get a vehicle down to your take out point. The MLRC provides a shuttle and plenty of other river enthusiasts to commune with. Although I knew I wouldn’t be able to have a beer on the river whilst paddling my SUP, I was still looking forward to a nice casual trip down the river. We got a chance to visit some of the local businesses during the pre-event hours. After a busy day at work and about a 3.5-hour drive, I arrived a bit late, so I didn’t get a chance to kick back at the Sandhill Corral where packet pick-up took place, but I did pay $10 for a breakfast sandwich and some coffee that I could pick up the next morning.
Then I zipped over to the camping area and set up my tent right next to the leisure float division starting point. It was a nice spot, although the cockleburs also seemed to like it. I got my iRocker iSUP inflated with a nice Polotrag electric pump Mrs. Snot had recently gifted me. It is really nice not to have to manually pump after a busy, tiring day of work and driving a few hours out to an adventure location. It took me a few trips with the iSUP before I realized I needed to pump it up to a much higher pressure than I had previously used with our inflatable kayak, Floatie. The electric pump has a digital readout which makes it pretty easy to get to the right pressure. I talked briefly with a few of my fellow campers, many of whom talked about some glorious kayaking adventures to various exotic locales, including the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River. We were close to the railroad tracks, so I popped in some earplugs and I was off to sleep.
The next morning I was up at around 6 to get my gear organized, get some food, and head over to the take-out location and catch the 7 o’clock shuttle to the race starting point and then back to the leisure float starting point.
The proprietress at Anthem Coffee was gracious enough to provide me with a delicious egg and cheese vegetarian sandwich. The coffee was very hot and tasty. Once we got to the race starting point we got a nice introductory/inspirational talk from the organizer, Cay (pronounced Kye) Ewoldt.
We got to see racers start out and various heats for the 28 mile competitive event.
I chatted with a few other people, including a fellow camper, Ryan, who had organized a Facebook group called Dirty Oars, to try to encourage some interest in paddling trips near his home in North Platte. I snapped a few photos and then we got shuttled downstream to the leisure float put-in location.
I was honestly a little nervous about the challenge because the current looked faster than either the Platte or Wisconsin Rivers, the only other two rivers I’d SUPed on before. Once I got out there, though, it was great! i had to stay focused to try to stay in the main channel (i.e., the fastest part of the current) and the time went by pretty quickly. Kind of like that Dragon’s Lair video game where you had to move in the right direction at just the right time or meet a entertainingly gruesome demise. After a couple hours on the river I kind of felt like I’d attained my river legs! The river seemed to get progressively shallower as we worked our way downstream. My center fin is maybe 9” long and would frequently scrape the bottom of the river. At first, this was quite disconcerting, and once I even fell forward onto my hands and knees (but still stayed on the board!?). I gradually got better at being able to anticipate when this was likely to happen and stay balanced and even occasionally kind of hop/scoot forward if I thought it was just a short section of shallowness. Towards the end of the course I blundered into some barbed wire that I didn’t scan ahead for well enough. I got a small scratch and a tear on my shirt and, later on, a tetanus booster shot. Also, after the coarse there was a delicious picnic-style lunch provided by Ewoldt Grocery Store and even some ice cream! There was an award ceremony / festive dinner scheduled in Halsey that evening. Unfortunately, the weather forecast called for high winds and chance of thunderstorms that evening, so all of us tent campers packed up and headed out that afternoon.
I had a great time and definitely gained some confidence on this trip! I also found out there are retractable fins and also shorter (4.5-inch) center fins available, which would be nice if I’m on a shallower river like the Middle Loup again.
The biking’s been pretty good lately, but hoping to get out for some mountain biking soon, since I’ve mostly just been using my 2-wheeled accomplices to commute, complete chores, etc. I hope you’ve been able to get out to enjoy some outdoor fun and, if not, it’s now fall so the weather should be perfect for some great biking, hiking, running, etc.
Bon voyage, mon chéris, bon Loup voyage!
Le BSO
