Mon - May 26, 2008

44 Miles on Big Water - 2008 Wyoming Outback Challenge Results



The second Wyoming Outback Challenge on the North Platte River organized by Canoe Colorado took place on May 25 during Memorial Day weekend. The race starts at Hot Springs in Saratoga and runs 44 miles down the river across a quite remote area to Fort Steele (I-80 boat ramp).
North Platte RIver above Pick Bridge, Wyoming

High cliffs on the North Platte River above Pick Bridge - shot with Pentax Optio W30 camera mounted on a front deck of my Thunderbolt with the sticky pod and set in in an interval shooting mode

The river was big this year with the flow between 7000 and 8000 cfs at Dugway (just below the race finish). The weather was surprisingly good considering gusty winds, rain and snow showers a day before the race and not very encouraging forecast for the entire weekend.

There were two filters in the race:

  • a deadline at Pick Bridge (11 miles below Saratoga) which was set up this year at 1:20
  • two sweep boats are starting at Pick Bridge and paddle down river at cruising pace - any racing boats caught by them are disqualified (they are allowed to continue to the finish since there is really not other option).

The results below list all boats reaching the finish including the disqualified racers. At this time I am not sure how many boats started and if anybody dropped off at Pick Bridge.

2008 Race Results

class / boat
paddler Pick Bridge finish time
Scott Cummins
Denver, CO 		solo double blade
Fenn surfski		 0:57:40 4:05:30
Mike Lesnik
Helena, MT 		solo double blade
WSBS X-par Missile		 0:57:43 4:07:51
Marek Uliasz
Fort Collins, CO 		solo double blade
WSBS Thunderbolt-X		 0:59:45 4:27:36
Rob Bean
Fort Collins, CO		 solo single blade
Spencer X-treme canoe		 1:08:05 5:07:55
Clem McHale
CO 		solo single blade
Bell canoe		 1:09:05 5:42:00
DSQ
Bob Willits/John Schukei
MT 		tandem double blade
Fenn Mako Surfski		 0:57:41 4:05:50
John Murphy/Steve Daniel
CO 		tandem double blade
Spencer tandem canoe		 1:01:15 4:15:00
Sean DeVean/Mark Norford
MT 		tandem double blade
Prijon plastic tandem kayak		 1:15:17 5:10:55
DSQ

Just for comparison the results from the previous year with much lower river (flow between 2000 and 3000 cfs).

2007 Race Results

paddler class / boat Pick Bridge finish time
Scott Cummins
Denver, CO 		solo double blade
Fenn surfski		 1:06 4:55:10
Jeremy Rodgers
Boulder, CO 		solo double blade
JKK Supernova		 1:07 4:58:57
Mike Lesnik
Helena, MT 		solo double blade
WSBS X-par Missile		 1:08 5:06:08
Marek Uliasz
Fort Collins, CO 		solo double blade
WSBS Thunderbolt-X		 1:16 5:19:37
Danielle Ballengee
Dillon, CO 		solo double blade
Vaihala surfski		 1:18 5:28:26
Rob Bean
Fort Collins, CO		 solo single blade
C1 canoe		 1:26 7:10
DSQ

To all racers, organizers and observers:

I would love to post you comments or race reports. Do you have any suggestions or corrections? You can post your comments here or send me e-mail.

I will be showing more pictures. I was shoting them every one minute during the race from the front deck of my Thunderbolt kayak.

North Platte RIver at Eagle Nest, Wyoming

Approaching Eagle Nest rapid. 10 miles to the finish, but more headwind.

Related posts and links:


Posted at 06:56 PM    


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