2008 Missouri River 340 Race Start in Pictures from Kaw Point

Before the race start

Morning of July 15. 2008. Kaw Point (Kansas City) at the confluence of Missouri and Kansas Rivers. Kayaks and canoes are launching and lining up at the boat ramp.

The Missouri 340 is an endurance race across the state of Missouri. Competitors will start in Kansas City and finish, some of them anyway, in St. Charles. With numerous towns and hamlets, the course offers plenty of opportunity for resupply while enroute. The Missouri River is also incredibly scenic and isolated in some stretches, with wildlife and beautiful vistas to rival any river in North America. But if you’re trying to win this race, you won’t have time to enjoy any of it.

The third Missouri River 340 Race (July 15-18, 2008) gathered 150 boats from recreational kayaks and canoes to surfskis and racing boats to 4- and 6-person safari canoes. High water, good weather and beautiful full moon nights. And, each paddler has a great story.

You could see very different styles of paddling and racing: fast racing boats with a land crew, but also self supported expedition Kruger canoes. What about kayakers finishing the race below 60 hours with bikes strapped on their kayak decks, and then, towing kayaks behind the bikes along Katy trail back to the race start?

Here are the race results. You can also find a lot of pictures from the race – just follow this thread on Rivermiles.com forum. Those include photos and commentary by Carter Johnson who paddled a borrowed surfski to finish the race in a record solo time of 37:46 hours.

The tentative date of the 4th MR340 Race is August 4-8, 2009.

Start

8:00. Boats are leaving the Kaw River and entering the Missouri River.

All the above pictures were shot with Canon EOS 40d camera mounted on tripod from the right bank of the Kansas River. I started my race with about 4 minute delay.

Coverage of Missouri River 340 Races