44 Miles of the North Platte River in 2 Minutes

The 2nd Wyoming Outback Challenge on the North Platte River organized by Canoe Colorado took place on May 25, 2008, 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).

I had several posts about 2007 and 2008 races in my paddling blogs:

• 44 Miles on Big Water – 2008 Wyoming Outback Challenge Results
• 7 Landmarks and Highlights of the 2008 Wyoming Outback Challenge
• Wyoming Outback Challenge on the North Platte River – Strong Current and Head Wind
• 2007 Wyoming Outback Challenge on North Platte River- Results and Pictures
• 3 Days on the North Platte River in Wyoming: from Treasure Island to Fort Steele

During the race I was shooting pictures with the similar camera setup as in the 2007 Colorado River Race in Glenwood Canyon.

1. The Pentax Optio W30 camera was mounted on a deck of the Thunderbolt kayak. I used a camera mount based on two suction cups from the Sticky Pod . An improvised hood shaded the lens from a direct sun light and prevented at least some of splashes (there were a lot of them with a high water this year).

2. The camera was set in an interval mode: a picture every 1 minute up to 360 pictures. I started the camera a few minutes before the start at Saratoga, completed the race in 4:27 hours, and let the camera shooting with a bow of my kayak facing upstream towards incoming boats.

3. The frames were assembled into a video clip without any adjustments, just with resizing pictures. I did not remove any frames. You see some frames with water droplets.

4. With 1 minute sampling the river looks pretty empty in my animation. I paddled with other boats only for a mile till the first dam, then somewhere below Pick Bridge I was passed by a tandem Spencer canoe. I thought that I stayed with them much longer than 1 minute, but I don’t see them in my pictures. I stopped twice during the race: a short portage over a rock dam in the river side leg and then checking the Eagle Nest rapid. You can notice my stops in single frames if you watch carefully.

I hope that this video animation will give you some taste of the North Platte River and Wyoming Outback Challenge. See you next year in Saratoga!