The 3rd Rotten Egg Race on March 22, 2009 gathered only two paddlers, Rob Bean and me, but we had a very intense fun and a great day on the river. We raced 9 miles upstream on the South Platte River from Kersey to Evans Riverside Park to meet the joint paddling club downriver trip.
Every year, in the middle of March, paddling clubs in northern Colorado organize a joint trip on the South Platte River from Evans to Kersey or further to Kuner as an opening of paddling season. During recent years I use to launch my boat around sunrise at Kersey and paddle upstream to Evans to meet downriver paddlers. In last two years I was joined by other paddlers and an informal race was created. Eric Nyre name it “Rotten Egg” race (a trophy for the last finisher?).
I needed about 4:30 hours to cover 9 miles upstream in a fast cruising mode in Sisson Nucleus 100 kayak or Spencer X-treme canoe. I paddled Thunderbolt-X kayak in the first two years of the race reaching Evans in 3:37 (2007) and 3:25 (2008 at ~850cfs). This year we expect much lower water: 400cfs at Kersey or even less. See river pictures from the March 15 paddling.
The race starts at 7am, March 22, 2009 at Kersey (highway 37 bridge – map). This is exactly sunrise time this year. Slower paddlers may start earlier.
Like in recent year, I am running two informal races: 9 miles upstream and a month later, the 31 mile South Platte River Marathon.