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Yeti Gear Case survives a swamping during Texas Water Safari

Yeti Gear Case survives a swamping during Texas Water Safari

by | Jun 24, 2022 | Blog

Yeti Gear Case

This Yeti Sidekick Dry Gear Case kept stuff dry even when it got swamped during the Texas Water Safari. Pam LeBlanc photo

My Yeti Sidekick Dry Gear Case held up way better than me during the Texas Water Safari two weeks ago.

I made it 154 miles into the race, then stepped out of the boat in Cheapside because I was sick and gave up. (More on that in a future blog.) The dry case stayed in the boat, made it all the way to Seadrift, and even survived a boat sinking.

The case – about the size of a hard-cover Webster’s Dictionary – is designed to hold keys, wallets, phones, and other sundries in a wet environment. It’s got an interior mesh pocket, Velcro-like hook and loop fasteners on the back that attach to other Yeti products, like coolers or backpacks, and a Super Man-strong magnetic closure along the top. You can even wear it on your belt.

In typical Yeti style, the case also comes with an impressive price tag – $50.

I strapped the case in front of my seat in the canoe during the race and loaded it with my headlamp (for paddling through the night), an extra pair of sunglasses, a spare cap, and a bunch of electrolyte caplets and supplements. I was a tad skeptical, but I’d used the bag during a training run, and it kept everything dry. I had noticed then that the magnetic closure held so well you could use the case as a small pillow – a feature that might come in handy for ultra-endurance canoe racing.

Yeti Gear Case at the Texas Water Safari

The bag got its biggest test after I left my team 32 hours into the race, at a bridge overpass in Cheapside. My team continued, and at about mile 250 of the race, their boat got swamped in rough water in San Antonio Bay. At one point, according to my teammate Deb Richardson, the entire 40-foot boat was submerged. The paddlers lugged the boat ashore, bailed out the water, and, eventually, made it to the finish line in about 77 hours.

Related: Staring down the barrel of the hottest, most wretched Texas Water Safari ever

My Yeti case survived. The magnet held tight, and everything inside it stayed perfectly dry, including the headlamp, which still works fine.

My only complaint? Despite soapy water and scrubbing, I can’t get the surface of the case all the way clean. But hey, I’m less concerned about appearances than function. And it gets an A-plus in that department.

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Nothing goes as planned when you’re training for the Texas Water Safari

Nothing goes as planned when you’re training for the Texas Water Safari

by | May 6, 2022 | Blog

training for the Texas Water Safari

Part of Pam LeBlanc’s race team pushes their boat around a log while training for the Texas Water Safari. Pam LeBlanc photo

When you’re training for the Texas Water Safari, stuff goes wrong. And it did this week.

I’m racing on a five-human boat, and two of our five humans live in Colorado, not Texas.

That’s OK. Both Steve Daniel and John Murphy have finished the 260-mile paddling race between San Marcos and the Texas coast before. They know what they’re getting into – extreme exhaustion, sleep deprivation, log jams covered in spiders, the occasional dead and bloated cow, mud, snakes, mosquitos, horrible rashes, sore shoulders, and more.

In their absence, a rotating cast of paddlers has been filling seats in our boat, so Debbie Richardson, James Green and I could train.

But starting position in the Safari is based on how teams do at the Texas River Marathon, a 35-mile race from Cuero to Victoria on May 7. Top finishers at that race get starting slots at the front of the line at the big dance on June 11. But if your entire team doesn’t race in the Marathon, you must start at the back of the pack at the Safari.

No problem, we figured. The way we planned it, our Colorado teammates would fly down for the Marathon and a few training runs. We’d paddle together for the first time and work out kinks before the Safari.

A change in plans

But earlier this week, things turned south. Our Colorado teammates both got sick. They had to cancel their trip to Texas to race the Marathon.

The boat calculus that Richardson had worked out suddenly collapsed and a flurry of rescheduling ensued. Our brains collectively melted down. Hotel reservations, flights – it all had to be cancelled and rescheduled. And with only four more training weekends remaining before the Safari, we have to figure out how to get get in at least one training run with our Colorado contingent.

Tomorrow, Richardson, Green and I are racing in a three-man boat. Come race day, we’ll have to start at the back of the pack, trying to maneuver around slow-moving aluminum tandems and other slower racers. Imagine a 37-foot torpedo picking its way through a minefield of hand grenades.

debbie richardson

Debbie Richardson pushes a canoe under a branch while training for the Texas Water Safari in March 2022. Pam LeBlanc photo

I figured we were doomed. But Richardson, who has finished 12 of the 12 Safaris she started, assures me we’ll be fine. She’s started at the back of the pack three times. And of those three races, she’s finished third, fifth and eighth overall, out of roughly 150 boats.

“We might need a helmet and life jacket (at the start),” she jokes. “But I’m not scared to start at the back wall.”

It’ll be tricky at the start, but we’ll have about two days of non-stop paddling to make up any disadvantage.

Bring it on.

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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I steered a 30-foot canoe down the San Marcos River

I steered a 30-foot canoe down the San Marcos River

by | Mar 28, 2022 | Blog

Texas Water Safari

We launched our canoe at Staples Dam. Pam LeBlanc photo

Since the first time I stood on the bank of the San Marcos River and watched the big boats go by during the Texas Water Safari, I’ve wanted to race in one of those extra-long canoes.

This year, I’m getting that chance. And during a training run Sunday, I sat in the driver’s seat of a five-human boat and – for the first time ever – steered it down a cypress-lined stretch of water.

The Water Safari, for the uninitiated, is a 260-mile paddling race between San Marcos and the Texas coast. Teams of one to six people pile into long, skinny canoes and start paddling. Many don’t stop – not to pee, not to eat, not to stretch their legs or snooze – until they cross the bay and touch the wooden finish sign in Seadrift. Along the way, they drag their boats over bobbing mats of logs, dodge gar and alligators, brush off hundreds of spiders, wallow in mud, try to avoid snakes, and face extreme heat and exhaustion. All they get at the finish is a little patch.

texas water safari

Pam LeBlanc relaxes at the finish of the 2019 Texas Water Safari. Chris LeBlanc photo

It’s alternately fantastic and horrific. (And yeah, there’s something wrong with anybody who signs up for it.)

I did the race in 2019 with two other veteran paddlers – Sheila Reiter and Heather Harrison. Those two women got me to the finish in 53 hours and change, even though I felt like I’d been run over by an 18-wheeler for the last 12 hours.

This year, I’m racing as part of a five-person team.

texas water safari

Deb Richardson steers our boat down the San Marcos River between Staples and Luling on March 27, 2022. Pam LeBlanc photo

Yesterday, our team ran the 31-mile stretch of river between Staples and Zedler Dam in Luling. Our usual driver, Deb Richardson, steered the first 25 miles down the river, dodging gravel bars, rocks, and fallen trees. Then we pulled over and she told me to swap seats. It was my turn to drive.

Our boat is at least 30 feet long. It looks like a missile when it’s loaded on the roof rack of a truck.

texas water safari

Here’s my view from the driver’s seat in the back of a five-human canoe. Pam LeBlanc photo

When you’re sitting in it on the water, all you can see is the back of the person in front of you. The boat doesn’t bend, either, which makes it important that whoever is driving it positions it carefully as the river winds its way across the state.

The San Marcos River is filled with stumps and branches and obstacles that reach out of nowhere to grab you. But with the help of the other paddlers, who called out directions and dipped paddles to pull the nose of the boat around obstacles, I managed to navigate the 6 mile stretch without any major incident.

It simultaneously scared the pants off me and thrilled me. It takes finesse. I’m learning how to let off the rudder at just the right time to avoid getting sideways or hitting anything. I’m also trying to learn how to catch the current to get the best push.

Sunday’s run felt great. I’m super excited that I’ll be able to take the helm for a small stretch during the race. Terrified, too, but thrilled.

Stay tuned for updates.

texas water safari

The boat looks like a missile on top of a truck. Pam LeBlanc photo

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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Is another canoe race in the stars?

Is another canoe race in the stars?

by | Dec 30, 2021 | Blog

canoe

Pam LeBlanc paddles her canoe on Lady Bird Lake. Debbie Richardson photo

Apparently, my long-term memory sucks. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve chosen to ignore those unpleasant experiences.

Whatever the case, I pulled out my aluminum canoe twice this week and went for a couple of very early training runs on Lady Bird Lake.

If things go well, it means that the second weekend in June I’ll be paddling a very long way down the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers. Maybe.

Read more: Logjams, Hallucinations and Mother Nature

I blame Debbie Richardson. A veteran of 12 Texas Water Safaris, she lured me back into a boat, enticing me with descriptions of the fun we’ll have, slogging 260 miles from San Marcos to Seadrift, paddling non-stop in the equivalent of a floating Fiberglas bullet with several uncomfortable, foam-covered seats in it.

That fun will entail scrambling over bobbing mats of logs, brushing spiders the size of coasters off our shoulders, squeezing pre-crushed potato chips into our mouths, and dragging boats over long, muddy stretches of bank. We’ll laugh, we’ll sing, we’ll possibly vomit, and no doubt we’ll hallucinate along the way.

But reaching the finish line with my teammates Sheila Reiter and Heather Harrison in 2019 was, for me, one of my proudest moments. (Right afterward, I passed out on a folding cot beneath an open-air tent on the Texas coast. I don’t think I woke up for three days.) I want to do it again. It lures you back, as they say.

Stay tuned as I monitor our progress toward the 2022 race in this blog…

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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Arctic Cowboys focused on Texas Water Safari for now

Arctic Cowboys focused on Texas Water Safari for now

by | Apr 9, 2021 | Blog

 

Veteran canoe racers Jeff Wueste, Jimmy Harvey and West Hansen, left to right, pull into the boat ramp near Austin High School after a training run for the Texas Water Safari. Pam LeBlanc photo

West Hansen sloshed out of Lady Bird Lake yesterday, helped his teammates pull their three-person racing canoe ashore, and wiped the sweat from his face.

Hansen, who paddled the entire length of the Amazon River in 2012 and followed that up by paddling the whole Volga River in Russia two years later, learned something during the 10-plus mile training run: The boat’s trim is off, and the canoe racers need to make some adjustments to get the balance right.

“We’ll work on that by moving Jeff’s seat,” Hansen said after pulling the long, torpedo-shaped canoe, with the name That’s What She Said in bright green letters on the side, out of the water.

That’s easy stuff.

West Hansen, head of the Arctic Cowboys, paddled the entire Amazon River in 2012. Pam LeBlanc photo

The team is training for the upcoming Texas Water Safari, a grueling 260-mile paddling race from San Marcos to the town of Seadrift on the Texas coast. Paddlers in that race face everything from bobbing mats of logs to smallish alligators and swarms of biting insects as they make their way down the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers toward the finish line, many of them going without sleep for two or more days.

But these three paddlers – Hansen, Wueste and local pool business owner Jimmy Harvey – have a bigger mission hovering on the horizon. Hansen ultimately plans to lead the trio, dubbed the Arctic Cowboys, on a 1,900-mile kayaking expedition through the Northwest Passage in the Arctic.

Covid has cast some uncertainty on timing of that expedition. The trip hinges on how soon the Canadian government allows access into Nunavut, populated by the native Inuit people. The Northwest Passage, between Tuktoyaktuk and Pond Inlet, is currently closed due to the pandemic. Hansen is hopeful an efficient rollout of Covid-19 vaccine could allow them to make their attempt this summer, and says the team is “continuing to hurry up and wait.”

Jeff Wueste, Jimmy Harvey and West Hansen paddled more than 10 miles on Lady Bird Lake to prepare for the upcoming Texas Water Safari in June. Pam LeBlanc photo

In the meantime, yesterday’s much warmer training run showed them some scenery they won’t see in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Throngs of people on standup paddleboards, kayaks, inflatable rafts, canoes and rowing sculls, enjoying the balmy day.

And not a single chunk of floating ice or polar bear.

 

 

About Pam

I’m Pam LeBlanc. Follow my blog to keep up with the best in outdoor travel and adventure. Thanks for visiting my site.

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