Last weekend (the 12th of August) was the date Jim (and Allie I’m sure) chose for the second annual “Mad River Float”. Once again, Ellie and I took part in the event. This year, I think I counted about 25 people (and two dogs) who took part. As you can see from the picture on the left, I brought along my GPS receiver with me to track our progress. According to the data I collected, we (or at least I) travelled 3.52 km in 2 hours and 46 minutes, giving us an average speed of around 1.3 km/h. Not tremendously fast – that is for sure.
The weather was decent – definitely not as hot as last year. When we got to about the half way point in the float, the wind was against us – blowing upstream while we attempted to float downstream. What this meant was that a lot of people ended up using human power to get downstream rather than just floating. Most people (those who weren’t there last year) commented that next year they would bring fins or paddles with them – of course those of us who has been there last year already had the fins or paddles with us.
I think the funniest part of the float this year was the complication that Jim rigged up to float on. It was a raft type thing that he mounted a rudimentary mast and sail onto. To help with flotation he put bags of empty water bottles and pop bottles underneath. We tried to load this thing into my truck to transport it to the put in spot, but alas, it was way too long. Instead, Marc and Marco dragged it up by canoe from Jim’s place to about the halfway point. Once Jim climbed on board he quickly realized that he needed a little more floatation than what was provided. At one point I got Ellie to climb on board with him but that nearly sunk him. It was amusing though. Anyways, he stuck it out, sitting pretty low in the water, until we got to the really windy spot. At that point, he ripped down his makeshift sail and eventually ended up in the water kicking like the rest of us.
Ellie didn’t do nearly as much swimming this year as she did last year. I gave her the opportunity – she was wearing her PDF of course, but nearly everytime I put her in the water to swim she would head for shore. As a result, she ended up floating in the boat (blow up special from crappy tire) while I hung on and kicked us downstream with my fins. Everyone got a good laugh at the queen having her servant tow her around.
The prize for wackiest ‘floaty thing’ or whatever Jim called the category went to the girl (and I’m sorry I don’t remember her name) who floated down the river on a giant inflatable dragon. She got a case of Bud Light.
Unfortunately I didn’t get to hang out and spend the night after the float was over. I did stick around for at least a couple of hours, cooked up some burgers, had a beer and chatted. Eventually I had to get back home to my pregnant wife, ‘just in case’. :) Perhaps next year I’ll be able to talk Amy into joining us…
Even though I didn’t get to enjoy all the festivities that the 2nd Annual Mad River Float had to offer, I had a fun time. Thanks so much to Jim and Allie for hosting. As always – they know how to put together a good event. Looking forward to next year…
Jim (and others) took a bunch of photos along the way. I’ve asked Jim to get them developed to CD and send them my way so I can post them to Flickr. I’ll update this post if and when that happens.