Super "Boo" Marissa

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Photos By Emily - Thanks "M" for doing support and following the race!! Marissa and I really appreciated it!

Day 1 - The Drive up

We cruised 268 miles up to Conover Wisconsin and checked into the campground and sorted through our gear. We roasted hotdogs and dined on Smores. Slowly but surely teams of paddlers started to roll in. We hung out at our campsite socialized with some of the MadCity Paddlers that happened by.

Day 2 - Stage One - 13 miles.

We were informed that we would not be allowed to race in the child / adult category as Jeff Rohr The race director said we were too fast. :-/ He hasn't read my book, beer and burgers- boats and babes...

We ended up being put in with the rec racer group, which put us up against tandem teams in Minnesota II's Bell Northwinds adult paddlers. We were the only adult / child team in this category.

Marissa took it in stride and we went out to do the best we could. We pretty much got schooled in the first day. The Wisconsin River was pretty shallow and with two of us in the Sawyer, well we were in and out of the boat a lot.

Marissa paddled like a madwoman and did a great job paddling in the stern. I think we did a 3 hour 7 min run the first day. The larger canoes had less draft and skimmed the rocky bottom.

I tell ya, I was beat after the first day... can you say nap time...

Day 3 - Stage Two - 14 miles.

A lot more water on stage two. We were able to hang with the tandem boats for about an hour and fell off the pace as the wind picked up out of the north. Marissa did a great job of steering as we paddled into the wind to the finish. Can't remember what our finish time was? 3 hours plus, I'll have to update the posting when the info gets on the web.

We finished well a head of the other adult / child teams and adult mixed tandem teams so we were pretty happy with that. It was a little disappointing not racing with the adult / child teams as it left little time to work on sportsmanship and camaraderie. Cause really that was what it should be about. Plus getting Marissa a trophy!!! :-)

Overview:

It was a great time up there with my girls. Marissa is one heck of a paddler. She got lots of handshakes and high fives at the finish for completing the race. Emily did a great job getting pictures of the event.

I would recommend this event for any adult / child team that wants to paddle a very twisty shallow section of the Wisconsin River and support a very worth while cause.

Check out the Callie Rohr Canoe Race website

What ever you are doing right now isn't as important as spending time with a child - The Capt'n