Outside Counsel

To The Adirondack Classic: The 90 Miler as the Pit Crew for Wendy and CLA over the weekend. A description of the event, some thoughts, and some notes on what we'd recommend to anyone interested in participating:

The event starts Friday morning at Old Forge. A. and I weren't there for the put-in, but caught up around lunchtime. The paddlers go through the Fulton Chain of Lakes (First Lake through Eighth Lake), and then continue on to Raquette Lake, the Marion River and the Eckford Chain of Lakes ending in Blue Mountain Lake. It's a long day: 35 miles, including three and a half miles of portage. We got to the bridge at Racquette Lake at about the beginning of the end of the middle of the pack. This is a good spot for pit crew/paddler interaction-- people toss their paddlers water bottles and other stuff, including beer and Nalgene gin-and-tonics, and the atmosphere was pretty festive. We missed our team, who'd struggled in the early going and on the carries. There are two cut-off points, and if the paddlers don't reach those points by a designated time they are pulled out of the water. Paddlers that don't make the cut-off can start the second and third days, but the course is closed after the last cut-off time is passed. This is a pretty carefully thought out system: the number of boats are limited to 250 because this is as many as the race organizers reckon they can safely oversee, and the cut-off times are intended to get the paddlers and the support boats to the take-out point in ample daylight.

The carries on the first day are a bear. Although it is possible to hike into some of them we did not, and we also found that our presence on the course was essentially superfluous. The paddlers bring water (note: a Camelback or other hands-free hydration system is a must have.) and food, sports gel and whatnot, and there are points at the carries where the organizers provide granola bars and the like. As pit crew we found that the best thing we were able to contribute was to get our team to the start, then move on ahead to setup camp. When that is done it's cool to go back and watch what you can of the race. We didn't do this the first day-- we just went to the finish, where we connected with our team and then moved on to the site, on Long Lake.

I like pretty much everything about camping, I suppose, except for the camping part, but we were a good group. Wendy had invited two friends, Don and Chris, who were everything you could wish for in camping companions. There is supper provided for the paddlers (and crew members can pre-order) at the Adirondack Hotel. One of the reasons I would go quietly mad inside of three months if I lived in the Adirondacks would be restaurants like this. A. and I dined apart from the padders, and found the food Adirondack-y. A had some sort of chicken with cheese and olive tapinade. Olive tapenade should have tipped her off. I had trout, with some sort of curry seasoning, and that should have been my warning: the curry was there to compensate for the fact that the closest the trout had been to the water for quite a while was to have been resting in the walk-in at the hotel, across the street from the lake. I gather that the paddler's supper, which was turkey and trimmings, was substantial but uninspired, but there is an important culture of camaraderie in this event, so although A. and I would have done better to have broken bread with Chris and Don back at camp, our paddlers got something worthwhile from the  meal.

The Day Two put-in was down the road from the campsite. The organizers transport the boats, so all the crew has to do is get the paddlers to the start. The put-in point is at a large meadow-- lots of parking. We saw a Bald Eagle while we were getting our bearings-- first I've ever seen in the wild. It was here that we began to understand what a remarkable experience this event is. As we were walking towards the boats someone ran up to A. and asked "Do you have an extra driver who can take our van to The Crusher?" This is exactly the sort of thing that A. is good at volunteering for, and we discovered that this is not at all uncommon. People need their vehicles moved from the start to the finish, and simply hand their keys over to total strangers. (As it happens this guy and his partner finished second in their category, so we Pit Crewed for a serious contender as well as for our own serious team.)

There is a breakfast for the padders at the Adirondack Hotel- our Pit Crew was able to score some coffee. Day Two starts on Long Lake, goes down Long Lake and into the Raquette River, where there is a carry around Raquette Falls. They continue on the Raquette River to the finish at the state boat launch on Routes 3 & 30 (about five miles east of the village of Tupper Lake), called "The Crusher". It's 30 miles with one carry, but that one is a beauty: up hill and down, 1.25 miles, over terrain that makes the wheels mostly useless. The padders start in waves every morning, based on seed times, and boat categories, basically. The slowest go first, and the guideboats and competitive racers and the four person, six person, eight person canoes and the kayaks follow. Again, the idea is to get everyone through the course. There are checkpoints all along the course and they keep careful tabs on where everyone is. After the start we drove down to the Long Lake bridge, and saw Wnedy and CLA pass, then had a cup of coffee.  If you go, I recommend the coffee at the deli across the street from the hotel-- we were able to get a newspaper and a surprisingly respectable bagel.

We broke camp and proceeded to the next campsite, dropping the Ford Aerostar we'd picked up along the way at The Crusher. Because we'd done it right we got to the site in plenty of time to pick a great spot, smack dab on the lake. A. and I went back into Tupper Lake, thinking we'd maybe get a hot dog or something, but it is a depressed little town and the hot dog stand only had vanilla ice cream. (True story!) We went back to The Crusher, joined Dan and Chris and sat on a log drinking beer until Caroline and Wendy came in. This leg must have been pretty great: there are long stretches where just about the only way anyone could get in would be by boat, and even radio communication was limited. At the put-ins and take-outs there were ham radio stations, but they didn't really have any information about specific boats, so we waited hoping they were having a better day than they'd had on Day One. Turned out they did, although they also spilled the boat at one point. They'd pretty much figured out the boat at this point, and were feeling pretty good about things.

Here's a pro tip: CLA was pretty sunburnt after Day One. A cap is good, but I think a brimmed hat would be even better. Neck and ear protection mean a lot when you are on the water for an extend period.

The talk of the event was the attempt of an eight-man war canoe to set a course record by going the distance in under 12 hours. The conditions were probably as close to perfect as they could have been. The water was high (although on this side of the park the devastation of the recent flooding was not in evidence), and the weather was nearly ideal. We had the sort of postcard days you remember about the Adirondacks, and really only enough breeze to be cooling.

A and I joined Chis and Dan for dinner, and they did it right. It was the best meal of the weekend. The next day was the shortest leg of the race, and the put-in was about 100 yards from where we'd made camp. By this time our team felt pretty much the way one does at the 20th mile of a marathon: tired, but excited and confident about finishing. We broke camp and watched as the boats went by. When wendy did this last year she'd made friends with a guy who came by and asked us to take his pick-up to the finish, so I did that. We stopped on the way out and had coffee at the Trading Post, about 200 yards from the campground. Pro tip: don't procrastinate about buying gas. The electric was out from Tupper Lake to Lake Placid that morning, and the Volvo was on "E". Fortunately the Trading Post had a back-up generator. Dan and Chris went off to take a day hike before heading home, and A and I  went to the finish, stopping at a bridge on the way to watch the race pass. When CLA and Wendy came through it was clear that they were crushing it.

Wendy had secured lunch tickets for us, and I recommend this meal: I had the best slice of tomato I've eaten all summer. Wendy and CLA had pulled in front of a number of boats, and finished strong.

Would I do it next year? Maybe. It is tough to get a slot: preference is given to people who have been in it before (one guy has done all 29; about a dozen or so have done 20). It is an interesting group: there are endurance athletes-- runners, triathletes, competitive paddlers-- and then there are the locals. A lot of the locals are in guideboats, which is cool. A lot of the people who are in it don't look particularly fit, but have the technique down. I'd say the way to train-- for me at least-- would be to do the weekday marathon training runs and swap in a long paddle on the weekends for the long run. Equipment matters: I'd want a canoe like the one Wendy and Caroline rented, and that would mean I'd be renting a boat for the summer. I'm thinking about it.