Autumn has always been my favorite time of year to visit the southeast. The changing of the leaves often coincides with Green Race, arguably the biggest race in whitewater kayaking. This year when I went back I only got to spend a few days on the water but I spent them on the Russel Fork and the Green two of the staples of southeastern boating.
I had never been to the Russel Fork so I was excited to get to see a new run. The Russel Fork is a dam released run so you have to go there during a scheduled release. The river doesn’t start rising until 11 or noon so the mornings were nice and slow there. Once the river turned on we tried to get in as many laps as possible. The Russel Fork is about 4 miles long and has several class IV/IV+ rapids and a lot of quality boogie.
I was pretty excited to head over to the Green after paddling on the Russel Fork. It had been a fun run but I was ready to go paddle something more challenging. I got over to the Green the Thursday before the race but I got there just to find out the dam was doing unscheduled maintenance and the river was going down. I hiked up and ran two laps on Hammer Factor, the last major rapid on the run, and went to bed early planning to be the first one on the river the next day.
I was the first one on the water the next day. I met another boater in the parking lot at 8 looking to do an early lap and we went up for a slow lap. It was nice to take my time for my first Green lap in 18 months. It was a pretty smooth lap besides for a rough crash in Go Left that left me feeling a little shaken. I had planned to try to paddle all day long but after my crash in Go Left I thought I’d go for one more lap and then call it a day to not press my luck with that rapid too much.
After a long lunch break I went back up with a crew from Oregon and did my first practice race lap. I was able to clean up my Go Left line a bit but I still flipped over. My time was right at 5 minutes and I was happy enough with that so I figured I’d just do my best in the race and it’d probably be ok. I headed on downstream to take-out feeling confident but a bit unsure. When I got to take-out I was generously offered a Green Boat for the race. This would be a big upgrade from the 25 year old dagger crossfire I’d brought to paddle. I went to bed that night early with nervous thoughts about Go Left and paddling a new kayak for the race day.
I woke up on race day excited and a bit nervous. Green Race has a way of getting into your head. I’ve never been to a race before with so much hype surrounding it and I’ve definitely never been to a race with as many spectators. The first racer starts at noon and I was number 66 of 170 racers so I was going at 1:05. The last few minutes before it’s time to start are always the scariest for me but once I started racing it was easy to get into my groove. I had been nervous about paddling a new boat on race day but I quickly realized that the green boat was going to be effortless to paddle. I flew down the top of the race course and was feeling really confident as I got to Go Left and started to see spectators and the safety crews on the rocks. I had a smooth line through Go Left and immediately I started to feel more relaxed. Then I flipped over in the next rapid and got pushed off line. I rolled up and was at the top of the Gorilla sequence. Gorilla is the biggest rapid of the race and is in the middle of a fast and technical stacked section of moves. This of course is also where all the spectators watch and cheer. I was feeling a little shaken after the mistake but quickly got back into my race mindset and kept charging down the course. I finished the rest smoothly and still finished with a personal best time.
Arguably the best part of Green Race starts as soon as you finish your race lap. I hiked up the rocks back to Gorilla to watch the rest of the show. I think everyone feels excited and relieved to be done with their race lap. After 2 hours of watching racer after racer come down through Gorilla, many of them crashing, I headed downstream to takeout and the party. This year the party was held with the camping downstream on the Lower Green. It was a nice spot and a fun party to wrap up my time boating in the southeast. I love the Green but I’m happy to be back home out west away from the mank for a bit.
The Kayak State 