Rabaska R9 at the 2016 Au Sable River Canoe Marathon

Photo credit: Rick Joy on Facebook

What the heck is a rabaska?

We were sitting at a picnic table after the Spike's time trials, and overheard Marcia trying to recruit paddlers for the rabaska races the following weekend at the Marathon. We had decided not to race in the Marathon this year because with all the training and preparation last year, we had to cancel our dream canoe trip to paddle the Pukaskwa coast of Lake Superior. This year we paddled the Pukaskwa in the first week of July. However, we had the Marathon weekend on the calendar, and would certainly be there in some capacity. We offered to feed, but no one took us up, so we had no commitments. Overhearing the conversation, the idea sparked in my head; we could still paddle and be part of the excitement! I volunteered Lauren and me. After a few text messages to Calvin Hoogerhyde, the deal was done. We would have an adventure, although we had no idea what we would be doing.


I had to consult Wikipedia to find out what a rabaska canoe is. I won't claim to be an expert on the history of canoeing during the fur trade period in North America, but here is a brief summary of what I could figure out. The voyageurs used two sizes of canoes: the 33 ft Montreal canoe, and the 25 ft rabaska or canot du nord. The larger Montreal canoes were paddled by the mangeurs de lard, "pork eaters"; they were the lake freighters that did the run from Montreal to Grand Portage in western Lake Superior. The rabaska canoes were paddled by the northern men, hommes du nord, who traveled long distances across the continent west and north of Lake Superior. Rabaska comes from the name of the Athabasca River, which is part of the Mackenzie River basin, flowing from the Canadian Rockies to join the Peace River and others into the Arctic Ocean. So, I imagined it would look pretty much like this,

Image credit to Wikipedia: Shooting the Rapids, 1871 by Frances Anne Hopkins (1838–1919)

Today, the rabaska canoes are raced as part of the Classique Internationale de Canots de la Mauricie, one of the three races that makes up the triple crown of North American canoe racing, along with the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon in Michigan and the General Clinton in New York. The paddlers from Quebec told us that most people who race rabaska either live in Trois-Rivières, or learned to race there before moving some place else and starting a team there.

Where is everyone?

We headed north after work on Friday in order to make the practice paddle scheduled for 9:30 Saturday morning. We figured all the campgrounds would be full since it was Marathon weekend. The Travelodge near Standish wanted $120 for a room, and the parking lot was full of vans with the names of Marthon teams written on the windows. Other hotels were full. Well, there had to be a place to camp somewhere. We texted Calvin, who was organizing the event. He said they had a large campsite at the Old Orchard campground on Foote Pond, and we could join. What was the site number? The text response was "blue". We arrived after dark. There was no cell service, so we drove around the campground hoping to see some giant canoes, or anything blue. No luck. Only the standard parking lot of RVs, fires, lights on strings, drunk dudes, and kids riding circles in the road. Back at the camp store, we saw a car with a C1 racing canoe on top. Surely he would know something! Turns out it was Calvin. What luck! He took us up the labyrinthine route to the blue group camp. The teams from Quebec had not yet arrived, so the three of us had a beer by the campfire as we waited. The teams kept Calvin up to date by text; stocking up on beer, groceries, etc. Finally, they arrived at 1:30 AM, 18 hours after leaving Quebec.

Practice paddle

In the morning, we gathered at the boat launch on Foote Pond for a practice paddle. Martin had a clip board, and suddenly became very business-like, yelling out lots of stuff in French. Eventually, he asked the English speakers for our weights. It was a puzzle to arrange the paddlers in the boat according to their weight so that the fore-aft and side-to-side trim would be correct.

Having been assigned our positions, we climbed into the boats. 

As soon as we were all in, some things were said in French, and we all started pulling hard. I was surprised because we were still in the tiny boat launch harbor area, and it did not seem likely that the boat would turn before hitting the breakwater, but the ladies in the bow leaned out with a bow rudder, and the stern paddler did his magic. Soon we were heading out into the open water of Foote pond. Everyone was digging in, calling out, like a team of sled dogs reveling in the pure joy of pulling.

It was a windy afternoon on Foote pond. As we pulled out into the open water, heading into the wind, the waves built into whitecaps, and soon were breaking over the bow into the laps of the bow paddlers. Spray was flying everywhere, and we were all completely soaked. The electric bilge pump ground away in the stern.

That's pretty much how it was. They just had two speeds: on or off. When it was on, you had better have your hydration and nutrition ready because you don't know when it will end. The hard part about paddling in a team is that you are locked in to their cadence, which was fast! You have to keep up, or you will whack paddles with the person in front or behind. It could be like a torture machine because it is out of your control, but this is also the excitement of it. The muscles are burning, but you have to have faith that it won't go on forever, and you get caught up in the excitement knowing that everyone is pulling just as hard as you are.

They taught us how to switch sides. It starts with the bow paddlers. The paddler on the right calls 9, 10, hup! The paddler on the right stands and moves over, while the left paddler slides across the bench underneath. It moves on down the canoe bench by bench. Once the fifth bench has switched, they call "Bon avant!" to let everyone know the switch is done and we are good to go. Then the stern paddler often calls to the bow paddlers to start a power count to ten. The bow paddlers call the team name, "Waterloooooo!", then start the count un, deux, troix, quatre, .... , the bow paddlers call and the mid-ship paddlers respond every other number, the cadence picks up, and the boat surges forward.



We paddled around the pond for an hour at 100% pace, then came to Foote dam where we had to investigate the portage. Fortunately they had the latest model rabaska canoes made of carbon fiber. They only weighed 200 or 250 lbs, but still quite a bit heavier than the 30 lb C2 pro boats that the portages were designed for.

How shall we do this?

It doesn't quite fit down the boat slide made for livery canoes.

But, with enough people, anything is possible.

We had considered portaging a longer route with the cart, but we put back in at the concrete steps where the pro-boats portage. I was not sure because all the talk was in French, but it seemed that we would carry over the dam just as the pro-boats do.

Another hour of practice paddle at 100% pace, and we took a short break at the upstream end of the pond.



After the practice paddle, we were sore and tired, and felt like we had just finished a race. That was it, we were fully trained, now we just had to maintain that pace for 4.5 hours tomorrow.

To Grayling

On Saturday evening, we drove to Grayling to see the start of the Marathon. We were excited to get a pulled pork sandwich at the BBQ stand next to the Valero station. When we arrived, the window was closed. A piece of notebook paper taped to the window said, "SOLD OUT".  Disappointed, we wandered the streets looking for sustenance. Calvin waived to us from across a crowd control fence, "I have VIP passes for you!". All the pulled pork you can eat, free drinks, and a view of the starting area: we were in heaven! Life is good with the Rabaska teams.

We went to the lineup to visit all of our friends and heroes who would be racing.

Janet Bradford and her grandson David Phelps attempted to break Janet's record of being the oldest woman to finish the Marathon. They finished in 19:03:43; an incredible accomplishment, just 3 minutes 43 seconds shy of the official finishing cutoff time.

Andrew Weeks and Paddi Thornburg paddled with us through the night last year, and finished ahead of us. This year they finished at 18:52:27, just ahead of the 19 hour official cutoff time.

Mike Bradford tried for the second year to beat his Dad's senior record time with a new partner, Russ Reker. Mike and Russ finished in 15:24:29, the first senior team, the third fastest senior time in history, and just 3 minutes 7 seconds shy of his Dad's record: Bob Bradford and Al Widing Senior, 15:21:22 set in 1999.

The Plan

As far as I could understand, the plan was to put in on the pond above Five Channels dam at 6:30 AM, which would be about two hours ahead of the lead canoes in the main event. It was important that we stay ahead of the lead canoes so as not to interfere with the leaders of the Marathon. We would do a loop around some buoys, portage the dam, continue across Cooke pond, portage Cooke dam, continue across Foote pond, portage Foote dam, then paddle the remaining 10 miles of river to the finish in Oscoda. It should take about 4.5 hours. The clock would stop at the portages so that the teams could help each other get the boats over the dams safely.

The Race

We assembled at the boat launch around 6. The final lineup was announced. I would paddle in the Waterloo boat, sharing bench 5 with Vincent, just ahead of our stern man Jonathan. I recognized that the Canadians had never paddled the route before, so I taped in my GPS chart plotter where our stern man could see it. There are a number of places where the way is not obvious.

We launched and backed up to the dam where several early feeder crews were gathered, waiting for their teams. The carpet guy was placing the green carpet padding on the concrete wall where the Marathon teams would portage.

At 6:38 AM, Calvin blew the air horn and the paddles dug in. The teams were very excited and pulling hard. Within ten seconds my muscles were burning. Only 4.5 hours of this to go, but it was OK, I told myself they wouldn't go this hard the whole time. In any case, it was out of my control, I just had to relax and keep pulling.

Credit: Anonymous Facebook post by AuSable River Canoe Marathon

We finished the loop around the buoys and headed for the boat launch. Everyone jumped out into the water, picked up the boat, loaded it onto the cart, then began running. I was surprised how fast we were running because I thought we were stopping the clock on the portages. I guess they were excited.

I could see Lauren and the red Mauricie canoe in front of us. Lauren was falling behind, "I'm not a very fast runner" she said to their stern man. "No you're not!", he said in a cheerful but matter-of-fact way. Then he proceeded to place a hand on Lauren's back or hold her hand to make sure she did not fall behind, "Come on Lauren! Go, Go, Go!". This was all done in such a happy and excited manner that it just added to the fun. Everyone just wanted to Go!

Jonathan handed me a chunk of banana as we ran. The sternsman watches over the crew. He makes sure that everyone is eating and drinking, pulling and keeping the cadence. If someone is lagging, they can switch out a paddler at the next opportunity. Most paddlers went the full distance, but there were three extras who could switch out.

 
Credit: Anonymous Facebook post by AuSable River Canoe Marathon

We paddled through Cooke pond in the early morning light. The red canoe was glowing in front of the northern forest. It was definitely a race. Each boat tried to get the best line and to get in the lead. I was not sure if I could maintain the pace all the way to Oscoda, but I would do my best. I watched Vincent pulling next to me in bench 5, and tried to emulate his stroke.

Jonathan was not able to see the GPS very well while he was paddling, so I did my best to remember the lines, passing close by the island where we camped with the RKC kayakers in Octobers of years past.

At Cooke dam we pulled out near the fence at the river left end of the dam and used the portage carts on the sloping path down the dam.

In the headwaters of Foote dam, the river winds through a marshy area with various channels. Our canoe was in the lead, and I did my best to remember the cuts to show the way to Jonathan. Fortunately, I remembered correctly and we took an efficient path.

We passed through the meandering headwaters of Foote pond into the two-mile crossing. I pointed to the sand bluff and told Jonathan to steer left to avoid the long point on the south bank. Everyone was pulling at 100%, but the boats were closely matched.

At Foote dam, we pulled the boats out at the concrete steps and carried over the dam, just as the Marathon paddlers do. At the put-in, we carried over the rip-rap stones because the railings on the wood stairs were too narrow to accommodate the rabaskas.

We waited below the dam until all the boats had completed the portage, taking the opportunity to eat and drink.

Go!

It is a beautiful reach of river below Foote dam. The water is deep and crystal clear. There are deep channels, but also shoals on the insides of the bends with many logs and weeds. The race was on, and each canoe tried to get the best line. The sternsmen were tempted to cut the bends on the inside for the shortest path, but logs and shoals lurked there. When we ran into the shoals, we could hear the sternsman of the red canoe yell, "Go! Go! Go!", to pass us while we wallowed in the suck water, but we would do the same to them.

Photo credit: Facebook post?

On one occasion, we ran aground completely on a shoal. Everyone immediately jumped out of the boat to carry it forward. The red canoe was close alongside, and crashed into a paddler, smashing him between the two canoes. He winced in pain, and for a moment everyone in both boats stopped what they were doing. After a second, it appeared that there was no grievous injury, so it was "Go! Go! Go!", everyone jumped back in and we were off.

Calvin knew the landmarks and the times to the finish. At Whirlpool, 45 minutes. At the railroad trestle, 10 minutes. We came around the final bend, close to the docks, the red canoe and Waterloo side by side. The finish line bridge was in sight. We were pulling in a final sprint, only a few feet apart from the red canoe. I smiled at Lauren a few feet away in bench 5 of the red canoe; this is awesome! Everyone was pulling for the finish. Vincent told me, "We will keep paddling past the bridge".  OK, I thought, we will just run it out a bit.

We crossed the finish line with our bow just a few feet ahead of the red canoe. Half the canoe quit paddling. Paddle! Paddle! Paddle! We kept going. After a while, I asked Vincent where we were going. There is a buoy turn. OK. After a while, I asked, "Where is the buoy?". Others seemed to be wondering the same thing. The red canoe suddenly veered off to the right around an old rock and piling structure. The bow paddler of the red canoe extended his entire body out of the canoe, and planted an amazing bow rudder. He must have braced his feet under something, otherwise he would have fallen out into the water. We followed around the turn, but we were now a boat length behind. No way we could make that up in the short distance back to the bridge. We pulled with all we had left, but everyone was spent. The crowd on the bridge and on the shore cheered.

Final thoughts

I had never heard of a rabaska canoe, but to jump in with a crack team and paddle 100% with them was a very special experience. I think rabaska should be the next big thing. Team water sports such as crew and dragon boat are popular. Rabaska offers all the benefits of those, but has two additional advantages: 1) You can go somewhere with a rabaska canoe. You can paddle it down a river, through some rough seas, and portage it across dams or other obstacles. 2.) Rabasca is connected to the cultural heritage of North America and the Great Lakes region, going back to the fur trade era, and to the first nations people who travelled the continent by canoe before Europeans arrived. I hope that some rabaska teams become established in Michigan to connect these two important centers of canoeing culture, and to provide more opportunities to introduce people to the joys of canoe racing.

Lauren and I want to thank the teams from Quebec for travelling to Michigan and welcoming us into their highly-tuned paddling machines. We also want to thank Calvin, Marcia, Justin, and others who helped to make this important cultural exchange a reality.

Also, thanks to everyone who posted pictures and videos on Facebook; I could not have told the story without them!

Stats from the GPS

28.9 miles
4 hr 20 min moving time
6.7 mph moving avg
9.1 mph max speed
We started at 6:38 AM and finished at 11:02 AM, 4 hr 24 min elapsed time.


Speed and elevation profile. We did 6-6.75 mph on the ponds and 6.75-7.5 mph on the flowing river below Foote dam.