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Showing posts from June, 2021

Course Construction

Our goal is to construct the course Monday June 21st.  for those that have not taken part in setting up a slalom course, it is a lot of work :)  For those that have you know how much work it is.  So we are certainly looking for as much help as we can get.  Most likely it will take 6-8 hours with 1 team working non-stop (It is a wider river than most slalom courses).  If possible it would be ideal to have the first wire hung by Hi-Noon.  For anyone that may be around and/or interested in helping I would like to meet at the site around 10AM to get things organized and laid out.  then ideally starting the actual sending of wire and twine by 11 or 1130.  The minimum number of people is really 5.  If we double that we could have 2 teams, 1 from top down and 1 from bottom up, or 1 team sending wire and 1 team hanging the gates.  If you are interested in helping or will be around please let me know so I can start to have an idea of how many people may be able to help.  Items you may want to h

River Flow

 Here is a link to the USGS gauge for the flows on the Blackfoot.   https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=12340000 The Blackfoot river is a free flowing non-dammed stream, and as such we have zero control of the flows. We have run races at this site from 900CFS up to 4200CFs (2014 Nationals) and everywhere in between.  So, while the flow is above average currently (6/8), it is dropping at a steady rate and should be back around mean flow soon.  The mean flow for the end of June is right around 3000CFS.  Between 2000 and 3500 is what we feel is the ideal level, and with how things are trending now that seems like we may very well be in that window.  Again, we as humans have no control of this.  Rain, extra hot days etc.. will affect flow from now until race time as well as during the event itself.  But while we cannot control how much water is in the river, this river does not turn off and on, so that means you can paddle at any hour of the day!! Here is the link to the flow foreca

Camping

 Some info on Racer camping-  We have reserved Lubrecht Experimental Forest for folks to camp at.  they also offer Boxcars, cabins a lodge and 1 apartment (which may be already reserved??) as well as tent camping (their website states no tent camping, but we will have that as am option).  To make reservations you will need to contact Lubrecht directly.  This is for any and all forms of accommodations.  for tent campers they would like to know when you may be arriving so they can meet and steer everyone towards where we can put tents.  this site is about 5 minutes from the race site, so it is very convenient...unfortunately we don't have an option of actually on site camping.  For those that may be arriving with Campers- If it is a truck bed type or something similar to the size of a truck you can just camp in the parking area at Lubrecht.  If by chance you have a large motor home or a tow behind Lubrecht cannot accommodate that size of a vehicle, nor do they have a specific site fo

The Raffle

 Okay everyone, I know that you are all traveling to Montana specifically for the raffle at the end of the event...haha,  and you may not come if the raffle isn't filled with the most amazing prizes ever, but things are crazy these days, and the ability of boating vendors to make product even to sell at full price is extremely challenged this year (Covid, yes yes I know we are all tired of that reason, but it really is true). I work in the paddle sports industry, and I can tell you first hand that it is extremely challenging to keep product in our store.  So for me to call and ask any of these boating vendors to donate product this year, well, it just isn't feasible.  So I have a proposition, and we have done this for local races and I find it to be amusing, entertaining and interesting- I would like to do a 'White Elephant' like raffle.  How great would it be if we all got something from our region (neighborhood, city, county, state) and used those items as the prizes