David (whose boat I borrow for most races) and I take the same general approach to racing: we're not out to win*, but we give it everything we've got, and our speeds are comparable*. He lives about 40 minutes south of me, just minutes from the lower Ochlockonee River, and we've gone out on several trips to "cruise" the river. By cruise, I mean that we're going just slightly slower than our racing pace at the optimum speed for our boat hulls. (Above cruising speed, added effort gives you a relatively small speed increase.) We take breaks every few miles (which you wouldn't normally do when racing), and I use these opportunities to take a few pictures.

* Since we don't use spec racing boats, we're typically in the lower 50% of racers; if you paddle a slow boat as hard as you can, you're still going to be slow.

location ........................... distance
Syfrett Creek / Sanborn Loop .......... 11.7
Crooked River / Dead River ............ 21.1
Sanborn Loop ........................... 9.7
----------------------------
cruising .............. 42.5
cleanups .............. 33.3
races ................ 267.6
total through TWS ... 1409
total ............... 1752 (through August 13, 2011)


Syfrett Creek / Sanborn Loop: January 30, 2011
David had been telling me about this run, his favorite on this section of the river, for some time. I'd been up Syfrett Creek before, actually much farther than we went on this day, but somehow I completely missed the cut back to the river.




David getting ready




Syfrett Creek


back on the river














Crooked River / Dead River: March 27, 2011
This was a warmup for the Yellow Fly Paddle Challenge.


piles at the Crooked River confluence


Crooked River




sheltered branch of the Ochlockonee just south of the state park


probably the Dead River


Buckhorn Creek


David w/ Buckhorn Creek in the background



Sanborn Loop: August 13, 2011
A moonlight cruise; David, his wife Amelia, and I started at Wood Lake, paddled downriver via Sanborn Cut to the Womack Creek Recreation Area, and met up with David's friends Rana and Tom. We then paddled once around the island, "dropped off" Rana and Tom, then paddled back to Wood Lake again via the cut.


David and Amelia






Womack Creek Recreation Area


Tom, David & Amelia, and Rana paddling into the sunset


moon rise


Although this picture sucks, we were able to complete the rest of the trip under the full moon without having to use our lights at all.

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