Thursday, May. 22, 2008
Rising river threatens Ski to Sea canoe leg
Cancellation decision will be made Sunday morning
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closeSnowmelt from last weekend’s heat wave has swollen the Nooksack River, leading Ski to Sea Race organizers to develop “Plan B” in case the river is too dangerous for canoeists.
As many as 800 people are expected to hop into canoes at Riverside Park in Everson Sunday afternoon and head down the Nooksack to Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale.
Canoeists tip every year, but this year’s raging currents have organizers especially concerned for the safety of participants in the race’s fifth leg.
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“Whether or not we would conduct the leg if the race was right now — I’m not sure,” race director Pete Coy said Wednesday.
In Ferndale, the river is discharging more than 14,000 cubic feet per second. The average is usually about 4,000 cubic feet per second. The river is at 13 feet, compared to 6 feet last week. That also means more debris is in the water, and there is less beach area for canoeists to get to safety if they tip.
It will be a game-time decision whether to do the leg as planned. River conditions chairman Thom Prichard will paddle from Everson to the area near Noon or Hannegan roads — the roughest part of the leg — at 7 a.m. Sunday and make a determination.
If they decide to cancel the leg, organizers will collect teams’ timing chips at the end of the road biking leg and relay each team’s finish time down to Ferndale, where the mountain bikers will be waiting. None of the canoeists will be allowed on the river, and each will be given a 2-hour time for their leg.
New timing chips will be issued to each mountain biker and they will be allowed to start exactly two hours after the road biker on their team finishes their leg.
Coy said no race leg in recent memory has been canceled. Gatterman said that, in years past, they’ve done the canoe leg when the river was above the levels expected on Sunday.
Coy said organizers have been meeting with Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and Search and Rescue personnel all week.
“Those are the people that are going to have to pull people out of the drink if they tip,” Coy said.
Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Steve Gatterman said that in normal years seven Search and Rescue boats and a Sheriff’s Office boat oversee the leg on the water. There will be a ninth boat this year, Gatterman said.
Coy said they also will strictly enforce the life jacket rule for the leg. Organizers will be posted at the beginning of the leg and at various points on the river. Anyone caught not wearing a life jacket will be disqualified.
Gatterman also said they’re reminding canoeists to stay clear of Search and Rescue’s motorized boats during the leg.
“If you see a boat coming upstream at a fast rate, it’s going to rescue someone who has tipped,” he said.
Any competitors who want to practice for the leg should enter the river near Guide Meridian or Ferndale or consider paddling on area lakes such as Padden, Wiser or Whatcom.
Though planning for the worst, Coy said organizers remain hopeful that the weather and river conditions will cooperate. The river level has been slowly dropping since Tuesday and partly sunny weather and mild temperatures are expected through the end of the week and into the weekend. In an e-mail to competitors, Coy estimated that there was an 80 percent chance the leg would go on as planned.
“I hope we don’t have to (cancel the leg),” Coy said. “There’s a lot of people that have been training real hard so they can get good times. ... It would be a tremendous disappointment to them.”
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