Race Preview: Big East River X 2017

What Is It?

The Big East River X is a 40km (or so) paddling race, starting and ending in Huntsville Ontario.  We paddle up the Muskoka River, across a lake, up the Big East River - and then allllll the way back.

I've done it twice, once in 2015 (solo) which was long, painful, crazy... and again in 2016 tandem.

What about 2017!?

Biggest change is the date - they've moved the race from June up to end of May.

This didn't sound like a big deal - but this year the water levels have been nutso.

 I looked up the water level and flow - it's about 40cm above last year's level, which is a huge increase, and the flow is about 5x last year.

That's actually a good thing mostly, since the low water level last year was a big of a pain - lots of bottoming out and tough to paddle up-stream against the current when you couldn't get a good stroke in because of hitting bottom!

But the flow will be a challenge... going to be a tough slog getting up to the turn-around point.

The way down, though, should be a hoot!