In the cold, spitting rain Friday morning, with their supplies waterproofed and compactly tucked away into their kayaks, two students lowered their vessels into the Red Cedar River and began their second attempt to paddle 160 miles, from Okemos to the shore of Lake Michigan, in three days.
At their first Campus to Coast, a competitive river-racing event from the MSU area to Grand Haven hosted by the MSU Outdoors Club, roommates biochemistry junior Keenan Noyes and LCC junior Piet Braun paddled too long into the cold and dark of the first night, admitted defeat and called one of their fathers to pick them up.
“He brought us McDonald’s, and we felt like a bunch of kids — couldn’t do anything right,” Braun said, laughing.
Although they hadn’t paddled since their defeat, they were determined to last two days — and, bowing out after 50 to 60 miles of river-trekking, they did just that.
But even more satisfying than accomplishing their goal, Noyes said, was the warming cup of tea they brewed over a camp stove Friday night after a long day of paddling in the cold and setting up camp in the rain.
“That was just bliss,” he said.
Forty-two teams began Friday but only 19 finished in Grand Haven, so it’s not unusual for many contestants to drop out before reaching the coast, MSU Outdoors Club Campus to Coast coordinator and economics senior Luke Rookus said.
Having participated and bowed out last year, Rookus said he, like many, came underprepared for the grueling task. Nonetheless, the trial has its rewards.
“Last year, it was intense,” Rookus said. “I was in the same boat (as many contestants this year), no pun intended. I really didn’t have a full idea on the physical endeavor I was undertaking, but it was my favorite memory of my college career.”
Members of the MSU Outdoors Club took on the Campus to Coast trek five years ago and, as interest grew, it became an official annual event open to all in 2012, Rookus said.
Grizzled river veterans and fresh faces alike came from all over, some as far as Kansas, to test their paddling mettle Friday.
Mike Smith, a 64-year-old Portland, Michigan, resident and avid paddler of nearly 50 years, didn’t seem too intimidated by either the frigid, wet weather conditions or the 160-mile journey ahead.
Smith once accomplished a 1,000-mile river trek from Chicago to New York, he said, and last year he finished the Campus to Coast race first of the solo racers, clocking in at 33 hours and 33 minutes.
Along with the adventure and the camping that comes with distance canoeing, Smith said he values being out on the river, where he meets “so many great people.”
Click here for the race results.
