Riders clobber stinking water

Posted 8/23/16

It was one of many events on Saturday and Sunday celebrating the fourth annual Wild West River Fest in Cody.

Forty-one boats competed in the slalom Saturday morning. The largest turnout yet, said Amy Quick, river fest organizer.

Each …

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Riders clobber stinking water

Posted

Wild West River Fest brings record number of kayakers

Notwithstanding the name there was absolutely nothing smelly about the Stinking Water Slalom Saturday.

It was one of many events on Saturday and Sunday celebrating the fourth annual Wild West River Fest in Cody.

Forty-one boats competed in the slalom Saturday morning. The largest turnout yet, said Amy Quick, river fest organizer.

Each competitor was offered two runs with the best time being their final score, Quick said.

Jerod Ready nailed first place expert with a time of 2:27. Sam Hochhalter took second place canoe amateur with a time of 4:29. Scott Stingley took first in adult amateur with a time of 3:02. Emily Coleman took first in adult female amateur with a time of 3:29.

Two youths from the Wild West Paddle Club in Cody and 10  kids from Jackson competed too, Quick said. Two Cody youngsters competed in the slalom.

The festival is organized to raise funds for the club, Quick said.

Nate Pruzan took first place in the youth category with a time of 2:56.

Boaters negotiate the whitewater downstream and then grapple their way upstream around gates.

Boaters manhandled their boats up the old Yellowstone Highway below U.S. Highway 14/16/20 to the starting gate just upstream of Hayden Arch Bridge. The keels were scratched from many encounters with rocks in turgid waters prompting thoughts of comfortable hiking boots scuffed from many a stone too.

The water is swift, merciless and beautiful like liquid turquoise.

The water is also choppy and white-cold like icicles. It seethes over stones like a living thing. One slight drop in elevation forms a maelstrom that threatens to jerk everything to the bottom or toss it on the shore like a chunk of pummeled driftwood.

Emily Coleman slices the water. She breezes through a gate, then power paddles to complete a 180 to battle back upstream. Coleman’s facial expression is pleasant like whitewater kayaking is her version of a Sunday drive.

Youth kayaker Grant Hagen speeds through a gate in a spray of effervescence. The river snatches his boat and he capsizes, but Hagen rotates back up in the blink of an eye, no worse for wear.

Others kayakers overturned. Some swam out of their kayaks to ride the last stretch on their backs with their boat in tow. Competing kayakers who ran the course before them waited below the bridge for each fellow contender to lend a hand when needed.

Jerod Ready executes and masterly U-turns at the gate. Overhead, the crowd cheers from the bridge: “Jereee, Jereee, Jereee.”

Sam Hochhalter muscles his canoe down the river and through the gates. He is the only canoeist competing in the slalom this year.

Although his canoe is longer and harder to maneuver, it is still quite doable, Hochhalter said after the race.

Hochhalter said he and his son, Finnegan, a brawny 5-year-old, were taking on the Stinking Water Sprint Sunday that ran from DeMaris Springs downstream to the Belfry Bridge.

“It’s nice,” Harrell said. “It’s refreshing.”

It is difficult, but nonetheless a fun route, Harrell said. The boulders create nice eddies. “Good location for a slalom course.”

Youth contender River Maser hauls his boat up the stony hill above the river following his run.

Maser said the water was cold, but was incisive in his description: “Super fun.”

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