Bob Donaldson (in front) with his team in the Adirondack Classic. (Courtesy photo)
Months of training and almost 1,000 miles spent circling Bare Hill Pond paid off for the Donaldson brothers (Bob Donaldson, of Harvard, and Henry Donaldson, of South Salem, NY) with a second-place finish in the Adirondack Classic 90 Mile Canoe Race.
The Adirondack Classic is a three-day race which traverses the entire Adirondack State Park from west to east. Two hundred fifty teams, in various paddling classes, follow historic voyageur trading routes from Old Forge to Lake of the Flowers in Saranac, carrying their crafts up to a mile and a half between water bodies when needed.
This year, the Donaldsons’ boat finished the race in 13 hours, 13 minutes behind the first-place finisher.
The four-man stock canoe racing class in recent years has become one of the race’s most competitive. This year, the winners were members of national dragonboat paddling team, fresh from taking the silver medal in the world competition in Orlando, Fla., last month.
The Donaldsons teamed with Ken Streb, of Syracuse, NY, and Rod Price, of Orlando, Fla. In past years, these competitors have finished first in the mens masters two-man stock class. Price has written a book on the sport after winning the Alaska 1,000-mile competition, and Streb is familiar with the winner’s circle in his own right.
The team members trained separately because of their wide geographical distribution. Plans for even last-minute practice and canoe setup were foiled when delivery of their boat was held up by flooding on the Erie Canal the night before the race. They managed only 20 minutes of team paddling before the race, though on course, the boat quickly settled to a fine rhythm.
