The Cheat River Festival was tons of fun again this year. Along with the Festival on Saturady night there is also a down river race on Friday. Even with the low water levels, coldish weather, and steep gas prices the Cheat Fest once again drew a huge crowd.
Friday's race was an event to witness. The race is a mass start event that starts at the old rail bridge and finishs at the take out for the Cheat Canyon. This year 130+ racers lined up to funnel down into the canyon. I decieded since the water levels were so low and thier would be lots of flat water between the big rapids that I would paddle a sea kayak in the race. I want to thank Joe Stumpfel and Springriver for letting me borrow a boat for the race. It was quite fun manuvering a 17ft long boat through tight slots on the low water Cheat. I managed a 15th place overall with a time just over 1hr 22min. A big congradulations go out to many of my friends who were big winners at the race: Geoff Calhoun (A Class/Overall, 3rd time), Joe Stumpfel (B Class), Steve Graybill (C Class, 3rd time), Holli Noble (D Class Women), Alden Bird (C1), and Melanie & Pat Hamlin (K2). You can check out all the race action at www.cheatrace.com. A big thanks goes out to Rick Gusic for organizing the race and Rocky Mountian Kayaks for all the prizes, beer, and race support.
The Festival on Saturday night was full of food vendors, craft vendors, whitewater manufactuer and retail vendors, as well live bluegrass music. The atmosphere at the festival is full of energy with pumping music, catching up with old friends, and many icy cold spirits being passed around. Saturday was an extremely happy day for me as the Fluid booth was packed all day with people checking out the new '06 Fluid lineup. The Solo was the big hit of the day with many many demos out on the water all day long. I also represent H2O paddles and had a few demos at the festival, most of which where out on the river for most of the weekend. People seemed to like what they saw and demoed as Rocky Mountain Kayak sold quite a number of Fluid kayaks and H2O paddles at the festival.
See you on the river- Bryon
