Pack of paddlers sets record (with photos)

Susan Troller  —  8/14/2008 10:16 am

Looking like a pack of modern-day urban voyageurs, hundreds of paddlers put their canoes in the water at James Madison Park on Lake Mendota, sprinted across the isthmus with their boats over their heads and then plunged into Lake Monona to paddle a mile to Olin Park on Saturday.

It was the 29th annual Paddle & Portage event, snarling late-morning traffic on the east side of the Square but drawing cheers from enthusiastic spectators who lined the streets and waved on the competitors as they raced through the Farmers' Market.

More than 380 boats were registered for this year's event, which organizer John Eisele said was a record. The first Paddle & Portage race in 1980 attracted paddlers in 86 canoes.

"This was our biggest crowd ever," Eisele said.

"We cap the race at 400 because that's about all we could handle with sending groups out in waves. You can see the park is pretty full of canoes," he noted shortly before the race began at 10 a.m.

The race attracts serious competitors, as well as recreational paddlers. Dressed in everything from Speedo swimsuits and bandanas to a horse and jockey costume, all entrants finished the 1.5- or 2.5-mile Lake Mendota course, the mile portage through the city and a 1.5-mile Lake Monona course between 10 and 11:30 a.m.

The quirky event, which depends on Madison's unique geography, has attracted many paddlers year after year.

Terri Hughes, a Monroe woman who paddled with her sister, Mary Goonan of Belleville, has won her age group the majority of the years she has entered since 1981.

"There are five girls in our family and we've had fun doing this race as sisters, as the Goonan Girls," Hughes said.

"She (Terri) was state champion paddler in 1976," Goonan said proudly as her sister taped down a 2008 Paddle & Portage tag on the front of their canoe, which has flowered seat cushions held in place with duct tape.

Drew Henningfield, 18, of Madison, was racing Saturday with his dad, Steve.

A recent Madison Memorial High School graduate, the younger Henningfield said when he and his father began racing in Paddle & Portage in 2004 he wasn't strong enough to be much help with the mile long portage to Lake Monona.

He said this year he anticipated doing the lion's share of the carrying.

"We always go canoeing in the Boundary Waters every summer so this is a good warm up. It's a little crazy out in the water with all those boats but it's really fun," he said.

Susan Troller  —  8/14/2008 10:16 am