It's been nearly a month since the Eddy Flower Vertical Challenge ended and a solid month of non stop kayaking has given way to the busy rafting season here in the North-west. Returning from Idaho spent but happy, I've since had the chance to travel down to southern Oregon to teach a couple of kayak instruction course on the Wild and Scenic Rogue river, Eddy Flower has just announced the top finishers from the contest and our Washington based team, The Off the Cowch Team, has taken the top spot by a landslide margin. Our total vertical feet paddled was nearly 150000 ft, or 28 vertical miles! The top four individual finishers were from our team, and I reached my personal goal of logging more than 40000 feet over the 32 day span. Over the four years of the competition this is now the most ever recorded! In addition and of incredible importance is the fact that as a team we also were able to raise $6470 for the First Descents Program, sending young adult Cancer survivors to week long kayak camps as part of their recovery. This also makes us the first team to lead both the vertical standing and the donation standings. Thanks to many of you guys, we have set a new bar for all teams that participate in the Vertical Challenge in the future. So again, to everyone, your encouragement and excitement about the competition was so valuable and appreciated. To those who were able to contribute financially; I got to help out a few days with the actual First descents Camps; your contributions are so valuable and mean so much toward the greater goal, i am honored that you were moved by my paddling to become involved in this competition yourselves. Thank you all so much.
View of the Columbia River Gorge from the mouth of the White Salmon after our teams 35 mile paddle from Trout Lake Creek to the Columbia, Day One Vertical Challange 2010Photo: Curt Joyce
