After a year without a 90-Miler due to Covid, Bill and Jack were back at the Adirondack Canoe Classic in 2021. It was the swan song for race director Brian MacDonnell, who was turning over the race to the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. It will be exceedingly strange for long-time racers not to hear Brian’s voice booming from the dock in Old Forge as he gives the competitors the race briefing on Day One. The word is that Brian, who has won the Yukon ultramarathon, will be competing in the race in 2022. Perhaps in a C-4? It certainly seems to be the hot boat at the moment, with more carbon race models showing up each year, and producing the overall winner.

But back to 2021 and our stalwart NCMC paddlers and pit crew. The Gogers were at the clubhouse on Kimpton the week before the race, so Tom and Jan joined them on the Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Tom had had Jack leave the wheels and the Jensen at Kimpton for use by the guests, so he headed up with the assignment of bringing the boat and wheels to Old Forge. Of course, neither was used by the Gogers at Kimpton before the race, and could have been brought to Buffalo, and then to Old Forge, by Jack. Tom and Jan headed to Old Forge with the boat and wheels on Thursday and, surprisingly, Jack and Bill showed up only slightly later than the pit crew. Jack and Bill procured their boat number and T-shirts. All racers had to be vaccinated to register (pandemic sanity in the Adirondacks!), and Grace would not allow Bill into the registration site until he went back to the motel room to retrieve his vaccination card. They had dinner at Slickers (as did Mac), which sits near the start line, for the first time ever in their long 90-Miler history.

While dinner at Slickers was a new precedent, breakfast on Friday morning was at Walt’s, which provided the usual hearty fare with alacrity and good humor. The racers were ready in plenty of time for their heat, which is a rarity, at least on Jack’s part. The only glitch was the very disconcerting revelation to Bill that they were NOT in Open Touring and Wave 1. Jack had switched them to the C-2 Stock class without telling Bill, not doubt reckoning that the later Bill found out the better. It’s like Rick telling Ilsa at the airport in Casablanca that she is getting on the plane with Victor. The only difference is that Rick’s plan made more sense than Jack’s scheme, which apparently has something to do with where their time is listed in the race results. In any event, it was Wave 3 for them. It should be mentioned that, as holders of Gold Canoes for completing 20 90-Milers, they were entitled to be in Wave 1 if they wished. Gold Canoes are like Letters of Transit in Casablanca. “Cannot be rescinded, not even questioned!!”

Anyway, off they went in Wave 3, and they were one of the few boats who got their names stated by Mac during the paddle wave, which is an honor granted to few paddlers. Jan and Tom packed all of Bill’s and Jack’s stuff left in their motel room in Bill’s Volkswagen. This was after a leisurely visit to the famous Old Forge Hardware store. It should be mentioned that Tom was doing pit crew duty, and sparing Jack and Bill the pain of packing their car and leaving the vehicle in Old Forge until who knows when (probably the end of the race) despite having been involuntarily retired from the NCMC race team. What a guy!

It is hard for the Editor to know what went on in the boat once the race started, but Jan and Tom drove to Inlet and to Eighth Lake Campground to view the racers’ progress. Bill and Jack were making excellent time and looking sharp. Astoundingly, Jack did not use the restroom on the portage through the campground. That is front page news in the NCMC annals. We hope he wasn’t dehydrated.

After giving encouragement to the racers, Jan and Tom headed to Blue Mountain Lake and the finish line. To their surprise, Blue Mountain Lake had “blown up real good,” and it looked like the ocean on a day with big wind and whitecaps. At least the wind was generally coming down the lake at the racers’ backs, but it looked treacherous. Bill and Jack came in at just over seven hours, and they were faster than in 2019. They mentioned taking a stroke sometimes and catching nothing but air due to the buffeting breezes.

Mary, who had arrived from Buffalo with Tuki to Kimpton, also was at the finish line, and they all headed back to the house, where Mary had arranged for a fine pasta dinner. They also brought the boat back to the house, as Jack wanted, God knows why, to fiddle with it a bit more.

Saturday morning they all headed to the start in Long Lake, which seemed delayed for no good reason despite good weather. Day 2 is TOUGH, and the racers are hard to follow because of the course, so the pit crew folks ended up at the Crusher finishing line in the late afternoon. They were joined by Dave and Ellen, who had accepted Jack’s gracious invitation to attend the race. Good job by the racers on Day 2, clocking in at 5:41. Dave and Ellen brought a feast of steak, turkey, corn and other fixings for dinner at the clubhouse, and prepared it all by themselves, allowing the rest of the crew to hang on the deck.

On Day Three, it was French toast by Jack for breakfast (after pancakes by Jack Saturday) and they all took the short trip from Kimpton to the start at Fish Creek campground. It was a gray morning, but the weather was otherwise okay. Jack and Bill got off to a good start, and Mary, Tom, and Jan rooted them on from the bridge as they headed for Upper Saranac Lake. Mary saw the finish at Lake Flower. That’s 26 90-Milers for Jack and 22 for Bill! And Mac was given the well-deserved Terry Healy award for running the race and putting up with all the crap for so many years.

Jack, 68, and Bill, 67, once again gave Father Time the finger and finished in 7:03, 5:41, 4:18 for 17:03. They finished 25th out of 54 C-2s that completed the race.

Here are some historic C-2 times for the NCMC:

16:04 Jack and Tom (2013)

16:12 Bill and Tom (2004)

16:47 Jack and Bill (2003)

17:14 Jack and Bill (2019)

Record for the C-4: 15:04 (2011)

All quite a bit better than the 18-plus hours that it took a clueless Tom and Jack in 1993. And that horrendous time benefited from them being pulled from the water at the end of Brown’s Tract!

Lastly, Tom suggested that Jack and Bill paddle Day 3 a day or two before the race next time so that they can recon the water levels and determine if any shortcuts can be taken, or need to be avoided.