Today was not really a training day, but it was race preparation of a sort. There's a professor at the University of Memphis who organizes litter pickups in McKellar Lake and Wolf River Harbor on the riverfront, and there was a harbor cleanup scheduled for this morning in advance of the OICK race next Saturday. I wanted to make sure the paddling community was represented among the volunteers, so I went down there and participated in a plastic touring boat.
Mostly what I did was retrieve floating trash that was beyond the reach of the land-based volunteers, and throw it on the bank so they could put it in their trash bags. I think a whitewater boat would have been better for the job, as I often needed a sharper turning radius when zigzagging among the pieces of flotsam or when weaving through the willows near the bank.
We focused on the cobblestones and Mississippi River Park and the surrounding areas, where racers will gather after the finish. In the hundreds of paddling sessions I've put in on the Memphis riverfront, I've seen it at its very best, at its very worst, and at every state in between. I think it's important to see all these states; but the purpose of next weekend is to celebrate our wonderful river and share it with our out-of-town guests, and we want it to look its best.
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