Whats black, red, and orange, paddles AT and hucks miniature ghords? Well, its the Great Pumpkin and Grim Reaper on the White Salmon River during the Halloween Howl A rainy, November 1st, brought around 100 people to the White Salmon. The Halloween Howl event started with registration for the andldquo;Great Pumpkin Chaseandrdquo;
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Whats black, red, and orange, paddles AT and hucks miniature ghords? Well, its the Great Pumpkin and Grim Reaper on the White Salmon River during the Halloween Howl
A rainy, November 1st, brought around 100 people to the White Salmon. The Halloween Howl event started with registration for the andldquo;Great Pumpkin Chaseandrdquo;. With 44 registered andlsquo;chasersandrsquo;, we knew this event would be exciting.
Before the andldquo;Great Pumpkin Chaseandrdquo; took place, paddlers showed off their creativity for the Halloween Howl andlsquo;Costume Contestandrsquo;. Some of the most creative costumes, consisted of andquot;Old School Boaterandquot;, Rasta Boater, a terrorist bomber, and a cat. The costume contest participants received extra applause if they included their kayaks in with their costume design.
Once the costume judging was finished, the andldquo;Chaseandrdquo; participants and spectators headed for BZ Corners. The andldquo;Great Pumpkin Chaseandrdquo; took place on a class III+ stretch of whitewater. With 44 andldquo;chasersandrdquo;, the andldquo;Great Pumpkinandrdquo; and the andldquo;Grim Reaperandrdquo; throwing around 25 miniature ghords, and a short, technical stretch of whitewater, emotions were high. The boaters knew that maneuvering through a technical course as well as 43 other people, while trying to get pumpkins to win raffle items, was going to be very intense. The spectators were eagerly awaiting carnage . . .
A few swims and 25 mini-pumpkins later, the andldquo;chaseandrdquo; was finished. The participants all fought hard for the pumpkins, awaiting great raffle prizes at the BBQ.
Once everyone got dry, participants and spectators headed down to Northwestern Lake for the BBQ, which was put on by Outdoorplay.
We want to thank all of the businesses who supported this event: Yakima, NRS, Outdoorplay, AT Paddles, Kokatat, National Paddling Film Festival, Frito-Lays, Hood River Organics, Hood River Fruit andamp; Produce, WRSI, Immersion Research, Wind River Cellars, Worldkayak and Seals andndash; we could not have done it without you!!!
The Halloween Howl is all about paddling with great people and having fun while doing it. I think this event met that goal. I cannot wait until next year. . . .
BTW andndash; Have you guessed the andldquo;Great Pumpkinandrdquo; and the andldquo;Grim Reaperandrdquo;? Which local NW boaters were they???
SYOTR,
Heather Herbeck
Team JacksonKayak, Level Six, Sweet, AT, Girls4Sport
