My Cape Ann Annual

Cape Ann's annual Blackburn Challenge is on my radar all year.  Each year I look forward to joining some 300+ folks in challenging themselves to either paddle or row the 20-mile course around outer Cape Ann's rocky shoreline.

My pre-event preparation begins with setting up camp amidst the rocks and trees at Cape Ann Camp Site...

Here, Mrs. Trashpaddler and I find life reduced to pure simplicity: drinking-in salt air, swimming and boating in salt water, and finding sustenance in the sea's tasty bounty.

On Blackburn eve morning I wheeled my boat down the hill, launched into the very tidal Jones River, and saw if I still remembered the route to the adjoining Annisquam River (which thankfully I did).

The day was a beauty and I soon found myself admiring the A. Piatt Andrew Bridge elegantly spanning the Annisquam.  The bridge was finally free of reconstruction-related shrouding it has worn for the past several years...

Around the next bend was the railroad drawbridge...



...its rails strangely quiet these days as commuter trains aren't running beyond Salem while a new train control system is installed.  However, 24 hours from when this photo was snapped, this spot would be bustling with some 200 human-powered vessels. 

Since I'd be one of the above, I shamelessly attempted to acquire some good karma by gathering up some trash from the river...

 ...doesn't hurt to try and it was, after all, free for the taking.

 

So, with this bit of ballast onboard I did a practice run of the event's first 3 miles to Annisquam Light followed by a refreshing swim near Wingaersheek Beach. 

 

On Saturday morning all Blackburn participants covered those same 3 miles against a peppy incoming tide and then, rather than stopping for a swim, pushed on for another 17 miles before collecting a prized pulled pork sandwich and icy-cold Ipswich Summer Ale on tap...hands down the tastiest beer of my whole year.

 

Following a good night's sleep with shoulders lathered in Icy Hot, a Sunday morning leisurely stroll along Gloucester's Stacy Boulevard provided an appropriate setting to begin recuperation...

 

The sight of a banks dory pulling by Ten Pound Island served as a fitting reminder of the previous day's event named for Gloucester's legendary doryman Howard Blackburn...

 

 

The week before this year's Blackburn Challenge my daughter and I enjoyed participating in another Cape Ann event...the Misery Challenge running out of Manchester by the Sea to and around Great Misery Island...

 

Halfway along the course I watched as my daughter paddled between Great Misery to her left...

 

and Little Misery to her right.  Sort of like life's proverbial rock and a hard place...take your pick. 

In addition to paddlers and rowers, the Misery Challenge included more than 100 swimmers and impressed us as a well run affair.