The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Just read an article in the Tulsa World that The Great Raft Race is making a comeback this Labor Day (Sept 7)!

I'm excited to see the return of this quirky Tulsa tradition! (Added bonus for those of us who rember the river back in the 80's, the water should be a lot safer and cleaner than it used to be.)

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I'm excited. I actually talked to John Erling about this several years ago, thinking that TulsaNow should revive the tradition. He said that the liability insurance got too expensive and the radio station decided it wasn't worth it. Maybe the chamber is paying up the insurance this time around.

In any case...glad this is happening!

My father, brother, and I stood out on a sand bar near the finish for the very first one 42 years ago.  The river and River Parks has come a long way since then!

If I recall, some of those entries took a lot more than a month to put together.
At its height, people would be piecing them together over the winter.  Yeah, it was a big deal.

They have almost two

And I suspect many people already started

Short notice, especially since I will be out of town for 3 weeks in August, but I've already told my wife we are getting a team together next year and doing this.

Has anyone here floated the Arkansas from Keystone to the boathouse?  I have a kayak, but no experience on this portion of the river. 

Any spots to watch for?   

Yes. But nothing an experienced kayaker couldn't handle. Mostly depends on the volume being released.

So do the rafts need motors to help them make it to shore to dock, or do they just risk following the current over the LWD?

I can think of a few people I’d like to see forgo the docking motor  :o

Is there a website with details that I missed? I can't believe they would start at keystone dam. Too long. I also think motorized rafts would not be allowed on Zink lake. Probably only guide boats like the rowing crew or fire rescue boat.

This won't end well......

http://www.newson6.com/story/29482557/adventurous-arkansas-river-rafters-have-mishap-in-tulsa

I was jogging in the area and saw them. It was a large inflatable that I figured was heading to exit at the ramp. Security was talking to them by the lagoon. Large unwieldy craft that the wind can push around easily. That is a good preview of what could happen with high water and winds during this race. I would have counseled them to portage around the low water dam.
 
I really don't want to see any tragedies happen. I will be glad to list or send anyone a list of where the major low flow obstacles are and what to look for during high flows.

Those folks were foolish.....

Years ago, I was on the Tulsa Rowing Club, and a friend and I decided to take a couple of single sculls up towards Keystone.  You had to have a certain amount of flow to get over some of the submerged obstacles in the river, which made rowing upstream fairly tiring.  (As I recall, there were some low concrete bars that ran across the river in certain areas.  No clue what they were for.  This was the 80's.)

In any case, the only tricky place I remember was where all the bridges cross around 11th and Riverside (244, Southwest Blvd, the old Route 66 bridge).  Due to all the piers having different alignments, it creates an assortment of eddies that make life interesting as you thread your way through them.  Probably no big deal on a raft, but definitely a big deal in a racing scull that's about 12 inches wide at the waterline and about 28 feet long with no keel.  We called this "running the gauntlet."  It was not an approved activity.

But it was actually pretty beautiful (aside from the "spooge" that was floating on the water in some areas), and the further upstream we went, the nicer and more peaceful it became.  No clue how far we got, but I was young and in shape and so it was probably several miles.