Sands edges Linehan in Souadabscook Small field paddles 30th edition of race

HAMPDEN – Rick O’Donald has been racing down the Souadabscook Stream for more than two decades, and while the water was lower than usual Saturday, that wasn’t a bad thing.

“It was a fun level,” said O’Donald, a Newburgh resident who teamed with Jamie Jordan of Hampden in the men’s OC-2 medium recreation class of the 30th annual Souadabscook Stream Race. “The thing about this river is it doesn’t matter what the level is, it’s always technical.”

“There were different lines, and there were a lot of places you couldn’t run where you normally do, so you just had to take different lines,” he added.

A field of 34 canoes and kayaks were launched from the Emerson Mill Road Grange for the 8-mile journey to the finish line near the Hampden Water District office on Route 1A.

The relatively small number of entries likely was attributable to concerns about low water levels that had forced cancellation of the season’s first two races, the St. George River Race in Searsmont and the Passagassawakeag River Race in Waldo.

But midweek rains helped boost the Souy’s water levels to a passable level, and for those who opted not to compete, it was their loss.

“The water level was comparable to other years,” said veteran kayaker Jeff Sands of Bangor. “It was slightly lower than usual, but it covered up the rocks where they needed to be covered up.”

Sands posted the fastest time of the day, completing the course in 59 minutes, 15 seconds to edge Ryan Linehan of Westport Island in the K-1 long division.

The two battled for most of the race, with Linehan rebounding after dumping his watercraft at the Emerson Mill dam site.

“I let him go first,” said Sands. “I wanted to see if he messed up and then I could correct it and slide through, and he dumped and I went a little farther left so I wouldn’t run him over. I’ve got to hand it to him, though. He did an excellent job getting his kayak back up, because I was about to T-bone him.”

Linehan regrouped and eventually moved slightly ahead, but Sands regained the lead during the run at the mandatory portage farther downstream and then pulled away in the final stretch of white water to win by 56 seconds.

“He was ahead of me at the portage,” Sands said, “but I passed him on the run on foot and then it was the home stretch and I was on a mission. But it was a hard fight. In the last mile in the white water, I pushed it extremely hard.”

Linehan, running the Souadabscook course for the first time, was satisfied with his performance.

“It was a good day,” he said. “This was the first time I’d ever been down the river and I hit a bunch of rocks, but it was really fun, a beautiful hidden gem.”

Other top times were turned in by Jeff Owen of Orono (1:02:01) in the OC-1 division and the team of Clayton Cole of Corinth and Justin Wardwell of Dedham (1:03:05) in the men’s OC-2 medium class.

The most competitive division was the men’s OC-2 medium recreation, in which the top three finishers were separated by just 10 seconds.

Jamie Hannon of Wolfeboro, N.H., and Jeff Hunt of Bangor won the division, edging Jordan and O’Donald by four seconds with J.R. Mabee and Greg Dorr of Bangor six seconds further back.

“It was all just all good, competitive teams,” said O’Donald, who first raced on this course in 1983. “When we hit the interstate bridge we were second, but the lead team flipped over and we took the lead there. They caught up with us at Crawford’s [Ledge], and at the portage we had them, but they ran the portage and I can’t run, so they passed us.

“But it was close at the end, a good race.”