Explore Sweden

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Hit the road, Jacques

Susan McKenzie / 15.05.2005

To paddle or not to paddle, that was the question.

And the answer varied from team to team.

When the teams left TA3 at the Lappudens Vildmarkscamping, they left with kayaks and kayak wagons in tow. Once again, they had to roll the kayaks about three kilometres to the river. Technically, according to the road book, it was a seventy kilometre paddle, but not everyone followed the roadbook.

Salomon Suisse barely put its boats in the water. The Swiss team, which has held the led since early this morning, paddled about twenty-two kilometres, and then hit the road, rolling its kayaks the rest of the way.

“That way, we did not have to follow the river,� explained Isabella Moretti.

“Except for Francois, paddling is not really our strength, so we looked at everything and decided it would be faster to run than to paddle,� Moretti continued, before heading off for a two hour sleep in a warm room adjacent to a sauna. “This may end up being the wrong decision, because we did not get to rest our feet in the kayaks, but we thought it would be faster.�

By contrast, second place Montrail paddled the entire section.

“We talked about it, about whether to paddle or portage,� says Rebecca Rusch. “We weren’t sure if we could use the road, but even when we realized we could we figured it would be faster to paddle. I guess we’ll see in the end which was the better choice.�See All Event Posts