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Last year's ROTC was a big success, with Women Outdoors boats claiming both 1^st and 2^nd place in the Women's division! Can we do it again??? OH YES!!!

If you're not familiar with the race, here's some factoids: The Run of the Charles is the largest canoe and kayak race in New England and attracts over 1,000 paddlers each year. Put on by the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) to showcase the recreational potential of the Charles River and raise funds for the protection of the watershed in eastern Massachusetts, this event includes six races for professional and recreational boaters, of 6, 9, 19, and 24 miles in length.

This year, Women Outdoors is proud to announce that we’ll once again be backing trip leaders Deb Weisenstein and Jackie Slivko along with their team participants, whom they're now recruiting. We’re joining Deb and Jackie in urging Women Outdoors paddlers to step up to the plate, step into the boat, and get ready for fun and teamwork. The entry fee is $30 for each of 10 team members, but Women Outdoors will be subsidizing part of that fee.

Guaranteed Winners!

The 24-mile relay race has a category for women's teams, which require 10 women. This category had only one entry, a team called the Mad Hatters, for the last several years. In 2011, we're sad to say, the Mad Hatters didn't compete, so Women Outdoors claimed both trophies. As Deb points out, Women Outdoors has many active and skillful outdoor women who paddle. Simply put, we're pretty darn confident about winning. How many races can guarantee you such an outcome? More to the point, just by showing up, we're inspiring women to get out there and paddle and perhaps even put together an all-women team to compete with us. Bring it on!!!

A Good Cause, Multiple Benefits

The CRWA was a recipient of the 2011 International Riverprize, the world’s most prestigious environmental award. Here are some of the good works done by the CRWA that Women Outdoors participation and funding will support:

• CRWA holds an annual river cleanup on Earth Day, April 21 this year.

• The Association participated in negotiations that reduced by 95% the heat discharge and water withdrawal from the river by a plant in Cambridge, so that waste heat from the plant is now used as cogeneration heat for nearby buildings. 

• CRWA is involved in developing a "smart sewering" plan for wastewater in the town of Littleton, combining climate change mitigation and adaptation with smart economic growth.

A more pristine watershed environment and recreational opportunities for New England residents will be among the benefits. The Run of the Charles is also a fun event and a challenging competition, but an event where anyone and everyone can enjoy the river at their own speed. It’s your chance to get to know Women Outdoors members across chapters while applying yourselves to a common goal, an opportunity to have the Women Outdoors name noticed, and a potential chance to recruit new members on the riverbank. The paddlers are sure to have a good time, applying themselves in friendly competition and cheering on their teammates.

Meet Your Trip Leaders

Deb has been paddling canoes and kayaks for over 30 years and formerly held an AMC class 4 whitewater rating. She served as a leader of AMC whitewater trips for several years. Her former company participated in the Run of the Charles corporate division race for about 15 years, and she’s paddled the race 12 times, often helping to organize the company team. Deb served as team captain and co-organizer for WO's canoe team last year. She knows the particulars of each of the 5 race legs and can match paddler's skills with appropriate race legs. Last year she very much enjoyed getting to know the 20 Women Outdoors team members, and looks forward to working with them, and some new paddlers, this year.

Jackie is a paddler extraordinaire including sea and recreational kayaking, solo and tandem canoeing, and white water rafting. She is a Level 3 sea kayaker, with a passion for the New England coastline from Rhode Island to Maine. Jackie began her paddling days on the Delaware in NY, Pine Barrens of NJ, and Allegheny in PA. She then went on to “conquer” the Colorado River down the Grand Canyon, enjoy the solitude and Northern lights in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota, as well as Quetico and Voyageur’s parks on the Canadian border. Locally she has “tripped” on the Allagash river in Maine, “raced” pumpkins on the Connecticut River in Vermont, and more recently “blazed’ passages (after this year’s early snow storm) on the Ware river in central MA. She looks forward to another year with a great group of women on the quiet Charles.

Race Particulars

Come race day, you'll find canoes, kayaks, outrigger canoes, and paddleboards on the river. The 24-mile relay race consists of 5 legs, each about 5 miles long, taking about an hour each. Relay teams use one canoe and swap paddlers for each leg. The race starts in Needham where the Charles River is a small, winding stream, proceeds through Dedham, Newton, Wellesley, Waltham, and Boston, and ends at Herter Park in Brighton. More information can be found at the CRWA site. For those who paddle kayaks, there are 6 and 9 mile races for individuals. You should register on your own for a kayak race, but join the team for practices and the post-race celebration.

The race begins at 10 am. Check-in time starts at 8:30. The start is staggered with waves of 10 boats sent off every couple minutes. There are 6 portages on the race, three of them between legs and three within legs. For the portages between legs, both the paddlers finishing the previous leg and those starting on the next leg are allowed to carry, which provides four people to portage the boat. For the portages within legs, only the two paddlers on that leg are allowed to carry the boat. One leg has no portages and one leg only a short 4-person portage.

Register Now Before the Price Goes Up

The entry fee for the race is $300 if the team enters by February 24. After that, the fee goes up to $350. The team has until March 30 to complete a roster, but substitutions are allowed later, even on race day.

Here’s what Deb and Jackie need to pull together another winning team or teams:

1. 20 paddlers to fill two team rosters, plus 4-6 backups

2. the loan of one or two lightweight tandem canoes for the race

3. team photographers to follow the team down the river and document their efforts

4. others to cheer the team on and help celebrate at the finish line.

Team practices will start in late March and will be held each weekend until the race, with some practices on the Charles and some at other locations where team members live, such as western Mass., Rhode Island, and Connecticut. We expect each team member to participate in at least one practice session before the race, where we’ll work on efficient paddling form and develop endurance. We’re planning a team potluck for Saturday March 10 in the Boston area to meet each other, plan practices, and acquaint paddlers with the race logistics.

SUMMARY

Date: Sunday April 29, 2012

Time: Race starts at 10 am, ends around 3–4 pm

Individual commitment: 3 hours

Cost: $30 maximum (to be offset by an as-yet-undetermined Women Outdoors subsidy)

Level of Effort: 1 hour of paddling, portages for some team members

Location: Charles River between Needham and Boston, MA

RSVP to: Deb Weisenstein (508-277-4826) dkweis@alum.mit.edu

Reply by: February 20

I finally got my lazy ass out to clean up Assabet River last Saturday, HUGE thanks to Greater Boston Regional Contact and MY HERO Robin Schulman, who's been organizing Women Outdoors members to come clean up this gorgeous swath of H20 for a few years now.

You have to love river cleanups. It gives us a whole new level of appreciation for the items that people choose to donate to the river's mermaids and mermen. Volunteers this year found a practically new kid's bike, a scooter, a sewer grate (too heavy to move!), some plastic palettes that the river's vegetation has already integrated too much to move [vines and roots are a strong embrace), and my favorite, a CAR!!! (I wanted to photograph it, but they found it in a location far from where we were cleaning [which was in Maynard, Ma.]).

Past years, the organizers told me, turned up a gun and a safe (empty).

Can you imagine the stories behind all this stuff? Did some bullies pick on a kid and toss his bike into the river? Was there a heist, or did somebody just get really tired of material possessions and decide to donate it all to charity, then throw their safe in the river?

In other words, anybody who's ever entertained the thought of becoming a mystery writer should do a river cleanup.

I wasn't kidding when I referred to a lazy part of my anatomy. I'd never get motivated to get out and do this good environmental stewardship work without the encouragement of Women Outdoors members like Robin, and I sure as heck wouldn't have as much fun doing it without bumping into other WO members hard at work.

Not only do you get motivated and have fun when you do this kind of work, not only do you give back to the outdoors that we all love so much, you also get inspired.

For example: Robin, a professional bike mechanic, took one look at the bike, covered with streaming river weed, and said "Hey, this hasn't been in here for long. I could fix it up."

It would take at least 5 hours to restore the bike, Robin estimated, and that's precious time that's hard to find in a working woman's life. She had a brilliant idea, though: Restore it and auction it off, to call attention to the work of OARS, the organization that holds the cleanup.

Will it happen? Who knows? But it's great to be out on a fall day, restoring a riverbank, and watching the creative juices flow. I hope you're all enjoying the fall, and I hope you find time to do some cleanup work.

And to all of you who regularly get outside and get yourself dirty as you do this type of environmental stewardship work, Women Outdoors sends out a hearty, sincere Thank You.

If anyone in the Boston area knows anything about this, the Coast Guard is urging you to call at (617)223-5757.   Please spread the word!

Looking to jump out of your usual haunts and meet some Women Outdoors members from across our regions this summer? We’ve got two exciting Unleashed! events at which we’d love to see members from ALL our chapters convene for fun in the sun and under the stars! Read on for details on these biking and/or camping and/or kayaking and/definitely/yesyesyes!! FUN-packed outings.

1. June 18: 27th Annual OutRiders Boston to Provincetown Bike

Can you bike 126 Miles in One Day?

Can you hang out with, cheer on and throw adulation at those who can?!

If you answered Yes to either question, We Want YOU!!!!!

We’re looking for:

A. Bike riders who want to enjoy this fun ride,

and

B. Women Outdoors members who’d like to help us staff a table to offer refreshments to riders, as well as to pass out brochures and talk up what a great organization we have.

Rider Check In: In front of the Cyclorama on Tremont St (next to Berkeley);  (riders can start after check in)

Rider Finish: Provincetown, at Bas Relief Park on Bradford St.

Women Outdoors Checkpoint: Wellfleet, MA, at the end of the (scenic) Cape Cod Rail Trail (102 mile point). 

Duties: 1. Hand out snacks, water and Gatorade to hungry and thirsty riders!  Also, check riders off on main sheet. 

2. Provide encouragement and praise to riders.

3. Receive many thanks from riders who have just passed the century mark, and have less than 25 miles to go! 

We’re planning an overnight stay in Provincetown, so bring your tent and we'll share a campsite at Coastal Acres campground. We’ll attend the Sunday Brunch, 11am, at the Provincetown Inn.  Just follow the people with the blue t-shirts and funky suntan lines to the banquet room.  More adulation will be given and received by/from the 130 refreshed (and bathed) riders.  In addition, you'll receive a way cool commemorative t-shirt, just like the riders get! 

Register: Call Sondra Spencer at 401-439-3654 or e-mail her at sondraspencer@verizon.net.

2. July 7–12: Burlingame, R.I., interchapter kayaking,
birding, camping, biking, swimming trip

Come for a day or two just to join us in a multi-region potluck and fun at the beach/marsh/freshwater pond, or join us for the whole 5 nights!

This is the 2^nd year for this fun trip. Last year, 34 Women Outdoors members attended!

This area boasts great kayaking, birding, beaches and biking. The campground holds a freshwater lake, and right across the street is the 868-acre Ninigret National Marsh. Over the sand dunes lies the ocean and Charlestown’s beautiful East Beach.

There will be an EMS kayaking workshop in the area during this time (we’re still nailing down the specifics of when/where).

Here’s what you can expect: Tons of bird life. We’ll be kayaking along the shore, in and out of the marsh. We’ll see beautiful houses from a perspective you can’t get in any other way. When the tide goes out, expect the 3’ water to ebb, stranding you in 6” while fellow boaters pull up and unload their kids, dogs, and lawn chairs or just sit in their kayaks, laughing and chatting.

The sites we reserve are in The Fish Camp, an area near the boat ramp and an unguarded beach on the pond. In other words, nice and quiet, with fewer kids and crowds!

Make your own reservation at www.reserveamerica.com. There were still sites close by available in early June. We have #108, so if you can get any of these, you’d be close by: # 102 / #106 / #110 /  #119 / #122

We will plan a potluck dinner  probably Saturday night, and maybe one community breakfast.  Other than that, you’re on your own for food.

To register:

1. Reserve your site at www.reserveamerica.com. Each site holds up to 2 tents and up to 6 people.

2. Contact: Kim Otis / kimotis117@yahoo.com /  413-427-6024 to tell her your site # and how many tents and people will be on your site.  

3. Bring your own kayak, or rent one in the area. Remember, PFDs (personal flotation devices) are required on all outings.

4. Bring bikes (and your helmets!): It’s the best way to get to the beach.

See you in the outdoors!

Lisa Vaas

Unleashed! Coordinator

Board of Directors

Co-Regional Contact, Greater Boston

Here are some of the workshops planned for the 2011 Gathering: 

Saturday morning, May 28

• Kayaking Poetry Scavenger Hunt
• Hike to Heron Rookery
• Native American Flute 101
• Hike Mt. Skatutakee
• Meal Planning for Good Health

Saturday afternoon, May 28

• Gentle Pilates
• Shoulders, Knees, Ankles - Tips for Self Care
• Reading and Writing Poems of the Natural World
• Wellness, Blood Pressure Check
• The Nature of Prose
• Women Outdoors Website Training for RCs

Sunday morning, May 29

• Early Morning Nature Reflections
• Making Space for Sabbath Time
• A Recovery Walk in Nature - 12 Things to be Grateful for
• Hike to Mt. Monadnock
• Invasive Plant Identification
• Hike to Heron Rookery
• Bike Ride to Harrisville

Sunday afternoon, May 29

• Leisurely off-side paddle at Powder Mill Pond
• Pack Monadnock Views
• Orienteering
• Drumming

Women Outdoors is thrilled to be sponsoring two all-women teams for the Run of the Charles race on Saturday, April 30—so thrilled, we plan to have a party afterwards to honor our mighty rowers and party with all of you who are  in town to urge them on.

If you don't know about Run of the Charles, check it out here. This is New England's largest canoe and kayak race, held every April, put on by the Charles River Watershed Association to showcase the ongoing improvements in the Charles River, while drawing 1,500 paddlers and hundreds of spectators to enjoy a day on the river.

Women Outdoors members are traveling from as far away as New York to participate or cheer WO paddlers on, and we want to hang with them! So if you're interested in hanging with  us, meeting the paddlers, and eating a little food, whether you're already a WO member or just want to come and learn more about the group, we would love to see you.

The party will be at Women Outdoors Unleashed headquarters, aka my house, in Jamaica Plain, starting around 5:30 on race day.

If you'd like to come, please RSVP to me at lisavaas@gmail.com, and I'll send the address and directions.


I look forward to the race and to seeing you all!!

xoxo

~Lisa
Director at Large, Women Outdoors
Women Outdoors Unleashed Coordinator

Join us for the 32nd Annual Women Outdoors Gathering on Memorial Weekend, May 27-30, 2011.    Enjoy kayaking, hiking, swimming, birding, meeting lots of outdoor women, biking, walking, meditating, eating and so much more....

New this year is the option to stay Monday night, May 31. Turn your long weekend into a 4-day vacation!!

Sign up by Wednesday, April 20 to receive the $20 early bird discount. Sign up in advance to lead a workshop and get another $20 discount. Financial assistance is also available. 
 
Go to The Gathering page for more detailed information.

When: May 27-31, 2011
Where: Sargent Center, Hancock, New Hampshire
Who: Women Outdoors members (Not a member? Join when you register.)  Children welcome, boys only to age 8.
How: Go to The Gathering page to learn more and to register today.  Register by April 20 to get a $20 discount.
Cost: Varies from $110 to $285 depending on your length of stay and
accommodation. 

If you have any questions or comments, please email Gathering@womenoutdoors.org.

Everybody’s jostling. It’s windy. You’re trying to thread yourself and your boat around way too many people. People are jumping in and out at each start of a new leg and each switch-over to new team rowers, some flipping their boats and taking a dunk in the Charles River.

Also, lest we forget, there’s a guy who’s dressed like a Viking waiting at the end-of-race party in Brighton. We have no idea why.

It’s February, and that means it’s time to register and train for the Run of the Charles, the largest canoe and kayak race in New England, which attracts over 1,000 paddlers each year. This is your chance to use the muscles you’ve spent all winter beefing up for a good cause. Put on by the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) to showcase the recreational potential of the Charles River and raise funds for the protection of the watershed in eastern Massachusetts, this event includes six races for professional and recreational boaters, of 6, 9, 19, and 24 miles in length.

This year, Women Outdoors is proud to announce that we’ll be backing trip leader Debra Weisenstein and her team participants, whom she’s now recruiting. We’re joining Deb in urging Women Outdoors Paddlers to step up to the plate, step into the boat, and get ready for fun and meaningful fund-raising. The entry fee is $30 for each of 10 team members. Women Outdoors will be subsidizing an as-yet-undetermined amount of that fee.

Guaranteed Winners!

The 24-mile relay race has a category for women's teams, which require 10 women. This category has had only one entry, a team called the Mad Hatters, for the last several years. As Deb points out, Women Outdoors has many active outdoor women who paddle. “We could double the number of women's teams in the race and be assured of a second place finish!” she said. How many races can guarantee you such an outcome?

A Good Cause

Here are some of the good works done by the CRWA that Women Outdoors participation and funding will support:

• CRWA holds an annual river cleanup on Earth Day

• The Association participated in negotiations that reduced by 95% the heat discharge and water withdrawal from the river by a plant in Cambridge, so that waste heat from the plant is now used as cogeneration heat for nearby buildings. 

• CRWA is involved in developing a smart growth plan for wastewater in the town of Littleton.

A more pristine watershed environment and recreational opportunities for New England residents will be the benefits. The Run of the Charles is also a fun event and a challenging competition, but an event where anyone and everyone can enjoy the river at their own speed. It’s your chance to get to know Women Outdoors members across chapters while applying yourselves to a common goal, an opportunity to have the Women Outdoors name noticed, and a potential chance to recruit new members on the riverbank. The paddlers are sure to have a good time, applying themselves in friendly competition and cheering on their teammates.

Meet Your Trip Leader

Deb has been paddling canoes and kayaks for over 30 years and formerly held an AMC class 4 whitewater rating. She served as a leader of AMC whitewater trips for several years. Her company, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., has participated in the Run of the Charles corporate division race for about 15 years. She’s paddled the race at least 10 times and often helped organize the company team, including running practices at lunchtime and providing informal instruction on the water. Deb has also served as team captain for the last two years. She knows the particulars of each of the 5 race legs and has matched paddlers with race legs and paddling partners for her company team.

Race Particulars

You can find canoes, kayaks, outrigger canoes, and paddleboards on the river come race day. The 24-mile relay race consists of 5 legs. Each leg is about 5 miles long, is paddled by a team of 2 and takes about an hour of paddling. The race starts in Needham where the Charles River is a small, winding stream, proceeds through Dedham, Newton, Wellesley, Waltham, and Boston, and ends at Herter Park in Brighton. More information can be found at the CRWA site.

The race begins at 10 am, but the start is staggered with waves of 10 boats sent off every couple minutes. Some boats won't actually start until 10:20 or later. There are 6 portages on the race, three of them between legs and three within legs. For the portages between legs, both the paddlers finishing the previous leg and those starting on the next leg are allowed to carry, which provides four people to portage the boat. For the portages within legs, only the two paddlers on that leg are allowed to carry the boat. One leg has no portages and one leg only a short 4-person portage.

Register Now Before the Price Goes Up

The entry fee for the race is $300 if the team enters by February 25. After that, the fee goes up to $350. The team has until March 31 to complete a roster, but substitutions are allowed later, even on race day.

Boat Needed, PFD Mandatory

Here’s what Deb needs to pull together a winning team:

1. 10 paddlers to fill the team roster, plus 2-4 backups.

2. the loan of a lightweight tandem canoe for the race (preferably less than 70 pounds).

3. a team photographer to follow the team down the river and document their efforts.

4. others to cheer the team on and help celebrate at the finish line.

SUMMARY

Date: Saturday April 30, 2011

Time: Race starts at 10 am, ends around 3-4 pm

Individual commitment: 2 ½ hours

Cost: $30 maximum (to be offset by an as-yet-undetermined Women Outdoors subsidy)

Level of Effort: 1 hour of paddling, portages for some team members

Location: Charles River between Needham and Boston, MA

RSVP to: Deb Weisenstein (508-277-4826) dkweis@aer.com

Reply by: February 21

Join Women Outdoors for a Winter Weekend Getaway on February 11 - 13, 2011.  We love holding our annual Gathering every Memorial Day Weekend at the Sargent Center in Hancock, NH, but winter offers an exquisite beauty all its own.

For outdoor fun, you can look forward to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and tubing. Indoor activities at the Northern Lodge include playing games, relaxing, talking with friends, and of course, those fabulous Sargent Center meals.

Women, college/youth, and children are welcome to attend.  We will be sharing the Sargent Center with another small co-ed group during the weekend.

All meals and accommodations are included in the price.  Rentals for cross-country skis and snow shoes are extra.  Prices range from $55 for Saturday (two meals, no overnight) to $175 for the entire weekend (two nights in a cabin and six meals).

This event is for members of Women Outdoors.  If you're not yet a member, please sign up on our Join Us page.  If you are a member, you can register online today.

Hope to see you there!

They might call you.

They might whisper into your ear, late at night.

“Come, join us,” they will purr. “You’re so smart. You’re so competent. Come. Be on.... “

THE BOARD.

“No! No! No!” you scream, flinging the phone across the room. Or, if it’s a nice phone, holding it away from your ear.

“Those Board of Director meetings are so boring,” you wail.

You’re right! What can we say? It’s hell! It’s horrible! Don’t join, whatever you do! Who needs blah blah blah? Yadda yadda?

And if you don’t join, there will be more lobster bisque for me at the Board retreat, a bowlful of which I enjoyed at a Newport restaurant, schooners and yachts bobbing on the rolling sea outside in the harbor.

More bellydancing lessons from Reba to go around!

More essential oils rubbed on your aching temples from Alice, essential oil maven, who dabbed me with this elixir called Abundance, full of cloves and orange and frankincense and myhr, said to increase the flow of love and money and lobster bisque into your life.

More walking along Cliff Walk, scrambling up and down the boulders as the waves explode on the craggy cliffs, the mansions rising above you and the daisies blooming in drifts zigzagging up the rock crevasses.

But these are just details.

Seriously, it’s work. Being on the Board is not all play. It does entail hours of sitting around in meetings, wrangling over what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong.

This time around, we were thinking about you: You the members, you the Regional Contacts.

What makes you join Women Outdoors when you could just go to a nature-centric Meetup? What makes us different? What keeps members from going to planning meetings? Is it apathy? How are we on the Board apathetic ourselves?

I’m not going to try to talk anybody into joining the Board. We have trained operatives for that.

(I’m kidding. We don’t have trained operatives.)

I just thought I’d share a bit about last weekend’s retreat with you.

Oh, and did I mention the moonlit Jack-o-Lantern stroll?

The terrifying Blair Reba Witch Project video I managed to shoot, wherein our Treasurer may or may not have been possessed by cucurbit demons?

Board of Directors meetings. Pffft! Who needs that?

Waitress! More lobster bisque, please!