During winter and early spring months I spent more time with my Sisson Nucleus kayak than in my safari boat exploring some rivers in Colorado I haven't paddled before. I took my kayak to a shallow South Platte River near Fort Morgan in eastern Colorado and, later, I discovered Big Thompson River near Loveland. I started to train with Spencer X-treme canoe in April. In addition to short workouts on a local pond and the Poudre River I managed to do only two longer, 30+ miles, river runs, both on different stretches of the South Platte River.

Due to our business trip to Wisconsin we left for Texas later than in previous years arriving to San Marcos on Tuesday night. I was able to do less training/scouting on San Marcos than usual. On Wednesday afternoon I paddled from Palmetto to Gonzales, the stretch of the river I would be paddling during the first safari night. All obstacles, except a green logjam below highway 90A, were passable, but water was somewhat higher than a few days later during the race. The day was hot!!! I finished my run with a really bad headache. First symptoms of a heat stroke?