The rain and flooding in the state is not only impacting events on land, it’s also causing some problems for events held on the water. Organizers of the 2013 Charles City Challenge have postponed the event planned for this weekend on the state’s only whitewater course. Charles City tourism coordinator, Ginger Williams, says they made the decision based on the conditions on the Cedar River.
“We have some above-normal flows on the Cedar River and the water levels are a little higher than normal and we do want the event to be appealing to paddlers of all skill levels, so we wanted to be sure we had all of those paddlers here for that event,” Williams says.
The course opened in 2011 and has proven to be popular for those in and out of the state. “This spring we’ve seen paddlers from all over the place, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Omaha, Chicago, all over the midwest,” Williams says.
Williams is not sure how many people planed to attend the challenge event. She says they had a lot of interest, but a lot of them were planning to register on the day of the event. The event has now been moved to June 29th.
When there are not special events on the course, riders can take kayaks, paddle boards, canoes and inner tubes through the area that begins at the town’s Main Street bridge.
For more information, go to the website: www.ccwhitewater.com.