Going into a course that was defined by unpredictable crosswinds, swirling eddy pools and narrow lines of optimal performance river flows, the podium was up for grabs, and it was anyone’s guess who would emerge victorious.

But this wasn’t a race not between human athletes, but rather rubber duckies, with a second heat featuring 12 bitty boats. The races brought together a large crowd of both paddling enthusiasts and interested community members who showed out in support of the Boothe River Park, a proposed river park along a stretch of the Saranac River that flows through downtown Saranac Lake.

The winners were Heather Smith, with ducky No. 142, followed by Marianna Chriss with ducky No. 88 and Jason Langlois rounded out the podium finishers with ducky No. 91. In the bitty boat race, Leisl Haney won with “Unicorn,” Beckett Schulyer placed second with “Fast Ducky” and Craig McKim came in third with “Blue Canoe.”

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The ducks begin their race at the Boothe Bitty Boat Race on the Saranac River on Sunday in Saranac Lake. The event, which featured 225 ducks and 12 bitty boats, was a community fundraiser for the Boothe River Park, a proposed river park for a segment of the Saranac River where it flows through downtown Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

About the project

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The project has been years in the making, and will still be several more before any sort of river work can begin, according to Friends of Boothe River Park President Scott McKim. The rubber ducky and bitty boat races were among multiple fundraisers planned for this summer to support the project.

“We are currently in the design and permitting phase of the project,” he said. “We’re marching through both the state and federal regulatory systems.”

The ability to do river work and create the park is part of the relicensing of the Saranac Lake Dam, which sits above where the proposed park features would begin.

From left, Marley McKim, Beckett Schulyer and Thea Greene smile with prizes at the Boothe Bitty Boat Race on the Saranac River on Sunday in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

“The earliest we could go to construction is the open water season of 2028 and that’s what we’re shooting for,” McKim said. “So fundraising-wise, it’s great that we have a longer horizon, but it’s often hard to get your teeth into money when it’s so far in the future.”

While the regulatory and permitting work is at times tedious, McKim said he’s been pleased with the proposal’s reception.

“The village has been a big supporter of the project and the community’s coming out more and more to these events,” he said.

When people think of whitewater kayaking, they typically picture high-caliber paddlers sending towering waterfalls, or making their way down intense rapids that often require years of skill development, financial investment and a high degree of risk tolerance.

McKim said the Boothe River Park is not about that. In fact, he said it’s an opportunity to open the sport of whitewater paddling to a broad audience and make it as accessible as possible and move its image away from some of those elitist perceptions.

Doug Haney catches the first duck, out of 225, to cross the finish line at the Boothe Bitty Boat Race on the Saranac River on Sunday in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

“Very beginner-friendly,” he said. “Everything from people in inner tubes to boogie boards to tandem canoes will be able to paddle through the features. This is not an elitist whitewater feature that only caters to people with a high level of skill or years of experience. Anyone can do this.”

In addition to opening up paddling, McKim said a major focus of Boothe River Park is to restore that stretch of the river’s environmental qualities, which have been impacted by various human development aspects over the years.

“The big thing is providing increased access from both shores and then cleaning up what is kind of a degraded area environmentally,” he said. “Improving the riparian zone. Right now, it’s a bunch of big rock, riprap. Not natural, not a habitat for fish.”

McKim said this includes restoring native vegetation along the banks and improving the river’s flow so its terraced on each side. In addition to improving access for people, he said this would also help the river better accommodate, from an ecological and hydrological perspective, the wide range of flow rates that the river experiences between the typical high levels in the spring to the low levels at the end of summer.

To read more about the initiative’s history, visit tinyurl.com/cxvtnpkj. More information on the project and upcoming events can be found on the organization’s website at bootheriverpark.com.

Chris Burnham hauls in the ducks at the Boothe Bitty Boat Race on the Saranac River on Sunday in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)