Kayakers, canoers, paddleboarders and others who enjoy a Saturday morning paddle on the Iowa River can still sign up for the 12th annual Great Iowa River Race, which will be held this year on June 8. The race starts at Sturgis Ferry Park in Iowa City (1700 S Riverside Dr), which has a boat ramp allowing easy access to the river, and finishes at the next landing at Hills Access, a 40-acre park (4210 520th St SE) that is 9.25 miles down river.
Registration for the race is $40, which includes a post-race lunch. Participants who register before May 13 are guaranteed a 2024 Great Iowa River Race T-shirt. Those without their own floating means of transportation can rent a kayak or canoe from Johnson County Conservation for $10. They can be reserved by emailing JCC naturalist Frances Owen. The supply of rentals is limited, so anyone who needs one should make sure of their reservation before registering for the race.
The race is designed to be fun, but there are different approaches to fun, so there are two categories: one for casual paddlers and one for the more seriously competitive.
“It’s just a way for the really fast racers to get out ahead of everybody,” Frances Owen told Little Village. “Because the competitive people move a lot quicker.”
Registration for the race runs through June 4. There will be no day-of registration. All proceeds from the event go to support the environmental education work being done by JCC.
“We use the profits that we get from the race to purchase kayaks,” Owen explained. “And we’ve added onto that fleet a little more this year. We’re hoping to add paddleboards to our fleet as well.”
“We do a lot of free educational programming for the public during summer with those vessels. It’s a really big part of our environmental education program.”
JCC offers a wide variety of educational events and classes for the public, which can be easily found through its Facebook page.
The 9.25 mile stretch of the Iowa River the race uses is the only officially designated river trail in Johnson County. Adventurous and determined paddlers who want to go beyond Hills can follow the river all the way to Ferry Landing in Louisa County, where the Iowa meets the Mississippi River. It’s a journey of approximately 73 miles, with six river access points between Sturgis Ferry Park and Ferry Landing.
