September 17-19, 2010

130 miles non-stop from Port Barre to Patterson through the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country

60 hour cutoff

(first wave starting at 8 a.m. Friday, September 17)
$75 per paddler entry fee
USCA sanctioned

MANDATORY MEETING for racers: 5:30pm on Thursday, Sept. 16, at the head of the Teche in Port Barre. It is MANDATORY FOR ALL RACERS. A racer who does not attend does not race.

Each team is required to have a coureur de bois, or bank runner, primarily responsible for preceding the team downstream and seeing to the paddlers’ needs, including transportation. For teams that cannot provide their own coureur, every effort will be made to match them up with local volunteers who can assume the role.

All official finishers (within 60 hours) will receive a cap with the Tour du Teche emblem. First place finishers in any class and sub category will be denoted with a special emblem. The coureurs de bois “badge of office” will receive a special ball cap.

Tour du Teche is a cultural preservation and environmental conservation education program that organizes hand-on education opportunities, education kiosks, education markers, maps and outreach materials with the goal of providing information about the local ecology, history and culture through guided and self-guided education. Tour du Teche is a program that has been developed to preserve and improve a bayou used for recreation. The principle activity of Tour du Teche is designing and implementing self-guided education opportunities to the public in an effort to help them better understand and appreciate the culture, history and ecology of Bayou Teche.

Bayou Teche is on the US Environmental Protection Agency 303d list of impaired waterways. One goal of the TECHE Project and Tour du Teche is to educate people about water quality and the need for nonpoint source pollution prevention and reduction. Discovery can take place with an interactive, hands-on experience on and along Bayou Teche. Tour du Teche will work with the National Park Service, parishes and towns to identify public access needs and help implement improvement activities and public access points including boat launches and bayou-side parks. Education kiosks along specific points yet to be determined along Bayou Teche will be built by and installed and accessible by both water and foot. These kiosks will provide self-directed education to boaters and paddlers about water quality, preventing non-point source pollution, native flora and birds, culture, history as well as boater safety information for children and adults.

Bayou Teche is rich in history and culture. It was named by the Chitimacha Indians in a legend that persists today. Bayou Teche served as a source of food and water for Native Americans ,as well as a transportation corridor. Several Civil War battles were fought on Bayou Teche. Civil War cannon balls have been retrieved from Bayou Teche by local residents and archaeologists. A Civil War encampment in Arnaudville is on the National Register of Historic Places and one sunken boat, located in New Iberia, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The only lock and dam, Keystone, is the oldest operating lock system in the Delta region and is being pursued for National Historic Register status by a local lay historian and professional architect. Bayou Teche is considered one of the most historically significant bayous in Acadiana, according to the Acadien Memorial director, Brenda Comeaux-Trahan. It was a primary waterway that brought exiled Acadiens from Acadie, present day Nova Scotia ,during the “Grand Derangement” to this area. Each year, the Acadien Memorial celebrates the arrival of the Acadiens, present day “Cajuns”, in St. Martinville, Louisiana with a public re-enactment. The Evangeline Oak is also located at the Acadien Memorial and is said to be where Evangeline awaited the arrival of her love, Gabriel, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Evangeline” written in 1847.

Tour du Teche educates citizens about the local history and culture. Tour du Teche is working with landowners, a local Kiwanis Club and lay historians to build and install education and historic plaques along Bayou Teche to educate paddlers and boaters 365 days a year. These markers will provide self-directed education to boaters and paddlers about 3 culturally and historically significant locations including the Stephanie Plantation, Robin House and a known sunken shipwreck at La Jonction. Tour du Teche will also work with a local community organization in St. Martin Parish as they begin to install foot paths along Bayou Teche in a long-term project. This project will also dovetail into the paddle trail planning anticipated with the National Park Service. We will cooperate to create and install and maintain education kiosks and points accessible by boat, foot and vehicle. These kiosks will highlight the ecological, cultural and historical significance of Bayou Teche.

Tour du Teche plans to map places of significance, education markers and access points with Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates that will be made available on the website for download to a handheld GPS and printable maps to better facilitate the self-guided education process.

Tour du Teche will partner with a local paddle club to provide 2 introductory kayak instruction workshops with professional kayak instructors and 2 guided kayak tours of Bayou Teche with a professional environmental educator and/or lay historian.

Tour du Teche will also host an annual event that will include a 130 mile canoe and kayak race along the entire length of the bayou, and eventually, short races and education paddles that will focus on how and why to improve water quality and aquatic and riparian habitat in and along Bayou Teche. According to the federal Clean Water Act, all public waterways must meet water quality standards 1. for fish and wildlife propogation and 2. primary (i.e. swimming) and secondary (i.e., boating) recreation. Races along the bayou will allow Tour du Teche to educate participants about water quality standards in Bayou Teche. Also, education opportunities will be provided to participants about Bayou Teche ecology, culture and history and educational materials will be made available to the public before, during and after the race at local mini-festival in the towns of Breaux Bridge, St. Martinville, New Iberia and Baldwin. A workshop designed to educate the public about safe boating, appropriate technique and adequate nutrition for long paddles will be provided free to the public as part of race preparation and safety education. A mandatory safety meeting with the race coordinator, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the US Army Corps of Engineers will be required for all racing participants prior to the race to ensure safety education for all participants is provided. Printed educational materials in the form of hand-outs, brochures, etc., will be distributed to up to 40 race participants and up to 500 non-racing participants. For example, Boy Scout of America plan to camp along the race route and volunteers from Tour du Teche and the Chitimacha Tribe plan to meet with the campers to talk and deliver education and outreach materials about water quality and cultural and historical significance of the bayou. Working with the municipalities and parishes to provide outreach and education materials about water quality will assist the municipalities and parishes in complying with their Environmental Protection Agency mandated Municipal Separate Storm Sewage (MS4) permit in the Outreach and Education portion of the permit at public outreach tables. Conducting a canoe race is an exempt activity within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Code because serves a public rather than a private interest. Any private benefits derived from the canoe race are incidental and do not lessen the public benefit of education. It serves first as an educational activity by providing technical and safety education as well as ecology, culture and history education to all participants.

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See classes for information about race classes.

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Contact Ken Grissom at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for private and corportate sponsorship opportunities.