100 hours on the river: Three with Southeast Missouri ties will compete in the Missouri River 340

For many people, canoeing in the summer means a gentle float trip down a lazy Ozark river or an afternoon on a small lake with a fishing pole in hand.

But for three women with Southeast Missouri roots, this summer's canoe trip will be different. For up to 100 hours beginning July 15, two sisters from Chaffee and another woman from Cape Girardeau plan to race from Kansas City, Mo. to St. Charles, Mo., in the Missouri River 340.

Katie Pfefferkorn, who began participating two years ago while a student at the University of Missouri, has high personal goals for this year's contest. The first year she was happy to finish, reaching the final stop less than two hours before time expired.

In 2007, Pfefferkorn shaved almost 40 hours off her time and took second place in the women's solo division. This year, she hopes to win.

"You try to do as much as you can to stay on the river," she said. "You keep moving, you stay on the conveyor. If you want to be competitive, sleeping is done on a minimal basis."

Pfefferkorn's achievement last year became the inspiration to the other two competitors from Southeast Missouri — Katie's sister, Jodi Pfefferkorn, who produced a 20-minute documentary on the 2007 race, and Jamie Freeman, a Southeast Missouri State University student who read Pfefferkorn's account of her trip in the June issue of Missouri Conservationist.

Freeman, who holds an office job at Cape Aviation while pursuing two degrees at Southeast, said she was looking for a challenge when she picked up the magazine published by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

"One main goal I set out before summer was to make this summer better than the last," she said. "Something just happened to where it clicked and I couldn't walk away from it."

The Missouri River 340 is the brainchild of Scott Mansker and Russ Payzant, two Kansas City canoeing enthusiasts who dreamed of taking part in events like the Yukon River Quest, a 460-mile race through the Canadian wilderness.

"There was nothing local, and I did a lot of reading about those races," Mansker said. "The Missouri River is the perfect venue. For about 10 years, I sat on the idea. I don't know how to put something like that together, and I just kept talking myself out of doing this. I finally said I am going to press forward on this until I hit an absolute wall."

Beginning July 15 in Kansas City, this year's race will have 150 boats competing in categories from solo to tandem to six-person boats. The boats must reach a series of checkpoints within set times to stay in the race and must finish overall within 100 hours.

For the first time, there are sponsors for this year's race offering cash prizes for the top finishers in several of the categories, Mansker said.

The Pfefferkorn sisters no longer call Chaffee home — Katie Pfefferkorn landed a job with Cargill in Ottumwa, Iowa, after graduating and Jodi Pfefferkorn obtained a film degree from Memphis University and has moved to Kansas City.

But their parents, Mary Jo and Bill Pfefferkorn, still live in Chaffee, and Mary Jo will be the ground crew for Katie, as she was last year. Jodi Pfefferkorn, who is participating as a mixed tandem competitor, will do without land-based assistance.

Mary Jo Pfefferkorn said her children have a history of challenging themselves in ways that others might view as eccentric. "We have six kids, and they are all individuals," she said. "They all do crazy things."

Jodi Pfefferkorn got her first taste of the Missouri River 340 in 2007 while filming the 20-minute documentary from a motorized johnboat. She's practicing in the Kansas River and will work without a ground crew. The one thing she will make sure to remember this year is that nighttime temperatures on the river can feel cool, even in the middle of July.

Jodi Pfefferkorn said she thinks her sister can win the women's solo division. She wants to finish within 24 hours of Katie's time, she said. For one thing, she said she will try to keep nighttime paddling to a minimum. Katie "definitely will be paddling at night," she said. "She is an experienced paddler. I am not. I might need to stop and rest, and I am not in direct competition with Katie."

Freeman is not an experienced paddler either, but she's trying to get ready by practicing during her spare time at Lake Girardeau. The lake, while lacking the currents of the open river, is large enough to provide a good training ground and busy enough to create some challenging practice. "I make several laps around, and there are different things to be faced — wind, hitting wakes from boats and such," she said.

Freeman's parents, Jean Freeman and the late Don Freeman, have owned several businesses in the area, including Freeman Crane Service and Kelso Country Club. Her father died 10 years ago, when Freeman was 19, and she said she has "gone through a lot of things in life that are obstacles."

She wants to dedicate the race to her father. Her mother will be her ground crew along with a friend who has been coaching her.

"We are a fun group," she said. "We like to say we put the 'fun' in 'functional.' She has supported me tremendously, and I understand this is a huge task I am taking on here."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

On the Net:

Missouri River 340: www.rivermiles.com