The 90-Miler, a big tourism draw in September, has been canceled by the organizers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 3-day paddling event that takes paddlers from Old Forge to Long Lake to Saranac Lake was scheduled to take place Sept. 11-13. The annual event generally draws more than 500 paddlers and about 1,500 people overall to the Adirondacks, according to a joint press release from the Adirondack Watershed Alliance and Northern Forest Canoe Trail, organizers of the event.
The decision to cancel the 90-Miler is based on “the uncertainty of the direction of the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential effects on the small town populations of the Adirondacks” and the amount of planning that organizers need to do throughout the summer leading up to the event, according to a press release.
“We rely on numerous volunteers, organizations, municipalities and local businesses to pull off the three-day paddling extravaganza, and we can’t ask them to prepare for an event we are not certain will be allowed to take place,” said AWA Events Coordinator Brian McDonnell in a written statement.
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McDonnell said the organizers will monitor the guidance for the pandemic and may be able to offer one or two days of racing on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail as an alternative to the 90-Miler on the same weekend the race was scheduled to take place. A decision about the alternative event will be made by August 1.
The Northern Forest Canoe Trail is currently in the process of taking over the 90-Miler in 2021 from the Adirondack Watershed Alliance and those plans remain in place, according to the groups.
If the Ironman 70.3 is still taking place as planned on Sunday, September 13, 2020, the kayak water safety team could use volunteers. Perhaps racers displaced from the 90 Miler could join in? Volunteer registration link is: https://ironman.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=46707