By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON – The 50th annual meeting of canoes, kayaks, paddlers and fans is set for Friday through Sunday for Canton Canoe Weekend and should not be adversely affected by high spring runoff, organizers say.

J. Henry Rushton created a canoeing trend more than a century ago, and he would probably be pleased to see that his paddling legacy has attained a milestone of 50 annual canoe celebrations named for him and his famous canoes.

“He set the canoeing world on end with his designs and super-quality workmanship,” said Chuck Bolesh, Race Director for Canton Canoe Weekend which runs May 12 to 15.

This year, the event will be highlighted by a special running of the original race course on Friday, and a display of Rushton’s late-19th-century craft.

“The levels are higher than usual, so that’s good,” Bolesh said.

“The first half-mile of the old course is pretty ‘bony’ – rocks where you don’t want them – so the higher water should make it better.”

Currents in the Little River and the Grasse River are still fairly strong, and Bolesh and his team will be out testing the eaters this week.

“If the currents are too strong, we’ll modify some events” to make then safer, Bolesh said.

“We’ll check for debris, especially along Little River,” where it tends to collect, Bolesh said.

Bolesh is “totally confident it will be good” for racers and recreational paddlers as the Grasse calms down this week.

Examples of Rushton’s work and other craft from the era will be on display at a Rushton Expo at the Canton Pavilion at the end of Lincoln Street starting Friday morning. The Rushton boats on display were all built in the late 1800s at his factory at Riverside Drive and State Street

The mainstay of Canton Canoe Weekend, as the annual event is now known, are the races and recreational paddles on the Little River and Grasse River from Taylor Park.

For the 50th anniversary, the special Friday race will see paddlecraft run the original course that racers took for the first 30 years of the Rushton Races, from Pyrites to Canton Island Park.

Race Director Bolesh first joined the competition in 1986 or ’87 with his sons in a run/bike/canoe triathlon, and became race director in 1989.

“About 20 years ago the bridge at Pyrites was rebuilt, so we couldn’t go through,” Bolesh says, so they changed the route, from Taylor Park up the Little River and back down.

A few years later, the bridge at Miner Street was rebuilt, “so we couldn’t go all the way downtown.

“As race director I didn’t mind changing the courses,” Bolesh said, to avoid the small rapids at Miner Street – “There are rocks all through there” -- and downtown.

“We took some grief, but I think it was the right decision.

“And the new professional equipment then didn’t take well to banging into rocks.”

For the 50th running, Bolesh said they got permission from Pyrites Associates, which runs a local power company, to run the old course again.

“We’ll have some volunteers on the water over the old course. It’s not dangerous, but it’s just to be safe. We’ll have some kayakers out there who are used to moving water.”

Bolesh explained that state law requires paddlers to wear personal flotation devices, or PFDs, on interior waters through May 1, “and after that we require everyone under 18 to wear one on the water, and I always recommend a PFD to people who are not sure of their own skill – and on the course we’ll run on Friday, I might require one of everybody.”

The other four race events will run “essentially the same course they have been running, except on Saturday morning, during the regular recreation race, we’ll have some war canoe sprints,” with the 24-foot canoes, carrying six to people, sprinting out a quarter mile and back.

“We are promoting the Little River Bridge just past St. Lawrence University as a prime viewing spot,” especially to watch an expected 70 or more boats competing in Saturday afternoon’s marathon races for K1 (one person kayaks) and C-1 (one-person canoes) craft, Bolesh said. Those are 12 mile races – 14 miles for pros competing for money prizes.

“It’s one of the top C-1 races in the country,” Bolesh said. “They’re attracted by the challenge of the course, and two events in two days,” including the Sunday morning C-2 race for pros and amateurs.

Recommended viewing sites and times include: Friday, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Miner St. Bridge at Leigh's Falls; Friday, 5:30-6 p.m., Canton Island Park (Willow Island); Saturday, 2:15-3 p.m., Little River Bridge over CR 27; Saturday and Sunday, Taylor Park, most starts and finishes.

For off-water events, Bolesh is looking forward to a reception Friday hosted by Grasse River Heritage at Canton Island Park with descendents of J. Henry Rushton. And there will be a music jam at TAUNY after the reception.

The race Friday will be followed by awards, a reception with Rushton family members, and announcement of the weekend’s third-grade poster contest winners.

Dozens of other events are planned around the annual races and the special 50th anniversary celebration.

Those who want to enter any of the competitive or recreational races can find more information at the St. Lawrence Valley Paddlers web site at www.slvpaddlers.org.

You don’t have to be a paddler to enjoy the weekend. There will be lots to do.

For more information go to www.cantonnewyork.us or www.slvpaddlers.org, and pick up your free weekend guide at Wear on Earth in Potsdam and at many locations in Canton.