AuSable River Canoe Marathon

08/31/2026

🏆 HISTORY MADE! 🏆

Congratulations to AuSable Marathon sponsor Clouse Family Ace Hardware on becoming the first-ever back-to-back winners of the Ace Hardware Annual Bucket Display Contest benefiting Children's Miracle Network Hospitals! ❤️

🏰 Their incredible castle display from West Branch Ace took first place, earning a $7,500 donation to CMN Hospital of Michigan.

If you’re not already aware, this win has an extra-special connection. ❤️

🛶 Ryan Clouse made his rookie Consumers Energy AuSable River Canoe Marathon run in 2026 - and through his 120 Miracle Miles initiative, he and partner Marley Watson challenged themselves to paddle 120 miles while raising money for Children’s Miracle Network, netting approximately $70,000 by race time and earning Ryan the second annual Paddling For Josh award.

‼️💰This latest $7,500 plus additional donations received post-race, brings the grand total to an expected $100,000 donated to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals by Ryan and the Clouse Family!

🫶🏼🙌🏼Thank you and congratulations to Ryan for continuing to turn buckets, miles and a whole lot of heart into miracles for kids. ❤️

HUP ALL NIGHT. MAKE MIRACLES. 🛶❤️

08/29/2026

Midpoint & Finish of Mio’s First Dam Canoe Challenge! 🛶

From the intensity at the midpoint to the excitement of crossing the finish line, it was an incredible day on the river.

1. Wes Dean and Ryan Halstead 🏆
2. Mike Davis and Rebecca Davis
3. Weston Willoughby and Spencer Derenzy
4. Jake Hartman and Dane Trudgeon
5. Danny Medina and Todd VanDeVen

Michigan Canoe Racing Association

08/29/2026

The start of Mio’s first Dam Canoe Race. 🛶❤️
A special race made even more meaningful as we dedicate it to the memory of Peggy Smutek. What a beautiful way to honor her and celebrate the sport, the river, and the community she was part of. 🌊

Here’s the start of race and the portage. ❤️🛶

Michigan Canoe Racing Association

08/24/2026

🏁 Check out the latest update and complete listing of the North American Canoe Paddler Rankings (NACPR), covering the last nine races of the Triple Crown of Canoe Racing, through the 2026 AuSable River Canoe Marathon.

📊These rankings include all flatwater marathon C-2 canoe paddlers who have competed in at least one Triple Crown event within the last three years:
👑 New York’s Zaveral Racing Equipment General Clinton Canoe Regatta
👑 Michigan’s Consumers Energy AuSable River Canoe Marathon
👑 Quebec’s Classique internationale de canots de la Mauricie

💪 Quebec’s Guillaume Blais and Michigan’s Mike Davis jointly lead the NACPR rankings. The pair have won 5 of the last 9 Triple Crown races, including a three-year clean sweep in Quebec (2023-24-25) plus one victory each in New York and Michigan. Michigan’s Travis Mecklenburg and Weston Willoughby, Texas's Logan Mynar, and Michigan’s Wesley Dean - all with victories at Triple Crown races - round out the top six spots in the NACPR rankings.

💥 Six paddlers have completed all of the last nine Triple Crown races in New York, Michigan, and Quebec.
- Guillaume Blais, Quebec
- Eve Chamberland, Quebec
- Mike Davis, Michigan
- Renaud Flageole, Quebec
- Sarah Lessard, Quebec
- Louis-Simon Pruneau, Quebec

💥 There are 24 women in the top 200 paddlers, and 8 women in the top 100 paddlers:
- Rebecca Davis, Michigan
- Cecili Bugge, Michigan
- Eve Chamberland, Quebec
- Edith MacHattie, Saskatchewan
- Sarah Lessard, Quebec
- Mary Schlimmer-Willoughby, Michigan
- Michelle Laprade, Quebec
- Lydia Huelskamp, Pennsylvania

💥 More than 500 paddlers have completed at least 1 Triple Crown race during the past 3 years.

❓What is the NACPR and how does it work?
✅ AuSable Marathon and Triple Crown “Stats Guy” Ryan Matthews maintains the North American Canoe Paddler Ranking (NACPR) system, which was created by AuSable Marathon Hall of Fame Historian John Cook as part of his system for predicting the top-finishing teams for the AuSable Marathon. It is intended to be completely objective; rankings are determined solely by elapsed race times.

✅ The NACPR determines each paddler's Competitive Ratio: A paddler's time compared to the winner's time. For example, if you had a time of 17h:00m:00s and the winner's time was 14h:30m:00s, your Competitive Ratio would be 0.85294 or 85.294% [14:30:00 / 17:00:00 = 0.85294].

✅ The NACPR determines each paddler's Competitive Ratio for each of the last nine Triple Crown events and ranks all of the paddlers based upon their best Competitive Ratio. Ties between paddlers with the same ratios are resolved by: 1) the paddler who entered the most of the last nine events; 2) the paddler with the best average of ratios over the last nine events. If a tie stands after those tests, the paddlers remain tied with the same rank.

✅To keep the rankings current, the list is updated after each Triple Crown event to include only the past nine Triple Crown events

👉 For more information about the NACPR: https://www.ausablecanoemarathon.org/stats-and.../nacpr/

📩 Please direct any NACPR questions and/or comments to: [email protected]

🏆

08/22/2026

Well done, Huron Community Bank!

Thanks to your team for devoting a day to AuSable River cleanup.

And HCB is a sponsor of the AuSable River Canoe Marathon👍

We appreciate and applaud Huron Community Bank and your team of volunteers.👏

Every year, following the AuSable River Canoe Marathon, we like to give back to the river that hosts it. This past Monday, some of our HCB crew spent the day cleaning up trash along the AuSable and enjoying some time together outdoors while doing it!

Thank you to everyone who pitched in 🎉

www.bankhcb.com

08/08/2026

That's a "Wrap-Up". On Tuesday, August 4th, the Oscoda Marathon Committee held its annual Wrap-Up BBQ!! We sat and talked about the race, what went well, and what we can improve on. We laughed, grumbled, and just enjoyed each other's company without worrying about how many days until the start of the race.
But now that the wrap-up is over, it is time to think 2027!! Planning for next year will begin soon, because there are only 350 days until the start of the race 😱
If you've ever wanted to become involved with the Marathon committee (either in Oscoda or Grayling), send an email to [email protected] to find out when the local meetings are held!! We would love to have you!