The Gowanus Challenge Floats Down The Canal This Saturday

Your chance to navigate the toxic waters of a superfund site is coming up this Saturday, June 14 from 10am-2pm, when the Gowanus Challenge returns for its second year on the canal.

Hosted by the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club and the Red Hook Boaters, this fundraiser allows brave folks with canoes ($500 entry fee for a team) and other closed-bottom boats like kayaks ($250 entry fee) to tour the 2.5-mile route from the Dredgers Boathouse at 2nd Street to the mouth of the canal at 9th Street and back. And there will be prizes, including $200 gift cards to both Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Brooklyn Crab. There’s still time to register, just contact gdredgers@gmail.com for more details.

If you’re not up for getting so close and personal with waters that the EPA recommends you avoid direct contact with, you can watch those who are from the safe distance of one of the bridges that goes over the canal, at 3rd Street or 9th Street.