Wisconsin Wife Carrying, Wife Ferrying, Pike Carrying 2011 Contest

What is Wisconsin without its unique small town events. Wife Carrying, Wife Ferrying and Pike Carrying took place in Torpy Park this weekend as a fund raiser for Minocqua Winter Park's trail fund. It was a fun time had by all and you got a free cool teeshirt for participating 4 heats of Wife Carrying started off the event. Rules are you must carry your partner anyway you want around the course. Most folks choose to do it the classic astonian way like this. All is fine until the course goes through the shallows of Lake Minocqua and the female participant tends to get a bit wet. You do not have to be married just a male and female pair. We nick named this guy Big Red and his partner managed to stay pretty dry as he was the tallest participant right behind Big Red were these two who did get wet in Lake Minocqua Why did I miss all the pictures of running through the water with my camera? I was at the finish line helping with the timing so will have to wait to get a few of the water pictures sent to me or see them in the Lakeland Times One of the rules is the wife must weigh atleast 107 lbs. If they do not weights have to be added I thought for sure these two with such a light wife would be contenders but they took a digger on the course going over the obstacles. Never said this was a safe sport I was timing Big Red and his partner in both their heat and final race where they won and had to have my picture taken with them as their good luck charm One to Wife Ferrying. Only change in the course is they did not have to go through the water. One of the new guys tried pulling instead of pushing and came in first and started a new trend in Wife Ferrying Making the corner in Wife Ferrying On to Pike Carrying. Who carries the Pikes? Kids of course and they went through the water as well but again I am missing those pictures... I might have rooting for a kid in this race a little more than others Everyone was rooting for the smallest of competitors who's fish was taller than he was but that was not stopping him He was quite the crowd pleaser stopping to enjoy his fans Oh I have to finish Now on to the best part the prizes. You win your weight in things. The kids had Gatorade, Brats, popcorn and mustard that they won their weight in Popcorn was a kid favorite but did not add too much to the scale T The winner of the 13 - 17 year olds definitely made out well especially with the World's best Brats from Trig's N Now on to Wives. This lady had it all figured out and was leaning back to get the most of her weight in Rootbeer Eventually she made it with 5 boxes of Root Beer My favorite was this one where she won her weight in brats. I am missing the picture of the 2nd place wife ferrying lady who won her weight in mustard from Kopps. You got to love over 100 lbs of Mustard Big Red and his partner started out winning her weight in money times 5 Big Red was adding a little weight to the tetter totter In the end they went away with cash and her weight in beer After the competition I saw a lot of bartering going on between the winners swapping especially mustard for brats and beer. Everyone went away with a smile on their faces and at least a cool new tee shirt that came with an interesting story about what they did today