(Photo by Amber Phipps) A total of three rafts and five competitors participate in the final event–the Mighty Muskingum Raft Race–of the Rivers, Trails and Ales Festival on Sunday. The competitors crossed the finish line about an hour after they launched at Indian Acres Park boat ramp.

The Rivers, Trails and Ales Festival wrapped up the four days of events with the Mighty Muskingum Raft Race Sunday afternoon. After a multi-year hiatus, the raft race returned for its second year with race coordinator Dave Rudie bringing the competition back to the festival.

“I participated in the event for about three years and I had so much fun doing it and then when whoever was in charge of the Muskingum Water Conservancy got a new job, nobody did the raft race,” said Rudie.

After speaking with the RTA committee and activity leaders, it was determined that in order for the raft race to return, someone would need to be in charge. Rudie said he had enjoyed it so much that he decided he wanted to coordinate the race.

“I found myself in a position to have a little more time on my hands and I agreed to be in charge of it,” said Rudie.

The raft race started at the Indian Acres Park boat ramp with Harmar Bridge as the finish line. Competitors in the race are required to construct a non-motorized raft in the singles or doubles category.

(Photo by Amber Phipps) The winner and only competitor in the singles raft category crosses the Harmar Bridge finish line roughly one hour after the rafts were launched at Indian Acres Park on Sunday.

This year, there was one single raft and two doubles. The rafts launched at 12:50 p.m. and paddled across the finish line roughly one hour later.

Since there are only boat docks near the Harmar Bridge, the rafters are pulled by boat to the levee where they can get out safely and carry their rafts onto land.

Festival Co-Founder Hallie Taylor was present for the event and said she’s glad it’s back on the event schedule.

“We just wanted to bring people into town for outdoor activities, non-competitive, free to participate in and give local people a reason to get together,” said Taylor.

Taylor co-founded the festival as a way to bring people together and get involved with various outdoor activities around Marietta that people might not know are easily accessible.

(Photo by Amber Phipps) The winners of the doubles category for the Mighty Muskingum Raft Race cross the Harmar Bridge finish line on Sunday.

“That’s some of the motivating reason to have this event because you get somebody new who might not realize there’s trails,” said Taylor.

The RTA Festival is composed of a team of people who are in charge of each event category. Taylor said that they have a board member that oversees events for the waterways, trails, family activities, kid events, ales, and more.

“Myself and two other people had started this and had our first event 15 years ago,” said Taylor. “It just came from having all of these incredible outdoor activities that we can do in the community.”

Taylor is also the co-owner of the Marietta Adventure Company located on 219 2nd Street.

Festival Director Eric Dowler said that the weekend went really well and they went above and beyond participation this year. Dowler and Taylor estimated a total of about 1,000 people who attended the events over the course of the festival from Thursday through Sunday..

“We’ve had extraordinary participation for the waterway events, which is pretty awesome to see and I suspect that’s tied to the awesome weather we’ve had,” said Dowler.

Since the final event wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, Dowler also talked about the history of the raft race.

“It actually started in the 70s and it went on for many decades…it kind of stopped about 10 years ago,” said Dowler. “And so we helped reinvigorate it last year and we brought it into the festival and are looking for it to grow even more.”

For more information about the Mighty Muskingum Raft Race and festival details, go to www.rtafest.com.