Despite the nippy weather, some of the Friends of the Alan E. Rich Environmental Park were seen sprucing up the park area on Main Street in Athol and getting ready for the hordes of river rats expected for the annual River Rat Race on Saturday, starting at 1 p.m.
The Athol Lions Club’s new River Rat Race mascot stopped by to make sure everything was ship shape. The park’s parking lot is the entryway for paddlers to carry in their canoes to the water to line up in their post positions on the Millers River.
The area will offer a couple of portable toilets.
The post positions will be clearly marked. Paddlers who have not picked up their canoe numbers and T-shirts may do so after 11 a.m. Saturday from the Athol Lions Club “weenie wagon,” which will be parked directly across Main Street. The Lions will be serving food and beverages.