Interesting Story – Canoe Trip

Interesting series of videos about a reporter who paddled his canoe the entire Mississippi. Anyone recall seeing this guy?

Canoe Trip – CNN.com

-J.

That’s pretty cool! An old landlord of mine did the same trip in a little 14 foot jon boat with his dog one summer. He had some pretty interesting stories about that trip as well. Funny thing was it took him almost a month just to get to St. Paul and only another month to New Orleans.

No, never saw the canoe, but Twin Cities is scene every year for start of numerous adventures down the big river…and only a few make it all the way. Below St. Louis, the Mississippi is definitely dangerous to small craft if you read the classic fisherman travelogue, Old Glory by Britisher Jonathon Raban, who piloted a 16 foot aluminum boat all the way to New Orleans with a 15 hp motor, published in 1981.
Last summer, two east coast seniors rowed a rubber raft from Bayport down the St. Croix and Old Man River to Memphis in 50 days. Click on Bigriverraft.com.
Many try..few finish..hats off to all of them, to Minnesota newsman Eric Severeid, who paddled the other direction to Hudon’s Bay in the ’30’s, in Canoeing with the Cree (recent re-issued by state hisotiral society) and several college and high school students since then, described in Hudsonbayexpedition.com.

paddle faster, I hear banjos

The loaded canoe looks like a fella we locked down with in early summer.

I remember heading toward the gates of L&D #3 and seeing something that didn’t look right in the darkness. Then the flash light came on and I thought that was a heck of a place to be at that time of night!

When I spoke with the fella he did say he was heading all the way to the end and it was a dark colored canoe.

I hope he didn’t see my secret spot!

Nice find Jon. I was going to bed early, but now I’ll be watching his adventures!

More people paddle the length of the Mississippi every year than you would think. In my line of work, I am in contact with dozens of groups/individuals doing it every summer. Some do it for a “Cause”, some just do it to say they did it. It takes an average person “about” 2 1/2-3 months to get from Lake Itasca to New Orleans. But by the time you get through the Twin Cities you’re almost half way!

One of my favorite groups from this past year….three college guys from Winnipeg just randomly stopped in our shop here in Winona…..they had started in Winnipeg, paddled UP the red river, across the Minnesota river, and down the Mississippi…..But why stop at New Orleans?…..Their plan was to paddle around the gulf coast and be in Cancun by March…..yep, SPRING BREAK!

Spent the day chauffeuring these guys around Winona in October, they were a little crazy, but I heard from them just a couple weeks ago and it sounded like they were making good progress, almost to the gulf.

I’ve had the pleasure to meet Dave and Amy from the Wilderness Classroom on several occasions. They are a couple of the most dedicated and sincere people I’ve ever met. They’ve paddled the length of the Mississippi, circumnavigated lake superior, and their last adventure they paddled the whole Amazon River!

Launching Earth Day 2010, they’re starting a 3 year long expedition called the North American Odyssey. More or less, they’re circling the continent via canoe, kayak, and dog sled. Pretty insane!

Wilderness Classroom – North American Odyssey

We came across several groups on there way to the gulf also this year. The most interesting group we meet was just north of Aitkin MN. They had what looked like a old viking boat with one sail on it. IT was early fall when we meet them so I wonder how far they made it south.

Here’s another story, from a few days ago.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/travel/10mississippi.html