I Love Paddling

North America’s longest non-stop canoe race seems to be getting more popular. The 2008 Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon, scheduled for July 26 and 27 currently lists 72 entrants. THIS story in the Gaylord Herald Times reports that the 68 entrants registered after the July 4th holiday was ahead of pace for a record field […]

The Vancouver Sun just posted THIS story to commemorate Simon Fraser’s 1808 canoe journey from Fort George, British Columbia (now Prince George) to the mouth of what is now the Fraser River. Working for the North West Company, Faser was charged with exploring travel routes and establishing posts in the Canadian Northwest in the wake […]

We enjoyed THIS recent photo and story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the canoe Harry Mixer courted his wife Delores in back in the 1940s. Paddles down the St. Croix River in a 1917 Old Town canoe with a wind-up record player did the trick.

Canadian paddlers are celebrating their second annual Canadian Canoe Day today in an effort to recognize the importance of the humble craft in the country’s history and to revel in the joy of paddling.  The establishment of Canoe Day developed from a contest to determine Canada’s “Seven Wonders,” of which the canoe is one. You […]

Sean Bloomfield and Colton Witte, the Chaska, Minnesota teenagers who paddled from their hometown to Hudson’s Bay in 49 days, gave an extensive interview to the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Dennis Anderson recently. Asked about the stunning speed of their 2,250 mile trip, the recent high school grads had this to say: “We didn’t necessarily paddle […]

The University of Nevada won the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 21st annual National Concrete Canoe Competition last weekend in Montreal. The team’s craft topped a wide field of canoes from 21 other institutions and ended the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s five-year winning streak in the competition. The Nevada boat, Argentum, had zero deductions in the […]

In 1983, Jay Thurston and Mike Kinziger set the record for paddling the length of the Wisconsin River:  eight days, three hours and 13 minutes. Twenty-five years later, the swift-paddling pair are back in a canoe together attempting to better that mark.  The Portage Daily Register, HERE, caught up with Thurston, 75, and Kinziger, 60, in the […]

Taking only half the time it took Eric Sevareid and Walter Port in 1930, Minnesota teenagers Sean Bloomfield and Colton Witte have completed their canoe trip from their hometown of Chaska to York Factory on Hudson’s Bay. The duo paddled onto Hudson’s Bay on Sunday, 49 days after starting their epic 2,250 mile trip. Sevareid […]