Six friends are on the journey of a lifetime, paddling from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.
The group of Americans stopped in to Flin Flon recently for a few days rest after reaching the Sturgeon Weir River. The group set sail in January in Louisiana and arrived in the area on Friday.
The crew — made up of friends Adam Trigg, Winchell Delano, Jarrad Moore, Dan Flynn, John Keaveny and Luke Kimmes – have paddled through ice, snow and sun, and, of course, the strange looks they get when they tell people what they are doing.
“Lots of people think we’re nuts,” says Iowa native Kimmes, adding there are always comments like, ‘Do they know that’s upstream?”
The paddlers landed in Flin Flon late last week, making a two-day stopover to refresh and keep up with their online blog.
The six men packed into their three canoes on January 2 with enough food rations to get them to their first real stop – about two weeks away – as they paddled away from the shore in Mississippi Delta near Buras, Louisiana. Delano’s parents travel ahead in a camper filled with enough food to last the group until their expected finish in September.
“The running joke was always, ‘You know you’re going the wrong way, right?” says Moore, who hails from Iowa. “A lot of people would laugh at us and say, ‘No you’re not’ when we would tell them we were paddling to the Arctic Ocean.
Now six months into their journey, the crew says people are more in disbelief of how far they have come.
“Now it’s like, ‘Wow! Good luck, boys’ and ‘Keep going,’ said Kimmes.
Starting off on the Mississippi River, the group met up with the Red River and Lake Winnipeg before hitting the Saskatchewan River and then Sturgeon Weir River – to name a few bodies of water.
“It’s beautiful to see the lake turn into a real sandy bank and then a real muddy one to rapids and some incline,” said Delano, who says his favourite part has been the Sturgeon Weir River.
He’s not the only one whose favourite stopping point has been the weir.
“For me, the biggest part has been [when] we got off the Saskatchewan River and off the lakes to bring us to the Sturgeon Weir,” said Moore. Another bonus for Moore was having less than 2,000 miles left on the trek once reaching the weir.
“It is a lot, but when you start…and have 5,200 miles [to go], less than 2,000 is a big piece. Plus, we finally got off the dirty rivers.”
Passing Lake Winnipeg earlier was another big milestone for the group as they transitioned from colder temperatures to seeing plants flourish and trees blossoming.
“Us as Minnesotans, and probably the same as you as Canadians, thought like, ‘Oh, south won’t be so bad,” said Flynn. “You pride yourself on being able to handle cold weather, but it was cold.”
January wasn’t bad, the group said, but come February there was ice hanging off the boats, their hands and beards.
“I’ve been as far south as we were in February before and it was nice weather, but that was not the case this year,” said Flynn. “February was brutal.”
Paddling in temperatures with daily highs hovering around -7 Celsius, the group laughed at The Reminder’s comment of ‘That’s a little chilly to be on the water.’
“Chilly? A little chilly to be on the water?” Keaveny repeated sarcastically. “You see a lot of people paddling around at - 7 in Flin Flon, do ya?” he laughed. “Oh, no? No you don’t.”
Arriving in Canada marked not only a big milestone for the group on the map, but also with warmer temperatures as the calendar had flipped to May 11.
Trigg, also from Minnesota, says walking through the Sturgeon Weir River in T-shirts and shorts brought them back to their days of paddling through the ice and snow. He says it’s now become a running joke to remember just how cold it was a few months ago.
Now in warmer temperatures, Trigg says he favourite part of the journey has been paddling into the clear lakes where they were finally able to swim for the first time, fish and see through the water.
Another bonus came from something Flin Flonners often take for granted – all the rocks.
“The granite started to come through with the Canadian Shield, which was awesome to see,” he said.
Dubbed group comedian, Keaveny says he’s enjoyed meeting people along the way.
“My favourite part is that every stop we make we meet interesting and fun people,” he said. “Every time we get back into the canoes from stopping its just telling stories of who we met [and] how much fun we had. Travelling across two counties and the whole continent has been exceptional.”
The paddlers were back on their way after a weekend stop in Flin Flon with their next expected layover about two weeks away.
Steve Delano, Winchell’s father, says he most enjoys seeing the group at each stop.
“My favourite part of the trip is every time we see them they are all healthy with grins on their faces. They’ve put a lot of miles on and that makes me so happy,” said Steve.
The group’s progress can be followed at rediscoverna.com with pictures, blog entries and biographies of each canoer.
