A thirst for adventure, camaraderie and the desire to experience the landscape of North America is driving six friends to spend nine months in three canoes. The journey from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean covers 10 states, five provinces, 11 rivers and 5,200 miles.
Lifelong outdoorsmen, Adam Trigg and Winchell Delano were flying home from their jobs at Second Nature, a wilderness therapy program in Utah and wanted to canoe from the northern border of Minnesota to Canada.
“We had a good buddy who did essentially what we wanted to do, we wanted to make it different in some way,” Trigg said. “I randomly said well let’s just paddle up the Mississippi River, that’s got to be doable.”
From there the idea was hatched and the planning began.
High school buddies Trigg, Delano, Daniel Flynn and John Keaveny teamed up with Jarrad Moore and his best friend Luke Kimmes and laid a course from the mouth of the Atchafalaya River to Bathurst Inlet in northern Canada. The men vary in ages from 25 to 30.
“Everything has been as planned,” Delano said. “That’s weird for me, because something always goes wrong in the first couple of weeks of a trip.”
Delano, the most experienced paddler in the group, is no stranger to extended canoe trips. He was a member of the Trans-Territorial Expedition in 2012, a 2,600-mile canoe trip that lasted over 130 days and crossed Canada west to east.
The group started their trip Jan. 2 and by Wednesday had landed in Vicksburg. They spent the day Thursday replenishing their supplies, exploring downtown Vicksburg and preparing for life back on the river.
Matt Hendrix and Layne Logue plucked the six from LeTourneau Landing. Their boats and gear were loaded into trucks and they headed to Hendrix’s house. Southern hospitality and chicken spaghetti prepared by Hendrix’s wife greeted the travelers at the door. They spent the evening indoors talking about the amazing network of people they connected with along the river and learning a lot about life on the Mississippi.
“If we had any idea of the cultural experience we would encounter we would have done the trip a lot sooner,” Delano said.
The group, with careful planning and care packages placed strategically along the journey, plans to resupply every 12 to 14 days. Their next stop for supplies is Memphis, which they hope to make in 13 days.
They can sustain themselves for 20 days at a time stopping for water about every seven. “We’ll have parts later on where we’ll have to go closer to a month,” Delano said. “The canoes we have are more toward the better profile in the water, more faster side.
“We’ve traveled in some canoes where you could trip for 60 days and never know the difference,” he said. “Right now we’re geared for two weeks at a time.”
In August the group was honored as Canoe and Kayak’s Expedition of the Year in 2013. As part of the prize, Shred Ready donated $2,500 towards a future expedition.
Without sponsors the expedition would cost the group approximately $35,000. They have a website so anyone interested can follow their expedition at www.rediscoverna.com.
Averaging 20 miles a day, the men plan on ending the trip Sept. 10 in a tiny Inuit village along the Arctic Ocean, 5,200 miles from where they began.
Ernest Hemingway said “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” That’s a motto these seasoned travelers take to heart.