Racing Returns to the Quetico
13 Aug
They’re racing canoes across Quetico again.
In a new race that recalls the wild cross-wilderness contests held there in the early 1960s, canoe racers celebrated the 100th birthday of Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park by paddling across it quickly. Last weekend, 17 teams completed the two-day stage race between French Lake, on the north side of Quetico, and Prairie Portage, on the border with the United States.
Kjell Peterson and Joe Manns won the roughly 120-mile event in 23 hours, 14 minutes, and 17 seconds.
Full results can be found HERE. Chuck Ryan shared pictures and stories from the event, HERE, on his CIIcanoe blog.
In the early 1960s, a race across both Quetico and what is now the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, attracted canoe racers from near and far. Canoeing.com contributor Charlie Mahler wrote a story on that colorful period of canoe history in THIS issue of the Quetico Superior Foundation’s Wilderness News.
