I Love Paddling

Canoeists Ardie Olson of Cumming, Georgia and Rod Price of Orlando, Florida won the canoe division and finished in 5th place overall at the inaugural Yukon 1000 race. The event is said to be the longest paddling contest on earth. Three teams of kayakers and a voyageur canoe paddled by six people finished ahead of […]

New Yorkers could be forgiven for rubbernecking recently when an artist portaged a canoe through Manhattan. As reported in THIS New York Times story, Robert Starling and a companion paddled a 16-foot strip canoe into New York’s West 79th Street Boat Basin and then portaged it to the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West.  As if they […]

For the second straight year and for the third time since 2004, Andrew Triebold of Spring Arbor, Michigan and Steve Lajoie of Mirabel, Quebec were winners at the Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon. The duo won a wire-to-wire victory — and $5,000 — paddling the 120-mile course in 14 hours, 17 minutes, and 42 seconds. […]

We were inspired by THIS Detroit News story about 84-year-old canoe racer Al Widing. Tomorrow, Widing will compete in Michigan’s grueling, 120-mile Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon. The retired builder has competed in 37 AuSable Marathons, paddling his first one in 1953. Reporter Tim Twentyman learned that Widing, who was a gunner on the USS […]

Inspired by Michigan paddling legend Verlen Kruger, Stephen Brede is in the midst of a canoe trip he hopes will take him all the way around Lake Huron. The 58-year-old Petoskey, Micigan resident, who began his trip on June 2 at the foot of the Mackinac Bridge in Mackinaw City, Michigan recently reached Port Austin […]

The first running of the longest canoe race ever contested got underway on Monday. Nineteen teams of canoeists and kayakers — including one six-paddler voyageur canoe team — are working their way down 1,000 miles of Yukon River. From its start in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, the first annual Yukon 1000 Canoe and Kayak Race will […]

Defending champions Andrew Triebold and Steve Lajoie are set to defend their title at the 62nd Annual Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon this weekend. Triebold, of Spring Arbor, Michigan and Lajoie of Mirabel, Quebec, who won last year’s race by nearly a half hour, put some suspense into the registration process this year, signing up to […]

We enjoyed the video above, by the Burlington Free Press, in which a flotilla of birch-bark canoes commemorates Samuel de Champlain’s 1609 exploration of the lake.  Champlain was the first European to see the lake that now bears his name. There’s also a news story from the folks at WCAX, HERE, about the birthday paddle. Champlain’s […]