F &Jetsam P EOP L E | SAF E T Y | T R ENDS | VH F lotsam PEOPLE BY CONOR MIHELL
cember, he started what could be described as an 8,000-kilometre “anti-expedition” around the eastern United States. Te under-the-ra- dar launch of Stachovak’s Portage to Portage project was timed so he could participate in Wisconsin’s deer-hunting season. Tough the 34-year-old, Wausau, Wisconsin, native has a few sponsors’ stickers plastered on the sides of his kayak, they hardly compete with the hundreds of names and messages haphazardly scribbled over the deck and hull from people he’s met along the way. Stachovak spent the winter trying (and gen-
erally failing) to outrun winter on the Missis- sippi River, where he had his gear stolen right before Christmas and took a blast of pepper spray on New Year’s day from a band of thugs on the wrong side of a Deep South town. We caught up with an upbeat Stachovak in south- ern California, where he spent all of March to thaw out and give spring a chance to take hold on the eastern seaboard.
14 ADVENTURE KAYAK | EARLY SUMMER 2010
Closing the Circle W
hen Jake Stachovak launched his sea kayak in the Wisconsin River last De-
12 years old. I remember discovering that all these rivers nearly meet in Portage [Wiscon- sin], and then I traced where they went and re- alized there was a big continuous loop around the eastern United States. Te realization that a boat could be floated all the way around this part of the country deeply planted the seed of one day doing this trip. If I’d been smart I would’ve started in early
November. But I didn’t want to miss deer hunt- ing, so I was gambling on winter and it caught me big time. Tree days in, there was six inches of snow on the ground and a minus [30-degree Celsius] wind chill. I ended up getting chased by winter all the way to the tip of Florida. I’m not really out there to commune with
nature. I camp right in the middle of towns to make sure I have Internet connection so I can update my blog. In the dead of winter there were only nine or 10 hours of daylight…I’d spend eight or nine hours in my boat each day trying to crank out as many miles as possible. I accidentally fell in with some really
NEWS FROM THE PADDLING WORLD
The Anti-Adventurer. PHOTO: MICHAEL PAUL FRANKLIN
NO WILDERNESS GETAWAY, JAKE STACHOVAK’S 8,000 KM PADDLE IS “ALL ABOUT PEOPLE” I’ve wanted to paddle this route since I was
good people when my gear was stolen. It was amazing how people rallied around me to help in finding my stuff. But then the pepper spray incident just
pissed me off. Te people in Vicksburg [Mis- sissippi] said “bum luck for you buddy, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Ten I got a $1,600 doctor’s bill at the hospital. I got the idea for the boat-signing thing
after looking at Freya Hoffmeister’s blog. She has about five jillion sponsors listed there. I wanted to be the exact opposite of that. Tere are a few stickers on my boat, but this is all about the people I meet. It’s not like I’m charting uncharted waters here. I’m thinking seriously about getting high-
school kayaking programs started in my hometown. Most kids in Wausau have never paddled anything before and that’s wrong. Changing that is one of the things I want to do when I finish my trip. Now I just need to get back to the Great
Lakes before freeze-up. Follow Stachovak at his blog,
www.portagetoportage.com.
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