Top Expeditions Not Yet Done
DREAM BIG AND FOLLOW THROUGH
L
ast summer, Minnesotans Lucas Will and Greg Petry fulfilled a dream five years in the making, to sea kayak around Lake Superior. Here’s how they found the 97 days to get it done: “It was easy for us to drop everything because we had little to drop. We work sea- sonally as outdoor educators, so getting time off meant we just didn’t apply for the next job on the list. In order to follow a dream it first needs to be identified. Then you can start making the choices to turn that dream into reality. In the end, we didn’t drop everything, we purposefully put things down in a place where we’d know where to find them when we got back.”
HANDLING INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS
N
ew York-based paddler Marcus Demuth makes a point of going to places where sea kayaks haven’t been, which throws a wrench into logistical planning. In the case of his 2010 expedition to Tierra Del Fuego,
Chile, it meant he and expedition partner Biff Wruszek had to practice their spanglish to figure out how to get sea kayaks to the tip of South America, find charts for an obscure coastline and secure travel permits. “Until recently, three-piece sea kayaks could be transported on commercial flights. Now fiberglass boats aren’t allowed. This is something I’m willing to take a chance on— how is the baggage handler going to know my kayak isn’t made of plastic? The other option is to send your boat on a container ship. This works great if you don’t mind dealing with high costs and inevitable delays, which seem to range from weeks to months. Or you could use a folding kayak, but in my opinion they don’t offer the big water performance of a hardshell. “In Chile we were lucky to hook up with a few local paddlers in advance through Facebook and they helped us out big time. We tend to think of the Internet as our best source of information but Biff found charts for our trip by writing letters with pen and paper. Of course you could always go to a more pop- ular destination—my trips to Great Britain, Iceland and Ireland were dead easy to plan.”
ADVENTURE KAYAK ASKED TOP EXPEDITION PADDLERS FOR THEIR BIG TRIP IDEAS. NO ONE IS SIGNED UP YET, BUT HERE’S THEIR LIST OF TOP EXPEDITIONS NOT YET UNDERTAKEN:
“I don’t think anyone has circumnavigated Africa. But I think it would be impossible because of politics and pirates, unless you were a really good talker.”
—Duane Strosaker
“The top sea kayak expedition not yet undertaken is the Northwest Passage in a single season.” —Sean Morley
“[Circumnavigating] Madagascar still hasn’t been done yet! And Cuba would be a great trip from a cultural point of view.” —Leon Sommé and Shawna Franklin
“No one has yet paddled Vitus Bering’s route from Kamchatka to Anchorage via the full length of the Aleutians.” —Jon Turk
Don’t Leave Home Without It
THERE ARE A NUMBER OF STAPLE ITEMS THAT CAN BE FOUND IN EVERY EXPEDITION PADDLER’S KIT. THE PROS LET ADVENTURE KAYAK INTO THEIR STASH TO FIND OUT THE NOT-SO-WELL-KNOWN ITEMS THEY NEVER LEAVE BEHIND.
“Something I always carry in my PFD pocket is a piece of green scouring pad to occasionally rub on my paddle shaft for a better grip.” —Duane Strosaker
“A jar of SudoCrem—a very powerful antiseptic healing cream that cures wounds caused by chafing very quickly.” —Marcus Demuth
“A magic pee bottle for using on long crossings or when you don’t want to go into shore. The pee bottle is made from a shampoo bottle…I’ve used it countless times and it still smells like a meadow in spring.” —Frank Wolf
38 ADVENTURE KAYAK | EARLY SUMMER 2011
“The key bit of kit that I used to carry when I paddled a sea kayak fitted with Valley rubber hatches was a plastic chisel-shaped wedge that I used to pry off the hatch covers…There is nothing worse after 10-plus hours of paddling than to be unable to open the hatch covers because your hands are too cold and tired.” —Sean Morely
“I never leave on an expedition without my paint set, pencils and drawing pad! Creating a painting or drawing is one more way for me to connect with the environment that I am immersed in.” —Shawna Franklin
PHOTO: VIRGINIA MARSHALL
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