The Two Continent Canoe Expedition
From Inuvik, North West Territories on June 1986
To Cape Horn, South America on March 1, 1989
Team: Verlen Kruger and Valerie Fons
The Route:
Starting
in June, 1986, when the ice breaks at Inuvik, Northwest Territories, they paddle
1,800 miles up the Mackenzie River. They follow a part of the historic fur trade
route through the Native settlements of the NWT and of Saskatchewan and follow
the voyageur's Highway to Grand Portage. Routing through Michigan, the team to
beat freeze-up and navigate four of the Great Lakes; paddling the South shore of
Lake Superior in November, then cross the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Lake
Michigan. There they paddle under the Mackinac Bridge and enter Lake Huron.
After paddling past Detroit, they head into Lake Erie to Toledo, up the Maumee
River to Fort Wayne, overland into the Wabash and south across the state of
Indiana to the Ohio. Up the Tennessee River, follow the Tennessee-Tombigbee
Waterway to Mobile, Alabama. From Mobile, they paddled east around the Gulf of
Mexico to Miami, Florida.
◄Verlen and Valerie -
Catamaran System with Sails
Note :
The Two Continent Canoe Expedition was the first big trip where Verlen used his Sea Wind canoe design.
At Miami, the nature of the route changes completely as the team heads across 2,300 miles of the Caribbean Sea. In two solo canoes, they stretch their endurance and courage as they cross the open ocean and island-hop the entire Caribbean Chain through an international mix of countries and customs. When paddling over 100 island crossings, 10 or 12 times they were out of site of land which forces them to paddle overnight.
When
the team arrived in Trinidad, they entered South America and headed up the
Orinoco River and through the unusual natural canal that connects the Orinoco to
the Negro River. Navigating the black waters of the Negro, Verlen and Valerie
paddle to the modern city of Manaus at the junction of the Amazon. They then
paddle down the Amazon and up the Madeira River, through huge rain forests
during the rainy season until this great river fades to a mere trickle.
At
the source of the Madeira, they face one of the biggest challenges of the
expedition, they carry the boats and equipment overland to a small tributary of
the Para quay River, here they enter the middle of the South American Continent
and the large relatively unknown and uncharted region called the Mato Grosso - a
land of countless tribes and frightening stories, where civilization as we
imagine it has not yet reached. Before they are finished the team has explored
all three of the major river systems of the Southern Continent; the Orinoco, the
Amazon and the Piranha.
South America is a totally different experience as the team paddles through rain forests and among uncounted primitive tribes. This portion of the TCCE is possibly be the most hazardous and probably the most rewarding. The team follow the Paraquay-Piranha River to reach Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they paddle out into the South Atlantic Ocean and down the east coast of South America, into the Straits of Magellan to Punta Arenas, Chili, out through the Patagonia Island System, around Cape Horn and back to Punta Arenas.
21,000 miles in two and a half years from the beginning of this amazing paddling
exploration.
For More Information Contact:
Kruger
Canoes LLC
P.O.
Box 92 Irons, MI 49644
Tel: 231-266-2089
FAX:
Internet:
mark@krugercanoes.com