Minnesota kayaker to paddle entire Great Lakes coast

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hansel_bryan_090413-401Kayaker Bryan Hansel said his new 17.5-foot boat is comfy and seems seaworthy, two traits he’ll put to the test Saturday when he embarks on a 3,800-mile trip around all five Great Lakes.

Hansel, a professional kayak guide and photographer from Grand Marais, Minn., will try to be the first person to circumnavigate all of the Great Lakes in a kayak.

Lots of Lake Superior kayakers dream of paddling around the biggest Great Lake, Hansel said. But he wondered, why stop there?

“It just seemed like the logical thing to do was to continue past Lake Superior and go around all the Great Lakes and end up back home.”

Hansel, 37, will leave from Grand Marais and cover first the American shore of Lake Superior, paddling around 25 miles daily. After portaging around the Soo Locks, which won’t accommodate kayakers, he’ll lap around Lake Michigan before cruising the American shores of lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie and Ontario.

When he hits Lake Ontario’s easternmost point, he’ll turn around and trace the Canadian coast back to Minnesota.

Hansel expects the trip to take around five months. He’s been planning it for the last eight.

Between rent back home, life insurance and other expenditures, Hansel estimates the trip will cost around $10,000. He managed to raise $3,000 in donations and collected a number of equipment sponsorships.

He’ll carry a 10-day supply of food and restock at local grocery stores. He’ll also get shipments of dehydrated meals along the way from an outdoor food company.

Hansel grew up in Iowa and learned to canoe on the backwaters of the Mississippi River. He picked up kayaking 12 years ago and has since paddled a 560-mile stretch of the river.

Hansel hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1996 from Maine to Georgia. That five-month, 2,150-mile trek left him itching for another long-distance adventure.

Hansel called Grand Marais “a little hamlet full of adventurers.” He has friends from the city of 1,300 who have been to the North Pole and paddled down the Amazon River. The community knows how much it takes to embark on a long trip and has been very supportive, he said.

Still, not everyone is enthusiastic.

“My mom is a little concerned, he said. “But she’s concerned when I do anything.”

The three main dangers for kayakers are wind, waves and weather, Hansel said. A group of his friends who spent two months kayaking around Lake Superior ran into 10-foot waves that kept them cooped up in camp for five days.

But once he hits port cities like Toronto and Chicago, he’ll have something else to look out for: Shipping traffic.

“The big boats don’t avoid you,” he said. “You have to avoid them.”

This will be Hansel’s first time kayaking in Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. He’ll try to land at state and national parks along the way.

Some of the trip’s natural highlights will be the sand dunes of northeastern Michigan, Pukaskwa National Park on the Canadian shore of Lake Superior and Niagara Falls between lakes Erie and Ontario.

Though he’ll paddle the Niagara River, Hansel said a resident has already offered to pick him and his boat up and drive them around the falls.

When he can’t find a park or a campground, Hansel hopes to rely on the kindness of strangers.

“I’m actually looking forward to pulling over in somebody’s backyard, knocking on the back door and asking if they’ll let me camp in the backyard,” he said. “If not, I’ll go to the neighbor.”

Though this is mostly a solo trip, Hansel will meet up with local paddlers along the the way and finish off with a group of friends. He hopes this trip will promote paddle sports on the Great Lakes, and by extension drum up support for protecting the lakes.

“When people become enthusiastic about outdoor sports, they get an idea about protecting the wilderness where they’re participating in those sports,” he said.

Keep up with Hansel’s progress at his Web site www.aroundthegreatlakes.com and follow him on Twitter at bryanhansel.

Listen to an interview with Hansel on WTIP here.

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  1. Pingback: Great Lakes Echo» Blog Archive » Injury suspends Minnesota Kayaker’s trip around the Great Lakes

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