Weird News - Minn. teens paddle 2,200 miles

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Minn. teens paddle 2,200 miles

GILLAM, Manitoba (UPI) -- Two Minnesota teens have completed their goal of paddling a canoe 2,200 miles from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay in northern Canada.

It took Sean Bloomfield and Colton Witte, two 18-year-olds from Chaska, from April 28 to this past Sunday to complete their trip to the Arctic Ocean, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported Tuesday.

"There's no way to put into words the feeling of finishing. A sense of relief and satisfaction and enjoyment. And pride. We just stopped paddling, and I put my hands on my head and looked at the bay," Witte told the newspaper about his thoughts at the completion of their epic travels.

Bloomfield said he "got chills" when he realized they had succeeded.

"We paddled from Minneapolis to the Arctic Ocean," he said.

Their adventure was spawned by reading Eric Sevareid's book, "Canoeing With the Cree," which told of the late TV newsman's 1930 trip to Hudson Bay with friend Walt Port. It took Sevareid and Port 98 days to travel up the Minnesota River, then down the Red River of the North to Lake Winnipeg and then on to Hudson Bay -- Bloomfield and Witte just 45.

The modern pair survived several near-disasters, including having their canoe swamped by a 5- or 6-foot wall of water in an unexpectedly savage rapids.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 06/18/2008

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