From the ArcaMax Publishing, Weird News Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/weirdnews/s-364738-972911
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.