Eastern Iowa canoeists share stories at annual Paddle Day

CEDAR RAPIDS - Eastern Iowa canoeists recounted recent arduous voyages Saturday at Paddle Day at the Indian Creek Nature Center.

Heat, high water and bugs vexed Lance Loney and Corey Smock during their 60-day journey down the Mississippi River this summer, the Decorah men told scores of fellow paddling enthusiasts at the annual event.

Bruce Frana and Eric Evans, both of Cedar Rapids, said grueling portages were the bane of their 12-day, 204 mile retracing of the voyageurs trade route across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in September.

'I never got tired of paddling, but I got sick of ticks and mosquitoes, ' said Loney, who sat in the rear of the canoe every day of their 2,100-mile voyage from the river's source to New Orleans.

Smock said they intended to go all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, but cut the trip a few days short because of flood-related safety concerns.

At one point south of St. Louis, he said, they had to portage around a section of river that was closed to boat traffic because of high water.

Through support pledges, the pair raised more than $16,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, with $5,400 coming from a June 26 fundraiser in Lansing.

Evans, a regular Boundary Waters visitor since 1966, said the trip from Crane Lake to Lake Superior had been on his bucket list for several years.

Evans and Frana, a Boundary Waters paddler since 1978, paddled on 25 lakes and six rivers and made 41 portages on their rapid west-to-east crossing of the main trade route frequented by fur traders in the 1700s.

Shuttling their canoe and packs across the famous 8.5-mile Grand Portage - the portage from hell, in Evans' words - provided their sternest test.

'This was by far the hardest, most physically demanding of my many Boundary Waters trips,” Evans said.

As enjoyable as paddle sports may be, safety must always be the top priority, Todd Robertson, outreach coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources' river programs, told the attendees.

'Though it probably should not need saying, I do have to say this: A life jacket will save your life,” Robertson said.

Paddlers should also always be aware of low-head dams - 'the number one hazard out there,” he said.

Robertson also warned paddlers to beware of 'strainers” and 'sweepers.”

Sweepers, he said, are above-water logs, branches or trees that can knock a paddler from his vessel, while strainers are obstructions that can pull a paddler under water.