Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Expedition 1000 Update: Stand-Up Paddling The Mississippi


A month ago I wrote about the fourth stage of Dave Cornthwaite's Expedition 1000, which was just about to get underway. This stage of his journey has Dave traveling from source-to-mouth along the Mississippi River on a stand-up paddleboard, a distance of 2400 miles (3862km) that began in Lake Itasca, located in northern Minnesota, and ends when the river enters the the Gulf of Mexico, of the coast of Louisiana.

Since getting underway, Dave has been making great progress, and has already covered more than 500 miles, arriving in Minneapolis a few days ago. Tonight, he'll be giving a presentation at Midwest Mountaineering at 7PM, where he'll share tales from his various adventures, which have included traveling across Australia on a skateboard and paddling more than 1400 miles along the Murry River as well. Tomorrow, Cornthwaite will once again take to the water, where he'll resume his journey southward. With about 2000 miles to go, he still has quite a bit of paddling ahead of him, but he hopes to complete the trip by early September.

Expedition 1000 is Dave's attempt to undertake 25 unique journeys that will see him traveling 1000 miles or more using different types of non-motorized transportation. He has already used the aforementioned skateboard and canoe, but has also tandem biked from Vancouver to Las Vegas, covering 1400 miles, before launching his Mississippi SUP expedition. The entire project has been conceived as a way to raise £1 million (roughly $1.5 million) for various charities.

So what's it like out on the river on a stand-up paddleboard all day? Check out Dave's latest video below to find out.