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Batavia, IL —
On May 28, Aaron Drendel and Jake Mullins will pack up their canoe at the start of Memorial Day weekend.
But they won’t be packing for a weekend excursion or even an extended getaway. They’ll be packing for what could be a summer-long canoeing trek down the Mississippi River.
“We’ve been telling people we’re trying to budget it for 60 days,” Drendel said. “That’s an average of 40 miles a day. I’d like to do it fast, but I’ve heard it can take anywhere from 40 to 100 days.”
“We’ve done a couple 20-mile trips, but nothing overnight with camping and going ultra-long distances,” Mullins said. “A lengthy trip is going to be a new experience.”
But the two 2005 Batavia High School graduates aren’t embarking on their journey purely for fun or for an exciting experience — though the trip figures to offer plenty of both. No, Drendel and Mullins are taking on America’s great river to raise money for the Susan G. Komen fund and to raise awareness for breast cancer. Drendel’s mother is a breast cancer survivor; Mullins’ girlfriend lost an aunt to breast cancer at the same time her mother was diagnosed. “I saw what her family went through and the effect it had,” Mullins said. “Seeing their experience and what happened to Aaron’s mom, we thought Susan G. Komen would be the best way to help.”
So to join the fight against breast cancer, the pair will head to Lake Itasca, Minn., the headwaters of the Mississippi River, to begin a journey that will take them from the upper Midwest to the deep south and the Gulf of Mexico.
“We kind of threw around the idea as an adventure, and as we got more serious about it we thought if we could do something like this, that would be the best thing to do,” Drendel said.
Neither will be new to spending time on the water. Drendel’s family has a cabin in northern Wisconsin and he has taken fishing trips to northern Minnesota and Ontario, Canada, in the past. Mullins, an avid outdoorsman, purchased a kayak last year and has spent time on the Fox and DuPage rivers. They have prepared for their Mississippi journey together on the Rock River, Illinois River and in a recent race at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles.
Drendel and Mullins now have begun separating and packing their gear and fighting nerves as they approach departure day. “There are certain times when I’m nervous, but I’m more just ready to go,” Drendel said. “I’m more anxious to get started than anything. I’m excited”
On May 28, Aaron Drendel and Jake Mullins will pack up their canoe at the start of Memorial Day weekend.
But they won’t be packing for a weekend excursion or even an extended getaway. They’ll be packing for what could be a summer-long canoeing trek down the Mississippi River.
“We’ve been telling people we’re trying to budget it for 60 days,” Drendel said. “That’s an average of 40 miles a day. I’d like to do it fast, but I’ve heard it can take anywhere from 40 to 100 days.”
“We’ve done a couple 20-mile trips, but nothing overnight with camping and going ultra-long distances,” Mullins said. “A lengthy trip is going to be a new experience.”
But the two 2005 Batavia High School graduates aren’t embarking on their journey purely for fun or for an exciting experience — though the trip figures to offer plenty of both. No, Drendel and Mullins are taking on America’s great river to raise money for the Susan G. Komen fund and to raise awareness for breast cancer. Drendel’s mother is a breast cancer survivor; Mullins’ girlfriend lost an aunt to breast cancer at the same time her mother was diagnosed. “I saw what her family went through and the effect it had,” Mullins said. “Seeing their experience and what happened to Aaron’s mom, we thought Susan G. Komen would be the best way to help.”
So to join the fight against breast cancer, the pair will head to Lake Itasca, Minn., the headwaters of the Mississippi River, to begin a journey that will take them from the upper Midwest to the deep south and the Gulf of Mexico.
“We kind of threw around the idea as an adventure, and as we got more serious about it we thought if we could do something like this, that would be the best thing to do,” Drendel said.
Neither will be new to spending time on the water. Drendel’s family has a cabin in northern Wisconsin and he has taken fishing trips to northern Minnesota and Ontario, Canada, in the past. Mullins, an avid outdoorsman, purchased a kayak last year and has spent time on the Fox and DuPage rivers. They have prepared for their Mississippi journey together on the Rock River, Illinois River and in a recent race at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles.
Drendel and Mullins now have begun separating and packing their gear and fighting nerves as they approach departure day. “There are certain times when I’m nervous, but I’m more just ready to go,” Drendel said. “I’m more anxious to get started than anything. I’m excited”
“I’m definitely starting to get nervous, excited and anxious,” Mullins said. “It’s a lot to do and there’s a lot of things we don’t know too much about.”
The serenity and silence of the open water should quickly calm their nerves. There promises to be plenty of the latter.
“From what we’ve read in books, when you do this with two people there’s not a lot of talking,” Mullins said. “You might not talk for hours. There was a husband and wife that did it and they didn’t talk for days at a time. I could go for a while without talking.”
“Maybe we’ll be playing 20 questions a lot,” Drendel said.
Though they will be the only two in the canoe, Drendel and Mullins won’t be the only ones contributing to the cause. Guyot Designs donated collapsible bowls, cups and utensils that can be easily packed. CGI Outdoors gave them canoe seats to make the journey a bit more comfortable, OtterBox sent three large, waterproof boxes to protect their valuables, and in the coup de grace the Old Town Canoe and Kayak Company donated the Tripper XL, a 20-foot long canoe it makes.
While spending two months or more on the water is the trip of a lifetime for two outdoorsmen, shipping barges, locks and dams will present challenges along the way.
“My concern is the weather and the barges,” Mullins said of potential fog moving in and limiting visibility. “We got a marine radio so we can talk to the lockmasters and barge captains.”
They will have to negotiate 28 locks and 10-12 dams along the way, not to mention changing currents, rising temperatures and Midwestern summer weather. Luckily, the pair budgeted plenty of pit stops along the way.
“No matter what,” Drendel said, “We’ll be getting out of the canoe to stretch our legs and eat lunch.”
By the numbers
2,320 Miles from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico
60 Days budgeted for the trip
10 States the pair could possibly visit: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana
200 Pounds of gear: Food, clothes, tents, backpacks and canoeing equipment
20 Number of businesses, corporations, companies and others sponsoring the trip
