Category: Expert Advice

NEW ORLEANS – Alpine Shop employee, Perry Whitaker, set out in early May as part of a four man team attempting to set a new World Record for Fastest Time to Row the Length of the Mississippi River by a Team. 16 days later and less than 150 miles from that record, the Mississippi Speed Record canoe swamped and sank due to a life-threatening mix of high winds, ocean-going vessels, barges and tugs all converging on the river at the same time.

Perry posted on Facebook, the morning after the canoe vanished into the waves: “Our canoe is at the bottom of the Mighty Mississippi. This adventure is done, after over 2,100 miles.”

A little later he added to that:

Perry Whitaker – May 21 on Facebook

After he took a few days to make his way back to work at Alpine Shop, here’s how Perry answered some of the most frequently asked questions about the trip:

Q. Why in the Hell did you do this?

“Because it’s there”. Someone once asked Mallory why he wanted to climb Everest and he said “Because it’s there”.  Paddling the whole Mississippi in less than 3 weeks isn’t nearly as daunting as climbing Everest. Mallory died on his third attempt at Everest, we just sunk our canoe and had to be rescued by our safety boat. 

I met Conrad Anker a few years ago, he’s the person who finally found Mallory’s body about 75 years after he died. I got to buy a few beers for the guys in the safety boats who rescued us, Mallory didn’t get that option.

I’ve given a lot of presentations about the history of the Mississippi River so I was excited when I got the opportunity to join this team on the record attempt. 

Q. Have you ever done anything like this before?

I’ve been on lots of adventures, but nothing like this. 

I went on a month-long solo bike trip through Central America, I walked across England along Hadrian’s Wall then biked across Ireland, and I’ve been on a lot of other long backpacking, biking, and paddling trips.

This was the first time I tried to break a Guinness Book of World Records time for something.

Q. What was your most memorable moment of this trip?

You mean other than the canoe sinking in a storm 137 miles from the finish? 

The first 2,160 miles of the trip were great, but the last few minutes kind of sucked. 

I really enjoyed all the wildlife. We heard a pack of wolves, saw a couple bears, some sandhill cranes, and we watched a huge fisher jumping out of a tree after something. I wish I had taken a bird identification book with me, even though I was too busy paddling to look up birds.

Q. What did you expect to be your biggest challenges of this trip and were you right? 

I think my expectations were pretty close to reality. There were two categories of challenges: those things we could control and those things we couldn’t. The things we could control included training and equipment, the things we couldn’t control included things like the weather, or a major barge traffic jam caused by a damaged bridge in Memphis, TN. I expected the physical challenge to be my biggest hurdle, so I trained pretty hard. I was also worried about how much this would cost. We expected it to cost between $20,000 and $30,000 dollars.

Q. Twenty to thirty thousand dollars?

We had a huge support crew. There were three safety boats and two RVs following us down the river. The primary costs were fuel for those vehicles and food for about 25 volunteers for about 3 weeks. There was also the price of gear. The canoe was about $3500, modifications to the canoe was another grand, paddles were about $300 each. There were a million other things we needed and they all added up.

Q. Tell me about your training for this.

For the past several years, I’ve kayak over two thousand miles per year, so I already had a good start on my training. 

In addition to that, I started training on a rowing machine about a year and a half ago. Distance paddling in a canoe or kayak is more about the core than the arms so the rowing machine has been great. I should have worked on my shoulders more, but I did okay. My training was slowed down by the pandemic because I couldn’t go to the gym. 

I think I did pretty well, physically. I felt strong throughout the trip, and I think I could have paddled at that pace for a couple more weeks. 

Q. What was the weather like?

It was below freezing for the first few nights, then it got up to the mid-80’s toward the finish. The weather was surprisingly good until the wind on the last two days. 

Q. I assume this got rather monotonous at times, what kept you going?

I didn’t think it was monotonous, I enjoyed the heck out of it.

When we were forced off the river, I wasn’t joking when I asked if someone could loan me a boat to finish the trip or maybe even paddle about a thousand miles upstream back to St Louis.

Q. As you were on the river, your attempt was covered by a few newspapers and TV stations, while thousands of people were following the progress on Facebook. Were you expecting that? 

Absolutely not. I’ve been on a lot of adventures but I’ve never had thousands of people cheering me on. It was awkward. 

How are the big rivers different from the smaller Ozark streams?

A lot of the upper Mississippi seemed just like paddling on the Current River or upper Meramac. We just saw a lot more eagles and beavers on the upper Mississippi. 

Big rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri are safer than smaller streams in a lot of ways, but more dangerous in others. Paddling on a big river is usually like paddling on a lake, but we don’t worry about barge traffic on our local lakes. Once you understand the concepts of river navigation, it’s pretty easy.  

If you want to paddle on the Mississippi or Missouri, go with someone who knows what they’re doing for the first couple times. It’s simple after someone walks you through it, but it’s difficult and dangerous to try to figure out on your own.

How can people learn more about paddling on the big rivers?

The Mississippi River Water Trail Association is an organization that can really help. Big Muddy Adventures takes people out on the Mississippi all the time, and the Alpine Shop occasionally does too. You can also talk to people who’ve done the MR340, they love to talk about it.

What questions have you been asked the most about this trip?

Getting through the locks, does my butt hurt from sitting in a canoe for 2 ½ weeks, and will I do it again.

What are the answers to those questions?

Locking through was great. There are 27 locks on the Mississippi, and the US Army Corp of Engineers went above and beyond to help us get through them quickly, and some barges even let us lock through ahead of them. That was amazingly cool of them. We only had to wait a couple times. If you haven’t locked through before, do it because it’s very educational.

Yes, my butt was numb.  My hands and feet hurt and were swollen, but people don’t ask about my hands and feet, they just want to know about my butt.  

I’ve had a couple weeks to recover and I’m almost back to normal now. 

You didn’t say if you’d do it again?

I think it’s impossible to do something like this and not think of ways to be faster, more efficient, and safer. I think I could probably knock a couple days off the world record time. I already have the right boat, I just need to find the right people. If I can find the right people, I’ll try it again.

Do you have any other big adventures planned?

The MR340 is coming in a few weeks and I plan to race in that again this year. I’m also thinking about walking the Trail of Tears this winter. 

Any final thoughts or words of wisdom?

I’ve been reading a lot about Teddy Roosevelt recently, and I think more people should read his “Man in the Arena” speech.