Looking relaxed and happy, Joe Zellner and Peggy Gabrielson took a break from paddling big water and visited with friends and family in Joe’s hometown of Grand Marais. The two may or may not make their goal to paddle all five Great Lakes in one calendar year, but it’s an adventure of a lifetime and so far despite a few setbacks, it’s been great, they both said.
Joe Zellner and Peggy Gabrielson have paddled about 2,500 miles of Great Lakes water so far, but with hunting season coming up, they probably won’t be able to paddle all five Great Lakes in one calendar year.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Joe. “We aren’t doing this to set records anyway. I always said that when the November 1 deer hunting season starts, the trip ends.”
Peggy didn’t have any tears in her eyes when Joe made that proclamation on Friday, August 18. The day before the couple had paddled into Grand Marais, Joe’s hometown, and both were enjoying a break at Java Moose.
“When hunting season starts I am going to be in my slippers and bathrobe with a warm pot of coffee within my reach,” Peggy said. “Of course I might be in the middle of the woods next to Joe’s tree stand, but I won’t be in my kayak,” she laughed.
It was Joe’s idea to take this trip they call “2 paddling 5” and attempt to paddle all five Great Lakes, a distance of about 6,100 miles. The two met at kayak races, and after paddling a 92-mile race together, Joe asked Peggy, who is from Siren, Wis., to come along.
Joe and Peggy began their trip on April 1 from Port Huron, Michigan. The spring was uncommonly cold, wet and windy. “We missed about two weeks because of bad weather,” Peggy said.
Just when the weather started to warm up, Joe’s sister, who was driving Joe’s camper truck and providing support, was involved in an accident.
“My truck was T-boned. I fought with the insurance company for five weeks to get a new truck. We were off the water the whole time. Since then we have made the trip without support, and I think it’s gotten a lot better. A lot, lot better,” Joe said, raising his eyebrows as Peggy nodded an affirmative.
Each paddles between 30-35 miles per day. “I look at this as a job,” Joe said. “Even if I don’t feel like paddling, it’s my job, so I go out and do my job.”
While this is an adventure of a lifetime, it also is serving as a fundraiser to benefit pediatric brain cancer research.
“The inspiration and motivating factor behind our choice is a little girl, Callie Rohr. She was diagnosed at age seven and died of a brain tumor five days before her tenth birthday,” Joe said. “Her parents have been raising money for this cause for several years through the Callie Rohr Memorial kayak race.”
With just a few years of kayaking under her belt, Peggy isn’t as adventurous as her partner.
“Joe likes to paddle in the big water,” said Peggy. “He’s not one bit afraid of big waves, so he has to do a lot of coaxing to get me through on some days.”
Along the way, the two intrepid adventurers have seen lots of otters, eagles, deer, and raccoon. One night a bear came poking about their tent and Joe popped it in the nose through the tent wall. The bear fled on cue.
“I didn’t want the bear to tear a hole in our tent,” Joe shrugged as he recounted the incident. They sleep on beaches or hunker down in state parks when they can find them, stocking up on fresh food in towns along the way. “We eat a lot of freeze dried food and pick berries when we can,” said Joe. “This year we have found lots of blueberries and thimbleberries.”
If Joe isn’t afraid of bears, he is scared of snakes. “We were getting ready to find a spot to camp for the night when Joe noticed a snake swimming in the water next to his kayak. He yelled and hit the snake with his paddle. I asked him if we were going in to the beach and he said, ‘Not here. Not with snakes around.’ We paddled a long, long ways from that snake before we found a place to camp,” Peggy giggled.
One morning when they awoke their tent was covered in slugs. “We were ‘pinging’ slugs off our tent all that morning. But most mornings are routine. It’s a rare morning to be pinging slugs off our tent,” Peggy said.
If there is one constant distraction, it’s the sand. “There is sand in everything,” said Joe. “Sand in the sandwiches. Sand in our oatmeal. In all of our food. Sand in our clothes. Sand gets into places in a person it shouldn’t ever get into.”
“Speak for yourself, Joe. Sand is everywhere, but it’s not getting, you know, like everywhere,” Peggy retorted.
Both Joe and Peggy have suffered loss.
Joe lost his wife Anne to cancer in 2012. Both Anne and Joe loved to kayak together, even completing a journey down the Mississippi River and the two planned to paddle the Great Lakes at some point.
Peggy lost her husband, Dan, after 20 years of marriage when he was killed in the Iraq war in 2003. The couple, who married right out of high school, had three children.
Joe and Peggy met at a kayak race. For Joe, he has been racing and winning events for almost 25 years. For Peggy, a girl who grew up on a farm far from big water, kayaking has been something she has picked up quickly, but she advises, “It’s harder to learn at age 50.”
Kayaks aren’t big, so to be seen on the big lakes Joe and Peggy paddle bright yellow Stellar kayaks. They wear bright orange personal flotation devices (life preservers) and have reflectors on their paddles. None of that mattered when they got to Holland, Michigan.
“We had the right of way to go into the harbor, but one boat after another passed us,” said Joe. “It seemed to me they were saying to us, ‘I’m bigger than you, so I’m going first.’”
Frustrations aside, most of the trip has been amazing, said Peggy. “We didn’t have our first warm bath until we made it to Superior.”
Once the weather turned, temperatures climbed from 40 degrees F to 80 degrees F. “When it warmed up we burnt ourselves badly after the first two days on the water. Our faces looked like little red furnaces,” said Joe.
Along the way, Joe and Peggy have met a lot of friendly folks. “The people have been fantastic,” said Peggy. “So supportive, so kind. They want to know why we are making this trip, and when we tell them, they are willing to pitch in.”
If you would like to follow Joe and Peggy or donate to their cause, they have a website at www.2paddling5.com.
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