I can’t find a good pic to highlight this event, but for quite a few years now each April there’s been a 50-mile big day of canoeing to commemorate the same route in 1790 that Hugh Heward and a small group of 8 in 2 canoes paddled in one day to leave some chasing Indians in the dust.
This event also commemorates and raises funds for the Verlen Kruger Memorial. Verlen and 3 partners in a replica 4-man canoe were the first to show that Heward could have paddled this route in a single day. The route was deduced by amazing local river history buff Jim Woodruff.
[UPDATE 4/20/09: I’m going to try to do this event! It’ll be the most I’ve ever paddled in a day. Maybe I’ve gone 15 miles before. Gulp! I’ve paddled a few times this Spring so far to *kind of* get ready. I don’t have a partner yet. I thought I had one but I was too waffley so he got someone else. Heck, I might even do it solo. Or in a kayak. Yikes!
This year the event also coincides with the Ultimate Hugh Heward Challenge, where a group honchoed by Charlie Parmalee is paddling from Lake Eerie to Grand Haven across Michigan, to commemorate Heward’s overall canoe commute across the lower part of the state, also deduced by Woodruff. (Jim also figured out the route LaSalle took across the state in 1680!)
Here’s more info:
loapc.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/charlie-parmalee-reenacts-hugh-hewards-legendary-voyage/
And here’s a wonderful report about the mayhem of scouting a modern way to replicate Heward’s route from Ultimate coordinator Parmalee:
Dang, that’s a great report! I should try to get some pics from him and run it as a full story. Rockin’!
https://www.verlenkrugermemorial.org/id22.html
