Ongoing Take a Hike: Australian Michael Barrett started on a solo trek along the Mississippi on September 28 at Itasca. He hopes to raise awareness and money for struggling communites in Colombia. Check out his account at Journey Down the Mississippi

November 4: Michael is in Illinois. All along the way, he is being helped by strangers, in many unexpected ways. From his blog:

Earlier today about 15kms out of Montpelier, a woman stopped her car beside me and started yelling questions at me from the window "What are ya doing", "Are ya hungry", "Where ya going". I went to say gday and answer her questions and she sped off down the road. Getting used to strange people and events I laughed it off and continued on. A half hour later a familiar looking car came speeding towards me from the opposite direction and the yelling lady was back again. She produced a little can of oil from her car and told me I had to oil the wheels of my cart as they were too noisy and would not make it much further. She then produced three bannanas, a mountain dew and a box of carrot cookies (better than they sound beleive me) and thrust them into my arms with all the affection of a rottweiler. I told her she was a hero and she had made my day, she gave me her first smile, told me "God Bless Honey" and sped off again.

Ongoing: Ryan Emerson from North Carolina started his solo canoe trip at the Headwaters on Sept. 9. He's keeping a blog, Float Onward. Here's a news story from Minnesota.

Update Oct. 25: Ryan is about a week upstream from St. Louis.

Ryan started late enough in the season to experience frosty mornings. But he lucked out and paddled the 14-mile expanse of Lake Winnibigoshish on a calm day. (The lake can be one of the early obstacles for paddlers - practically impossible to cross on a windy day.)

Al Sazama, Conor Pesci and Sean Hickey left August 16 for their journey from Lake Itasca to Venice, Louisiana. Check out their updates on their blog: MN to LA, Our Wild Ride Down the Mississippi.
and Twitter.

Update November 7: In Natchez.

Wisconsinite Ben Jonas set off from Eau Claire alone in a canoe on the Chippewa River early in June and headed downstream. Then the Chippewa opened into the Mississippi. He kept on paddling, and 38 days later his parents picked him up in Louisiana. See Doug Moe's account in Madison's Cap Times.

An excerpt:
Jonas reached the Mississippi on Day 2. He awoke that morning — having paddled eight hours the day before — as sore as he’d ever been. The day on the Chippewa had been uneventful, but the Mississippi’s vastness got his attention.

There was a day when he was pummeled by ugly flying carp and another when a family of deer swam past his canoe close enough to touch.

Three paddlers heading down the river are doing it standing up. One could become the world record-holder for the longest stand-up paddleboard trip.

Alex Linnell from Minnesota has a head start -- he launched his paddleboard on June 1st at the headwaters. He figures it will take 60 to 90 days to get to the Gulf of Mexico. He is promoting donations to the Red Cross to help flood victims. Alex' progress page

UPDATE:
Alex reached the Gulf on Tuesday, August 9th.

Alex traveled from June 1 to August 9, 70 days. He paddled 65 of those days. His official mileage is 2323 miles. From his website:

I have calculated my Mississippi River mileage conservatively at 2323 miles. This is calculated using the MN/Dept. of Natural Resources and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers river map mileage. I have added for my miles across Lake Itasca (4.5 miles) and for the longer route I took across the three large northern Minnesota lakes (2.1 miles) along with the route I took at the river delta.
I did not add for: the city harbors I paddled into; two short sections I paddled twice; irregular routes common to stand up paddling; or routes taken to avoid tows and their wakes. My actual mileage was likely 1-2% higher if there was a way to accurately record all of these items.

I hope this answers everyone’s questions. Thank you all for the amazing support!

British adventurer Dave Cornthwaite launched his Source to Sea paddleboard trip down the river on June 20. According to his website, he figures he will take three months to reach the Gulf. His itinerary has him at the Gulf on September 10.  Dave's progress page

UPDATE:
Dave entered the Gulf on Friday, September 9th (One day before his visa expired.) He traveled 68 days & 2404 miles. See Dave's blog entry where he talks about distance and world records.

Floridian Matthew "Tumbleweed" Crofton launched his board on June 10. He is keeping an online journal. A good read - his Ten Hours on the Mississippi, about the less-than-illustrious beginning of his journey.

Earlier excerpts from Matt's blog:

Read about his close call — being sucked under the gates — at Lock and Dam 16 in Muscatine in this news story.

UPDATE:
Sept. 27: Matt made it to the Gulf!

Galen Bowles,Chad Smith and Gage Hearn

Lake Itasca in May to Natchez

Anthony Reinert from Lake Forest, Ill., started a trip down the Mississippi River on May 20 at the headwaters. He's paddling a 17-ft canoe, the Kandu Queen, first with his father and then with a friend he met on the Appalachian Trail. Check out his blog. and his Facebook Page.

UPDATE: Anthony made it to New Orleans on July 15.

New Zealander Greg Dunning started his solo kayaking trip down the river at Lake Itaska on May 30th. He'd like to make the trip in 90 days max, since that's when his visa expires. Read his reports on his blog, Musselman's Mississippi Kayak Adventure.

Update: Greg made the Gulf by the end of July.

The Okee Dokee Brothers, a bluegrass duo from Minneapolis, canoed from Lake Itasca to St. Louis from June 1 to July 8. They composed songs about the river for a new children's album on the way.   MPR story

Cliff Walls and Alex Poe, both 23 and hailing from Michigan, canoed a 17-ft metal canoe the length of the river for the “Friends of the Fishermen Fund,” a charity for families suffering the loss of fishing livelihoods from the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf. Follow their Mississippi "source-to-sea" trip on their blog. They completed the 2,350-mile trip in 54 days in mid-July.

From their blog:

This trip taught us two simple, major lessons. First, despite what the TV tells you, people are nice. Everyone along the river was so willing to give us a hand, and we will certainly remember this for the rest of our lives. Second, if you want to do something, do it. As the captain of the Emerald Isle taught us, “Life is like a dollar bill, you either spend it or you nickel and dime it away.”

We will never forget this trip, the people we met, the people who helped us, and the beauty of America’s river. What a hell of a ride.

The brothers Bragiel - Peter, Paul and Dan, and a friend, Tony Corella, paddled two bright yellow Wenonah canoes from Lake Itasca to Louisiana. They started on July 14 and finished on September 12. Back in LA, Peter, a travel filmmaker, is preparing a video of the trip for YouTube. Peter financed the trip in part with winnings from a contest on YouTube Next Up.

You can watch the half-way video at St. Louis on YouTube now, and follow Peter on Facebook and Twitter. Check out his website, InTransit .

Media coverage from Baton Rouge and Keokuk, Iowa.

47-year-old Jeff Pearson from California started his journey in a kayak, the Delta Serf, on May 11th from Lake Itasca. Two and a half weeks later he made the news when his kayak was stolen and recovered in St. Cloud, Minn. His son Derek joined him in St. Louis.

Gene Iserman, a student at Crowne College in St. Bonifacius, Minn., started his trip at the headwaters in June to raise money for two charities: Feed My Starving Children and Water for Life. Along the way he'll be kayaking with different partners. In Minneapolis at the beginning of July, he said that the trip has already been an adventure of a lifetime, and many people have helped him out. Check out his blog.

Update: Gene finished his trip to the Gulf on August 6.

This couple put their house up for sale and sailed from Pepin, Wis., on the Green Heron, their 25-ft. Pacific Seacraft. They plan to sail down to the Ohio, across to Kentucky Lakes, down the Tenn-Tom Waterway and into the Gulf at Mobile, Ala. Read their account on their blog, Bob and Suzy's Big Adventure.

Floatzilla August 20, 2011. The second Guinness World Records attempt to amass the world's largest raft of canoes and kayaks. The Quad Cities Paddlesports Festival is coordinated by River Action.

Update: Floatzilla 2011 drew 1,535 Paddlers from 17 States, but it didn't set a new record. See photos on the website.

Mississippi River Challenge 2011   July 30 and 31. A great group paddle in the Twin Cities organized by Friends of the Mississippi River to raise money for a cleaner, healthier river.

Great River Rumble 2011  Rumble had to be cancelled because of extremely high water. The trip planned to take paddlers down the Missouri from July 30 to August 6, starting at Jefferson City, Mo., and ending at the Mississippi confluence at Lewis and Clark State Park, downstream of Alton, Ill.

Urban Boatbuilders is a youth service agency in St. Paul that uses wooden boatbuilding as a means to support positive youth development. Every summer they take an 80-mile trip on the Mississippi.

The Unseen Ghost Brigade found their way to Caruthersville, Mo., on their home-made boat, the Riff Raft. They filmed their adventure and stopped in cities along the way to perform at bars and clubs. In November they broke up the boat with plans to take it back upriver to Latsch Island in Winona, Minn. Some of the brigade will be back on the river next summer to finish their film. Visit them on Facebook or their website.

Aaron Drendel and Jake Mullins from Batavia, Ill., canoed the Mississippi to raise funds for breast cancer research. They left Lake Itasca on May 29 and arrived at the Gulf of Mexico 52 days later, raising over $7,000. You can still read their story, see their pictures and donate to the cure on their blog.

Stats from their site:
239=total miles paddled
48=days paddled
52=total days including days off
46.6=Average miles paddled per day
10=states
35=pounds lost for both Aaron and Jake

Aaron and Jake at the end

Ryan Jeanes and Phillip Hullquist kayaked down the river in 2009, and in the summer and fall of 2010 toured rivertowns showing their movie, "The River Is Life."  • The River is Life website    •   Facebook

Norwegian Eddy Ferreira and friend Jan Bronnich took a trip down the Mississippi in a faering (a four-oared boat). The boat is a replica of an old Norwegian fishing boat, 17 feet long, and approx. 400 lbs.

Read the story of their trip from Bemidji to Memphis in their blog. (some in Norwegian)

Photos

Paddle for the Planet: A solar & human powered educational trip down the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca to St. Paul to "study and reveal the connections between ourselves, the river and the planet." They began the journey on April 27 and finished with a celebration in St. Paul on May 23.

Down the Mississippi: a journey through Obama’s America   (Google map)

The Telegraph US Editor Toby Harnden and photographer Julian Simmonds travel the river from Minnesota to New Orleans.

Paul Schneider and his son kayaked 105 miles from below St. Louis to Cape Girardeau in June of 2009 in rising water. You can read his story Peacefully Adrift as the Mississippi River Just Rolls Along in the New York Times. "We hadn’t come to the Mississippi to prove or conquer anything. We just came to see what the most storied river in America had to offer a couple of supplicants with plastic boats and a week and a half with which to play." And, "As soon as you are in the water, you know immediately that you belong to the river. It commands every sense. There’s the sound a truly big river makes — not loud, but nonetheless vast and soothing, more like a wind over grasses than a waterfall." A good read.

Texan Brian Righi kayaked down the Mississippi from Lake Itasca in late summer 2009. You can read about his adventures, including a hit-and-run by a powerboat near St. Louis, in these news articles. Watch for his book about the trip in late 2010 . Sept. 2, 2009 • Aug. 9, 2009

Mike Arndt made an August 2009 solo unsupported Mississippi River trip. In February 2010 he wrote us:

"My trip was something!  675 miles of the Upper Mississippi in a canoe I made in the spring of '09. Aitkin MN. to Fort Madison IA. I had to take off when waterfowl hunting season started. I'm thinking about a book covering the 22 day river trip and blind shuttle. No plan at the start to get back to Flagstaff AZ my home."

Old Man River project - Sailed down the river in a 32-foot wooden York Boat, Annie, to support the Lower Mississippi Riverkeepers.

Eve Beglarian's River Project - Follow musician Eve Beglarian as she kayaked down the river, looking for Mississippi River music. (She loves churches too.)

From her blog:
I have developed an obsession with the Mississippi River: especially the impact of the river on the development of American culture. I am interested in how our relationship to the nature, geography, and ecology of the river is manifested in music, literature, and all the arts. Just as the Mississippi River is one of the defining natural features of the North American continent, so it has also been one of the defining features in the development of American culture: and of music in particular.

At this particular moment in American history, I have decided that I need to spend a year traveling the whole length of the Mississippi River starting from its source at Lake Itasca in Minnesota, meeting and interviewing people I find along the way, recording the sounds of the river, writing music as I travel, performing with and for members of the communities I find. more

Read about her in the New York Times, Sept. 2, 2009

Photos from Lori Gum, who joined Eve for four days brom Bellevue, Iowa, to the Quad Cities: The Magical Mississippi Tour

Mary Kay Rafferty accompanied Eve from the Twin Cities to Winona, Minn., and then took the Empire Builder to Chicago. Read about her adventures on her blog.

Another blog, this one by Mac, a fellow traveler with Eve.

Charles Dillon canoed down the river to raise awareness of hunger in America. Charles is the founder of Carpenter's House in New Orleans. He started his trip at Lake Itasca on Sept. 8 and arrived in New Orleans on Nov. 7, stopping in 50 cities and towns on the river. You can read about his trip, watch a video and pledge support on his website.

Citizen journalist for CNN Neal Moore paddled down the river and posted online. He left Minnesota in July and finished the trip in December in New Orleans. Read and watch at flashriversafari.com. 

From the Quincy Herald-Whig:

"In his 16-foot Old Town Charles River canoe, Moore encountered one fascinating story after another. He camped on river islands and learned to adjust on the fly — his planned four-day stop at sustainable farm in Iowa turned into a 2 1/2-week adventure where he filed six stories."

Mississippi Float: Follow Ryan Jeanes and 11 Visions as they kayaked down the river from Minnesota to the Gulf. Here's a newspaper article from Quincy, Ill. And another from the Minneapolis Trib.

What About Blue: Kayaking down the river to raise awareness about water issues. You can listen to reports, join the team, donate and track their progress. Take a peak at their very active website.

Floridians Tommy Owen and Charles Vaught kayaked from Winona, Minn., to Louisiana in 53 days. See the article in the Naples, Fla., News

June 26: Veruschka and Zelda Xox had some trouble starting out on their trip down the river on their homemade houseboat, the Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. First engine trouble, then…well, read all about it here in the Minneapolis Tribune. Their boat is impounded and their chickens are off to a chicken farm. But Veruschka and Zelda have a dream.

Raft the Mississippi: Ben Monson and Matt Folkedahl rafted the Mississippi from Minneapolis to New Orleans on a homemade pontoon-style raft. Starting on July 11, they expected to make the trip in 40 days and planned to propel their raft with electrical, solar, human and wind power. They raised money for the Special Olympics as well as the Lance Armstrong foundation.

Bigriverraft: Charlie Q. and his brother-in-law took a raft trip from Stillwater, Minn., to Memphis, Tenn. They floated down the river on the Miss Helen J, named after Charlie's aunt. You can email Charlie. He is always happy to talk about rivers and raft trips.

Raft the Mississippi River:Tom Haynie from North Carolina went down the river on the Free Bird. Track the Free Bird

New Orleans or Bust: Phil and Tom (the Hucksters) canoed down the river. They completed the trip on July 28, taking 66 days from Lake Nameakagen, Wis., to New Orleans.

Kristian Gustavson, a Bloomington, Ill. resident, and his father, William, relived the adventure two of Kristian’s uncles had on the Mississippi 42 years ago. They followed the same route from Cairo, Ill., in the same canoe (a 17-foot Grumman) taken by Kristian's uncles – Bob and Greg Gustavson. Read stories in the Clarksdale Press Register and the Stuttgart (Ark.) Daily Leader

Kristian is the cofounder and midwest contact of Below the Surface, a California water group, a "Coast To Coast Exploration of America's Waterways," working on water conservation and improving water quality in rivers and oceans.

Tom Malkowicz and Karl Palazzolo planned to canoe from the Mississippi headwaters to the Gulf, starting in September 2008. They made it 420 miles to St. Cloud, Minn. You can follow their trip in words, pictures and videos on their website. Here's "A Man, A Camcorder, and A Very Long River" from the St. Louis RiverFront Times.

Robert Youens from Austin, Texas, paddled down the Mississippi River in the fall. His canoe, the Lone Star, carried a satellite transponder. You can track him at iboattrack.com and read about his trip - and send messages to him - on his discussion page.

Two U of Northern Colorado students, Nate Oligmueller and Dave Brandsma, drifted down the river on their homemade raft, the Bear Naked.

Update: Nate and Dave left the river just upstream from Louisiana and pulled the boat back to Colorado. From their website:

"All in all Nate and Dave had an incredible life experience floating down the Mighty Mississippi on the record flood of 2008. We met a ton of great people that we will never forget, saw things that most will never see, and experienced things that only we can fully appreciate. The best way we can sum it up is, "Those six weeks were the best year of our lives".

The Mississippi River Project : Lindseyp and Hannahb pedaled a pontooned raft, the HMR C. Bernadette Able, down the river. Surviving poison ivy, meeting Winona's boathouse folks, it's all on their blog. They finished in St. Charles, Mo., in December. If you are thinking or dreaming about a river trip, read their account. "We did an amazing thing and I have changed forever because of it."

Images from Iowa and LaCrosse, Wis.

Dominik Rauber walked the Mississippi starting July 1, 2008, in Minneapolis. Rauber, a native of Switzerland, planned to take 90 days for the trip. Follow his footsteps on his website. RSS blog link (.) Update: Dominik added a bicycle for transportation, arrived in New Orleans in August, and made his last blog entry on Aug. 14.

Mississippi Summer: Starting June 1, 2008, Justus McLarty pedaled his houseboat, the Big Getter, down the Mississippi from Minneapolis/St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico. Justus made it to New Orleans at the end of August on day 82 of his trip. News article 

The Big River Show  Minneapolis to New Orleans. Bill Bowles from San Franscisco and Max Livingstone from Berkeley are blogging & videotaping their progress downriver on Evangeline, a pontoon houseboat.

Update: Bill and Max arrived in New Orleans ("New Orlins, Nawlans or New Oieans but never New Orleens") in August 2008. Check out their wrap-up video and their jambalaya recipe on their blog.

Gary and Darrin Hoffman from Chanhasen, Minn., canoed from Lake Itasca to New Orleans in a 20-foot Kevlar canoe in 2002. Gary just published a book, Mighty Miss, about the journey. He says in a story in the Lakeshore Weekly News:

""I never realized I would just kind of fall in love with the nature on the Mississippi. We were close to civilization but it didn't always feel that way." He wants to do it again, solo, to be able to take as much time as he wants. "I regret that we couldn't have spent more time talking to the wonderful people on the river."

Jacob van der Merwe, the Crazy Kayaker, spent 59 days in 2007 kayaking the river.

Joe and Ben Palmquist - Brothers for the River - Started canoeing in Lake Itasca on August 27, 2006, to raise awareness of environmental issues facing the Mississippi. On November 9, the brothers pulled their canoe from the river in New Madrid, Mo., after canoeing over 1,300 miles of the river. Blog website

The Miss Rockaway Armada - Artists and the raft they built. They started in Minneapolis on August 9, 2006, performing their way down the river. The raft wintered in Andalusia, Ill., and the trip resumed in 2007, making it to St. Louis. blog

In 2006, Matt Bullard, Cap'n Bully, piloted his homemade boat down the Mississippi. In October, it got swamped and sunk in St. Louis. Read his account

Mississippi River Quest - Adam Brooks kayaked down the river in 2006, and dedicated the trip to his father.

Source to Sea Paddling the Mississippi River to benefit the Audubon Society. (May 14 to July 27, 2005)

In September 2005, author Mary Morris traveled down the river on a houseboat after her father died suddenly. He left a note describing an island that he visited as a boyand she starts this journey to explore the river and find this island. See Big River's review of her book, The River Queen, A Memoir.

During the summer of 2004, Nancy Scheibe and Heather Jeske paddled from Lake Itasca to Red Wing, Minn. Nancy's book, Water-Women-Wisdom -- Voices From the Upper Mississippi tells the story of their trip and the meetings with women along the way. In 2007, Nancy resumed the trip downriver, from Red Wing, Minn., to St. Louis.

Mississippi River Canoe Trip Journal, August 20-28, 2004, Brainerd to Elk River, Minn.

Corrado Filipponi's journey (2002)

Alaskan Bruce Nelson's canoe trip, Lake Itasca to the Gulf (2001)

The Floating Neutrinos on the Vilma B (2000)

Guy Haglund's 101 Days on the Mississippi (1992)

In 1991, Nick Lichter canoed the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to New Orleans. The Road of Souls is his book about the trip, as well as a historical account of the river.

Down the Great River Joe and Isaac Angert from St. Louis paddle and pontoon the river. Lots to read, lots of pictures.

Also on this site - excerpts from river hitchiker Chris Markham's book Mississippi Odyssey.

2001 Bibliography of Mississippi River trip books

Billy Curmano, "Swimmin' the Mississippi"

Martin Strel (2002) Video clip