#173 - Graybeard Returns: Setting records on land and water at age 91 with Dale Sanders encore

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Paddling the Blue. With each episode, we talk with guests from the

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Great Lakes and around the globe who are doing cool things related to sea kayaking.

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I'm your host, my name is John Chase, and let's get started paddling the blue.

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Welcome to today's episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

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Last week, Dale Greybeard Sanders reclaimed his record as the oldest person

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to through hike the Appalachian Trail at age 91, And that's for the second time.

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I spoke with Dale and two of his paddling companions, Dan Faust and Matt Briggs,

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in 2023, after Dale regained his crown also for the second time as the oldest

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to paddle the Mississippi River, sourced to sea at age 87.

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In honor of Dale's through hike and his incredible perseverance at both the Appalachian Trail

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and the Mississippi River, I'm pleased to replay my interview with Dale,

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Dan, and Matt about their 87-day journey down the Mississippi River for Dale's

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most recent record-setting run at age 87.

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Before we get to today's interview, James Stevenson and Simon Osborne at OnlineSeaKyaking.com

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continue to produce great content to help you evolve as a paddler and as a coach.

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Visit OnlineSeaKayaking.com, use the coupon code PTBPODCAST to check out,

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and you'll get 10% off just for being a member of the Paddling the Blue community.

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And for those of us who also enjoy paddling whitewater boats,

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be sure to check out OnlineWhitewater.com.

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instructor certifications, workshops, CPR and wilderness first aid, guided trips, and more.

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page, and I hope to see you on the water.

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Enjoy today's Encore episode with Dale Greybeard Sanders, Dan Faust, and Matthew Briggs.

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Matt, Dan, Dale, thank you very much for joining Paddling the Blue today.

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We appreciate you coming on. Glad to be here. Pleasure's almost.

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So first, a big congratulations to each of you. Doing the entire Mississippi

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once is a huge accomplishment.

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Well, doing it twice or more is just on another level. So you've each done it

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multiple times, and I'd love to get into learning about what brings you back

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to the river. But first, let's start with a little bit about your backgrounds.

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So, Dan, tell us a little bit about you first.

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I started paddling in 1969 as a tenderfoot Boy Scout.

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My first canoe trip was on the Spoon River. We did 100 miles that summer.

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It took about a week, and that got me hooked. And I've been paddling ever since

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then, just an ordinary, average recreational paddler.

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Just been doing it for a little over 50 years now, and I love it.

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Super. Not stopping anytime soon, so that's good.

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Dale, tell us a little bit about you and your background. I started paddling

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in the early 50s in a professional capacity, a lifeguard and swimming instructor,

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canoeing instructor at the same time.

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And became a canoe instructor in 1954. I stayed active for several years there

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and then joined the Navy and had a family and didn't canoe a lot until I retired.

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And after I retired from the Navy Department in 2002, I'd been doing a lot of

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canoeing, a lot of different rivers, a lot of different lakes and went through

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the whitewater circuit and all that kind of stuff and still enjoy the sport.

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I like to canoe more than I like to kayak. Yeah. All right. All right.

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So, Matt, tell us a little bit about you. I'm from Mississippi and much like

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Dan, I got my introduction to paddling and the scouts at a young age.

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First large trip was 10 days in the Boundary Waters canoe area in Minnesota

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with the scouts. We did 10 days. That was a great trip.

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It kind of lit a passion for me for paddling and canoeing.

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And I've just done that recreational through my life. And then the Mississippi

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River was just kind of always on that list of big waters and big rivers to paddle one day.

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So as I mentioned earlier, you've each done this multiple times.

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I'm curious, what keeps bringing you back to the Mississippi?

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Dale, let's start with you on this one.

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What keeps bringing me back to the Mississippi? Well, that's a magical river, you know.

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And it's just really inspiring to be able to feel in my heart that I'm out there

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on that massive river paddling it.

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But there's more to it than that.

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My dad really feared the river so much. It was just, I mean.

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He was shake even going across the bridge.

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He was a big boatman, a big fisherman as well. But I think that had a bearing

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on me wanting to overcome my fears of the river because of his.

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And then, of course, when I paddled it the first time and I got that record

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as the oldest person to do it, that was kind of like, you know,

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it was kind of like smoking pot.

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It gave me a boost to have that gave me a morale booster in other words to have that attention,

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I like the attention I must admit that so getting the record back was important

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and when I was able to get a hold of a film crew two film crews that was,

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agreed to do what is turning out to be a little bit more than a documentary

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but a full length film I jumped on the chance and I,

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put out the word that I was looking for paddlers. Matt jumped on it right away.

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And I was so happy because Matt and I have a history of working together on the trails.

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And then Dan came along and joined in.

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And I was really, really happy that those two asked because I wanted somebody

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this time that was an asset.

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They were both assets last time.

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And I didn't want people to never paddle it before because I would be babysitting them the whole time.

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So, Dan, how about you? What keeps bringing you back?

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Well, I love the river, just like Matt and Dale do and lots of other people.

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So I was kind of hooked when I did the river the first time in 2021.

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And that's when I met Dale, got to sign the wall at his house.

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And that was a big thrill to meet Dale.

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And I heard about Dale doing his second record attempt this year.

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And I was in.

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And, you know, for me, it's kind of like going along with somebody and they

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climb Mount Everest or cross the Grand Canyon. Or, you know,

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I think about being a sports fan playing in the Super Bowl or the World Series.

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You know, I wasn't just there watching. I was on the field playing.

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I mean, if you had that opportunity, who would do that? You know,

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to go along with a legendary figure like Dale Sanders and take part in a trip

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like that was an opportunity I just jumped at.

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I just kept bugging Dale until he finally agreed to let me go along with him.

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I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I just had to do it. Very cool.

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And Matt, how about you? For me, like Dale briefly mentioned,

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we have a history on the trails together.

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When I met him in Memphis, when I paddled through the first time,

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soon after that, we undertook a pretty ambitious goal to hike a trail,

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basically Eastern Continental Divide Trail.

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It runs from Key West, Florida, up into Canada.

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And we'd been working on that for several years before COVID hit.

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We had basically hiked everything from Key West all the way to almost the Canadian border with the U.S.

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And the borders got shut down. So there was a couple of seasons where we weren't

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able to move forward on our plans to complete this trail.

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So then I saw that Dale was tired of waiting around. And when he threw out that

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he was going to do the river, I just felt that was for both of us,

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the alternate next step on that goal.

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Because, you know, you got to go out and keep moving and keep active and maintain

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your physical fitness and everything to do these long distance trips of whatever type.

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And so that just became what I was going to do next year.

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I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to continue to spend time outdoors

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and help Dale meet his goals and meet all the people that come along with traveling with Dale.

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Now, this Eastern Continental Divide Trail, do you have plans to continue that?

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I would love to finish it. Matt and I could do that.

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And I think I can finish it, actually, to be honest with you.

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I think I physically can do it.

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I know I can do it mentally, but I'm a little bit discouraged right now because

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two years in a row, we had put everything together to do it,

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and then Canada closed the borders the first year, and the second year,

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they didn't reopen the borders.

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So it kind of discouraged me. And to be honest with you, that had a great deal

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of influence on me paddling the river again, because I had to come up with an alternate adventure.

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And paddling the river again just seemed like it fit in very nicely.

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Dan, this podcast is titled Paddling the Blue, but there really isn't a lot

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of blue on the Mississippi.

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So, tell us, what's the allure of paddling a river nicknamed the Big Muddy?

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It's America's river, first of all. There's a huge amount of history and folklore,

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connected with the river.

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I don't know, I think I have book Dale. There's just something...

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Mystical, magical, mysterious, whatever, about the river.

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It's one of the biggest and longest rivers in the U.S.

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It's just unique. And I think I first heard about people paddling the river about 20 years ago.

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I was up in Madison, Wisconsin at Cunocopia.

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Byron Curtis was promoting a book he'd written about his trip down the river.

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And I had never even thought about battling the river before that and i found out.

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Through his book and his uh talk that i got to to witness there in canoe copia that,

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it's it's a little bit like the appalachian trailers you know little river towns

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all along the river and you can resupply and

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meet people and it's kind of doable i would have never considered doing a long

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trip like that before i heard about it from through byron curtis so,

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yeah i mean it's it's the mississippi there's something about it i don't know

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what it is but as americans we identify with the mississippi sort of a magical place for me,

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so dale what's so different about the mississippi versus any of the other trips that you've done,

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you know rivers flow but the mississippi boils at the same time it flows that's

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one of the reasons i think it stays muddy all the time keeps turning the bottom but,

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the way the bottom is like it must be like a must be like a washboard because,

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it just boils when especially when it gets really high,

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and one of the big problems this year was the water was so low it was you know

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low water means slow water so that really slows down a lot but.

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That mississippi is there's no question about it's a magical river and you don't

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want to make a mistake on it because if you make a mistake it'll it'll get even

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with you i can tell you that much so matt i understand you did a lot of the logistical planning.

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So what goes into planning a trip like this?

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I'll say as far as the logistics and running the everyday operations out there

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on the river, that wasn't something that I was really prepared for till we arrived at Lake Itasca.

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When McDale first announced he had planned to go solo down the river and have

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some support, and eventually changed his mind, and I jumped on board,

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and it was initially just he and I.

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And then Dan, we picked up Dan and then the film crews and it kind of this,

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it kind of grew where when we got to Itasca, uh, instead of just being me and

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Dale going for a paddle down the river.

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Now we needed to have a lot more organization. And, uh, so after me and Dale

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had to talk, I was pleased to take over that position, but, uh,

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Dale had done some preparation.

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And so a dam, we put together a river angel list, created a sheet everybody

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could get to electronically, Google sheet.

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And we compiled all the river angels ahead of time that we knew would be available to us.

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Plus, there were people that were unknown to us that were reaching out to each

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of us and saying, I live along the river, near the river.

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So we compiled that sheet ahead

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of time, and then Dale had his Corps of Engineers maps for the river.

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And those were my two greatest resources. And then just, of course, Google.

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And then on the lower river, use John Ruskey's rivergator.org,

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which is another river guide.

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Use those resources, and that's what most of the day-to-day planning was based off that.

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So Dan, Matt mentioned upper river and lower river. Can you give us a little

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definition of what the difference is between upper river and lower river?

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Yeah, fairly officially, the river is divided into three distinct sections.

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The headwaters, the upper river, and the lower river, or the upper Mississippi

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and the lower Mississippi.

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The headwaters is defined as from Lake Itasca to Minneapolis, roughly.

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That's it. Minneapolis is where your locks and dams start.

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And so then the upper river will go from Minneapolis to Cairo, Illinois.

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The locks and dams stop roughly at St. Louis.

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But the Army Corps of Engineers, the way they count the mile markers or the

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way they designate The mile markers, it starts at zero at Cairo and goes up.

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So the miles at Lake Itasca starts out, I believe, at 1341 or 1341.5, something like that.

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And then you count down the miles until you get to Cairo, and you get a zero.

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And then on the lower river, from Cairo all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico,

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the mile markers, again, start like 953, something like that.

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And they count down all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico or to mile zeroes,

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just a few miles shy of the Gulf of Mexico.

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So it's kind of a weird setup and everything, when you're out on the river.

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Your location, it's all based on the Army Corps of Engineers mile markers.

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So when someone says I'm at 845, mile marker 845, well, you need to know if

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it's upper or lower because there's two mile marker 845s.

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So I hope that makes some kind of sense because it's kind of weird.

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It's kind of complicated, and

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it can be very confusing if someone doesn't really understand all that.

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Got it. Okay. So one wishing to paddle the Mississippi River will need three different sets of maps.

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The first one is the upper river, as Dan mentioned.

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You can get those at the state of Minnesota in the Parks Department.

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I think it's the internal affairs department or something like that.

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And then the upper river maps, you get those from Army Corps of Engineers.

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And then the lower river maps, you can also get those from the Army Corps of Engineers.

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But there's several sites on the web that you can order them.

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Okay. So that's where those mats came in that you mentioned earlier, Matt. Yes. Okay.

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So, Matt, coming back to logistics, what are the biggest logistical challenges

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that you faced along the way?

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Well, we were lucky enough at the beginning to have some ground support down to St. Louis.

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Marv came along with his truck and a pull-behind, teardrop-style trailer.

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The goal was to get reconnected with Marv every evening so Dale could sleep

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in the trailer if he wanted to.

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We were able to paddle with less gear in our boat.

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Lighter boat, easier, able to travel quicker and less wear and tear on your body.

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And so I would have to look ahead every evening on the maps,

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sometimes use Google and look for marinas or boat ramps or an area where we

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would be able to link up with Marv at the end of the day.

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And then that location also needed to correspond with some minimal mileage standards

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that we had every day in order to meet our goal to be at the Gulf in 87 days.

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So there were a lot of hours laying in the tent, just bouncing back and forth

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and looking at what locations might work.

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And then at the same time, trying to keep a location in a midday,

00:17:27.441 --> 00:17:31.521
if we have to ditch, if we get into bad weather, what's kind of,

00:17:31.521 --> 00:17:36.451
what's our out, what can be our shore out remark to get to us with the support vehicle.

00:17:37.346 --> 00:17:41.032
So just working those things out in the evening. But then Marv was great.

00:17:41.032 --> 00:17:45.102
You know, sometimes I couldn't necessarily get him a completely clear picture

00:17:45.102 --> 00:17:49.740
of, say, go to XYZ Marina and we'll meet you there.

00:17:50.307 --> 00:17:55.399
We didn't know sometimes what the access was going to be like on his side from the road.

00:17:55.945 --> 00:17:59.782
So, you know, in the mornings I would do the brief, kind of give everybody an

00:17:59.782 --> 00:18:01.755
idea of what was going to happen for the day.

00:18:01.982 --> 00:18:05.882
And sometimes I just would send Marv off with just kind of a general description

00:18:05.882 --> 00:18:09.902
of like right in this area you see on your map, there's supposed to be a ramp

00:18:09.902 --> 00:18:14.050
or it looks like there's some access by using this Google satellite imagery.

00:18:14.503 --> 00:18:19.412
Marv would then take off and a lot of times to go work out those facts for us

00:18:19.412 --> 00:18:24.812
and solve the last portion of that logistical riddle.

00:18:25.453 --> 00:18:31.002
How long did you have access to Marv? Marv stayed with us all the way till St. Louis. Okay.

00:18:31.449 --> 00:18:35.892
About to St. Louis and then we had we did Marv had to go above St.

00:18:35.892 --> 00:18:42.045
Louis and we got another guy Todd Todd came along and he's traditionally a hiker

00:18:42.469 --> 00:18:47.752
and but it heard about Dale and volunteered his time and he came and spent several

00:18:47.752 --> 00:18:50.682
weeks the last several weeks into thanks into St.

00:18:50.682 --> 00:18:57.192
Louis with us and was great breath of fresh air and kind of funny guy and it

00:18:57.192 --> 00:19:01.762
was a nice unexpected unplanned addition to the team there to kind of get us

00:19:01.762 --> 00:19:05.626
that last little leg into St. Louis. And what did you do after St. Louis then?

00:19:06.324 --> 00:19:11.719
Below St. Louis, the river starts getting big, kind of what most people picture

00:19:11.719 --> 00:19:17.319
in their head. And at that point, you no longer have the locks and dams with

00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:20.697
their large pools to be able to hold water and control flooding.

00:19:21.051 --> 00:19:26.644
And the river starts to flood in a big way, actually just above St. Louis.

00:19:26.766 --> 00:19:33.029
So the towns are further back. they start stretching where it may be a mile

00:19:33.029 --> 00:19:37.755
or more off of the river before you get to the main levee.

00:19:38.179 --> 00:19:41.766
And then the towns are even further back behind the levees.

00:19:42.103 --> 00:19:47.699
It's no longer possible at all in many long stretches of the river to access

00:19:47.699 --> 00:19:49.574
the river with a vehicle.

00:19:50.154 --> 00:19:55.785
So at that point, land support on a daily basis kind of becomes a mute point.

00:19:56.215 --> 00:20:02.079
And then we went to relying on And primarily river angels, people that help

00:20:02.079 --> 00:20:06.279
paddlers out and would have to use that sheet that I talked to about,

00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:09.259
the Google sheet we created, and find someone.

00:20:09.259 --> 00:20:13.809
So when we got to XYZ town every two or three days, we would have someone there

00:20:13.809 --> 00:20:18.855
who could help transport us into town or to resupply or whatever we needed to do.

00:20:19.535 --> 00:20:22.472
So in the, let's see, what you call it, the upper river.

00:20:22.931 --> 00:20:26.729
So the part that Marv was meeting you. So as Marv would meet you and Dale would

00:20:27.089 --> 00:20:30.360
be able to get the camper and the rest of you guys got the ground, right?

00:20:31.040 --> 00:20:34.676
Yeah, it worked out, though, because, you know, kind of a trade-off is Marv could,

00:20:35.315 --> 00:20:40.140
you needed something from town or you were hankering for Powerade or particular

00:20:40.140 --> 00:20:44.780
flavor Gatorade or any kind of little town thing that you wanted to get,

00:20:44.780 --> 00:20:48.640
then you could slip Marv some cash in the morning and tell him what you wanted

00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:49.790
or what it was you needed.

00:20:49.790 --> 00:20:53.344
And, or he could bring town food to us. So it was kind of a,

00:20:53.744 --> 00:20:57.370
Dale got the bed, but we got a lot of side benefits by association.

00:20:57.910 --> 00:20:58.951
All right. All right.

00:20:59.520 --> 00:21:02.830
And Dale, Matt mentioned River Angels. So tell us a little bit about the River

00:21:02.830 --> 00:21:04.367
Angels along the way and why they do it.

00:21:05.033 --> 00:21:12.210
Yeah, River Angels, that's kind of a trail thing as well. Trail Angels, what they call them.

00:21:12.710 --> 00:21:17.090
We're going back to that trail name. But the trail name never has caught on.

00:21:17.090 --> 00:21:21.396
But the River Angels pretty much came from the Trail Angel program.

00:21:21.825 --> 00:21:24.670
I'm one that can be credited with bringing that in.

00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:31.420
Because back in the early teens, I actually started the Mississippi River Angel

00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:33.300
Program, the first to do that.

00:21:33.300 --> 00:21:40.100
And what they do is they just help us as much as they can in situations.

00:21:40.100 --> 00:21:44.754
They bring stuff to us, as Matt mentioned, along the way. We stay at their homes.

00:21:45.254 --> 00:21:51.150
And they help with portages as much as legal. And it's just a very valuable tool.

00:21:51.490 --> 00:21:54.950
And I'll be honest with you, if we hadn't had River Angels, it would have been

00:21:54.950 --> 00:22:00.039
much, much more difficult on us to resupply, to have a place to sleep,

00:22:00.561 --> 00:22:04.753
and to simply just get the morale boost with a good meal.

00:22:04.997 --> 00:22:09.215
There are towns you can stop and go in without River Angels support,

00:22:09.545 --> 00:22:11.362
but they are few and far between.

00:22:11.583 --> 00:22:13.829
Yeah. So why do they do it? What's in it for them?

00:22:15.470 --> 00:22:18.510
They don't get paid for it. They do it just simply out of the goodness of their

00:22:18.510 --> 00:22:22.274
heart. I'm a real grandeur myself, and I know that's exactly what it is.

00:22:22.536 --> 00:22:26.175
I've been putting up paddlers here at the house for years.

00:22:27.045 --> 00:22:31.283
12 years now and never received a penny for doing it,

00:22:31.834 --> 00:22:33.992
so it's just just something you

00:22:33.992 --> 00:22:37.959
want to do you want to help out it's very difficult and people know that,

00:22:38.458 --> 00:22:43.810
and the river angels are aware that their help is really really extremely important

00:22:44.176 --> 00:22:50.682
a matter of fact just curiosity i i think i have the official paddlers wall of fame not the,

00:22:51.442 --> 00:22:56.732
hall of fame but the wall of fame here in my home i have Close to 300 paddlers

00:22:56.732 --> 00:22:58.705
that have signed that. All right.

00:22:59.682 --> 00:23:06.071
So tell us about that. I first started hosting paddlers around 2010.

00:23:06.646 --> 00:23:11.322
In 2011, I had several come through. One of them was a big adventurer,

00:23:11.322 --> 00:23:15.982
Dave Cornthwaite from London. He was paddling the entire lake,

00:23:15.982 --> 00:23:19.602
standing up on that board and paddling the entire lake to the Mississippi River.

00:23:19.602 --> 00:23:20.783
And he stayed at my house.

00:23:21.073 --> 00:23:25.299
And as he was getting ready to leave, my wife, Miriam, his name is Dave Corsway.

00:23:25.648 --> 00:23:28.359
And she said, Dave, I want you to sign this wall.

00:23:28.945 --> 00:23:32.722
And we both said, oh, you know, you just painted that wall. You don't want to

00:23:32.722 --> 00:23:35.652
be painted. It happens to be in the stairwell going from the basement,

00:23:35.652 --> 00:23:37.275
the paddler's den, up to the house.

00:23:37.833 --> 00:23:42.022
And she said, yes, I want him to sign it right here. So he signed his signature

00:23:42.022 --> 00:23:46.964
right there, and he put the date on it, 9-11-11, exactly 10 years.

00:23:47.443 --> 00:23:51.646
The 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks in New York.

00:23:52.261 --> 00:23:56.642
So then the next paddler came through. We said, Rod Wellington.

00:23:56.642 --> 00:24:00.470
We said, Rod, sign here. The next one came through, Mark Couch.

00:24:01.302 --> 00:24:05.750
Mark, sign here. All three of those are big deal paddlers.

00:24:06.382 --> 00:24:12.192
Mark and Rod both did the Missouri River from source to sea,

00:24:12.192 --> 00:24:16.623
almost 4,000 miles that they paddled.

00:24:17.244 --> 00:24:22.526
And since then, it just sort of caught on and people now come here just to find a wall. I've got,

00:24:23.164 --> 00:24:29.422
Several really important, well-known, named paddlers have signed a wall.

00:24:30.328 --> 00:24:34.342
And it's just full of signatures now, all the way up and down.

00:24:35.685 --> 00:24:37.264
Pretty much on both sides.

00:24:37.775 --> 00:24:43.382
I'm still saving one site for later years, but pretty much, every once in a

00:24:43.382 --> 00:24:45.142
while, a signature gets on that wall.

00:24:45.482 --> 00:24:47.434
All right. Have you signed your own wall?

00:24:48.032 --> 00:24:49.702
Oh, yes, three times now.

00:24:51.482 --> 00:24:56.072
All right. We got to get Matt over here to finish up his signature for this

00:24:56.072 --> 00:24:58.104
last trip, too. All right.

00:24:58.668 --> 00:25:03.782
So, Dan, what's a big misconception that people have about the Mississippi? That's a good question.

00:25:04.142 --> 00:25:09.395
I know for me, the lowest part of the river from Baton Rouge on,

00:25:09.714 --> 00:25:12.129
I had a lot of misconceptions about that.

00:25:12.600 --> 00:25:19.522
My first trip in 2021, I chose to finish the trip on the Atchapalaya River.

00:25:19.522 --> 00:25:21.922
And that's how I got out to the Gulf of Mexico.

00:25:22.553 --> 00:25:27.262
And that's a great alternative and the reason i did that was to,

00:25:27.762 --> 00:25:33.675
avoid all the barge and river traffic the huge ocean going ships and things that are

00:25:34.075 --> 00:25:39.302
on the lower river farther towards the gulf that you get the more river traffic

00:25:39.662 --> 00:25:44.292
commercial big ships and barges you see on the mississippi.

00:25:44.990 --> 00:25:50.114
So that part is true. The misconception about that, though, is that the river

00:25:50.114 --> 00:25:54.344
wasn't nearly as congested as I thought it would be. There was a lot more traffic,

00:25:54.344 --> 00:25:57.424
but there was a lot more space as well.

00:25:57.801 --> 00:26:02.714
I personally didn't feel like I was in any danger at any time as far as,

00:26:02.714 --> 00:26:06.698
you know, getting run over by a barge or anything like that.

00:26:07.116 --> 00:26:11.834
But the other misconception I had about that part of the river is that I was

00:26:11.834 --> 00:26:14.407
afraid there wouldn't be anywhere to camp.

00:26:14.727 --> 00:26:19.330
We stayed with some river angels and we had a chance to go into town.

00:26:19.533 --> 00:26:23.730
My wife was actually down there on that part of the river and supported us a little bit.

00:26:23.881 --> 00:26:27.684
So I had a little bit of an advantage on the guys. She would pick me up and

00:26:27.684 --> 00:26:29.662
take me to the hotel where she was staying.

00:26:29.894 --> 00:26:33.185
But actually, there was pretty good camping down there.

00:26:33.539 --> 00:26:39.294
Camp spots were not as plentiful in that lower part from Baton Rouge on as they

00:26:39.294 --> 00:26:43.694
were north of there on the river, but there were still good campsites.

00:26:43.694 --> 00:26:49.234
And the fact that Matt and Dale had done the river before and done that section

00:26:49.234 --> 00:26:52.814
of the river before, which I hadn't, that was a big advantage.

00:26:52.814 --> 00:26:59.134
And of course, Matt had a huge amount of experience and expertise of finding

00:26:59.134 --> 00:27:04.494
campsites and just digging out this information just because that's what he'd

00:27:04.494 --> 00:27:05.844
been doing for the whole trip.

00:27:05.844 --> 00:27:10.583
So it worked out well. It worked out a lot better than I thought it would. So I think...

00:27:11.192 --> 00:27:15.069
For me personally, that's the biggest misconception is that that part of the

00:27:15.069 --> 00:27:20.434
river from Baton Rouge on, you know, they call it Cancer Alley. It's very industrial.

00:27:21.169 --> 00:27:23.777
And that is true. A lot of it is very industrial.

00:27:24.549 --> 00:27:29.379
I thought it would be somewhat unpleasant and stressful part of the river.

00:27:29.588 --> 00:27:35.019
I read a lot of accounts. I did a lot of, a huge amount of research before I did my first trip.

00:27:35.019 --> 00:27:40.939
And some people did find the river to be that way. They found it very stressful

00:27:40.939 --> 00:27:45.409
and hard to deal with the river traffic and hard to find good campsites.

00:27:45.409 --> 00:27:49.429
But I didn't feel that that was true on the trip that we did this summer.

00:27:49.888 --> 00:27:53.491
But I had a big advantage in that I had Dale and Matt to help out.

00:27:53.619 --> 00:27:56.980
And I didn't have to worry about a lot of that stuff.

00:27:57.526 --> 00:28:00.949
They took care of it all. I just had to get out and battle the river every day.

00:28:00.949 --> 00:28:05.299
So, yeah, I think that's my answer. I just think that section of the river from

00:28:05.299 --> 00:28:10.802
Baton Rouge Owens is not as bad as people have the idea that it might be.

00:28:11.481 --> 00:28:14.774
So, Matt, what's a big misconception that you hear about the river?

00:28:15.553 --> 00:28:22.276
Probably what Dan was hitting on there, that the lower river below Baton Rouge is dangerous and ugly.

00:28:22.636 --> 00:28:27.616
And to kind of put it in perspective, too, of the number of people that do the

00:28:27.616 --> 00:28:31.976
Mississippi River, a lot of people don't understand what a very small community.

00:28:31.976 --> 00:28:35.023
We heard Dale talk about the Paddler Wall of Fame.

00:28:35.609 --> 00:28:39.286
And he said, you know, it's been 10 years and he has about 300 signatures.

00:28:39.286 --> 00:28:41.495
So that's 30 people a year.

00:28:41.814 --> 00:28:46.409
Quite a few of those folks that paddle have signed Dale's Wall weren't even

00:28:46.641 --> 00:28:50.441
going the entire way source to sea, as we say.

00:28:50.702 --> 00:28:53.216
So it's a very small community of

00:28:53.216 --> 00:28:57.356
paddlers. And I would say that's a large misconception within that group.

00:28:57.484 --> 00:29:02.946
And then that tends to, I think, get spread some that it's just not safe or

00:29:02.946 --> 00:29:04.955
beautiful or whatever down there.

00:29:05.251 --> 00:29:10.452
And another one is just that the river's a super big, dangerous place and that

00:29:10.725 --> 00:29:15.236
the barges are super dangerous, which, I mean, the river should be respected.

00:29:15.236 --> 00:29:19.786
It can be and will be a dangerous place if you don't respect it and you don't

00:29:19.786 --> 00:29:22.098
keep your bearings at all times.

00:29:22.666 --> 00:29:26.086
But there's lots of room for the most part out there to maneuver.

00:29:26.086 --> 00:29:30.736
And most of the river traffic is moving at five miles an hour or less.

00:29:30.736 --> 00:29:33.486
You know, we're paddling at a low rate of speed.

00:29:33.672 --> 00:29:38.896
Nobody wants to run into anybody, so you have, for the most part, a lot of time to react.

00:29:39.856 --> 00:29:46.016
Most situations evolve very slowly, so long as you're attentive to your surroundings

00:29:46.016 --> 00:29:50.221
and what's going on, then it's really not very high risk.

00:29:50.929 --> 00:29:55.649
Dale, what did you find to be the most challenging part of your trips down the river?

00:29:56.326 --> 00:30:00.140
Well, first of all, I would say, let me just say something about the barges.

00:30:00.807 --> 00:30:04.395
The barges are not a problem. All you got to do is stay away from them.

00:30:07.862 --> 00:30:11.594
And the most challenging thing for me, of course, was my hearing problem.

00:30:11.879 --> 00:30:15.298
If somebody were to ask me, well, one thing you wish for, I would say better

00:30:15.298 --> 00:30:20.068
hearing aids, because I couldn't participate in any on-river conversations at

00:30:20.068 --> 00:30:25.555
all, because I can hear through these hearing aids pretty well if I can read lips at the same time.

00:30:26.037 --> 00:30:29.979
People put masks on, I have to tell them, you want me to hear you, take your mask down.

00:30:30.577 --> 00:30:36.038
So that was my biggest problem was inability to hear.

00:30:36.497 --> 00:30:41.748
And of course, it was more difficult this time than it was. I thought it would

00:30:41.748 --> 00:30:45.938
be easier because I knew the river, but it actually turned out to be harder

00:30:45.938 --> 00:30:47.478
for me this time than last.

00:30:47.856 --> 00:30:51.648
I think there's four things there that contribute to that. One is the water

00:30:51.648 --> 00:30:57.178
was very low, and low water means slow water, which means that the current is not helping us.

00:30:57.787 --> 00:31:04.708
And we had a lot more days of real serious hot weather this time than we did the first time.

00:31:04.708 --> 00:31:09.973
I mean, we probably had a month of days where the heat index was around 100.

00:31:09.973 --> 00:31:14.668
So when you're out on the water and it's close to 100 degrees and you've got

00:31:14.668 --> 00:31:18.182
the sun reflecting off the water, it's just terrible on the body.

00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:23.408
And then the other third thing was that we had a lot of headwind.

00:31:23.408 --> 00:31:28.228
We had a lot more headwind this time than we did the first time I paddled it.

00:31:28.228 --> 00:31:33.688
So you put those three things together with the fact that my hearing was bad

00:31:33.688 --> 00:31:36.908
and it just made it really harder to paddle.

00:31:37.348 --> 00:31:43.115
And of course, there's one other factor. I was seven years older. Only seven, though.

00:31:45.094 --> 00:31:48.926
So what's the most rewarding part of paddling the Mississippi for you?

00:31:49.634 --> 00:31:54.118
There's so many things. Of course, and that final day with my family there was

00:31:54.518 --> 00:31:56.538
really, really extremely rewarding.

00:31:57.778 --> 00:32:03.298
I think I was really impressed with the film crew, too, and the amount of footage,

00:32:03.298 --> 00:32:08.488
the movie quality footage that they gathered and accumulated.

00:32:08.825 --> 00:32:15.443
And it was really a blessing to have two and then three paddlers with me,

00:32:15.768 --> 00:32:19.668
especially with Matt and Dan, that have paddled the rivers before.

00:32:19.668 --> 00:32:24.048
That was really an asset, having that experience with me.

00:32:24.058 --> 00:32:28.728
Instead of me having to babysit them, they were babysitting me.

00:32:28.728 --> 00:32:33.364
As a matter of fact, if it hadn't have been for Matt doing the daily planning

00:32:33.776 --> 00:32:40.418
and keeping us on track there, I would have been in a lot more miserable situation than it was.

00:32:40.418 --> 00:32:45.778
And I was pretty relaxed and comfortable because I didn't have to worry about

00:32:45.778 --> 00:32:50.618
planning those day-to-day routines. And he was carrying the brunt of that in

00:32:50.618 --> 00:32:53.320
his heart. He was carrying the brunt of that responsibility.

00:32:53.697 --> 00:32:58.798
And then Dan helped tremendously with his internet and computer work.

00:32:58.798 --> 00:33:02.038
I don't know if you've read Dan's blogs or not, but they're still up there.

00:33:02.038 --> 00:33:07.118
People might want to read the Dan Pau's blogs because they are really worth reading.

00:33:07.345 --> 00:33:11.348
Yep. We'll make sure we have a link to Glory Days as well as your website,

00:33:11.348 --> 00:33:13.066
Dale. We'll put those in the show notes.

00:33:13.669 --> 00:33:17.170
So, Dan, what's the most rewarding part of Paddling the Mississippi for you?

00:33:17.535 --> 00:33:21.933
Oh, like Dale said, it's a million things. But for this trip,

00:33:22.229 --> 00:33:26.566
if for sure, for me, I got to witness history being made.

00:33:28.198 --> 00:33:33.508
I got to spend time with one of my heroes, Dale. I got to know him a little

00:33:33.508 --> 00:33:37.340
bit. Like, you know, he was a hero. Now he's more like a friend,

00:33:37.933 --> 00:33:40.001
which is just super rewarding thing.

00:33:40.791 --> 00:33:47.257
You know, I did the trip solo in 2021, and that was great. It was a great trip.

00:33:47.571 --> 00:33:54.629
Can't take anything away from that. But honestly, and I'm kind of a solo paddler guy.

00:33:55.009 --> 00:33:59.965
I like to do things solo and whatever happens to be outdoors, big trips or anything.

00:34:00.301 --> 00:34:05.809
And doing this trip with a group was unbelievably rewarding.

00:34:06.462 --> 00:34:10.829
I definitely think it's more of an accomplishment, at least in my mind.

00:34:10.829 --> 00:34:18.212
It's to have three guys that stick together for the entire trip from day one all the way to the end.

00:34:18.566 --> 00:34:23.668
It's harder than you might imagine. I read as many accounts as I could about

00:34:24.069 --> 00:34:29.079
these trips and even the backpacking trips and stuff because there's not that

00:34:29.079 --> 00:34:31.557
much out there written about the Mississippi.

00:34:31.865 --> 00:34:40.010
But probably, I would say 70 or 80% of the accounts I read, the groups broke down at some point.

00:34:40.300 --> 00:34:46.606
And a lot of the times they split up. It was some irreconcilable differences.

00:34:46.914 --> 00:34:50.369
And we had our challenges. We had our rough days.

00:34:51.030 --> 00:34:54.909
You're out there. You get tired. You get hot. You get dehydrated.

00:34:54.909 --> 00:34:58.460
You get cranky. Things happen. People are human.

00:34:58.791 --> 00:35:04.132
But we always recovered from that, and honestly, quite quickly.

00:35:04.526 --> 00:35:11.765
The lowest day on the whole river for me personally was the day we got into Grand Tower, Illinois.

00:35:12.189 --> 00:35:14.575
We were at Devil's Backbone Campground.

00:35:15.298 --> 00:35:20.914
And I was ready to quit. And Matt called a meeting immediately as soon as we

00:35:20.914 --> 00:35:27.590
got to shore and turned that situation around in about two minutes, literally.

00:35:28.687 --> 00:35:32.814
I went from a low to a high point of the whole trip for me.

00:35:33.086 --> 00:35:38.543
And I never questioned whether or not I was going to finish the trip with these guys after that.

00:35:38.833 --> 00:35:44.708
No question in my mind. So for me personally, this was the biggest accomplishment I've had so far.

00:35:45.309 --> 00:35:51.683
In my life doing anything like this, a bigger accomplishment than my first trip going solo.

00:35:53.024 --> 00:35:55.277
I can't even explain how rewarding that is.

00:35:56.197 --> 00:35:59.561
So Matt, tell us a little bit about that moment in Grand Tower,

00:35:59.921 --> 00:36:00.915
that meeting that you call.

00:36:01.548 --> 00:36:06.231
That day started out pretty much like any other. Paddled down the river and

00:36:06.231 --> 00:36:12.121
then there was a little miscommunication that morning on what stops we were

00:36:12.121 --> 00:36:13.221
or weren't going to make.

00:36:13.221 --> 00:36:17.534
There were a couple of places where it might have been possible to access.

00:36:17.725 --> 00:36:23.021
And then we had really high winds that day, which made communicating even more

00:36:23.021 --> 00:36:24.658
difficult when you're out on the water.

00:36:24.994 --> 00:36:28.531
I don't know between fighting we were fighting fighting the river and the wind

00:36:28.531 --> 00:36:33.885
that day which puts everybody on edge there were a couple little back and forth on the water

00:36:34.258 --> 00:36:39.401
nothing nothing major but coupled with the current conditions on the water and

00:36:39.401 --> 00:36:43.101
then coming into devil's backbone the river comes down a straight stretch and

00:36:43.101 --> 00:36:44.735
it really the water picks up momentum,

00:36:45.333 --> 00:36:52.601
and it rams into devil's backbone ridge it's a big uh rock ridge naturally occurring

00:36:52.601 --> 00:36:55.172
that just kind of blocks the river and turns it at.

00:36:55.826 --> 00:36:57.753
Almost over 90 degree angle.

00:36:57.980 --> 00:37:01.221
So that kind of was culminating at the peak of the end of the day,

00:37:01.221 --> 00:37:03.431
had all those factors coming together.

00:37:03.593 --> 00:37:08.533
So when the group hit the beach, there was just an incredible amount of tension

00:37:08.650 --> 00:37:15.104
in the air and amongst us and just kind of a feeling of everything coming on you all at once.

00:37:15.244 --> 00:37:18.271
And it was like, man, I just normally out there on the river,

00:37:18.271 --> 00:37:21.871
you're very relaxed for the most part, not a whole lot to worry about.

00:37:21.871 --> 00:37:27.741
So when you do get tense, it's much more heightened effect when outside factors

00:37:27.741 --> 00:37:31.141
are stressing you. And that was kind of where everybody was at,

00:37:31.141 --> 00:37:33.130
I believe, in their headspace at that moment.

00:37:33.797 --> 00:37:38.216
Brought everybody to shore and said, hey, before we run up here in this campground

00:37:38.216 --> 00:37:42.846
and start this whole other stressful situation, I just, you know,

00:37:42.846 --> 00:37:46.076
I want to apologize for my part in anything today.

00:37:46.076 --> 00:37:50.446
And, you know, let's just bury this hatchet and go up this hill and find us

00:37:50.446 --> 00:37:57.086
a place to camp and have a good rest of the day, basically, just a kind of a little pep top and talk.

00:37:57.086 --> 00:38:02.896
And everybody just came together in that moment and recognized we were all sharing

00:38:02.896 --> 00:38:06.015
that moment and kind of blooming in our emotions at that moment.

00:38:06.514 --> 00:38:11.136
We all kind of came together and had a good group hug and reset that energy

00:38:11.136 --> 00:38:16.779
between us and boom, then walked up that hill and had an amazing experience.

00:38:17.156 --> 00:38:22.386
On the spot, River Angels went to town and bought us food and drinks and all

00:38:22.386 --> 00:38:25.241
that and turned that day around from that moment on.

00:38:25.862 --> 00:38:30.495
So, Dale, you had another guest on the trip. Tell us about Meadow.

00:38:31.102 --> 00:38:36.216
Oh, Meadow. Tell us about Meadow. Oh, yes.

00:38:36.971 --> 00:38:43.937
Meadow was our, when we started off, she was our fourth person, you might say.

00:38:44.256 --> 00:38:47.153
But she's not really a person. She's a dog.

00:38:47.838 --> 00:38:53.143
A little Pomeranian, Matt brought his little Pommy along, and her name is Meadow.

00:38:53.143 --> 00:38:57.247
And she became the mascot. Not only the mascot, but she was,

00:38:57.869 --> 00:39:05.993
that dog could tell when somebody was depressed or was having some difficult time.

00:39:06.293 --> 00:39:11.958
She would come to them and just sit down in front of them or curl up beside them and lay down.

00:39:12.290 --> 00:39:18.167
She was really a morale booster. I'm telling you right now, I am so delighted

00:39:18.358 --> 00:39:23.535
that Matt brought Meadow and Meadow became a member of our team.

00:39:24.930 --> 00:39:27.020
So, Matt, tell us about Meadow. She joined you for the whole trip?

00:39:27.652 --> 00:39:34.339
She did. She's about three years old, and she started accompanying me on long-distance

00:39:34.576 --> 00:39:37.751
backpacking trips when she was less than a year old.

00:39:38.106 --> 00:39:41.380
Last year, I had a pretty big year. I hiked.

00:39:42.119 --> 00:39:46.384
A little over 4,000 miles total last year on several long distance trails.

00:39:46.384 --> 00:39:53.369
And I left her behind with some friends and she had a great, great summer as did I.

00:39:53.531 --> 00:39:58.454
When I came back home and I picked her, realized that that was the one regret

00:39:58.454 --> 00:40:02.301
I had about this epic summer was that I didn't have her with me,

00:40:02.854 --> 00:40:08.284
and just kind of promised her and me that whatever, wherever I go on my adventures

00:40:08.284 --> 00:40:13.094
in the future, she's, she's coming with us. She's a trooper.

00:40:13.634 --> 00:40:18.324
I don't have to worry about her. I can let her off leash. She doesn't go more

00:40:18.324 --> 00:40:23.804
than about 50 yards away, so you can set up camp and do your thing.

00:40:23.804 --> 00:40:28.961
We could do our thing, and she could go down the other end of the beach and visit with Dan and Dale.

00:40:29.077 --> 00:40:34.094
She's very independent, but she loved it. At first, she wasn't too sure about

00:40:34.094 --> 00:40:37.988
the canoe, but she settled right into her role.

00:40:38.645 --> 00:40:43.874
Dale, September 8, you land on the beach as the world record holder again as

00:40:43.874 --> 00:40:46.724
the oldest person to paddle the headlong to the Mississippi River.

00:40:46.724 --> 00:40:47.810
What was that moment like?

00:40:48.501 --> 00:40:54.314
That moment, it's really, even trying to think about it to explain it,

00:40:54.814 --> 00:40:59.664
how important it was and how hyper it was and how exciting it was,

00:40:59.664 --> 00:41:05.174
it almost brings tears to my eyes because it's just very difficult to put into words.

00:41:06.003 --> 00:41:10.546
It's totally for it. in some way of expressing that.

00:41:11.144 --> 00:41:15.723
I mean, the satisfaction that you get from accomplishing,

00:41:16.546 --> 00:41:23.425
a long-distance and difficult adventure that takes several months to do is just overwhelming.

00:41:24.278 --> 00:41:29.111
Unless you have done some type of adventure in that category before,

00:41:29.809 --> 00:41:34.288
I doubt very seriously if you could really understand the significance of the

00:41:34.288 --> 00:41:38.949
last day, of the finish line. That's all I can say.

00:41:40.197 --> 00:41:44.934
It's just overwhelming with joy. Dan, how about you?

00:41:46.078 --> 00:41:52.449
Yeah, you know, it was a dream come true and you had this goal for 87 days and you finally get there.

00:41:52.989 --> 00:41:57.818
It's a little bit surreal and it was great. A lot of times what I'd read about

00:41:57.818 --> 00:42:03.136
with other accounts, you know, people get down there and they're all alone on the beach.

00:42:03.808 --> 00:42:09.728
Maybe they have hired a fishing boat or somebody to come pick them up or a river

00:42:09.728 --> 00:42:13.908
angel of some sort or something. but it's not your family, it's not your close

00:42:13.908 --> 00:42:16.455
friends, your paddling partners or what have you.

00:42:17.164 --> 00:42:20.158
And it's a little bit sad to read about that.

00:42:20.710 --> 00:42:24.588
Our experience was completely different than that. So we had a whole group of

00:42:24.588 --> 00:42:26.922
paddlers who had done the river.

00:42:27.444 --> 00:42:32.098
And I mean, I think there was four or five of us there who had done the river

00:42:32.098 --> 00:42:38.965
before. And one first time paddler on the Mississippi did the whole thing when he got there.

00:42:39.198 --> 00:42:43.128
And then, of course, we had friends and family who'd come out on the fishing

00:42:43.128 --> 00:42:48.978
boats who were prepared to take us back and had a little party there just for a few minutes.

00:42:50.030 --> 00:42:54.938
It was fantastic. It was a lot to take in, a lot of emotions.

00:42:54.938 --> 00:42:59.298
It was kind of overwhelming, but it was a very happy occasion.

00:42:59.298 --> 00:43:02.918
It puts a big smile on my face right now just thinking about it.

00:43:02.918 --> 00:43:05.357
It was just unbelievable.

00:43:05.990 --> 00:43:06.898
Good. How about you, Matt?

00:43:07.797 --> 00:43:16.538
I would say overwhelming sense of satisfaction and relief, kind of like if you

00:43:16.538 --> 00:43:22.494
were doing a big project around the house or at work that you'd been working on for a long time and,

00:43:23.131 --> 00:43:27.378
you've enjoyed it and it's been rewarding in its own way.

00:43:27.378 --> 00:43:32.898
And then when you finally finish that project and you step back and it's over

00:43:32.898 --> 00:43:37.481
with this, you know, weight of responsibility kind of lifts off you.

00:43:37.876 --> 00:43:42.787
And is replaced with the overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Cool.

00:43:43.425 --> 00:43:48.777
I like Matt's response. Yeah. Dale, let's switch away from paddling for just a moment.

00:43:48.957 --> 00:43:53.268
So you hold the record as the oldest person to do the rim-to-rim-to-rim of the

00:43:53.268 --> 00:43:56.725
Grand Canyon, the oldest person to do the Appalachian Trail,

00:43:57.148 --> 00:44:01.608
and for the second time, the oldest person to paddle the length of the Mississippi

00:44:01.608 --> 00:44:03.244
River. So what's your message?

00:44:03.931 --> 00:44:10.998
If you want to do a long-distance adventure, either in terms of mileage or in

00:44:10.998 --> 00:44:14.559
terms of number of days or years it takes to do that adventure,

00:44:14.820 --> 00:44:16.399
that's fine. That's great.

00:44:16.544 --> 00:44:20.056
But if you don't have it in your heart, if you're not willing to eat it,

00:44:20.201 --> 00:44:23.052
live it, and sleep it, don't do it.

00:44:23.677 --> 00:44:26.156
Good message. So what's next for you, Dale?

00:44:26.805 --> 00:44:34.638
Well, next, as we're going on tour with the film, the next big thing that I'm

00:44:34.638 --> 00:44:37.994
looking forward to, I'm actually excited about,

00:44:38.624 --> 00:44:45.298
is, God willing, and the creeks don't rise, I'm very seriously considering doing

00:44:45.298 --> 00:44:47.118
the Appalachian Trail again.

00:44:47.118 --> 00:44:52.308
And especially if I can put together a support crew that Nemo Will Nomad had

00:44:52.308 --> 00:44:56.886
when he broke my record, I'll do the Appalachian Trail again at 90.

00:44:57.545 --> 00:44:58.892
All right. You heard it here.

00:44:59.850 --> 00:45:03.808
So, Dan, how about you? What's next for you? You know, I have no idea,

00:45:03.808 --> 00:45:07.328
John. I just have had that question a couple of times, and I tell people,

00:45:07.328 --> 00:45:10.391
if the river taught me anything, it's to take life one day at a time.

00:45:10.693 --> 00:45:17.363
And so I'm just going to see what life brings to me. I might do another trip on Mississippi.

00:45:18.018 --> 00:45:22.140
I might get that two trips in in one year that I've dreamt about.

00:45:22.384 --> 00:45:24.088
I might try some more backpacking.

00:45:24.388 --> 00:45:27.558
I'm not really much of a backpacker. I'm a newbie backpacker.

00:45:27.948 --> 00:45:33.188
I've made a lot of the newbie mistakes. I hope I got that behind me. Maybe I can learn a lot.

00:45:33.908 --> 00:45:39.846
I did learn a lot already from Dale and Matt. Those guys, they know what they're doing out on the trail.

00:45:40.252 --> 00:45:42.516
You've certainly got some expert mentors there.

00:45:43.126 --> 00:45:48.019
Yeah. Couldn't ask for any better mentors than Dale and Matt.

00:45:48.275 --> 00:45:51.379
So I don't know. We'll just see, see what happens.

00:45:51.519 --> 00:45:56.418
All right. How about you, for me i guess the next big one's going to be go out

00:45:56.418 --> 00:45:59.018
and hike the pacific coast trail

00:45:59.453 --> 00:46:03.758
in the hiking world that was called triple crown which is to hike the appalachian

00:46:03.758 --> 00:46:07.988
trail the continental divide trail and the pacific coast trail that's the last

00:46:07.988 --> 00:46:12.322
one on that list so that'll that's next up for me cool,

00:46:12.902 --> 00:46:17.111
and matt will be a triple crown holder when that happens,

00:46:17.742 --> 00:46:20.906
that's very cool very Very cool.

00:46:21.492 --> 00:46:25.598
All right. So how can listeners reach you and learn more about the Mississippi

00:46:25.598 --> 00:46:28.034
River and your adventures? And I'm going to start with Dan.

00:46:28.661 --> 00:46:35.616
Probably the best is my blog. And that's danofaust.wordpress.com.

00:46:35.953 --> 00:46:39.900
D-A-N-N-O-F-A-U-S-T.wordpress.com.

00:46:40.405 --> 00:46:41.264
Matt, how about you?

00:46:41.926 --> 00:46:48.961
The best way to contact me is to email at matthew.briggs1 at yahoo.com.

00:46:49.598 --> 00:46:53.563
Super. All right, we'll get that in there. And then Dale, how can listeners reach you?

00:46:54.267 --> 00:46:58.132
Well, you can find some information on my website, graybeardadventurer,

00:46:58.742 --> 00:47:01.935
that's an E-R on the end, dot com.

00:47:02.865 --> 00:47:07.345
And go to my Facebook page, which would be Dale Graybeard Sanders.

00:47:07.345 --> 00:47:12.725
But the best updates would be the actual Facebook page itself.

00:47:13.785 --> 00:47:15.325
Graybeard the documentary.

00:47:15.885 --> 00:47:21.365
And that's where you can get some real good information on activities that are

00:47:21.365 --> 00:47:23.501
going on related to our panel.

00:47:23.762 --> 00:47:26.105
Great. Well, we'll look forward to seeing that documentary come out,

00:47:26.105 --> 00:47:30.615
and we will make absolutely certain we get that out as well and share that with the listeners.

00:47:30.615 --> 00:47:35.665
The name of the documentary, and that's going to be a full-length film,

00:47:35.665 --> 00:47:40.105
90-minute film, and it's going to be called Graybeard, The Man,

00:47:40.565 --> 00:47:43.990
The Myth, Mississippi. Wow. All right.

00:47:44.606 --> 00:47:48.185
So one final question is a question that we ask of all of our guests here on

00:47:48.185 --> 00:47:51.438
Paddling the Blue, and I'm going to start with Dan on this one again.

00:47:51.856 --> 00:47:55.187
Dan, who else would you like to hear as a future guest on Paddling the Blue?

00:47:55.540 --> 00:47:58.844
Ellen Falterman, also known as Ellen Magellan.

00:47:59.202 --> 00:48:05.392
She's a remarkable young lady, and she's done the Mississippi River, the Missouri River.

00:48:05.902 --> 00:48:12.603
And now I think she's embarked on a multi-year trip to row around the world.

00:48:12.882 --> 00:48:15.115
So remarkable young lady.

00:48:15.545 --> 00:48:17.356
Cool. Well, we'll connect with her as well.

00:48:18.616 --> 00:48:24.745
Matt, how about you? For me, it's going to be the Bromanshankels in northern

00:48:24.745 --> 00:48:28.310
Minnesota. Sandy and her husband's name escapes me.

00:48:28.942 --> 00:48:35.112
But the Bromanshankels, they're a set of river angels that live right on the river in Minnesota.

00:48:35.494 --> 00:48:41.480
And they are a vital resource. They help with portaging around some dams.

00:48:41.845 --> 00:48:45.596
They shuttle paddlers up to the headwaters.

00:48:45.996 --> 00:48:50.705
You know just super super active giving you know full-time job for both of them

00:48:50.705 --> 00:48:57.217
this past year with the with the boom of paddlers we've had and they just give endlessly great folks,

00:48:57.717 --> 00:49:01.635
cool thank you and dale how about you who else would you like to hear as a future

00:49:01.635 --> 00:49:02.779
guest on paddling the blue.

00:49:03.705 --> 00:49:09.259
My two sponsors i have to mention both of them because i as well as a film crew,

00:49:09.880 --> 00:49:12.065
and and of course, the paddlers as well.

00:49:12.065 --> 00:49:16.525
But my two sponsors really deserve credit.

00:49:17.058 --> 00:49:23.140
And that would be Immacore Medical out of Canada, Hans Christensen,

00:49:23.739 --> 00:49:26.263
and Lori Underwood Wells.

00:49:26.402 --> 00:49:31.901
Between Lori and Hans, they have made this whole process possible.

00:49:32.523 --> 00:49:35.585
They're wonderful sponsors, and I think they would be good guests.

00:49:35.905 --> 00:49:38.182
Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate that.

00:49:38.640 --> 00:49:41.545
Well, thank you very much. I appreciate all of you joining us today.

00:49:42.005 --> 00:49:45.495
This has been a great, great discussion. I've really enjoyed hearing about your

00:49:45.495 --> 00:49:49.255
time in the Mississippi River multiple times. And again, congratulations to

00:49:49.255 --> 00:49:53.726
all of you. Congratulations to Dale on your record-setting accomplishments.

00:49:54.612 --> 00:49:58.072
Thanks, Chad. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

00:50:00.533 --> 00:50:04.097
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00:50:47.267 --> 00:50:50.518
Congratulations to Dale on his most recent record-setting through hike.

00:50:50.947 --> 00:50:54.758
He is now the oldest person to not only through hike the Appalachian Trail at

00:50:54.758 --> 00:51:00.520
age 91, but, of course, to paddle the entire length of the Mississippi River at age 87.

00:51:00.711 --> 00:51:04.090
He's quite the inspiration, and I look forward to what comes next for Dale.

00:51:04.577 --> 00:51:08.848
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00:51:15.485 --> 00:51:19.177
And as a reminder, you can find programming and trips for me at PaddlingTheBlue.com.

00:51:19.386 --> 00:51:20.582
I hope to see you on the water.

00:51:20.948 --> 00:51:23.858
Until next time, thanks again for listening, and I look forward to bringing

00:51:23.858 --> 00:51:26.576
you the next episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

00:51:27.813 --> 00:51:31.118
Thank you for listening to Paddling the Blue. You can subscribe to Paddling

00:51:31.118 --> 00:51:35.365
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00:51:40.659 --> 00:51:43.753
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00:51:43.869 --> 00:51:49.517
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00:51:49.831 --> 00:51:52.861
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