July 2001
Verlen Kruger Does It Again!
by Brand Frentz
When Clark Eid was working up the idea of a race down the Mississippi to benefit research into the medical problem of Rett Syndrome, he naturally contacted veteran canoe tripper Verlen Kruger of DeWitt, Michigan for encouragement. After all, the challenge of the race was to beat the 1984 record set by Kruger, when he and Valerie Fons went from Itasca to the Gulf in 23 days. Kruger, who is 78 years old now, responded with a letter of support. It was a fine idea, he said, to do this for medical progress, and "one way or another, count me in."
There is only one way for Verlen Kruger. When the five teams gathered at Itasca on May 5 for the start, there were Verlen and his partner Bob Bradford, a retired GM employee and experienced racer, loading their custom-made Kruger Cruiser, a "kayak-like canoe." The competition was formidable, four teams of nationally known kayak racers.
They set off at 6 a.m. on Saturday, the 5th of May. By day’s end Team Kruger was on Lake Bemidji, 87 miles downstream and 15 miles ahead of the Double Helix, a sleek kayak built and beautifully decorated by race organizer Clark Eid. Within a few days, as the racers sped around the Mississipi’s great circle in Northern Minnesota, it became clear that Team Kruger was the leader, and only the Double Helix, through tremendous effort, had a chance of keeping up.
Kruger and Bradford poured it on: 206 miles in three days, 340 miles (Brainerd) after Day 4. Double Helix hung on. The other three teams dropped well behind, then came apart with two unrelated disasters near St. Cloud. One member of Team Amazon, Cynthia Belbin from Calgary, got blisters that developed into a serious infection and they had to withdraw. At White Falls Dam Team Alaska swamped and, while the paddlers struggled to swim 75 yards to shore, their kayak disappeared (the Stearns County Sheriff found it a week later). When the dust settled a few days later the three second-tier teams had combined into one, which continued on to Memphis, as will be described below.
The race proper became a tight duel between Team Kruger and the Double Helix; Kruger was almost always a little ahead. Team Kruger took out at I-694 in the Twin Cities on the sixth day, having covered 487 miles. The Double Helix arrived some 3 hours later. At Lake Pepin both teams paddled through the night. As they got further downstream Team Kruger increased its lead, but the Double Helix was always there.
In the final stage, in Louisiana, Team Kruger was a full day ahead and exuding confidence and good cheer, while the Double Helix team was pushing hard and not gaining. It was near the end that the news came in from the third team, way back in Memphis. They claimed victory! How? They stopped at the Mississippi River Museum on the island there and walked through the scale model of the river (the model is a mile long!), so they "got to the Gulf" before Team Kruger. This kind of good-natured humor was typical of the race and the participants.
Verlen Kruger and Bob Bradford reached the finish, Venice, Louisiana, at 11:50 p.m. of Day 25. They fell short of beating Kruger’s 1984 record, but finished well ahead of the Double Helix, which came in on Day 27. The third team drove down from Memphis for the party in New Orleans.
The final count was 2303 miles, which Team Kruger paddled in 25 consecutive days. That is 92 miles a day. Verlen Kruger is 78 years old (almost 79!), and certainly one of the greatest canoeists who ever lived. His amazing performance in this race compares with the feat of John Glenn, who went up in space again at age 77. On the physical level, Kruger did much more. The only figure I can think of to compare Kruger with is Herman "Jackrabbit" Johannsen, the Norwegian immigrant to Canada who is called the "father of cross-country skiing in North America." Johannsen was racing in his 90s and still skied two miles to get his mail every day at the age of 110! Kruger, of course, is not done yet either.
A special word should be said also about Clark Eid, who is originally from Fertile, Minnesota, in the Red River Valley. He not only conceived the idea of the race and its humanitarian purpose (his daughter Amanda has Rett Syndrome), but organized the event, built his own boat, participated, and proved a tough competitor. I encourage everyone to check out the full story, of the race and of Rett Syndrome, at the race website: www.dreamkeeper.org.
