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Paddlers persevering on New Orleans trip

By: Aldo Santin

Posted: 10/10/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Murray Jowett (left) and Nick Turnbull: tough going

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WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Musician Nick Turnbull (in photo) heads off on a 3 month canoe adventure to New Orleans Tuesday morning with Murray Jowett . Friends and family saw the pair off along the Assiniboine River by the Assiniboine Park. Aldo Santin story. Winnipeg Free Press Sept.15 2009

PADDLING in the Red River got a whole lot harder this week. That's what two young Winnipeg men learned, as they continued their canoe trip to New Orleans.

"This past week, we've been going against the current, into the wind and in the rain," Murray Jowett said Friday as he and companion Nick Turnbull rested in Fargo. "It's been a challenge that I could never comprehend at the start."

Jowett and Turnbull left Winnipeg Sept. 15, for what they hope will be a three-month adventure.

The first two weeks of their trip coincided with the warmest month of the year but this past week, weather conditions took a turn for the worse. The trip between Grand Forks and Fargo was the hardest time so far.

The pair made it to Fargo on Wednesday. Their parents and some friends are meeting them today for an early Thanksgiving meal before they head off again Sunday.

Turnbull was the most experienced canoeist of the two but he said he's found the trip to be more than expected.

"It's completely different than anything I've ever done before," Turnbull said. "Mostly, it's been the mental aspect.

"You have to motivate yourself, and each other, every day. It's been an interesting experience."

The pair decided to do the trip as a break from school. Their goal originally was to paddle all the way to New Orleans -- first along the Red into North Dakota, then a short portage to the Minnesota River, which would take them to Minneapolis and the Mississippi River, and then all the way to New Orleans.

But they said river levels have dropped dramatically in the past week and it's supposed to be worse on the Minnesota River, so they're hitching a ride with a new friend they've made along the way, who will take them to St. Cloud, Minn. That's where they'll enter the Mississippi.

The pair said they've made many new friends along the way. Several people offered them an evening meal and a couch or living room floor for the night.

"The people we've met have been so generous and welcoming," Jowett said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 10, 2009 A10

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