Lake Superior Circumnavigation Speed Records

A kayaker falsely claimed a Lake Superior speed record due to lack of easy access to existing records. Despite his correction, inaccurate news persisted. Reliable tracking of such achievements remains difficult due to limited record-keeping in the paddling community.

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Recently, someone who had circumnavigated Lake Superior by sea kayak claimed to be the fastest person who had done it. He was incorrect, and likely was incorrect because an internet search didn’t easily pull up other people’s Lake Superior circumnavigation speed records. After being told about other faster trips, he removed the claim. That’s a credit to him. Unfortunately, it had hit the news and appeared in several news reports. It’s hard to say there was damage done in recreational pursuits, but it ignore the records of those people who had paddled it faster and failed to give them credit. The news sources that published this didn’t do their due diligence with fact checking.

Making these types of claims and making them accurately in the paddling world is getting more difficult. It’s hard to find any records anymore as most of the sea kayaking magazines have folded and no one is tracking it in the way that other firsts or fastest get tracked in other sports. While we’ve seen speed records on other paddling routes get tracked, such as paddling the Mississippi River (one of the North American Triple Crowns of Paddling), the Great Lakes has largely remained free of it.

When I was trying for a single-year, Great Lakes circumnavigation, I did seemingly endless research on the Internet, talked to magazine editors, other paddlers, and emailed way too many people. No one had any records of it being done. The only person that people suspected of doing it might have been the late Verlen Kruger. So, I somehow got ahold of his partner, and she told me that it had been a dream of his, but he had never done it. After months of research and exhausting every avenue, I was comfortable saying that the attempt was a first. Of course, I failed, and as far as I know only three other people have attempted it. They all failed with one person getting within days of finishing it. Still, I had access to a bunch of magazine editors, who had additional editors, who were active and experienced sea kayakers, all over the world that they could ask.

At any rate, it’s easy to make a claim and really hard to verify a claim without it getting tracked by an organization. For example, I can make the claim that I’m the first person to bikepack the new Border to Border Touring Route in northern Minnesota, and because of that I currently hold the FKT (probably the only one I’ll ever hold because I’m slow). How did I verify that? I asked the guy in charge of the trail, but he only knows what he knows. Maybe someone beat me to it and didn’t tell anyone? Who knows. I had fun at any rate.

I don’t know of any website that specifically tracks the Fastest Known Time for a Lake Superior Circumnavigation, but there’s a website called “Fastest Known Time.” That website would likely be a good place to track Lake Superior circumnavigation speed records going forward if they expanded their scoop beyond running and hiking. I suspect that, as people try to claim faster speeds and firsts in all types of outdoor sports, more people will start doing these Fastest Known Time trips on the Great Lakes. There’s a logic that would suggest a FKT on a Lake Superior circumnavigation, because people have to do a similar trip to achieve the same goal.

The different thing about a Fastest Known Time in canoeing, kayaking and other paddlesports is that unless on a river, the route and distance traveled can vary. For example, on Lake Superior a paddler could skip the Keweenaw Peninsula by paddling through the canal. Thunder Bay can be bypassed with a crossing as can may other sections. For a FKT on Lake Superior, you’d need a minimum distance paddled. It’s all rather arbitrary, but these types of records are just that–an arbitrary limitation on how the route is experienced.

For distance, I’d suggest following Clayton White and Andy Knapp’s examples. White circumnavigated solo, unsupported, accepting no help, and without resupply in 2005. He based his criteria on the late Andy Knapp’s 30-day, solo, unsupported trip. Knapp’s was the first unsupported trip without resupply. Knapp paddled 1,136 miles on his trip. White went further but wanted to make sure to match or beat Knapp’s totals.

To track a record, we’d also need to decide on style. Here’s are a few of the common styles that these records get tracked in:

• Solo versus partnered
• Unsupported versus Supported
• Without resupply versus with

So if anyone were to track speed records for Lake Superior circumnavigations, they’d need to track the speed (number of days), the distance or that it meets a minimum distance to count, and style.

At any rate, here’s what I know:

• Clayton White, 29 days, unsupported, without resupply, 2005
• Andy Knapp, 30 days, unsupported, without resupply, 1996, 1136 miles
• I’ve heard from someone that someone has done it faster than 29 days but they didn’t know who nor in what style.

If you know of a faster time, put it in the comments.

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