"Hot, hungry, and exhausted, calves and fingers cramping, I study the shoreline, where a creek spills into the canal I am travelling along. A crumbling concrete wall and jagged sheet of rusty metal edge the far side of the drop. My exit. Glancing down at the map on my phone, which glows in the smoggy twilight of Utica, New York, on a humid July night, I see that my target is close. Very close. It is time once more to summon Swamp Thing."
"It had been day three of my voyage along the length of the Erie Canal and day thirty-four of a larger circuit from Ottawa back home to Ottawa, via Montreal, New York City, and Toronto. My vessel was a fourteen-foot-long, thirty-inch-wide inflatable stand-up paddleboard-a.k.a. a SUP. Fastened under tie-down straps on the deck, I carried three dry bags containing sixty pounds of camping gear, food, clothing, a first-aid kit, and other essentials,"
A middle-aged, five-foot-four man undertakes a long, improvised solo paddleboard journey on a fourteen-foot inflatable SUP, traversing rivers, lakes, canals, and some land. He carries three dry bags with sixty pounds of gear, food, clothing, a first-aid kit, and an oversized backpack holding the deflated SUP, pump, and a backup paddle. On day three along the Erie Canal and day thirty-four of a larger circuit from Ottawa through Montreal, New York City, and Toronto, fatigue, hunger, cramps, and an approaching storm create a risky shoreline exit. An improvised technique nicknamed 'Swamp Thing' provides a planned method for tackling difficult shore terrain.
Read at The Walrus
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