He’s the first paddler to complete the whole thing – 631 miles!

Ardie Olson first paddler to complete the Alabama Scenic River Trail (photo courtesy ASRT)

It took Ardie Olson from Cummings, Georgia just 12 days to kayak the entirety of the Alabama Scenic River Trail (ASRT). The trail is 631 miles and Ardie also had to cross six tough portages.

ASRT members donated $1,000 as prize money, which Ardie accepted at the end of his trip and then immediately donated back to the trail association. Ardie sounds like not just a great paddler, but a great person as well.

The crew here at BornToPaddle.com would like to join with all paddlers in congratulating Ardie! Great job!

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More about Ardie’s journey:
Courtesy, Press Register
Click here to read the original article or just keep reading:

Georgia kayaker finishes 631-mile journey down the Alabama Scenic River Trail
Georgia man first to complete Alabama Scenic River Trail
Thursday, October 23, 2008
By RYAN DEZEMBER
Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES – With a stiff wind at his back, Ardie Olson paddled south from Weeks Bay, across the mouth of Bon Secour Bay and west along the Fort Morgan peninsula on Wednesday to complete a 12-day, 631-mile journey in which he became the first person to kayak the Alabama Scenic River Trail.

A 47-year-old from Cumming, Ga., with an interest in endurance sports, Olson said he was merely seeking a challenge.

To reward his accomplishment, however, the Alabama Scenic River Trail Association gave Olson $1,000.

Olson told tourism officials, who met him at Fort Morgan with a foamboard check, that he’d decided to donate the money back to the trail.

Waiting for his wife, Sherry, a lawyer who is also his boss, to pick him up, Olson gave little sign that he had been paddling a kayak from sunup to sundown for nearly two weeks, let alone that he’d been spending nights in the woods most of that time.

“I had plenty of food and six to eight hours of sleep a night,” he said. “Other than not having a bath in a week, I’m good.”

The Alabama Scenic River Trail is the longest single-state river trail in the nation. It follows seven rivers and two creeks, crosses nine lakes, encounters nine dams, cuts through the second-largest delta in the nation, hugs the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay and winds up at historic Fort Morgan on the cusp of the Gulf of Mexico.

Olson began his journey amidst autumnal hues in the southern piedmont and ended it gliding beneath wisps of Spanish moss, around cypress knees and past alligators in the subtropical environs of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.

“It was nice to see the landscape change,” he said. “Sometimes, in the car, you go by and don’t notice that.”

Olson pushed off into Weiss Lake near the Georgia state line on Oct. 10. After a mere five days he had made it to Montgomery, about halfway through his journey. All told, he traveled at a clip of better than 52cm HALF miles a day.

Made of Kevlar, Olson’s 20-foot kayak weighs about 28 pounds and accommodated about 30 pounds of food, water and camping gear, he said.

And what sort of snacks does one pack for a 631-mile kayak trip?

“I’ve been eating Little Debbies, Rice Krispie treats and honey buns,” he said. “It seems odd, but they’ve got lots of calories, and that’s what I’m looking for.”

Aside from the blustery last day on the bay, Olson said his roughest moments came early on, when he had to carry his gear around one dam after another.

Highlights, he said, included passing through the three U.S. Corps of Engineers lock systems along the way, being immersed in total wilderness for days at a time, and a Delta stretch about 10 miles north of the bay that he found particularly accommodating to paddlers and rich with alligators, deer, hogs and bald eagles.

Have a favorite place to paddle or a story of a record-breaking paddle? Comment on this article or Click Here to use our Handy Contact Form and tell us all about it!