Melissa Jenco, TribLocal reporter
Ten-foot long alligators watched Will Lytle suspiciously as he passed them in his kayak.
A heat mirage blurred the landscape in front of him.
But neither would prevent him from finishing his quest.
The 20-year-old from Elgin reached the Gulf of Mexico about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, after paddling solo the entire length of the mighty Mississippi River — 54 days and 2,350 miles.
“Just being at peace on the water, having the opportunity to do it every day and having that be my one goal. … All the little pieces, the animals you see and the people you meet, that’s what makes it so great,” Lytle said.
The wildlife ecology major at Michigan Technological University departed from Minnesota June 13 on what he called a “youthful journey.”
“I’m used to the northern wilderness but I didn’t know anything about the south, so I wanted to do a trip that would expand my knowledge of environment and culture I hadn’t seen yet,” he said.
He believes he may be the youngest solo kayaker to traverse the Mississippi, although he decided to skip the time-consuming process of trying to prove that to Guinness World Records.
Lytle figures he kayaked about 10 hours a day most of the time, although there were several 24-hour paddles. For the first three weeks he was entirely on his own. Then his brother Joe drove a support vehicle, usually meeting up with him at night to provide food and company while they camped in the wilderness.
There was no shortage of wildlife along the way — alligators in the south, a close encounter with a rattlesnake, and sightings of bald eagles, deer, blue herons, fox and more.
While heat and boredom were expected foes, it was the wind that proved to be the biggest hurdle, blowing against him all but about two days of the trip.
“Some days it was blowing so hard I literally would not be moving forward,” he said, remembering a day in Wisconsin he paddled 12 hours but only went about 18 miles.
He believes he has stress fractures in several of his fingers from gripping the paddle so tightly during that northern journey. He hasn’t been able to make a fist for weeks.
For the first leg of the trip he was relatively quiet while on the water, wanting to absorb everything around him. Once the river widened and there were fewer animals, he found other ways to pass the time – singing, doing impressions of people he met along the way.
He also would narrate the blog entries he would later write. Lytle kept a blog at willbewild.com that became part of the summer reading program at Elgin’s Gail Borden Public Library. He said he was excited to know friends and family at home were following his journey.
“I don’t know if I feel all the stories were worthy of being read every day but they were supportive even if I didn’t earn it,” he said.
After a long drive, he and his brother made it back to Elgin Aug. 6. Lytle spent the next few days catching up on sleep and showers.
“It’s been a long trip but I still love kayaking,” he said. “There were spots where I would have liked to stop, but I never got completely fed up with the trip.”
This likely will not be his last kayaking adventure. Lytle already is thinking about other trip possibilities – kayaking the Nile or maybe even to the North Pole, hiking the Appalachian Trail or perhaps climbing Mount Everest.
“There’s not a lot of adventures I couldn’t see myself doing,” he said, adding that he hopes he encourages others to spend time outside.
“I feel like this trip, although it was really long, I feel like this and most outdoor adventures anybody could do,” he said.”They just need to find the pace that’s right for them.”
