Team Kruger

Photo of me in my Kruger Dreamcatcher during the 2006 1200 mile WaterTribe Ultimate Florida Challenge.

I've been extremely proud, and quite humbled to be listed on the Kruger Canoes website as a member of Team Kruger along with other fellow WaterTribe challengers/racers Marek Uliasz (Mountain Wayfarer) , Nick Hall (Pelican), Dexter (ThereAndBackAgain) and Brian Weber (Capt'n of the "O" Dark 30) . All of thier websites and/or blogs (links are in blue) are worth a visit.

The real stars, and more in that adventurous mold of Verlen Kruger, are three other members of the Team, Reinhard Zollitsch, Larry Hoff, and Norm Miller. Please please visit their websites. These men are incredible, and inspirational. They are what I am hoping to be, active, adventurous, and living their dreams through their old age.

Reinhard Zollitsch a lifelong athlete, began paddling and sailing in the late 70's, including marathon kayak and canoe racing. But it is the change to expedition in the mid 90's that is most interesting. After a serious health scare in 1994, and looking for something new, he turned to the ocean in a Kruger Sea Wind (a sea canoe, with rudder and spray skirt) on long, solo, unassisted trips along the shores of New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. The articles in this website are a collection of trip reports of his 4000-mile circumnavigation of that area, plus a few extra paddling related articles. The ocean trips described above were done between 1996 and 2007 at the ages of 57 to 67. He's still tripping and racing, including racing in the Blackburn Challenge this and last year in a solo outrigger canoe. An academic and teacher, his articles are a great read and well published. His website is Zollitsch Canoe Adventures.

Larry Hoff, another active retired senior, began his solo adventures in 2002, by first hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (a 2,658 mile hike across the mountain ranges of Washington, Oregon and California, stretching from the Canadian border to the Mexican border), followed by a bicycle trip around the perimeter of the U.S.A in 2004, and then just completing this year, a paddle and portage Kruger canoe trip 6,200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific by way of the Potomac, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Snake and Columbia Rivers. His website with trip reports is Larry's Ultra Long Distance Adventures.

Norm Miller, another Kruger Canoe adventurer, completed a 3600-mile adventure with a 21st century replica of the the infamous Lewis and Clark expedition . He began in March 2004, paddling solo the length of the Missouri to Montana. From there he backpacked over the continental divide to the Columbia River watershed where he once again took to his paddle for the final leg to the Pacific Ocean which he arrived at in September '04. This trip is documented on 'In the Wake of Discovery, Lewis and Clark 2004 Bicentennial Expedition'.

These guys are AMAZING, and they aren't even BCU* coaches with British sea kayaks, heck they didn't even use a sea kayak :) It's all about living your dreams.