Jay Thurston and Mike Kinziger are in the home stretch now of their 436-mile canoe journey down the length of the Wisconsin River.

The entered the water, Thursday, at Merrimac at 5:15 a.m. They made their final portage at the Prairie du Sac dam at 7 a.m.

The water on the Wisconsin River is high due to flooding throughout the region. They are contending with debris in the water, but making good time.

The pair was approaching Spring Green with the ultimate hope of making it to Boscobel by nightfall.

“They have gentle winds and a lot of water,” Diana Thurston, Jay’s wife said from Spring Green. “They hope to make it to Lone Rock at about 1 p.m.”

From Lone Rock, Thurston and Kinziger would be about 60 miles from the Mississippi River. They plan to paddle six more miles up stream on the Mississippi after that, to come to their final stop in Prairie du Chien at the visitor’s center near Hwy. 18.

On Wednesday night, Thurston said they could finish their trip at about noon on Friday. If that’s possible, they would beat the time in which they finished their journey in 1983, which took them just over eight days to complete.

The river trip has had its share of trials for Thurston and Kinziger with strong winds in northern Wisconsin that made crossing larger bodies of water very difficult. Kinziger put that in perspective.

“The Wisconsin River is beautiful,” he said. “We’ve seen bald eagles, otters, deer, all sorts of wild life along the river. That’s a big part of the attraction of wanting to come back to a place like this.”

The Broadcaster plans to have its next web update at about 2 p.m. on Thursday. We also hope to have another update Thursday evening. Website updates will be available subject to cell phone reception and the support needs of Thurston and Kinziger as they head downstream. Jay Thurston, 75, of Viroqua and Mike Kinziger, 60, of Moscow, Idaho, are attempting to paddle the length of the Wisconsin River. Their main goal is to finish the trip, but they would also like to eclipse the record they set in 1983 when they canoed the Wisconsin in just over eight days. They are about four hours off their itinerary, which called for them to reach the end of the Wisconsin Thursday at about 6 p.m. and then reach Prairie du Chien by 7:30 p.m. Mike appreciate the support they’ve received from family and friends through the internet posts on this chain of stories.