(Editor's note) This story was printed in this week's edition of the Wisconsin Dells Events newspaper.

Two men, who most would consider senior citizens, continued their 436-mile journey of the entire Wisconsin River Wednesday with a stop at Drinkers Dock in Wisconsin Dells.

“They did this together 25 years ago and they decided that if Jay’s around at 75 and Mike’s around at 60, they’d do it again,” said Diana Thurston, the wife of one of the adventurers. “Well, here they are.”

Jay Thurston and Mike Kinziger are hoping to set an all-time speed record for canoeing the length of the river that began at Lac Vieux Desert at the Wisconsin-Michigan border on June 13, and will finish when they hit the silt-laden Mississippi River in Prairie du Chien sometime on June 20. All told, they’re aiming to complete the journey, 26 portages included, in one week.

“We’re going at a pace now that we should be able to beat the record we set 25 years ago when we were young men,” Jay Thurston said. “This is a tremendous accomplishment for someone my age. I wasn’t sure I could do it.”

Thurston is 75 and Kinziger is 60. Their support team consists of Thurston’s wife, Diana, who catches up with the duo via her truck and feeds them periodically. When they decide to call it quits each day, Mike sleeps in a tent and Jay stays at a nearby motel.

“The Wisconsin is an awe-inspiring river, and there are a lot of factors that play into actually being able to set a record,” said Thurston, a former school administrator in La Crosse who has retired to Viroqua. “When you look at what it actually means doing, I don’t know if it can be done. This will prove something to me and a lot of other 75-year-olds if we can complete this task.

“It is probably impossible to do this trip, physically,” Thurston, who is also a trout fishing columnist and an author, continued. “Mentally you have to convince yourself that you can do it.”

Thurston and Kinziger are no strangers to the picturesque and mysterious Wisconsin River. In 1983, the two set the record for speed, canoeing the Wisconsin in eight days, three hours and 13 minutes. That eclipsed the previous record Thurston had set in 1958 with then partner Gary Kitzman. They had canoed the river’s length in 12 days.

In 1958, an aluminum canoe was used. In 1983, a Kevlar canoe was used. During both of those trips, the canoeists camped out in tents they took with them. This time around, they are fixed on straight speed. They’ll carry with them just the necessities of food and water each day in a new carbon-fiber canoe. Their schedule calls for 16 hours of canoeing each day, starting around 5 a.m. and finishing as late as 9:30 p.m. in one instance.

“They were in rapids that they couldn’t even see; they could just hear them,” Diana said. “So they decided not to go that late again.”

Kinziger, who has a doctoral degree in philosophy, is the coordinator of the University of Idaho’s outdoor leadership program and an instructor in the university’s school of health, physical education and recreation. He teaches courses in canoeing at the school located in Moscow, Idaho.

“When I think about college students paddling five minutes around a pond and being winded I just have to laugh,” Kinziger said. “They paddle five minutes and are exhausted. We’re 135 years combined and planning on paddling 16 hours a day.”

Kinziger was on the staff at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 17 years ago when he made a choice and moved to join the staff at the University of Idaho. When he left he and Thurston promised to come together on the 25th anniversary of their record-setting trip and do it all over again.

“I used to teach in Mauston and we’d come down here when we were crazy and immortal,” Kinsiger said. “We’d paddle and try to mess up the Ducks and big tour boats; but we don’t want to play that game anymore.”

Since that time Kinziger has grown much academically, earning his doctorate in 1992. He raised three daughters as a single father and has since remarried. His wife, Deanna, has three daughters of her own and between the two of them, they have six daughters, all in their 20s.

Thurston and Kinziger are using an 18-and-a-half-foot carbon fiber canoe, an improvement over the Kevlar canoe the pair used in 1983 and a significant upgrade from the aluminum canoe used in the 1958 trip.

The duo began paddling Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. near Petenwell Dam, continued through Castle Rock and arrived in the Dells with about 150 miles to go, planning to continue on through Portage and down to Madison.

“We’re just glad to get through the narrows,” Thurston said after docking. “There have been some tremendous currents. I wouldn’t advise anyone that isn’t an experienced canoer to go through the Dells right now.”

The duo said wind has been a problem thus far, setting them about one day behind the original schedule, but they expect the high water to allow them to arrive at subsequent checkpoints earlier than anticipated.

“The Dells is another in our series of adventures,” Kinsiger said.

So when they finish the journey on Friday, will Thurston start planning a trip when he’s 100?

“I asked him about it,” Diana said, “and I have a feeling it’s not going to happen.”