Their eagerness flew in the face of what Mother Nature had thrown at them the day before.

Jay Thurston and Mike Kinziger entered the Wisconsin River at the Tomahawk dam at 4:45 a.m., Sunday morning, 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Both were feeling good and had comfortably slept on Saturday evening.

Thurston and Kinziger were entering the third day on their 436-mile canoeing trip down the Wisconsin River. The wind that had gusted in their faces on Saturday had dissipated and they approached Grandfather dam, south of Irma, at about 8 a.m. This would put them 128 miles into their journey with 308 miles to go.

Diana Thurston, Jay’s wife, said the pair was going to have to dodge intermittent thundershowers that had lightning and hail, but they were largely on a southerly course on a protected portion of the river.

On Sunday, the pair lost four hours, having to sit on shore two hours due to high winds and then having to literally will themselves across Lake Alice and Lake Mohawksin through whitecap waves that crashed into their canoe.

Should the pair stay on course they would be approaching the Rothschild dam south of Wausau at about 4 p.m. With some luck, they could make the Lake DuBay dam by the end of the evening.

“They are both feeling good,” Diana Thurston said. “They were really raring to go this morning and were able to get in the water a little bit earlier. There was enough light for them.”

Should they finish the day south of Wausau, they would be ahead of the pace they set during their record-breaking effort from 1983, in which they canoed the Wisconsin River in just over eight days.

The Broadcaster hopes to have an update at about 5 p.m. and another one at the end of the day’s paddling on Sunday. 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 itinerary calls for them to finish in six days and 10 hours, which would set a new speed record for canoeing the river. Jay and Mike appreciate the support they’ve received from family and friends through the internet posts they’ve received on this chain of stories.