Two men, who some would consider senior citizens, continued their 436-mile journey of the entire Wisconsin River on Wednesday with a stop at "the point" in Portage, greeted by classmates from 1952.

Jay Thurston, who attended school in Pardeeville until his freshman year, and Mike Kinziger are hoping to set an all-time speed record for canoeing the length of the river. Thurston is 75, and Kinziger is 60.

"Row, row, row," said Virginia Brandsma, of Pardeeville.

Diana Thurston, Jay's wife, corrected the chant.

"No, no. It's paddle, paddle, paddle. You want to be politically correct," Diana said.

The trip 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 on June 20. All told, they're aiming to complete the journey, 26 portages included, in one week.

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

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.

"Fifty years ago, the chemicals in the river stained our paddles and canoe," Thurston, of Viroqua, said. "But now, with the Clean River Act, it has really changed it up. I think I saw two eagles 50 years ago, and we've seen more than 100 so far."

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.

"This is the quietest canoe I have ever been in," Thurston said. He is a former school administrator in La Crosse who has retired to Viroqua.

Pardeeville classmates were at the embankment 30 minutes before the duo paddled in.

"I can't believe you two aren't carrying a cell phone with you," said Velda Allen, 71, of Pardeeville.

Kinziger explained that the device would hinder the experience.

"There's kind of a romance about doing things the old way. That would be like us bringing along a radio when the music is in the trees," Kinziger said. "There is never a boring moment."

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.

"I drive my students crazy trying to keep up with me," Kinziger said. "If I say we're going six miles today, they'll say, 'Six miles or six Kinziger miles?'"

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.

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

The pair have portaged (or carried) the canoe eight miles so far, according to Kinziger.

"People always think that it's tiring to get out and portage, but actually, you're using a whole different muscle group. It feels good to get out and walk," Kinziger said.

The wind has been a problem so 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.

"If you don't do things like this, you don't have adventures to talk about in your life," Kinziger said.