Jay Thurston and Mike Kinziger had reached Conover on the first day of their 436-mile canoe trip down the Wisconsin River, Friday, at about 10:30 a.m.

Thurston’s wife, Diana, driving the support vehicle for the pair, said they were about half-an-hour behind schedule due to low water levels, high winds and a number of unexpected beaver dams.

“The wind is a problem, it’s gusting,” Diana Thurston, herself a seasoned marathon canoeist, said. “The trouble with the wind is it is supposed to last into tomorrow and will become more of a problem as they try to paddle down some of the upcoming flowages.”

The morning’s launch at 5 a.m. went pretty much without incident. The pair did have to add an unexpected portage when they reached a culvert and found there wasn’t a high-enough water level to paddle through.

At Conover, they were about 16 miles into their journey.

The pair were hoping to reach Eagle River at around 2-2:30 p.m. Their day’s paddling was expected to end at 8 p.m., about three miles south of the Rainbow Flowage. The day’s weather would largely decide how and when they came in, Diana Thurston said.

The Broadcaster hopes to have two more updates on the canoe trip today (Friday), one at about 5 p.m. and another one when the paddling ends this 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 itinerary calls for them to finish in six days and 10 hours, which would set a new speed record for canoeing the river.