Jul 18 2008
Man Kayaks Past Detroit on 1,700 Mile Prostate-Cancer Awareness Paddle
A man is paddling 1,700 miles between Chicago and New York State to raise awareness for prostate cancer. Here is the excerpt and link to Heather Newman’s excellent Detroit Free Press column:
“Some guys didn’t even know they HAD a prostate,” he said. “I was pretty ignorant when I got my cancer. So I decided to start talking about it.”
He felt so good about his efforts to educate the men around his office that he decided he wanted to do something more dramatic. Ciccarelli likes to kayak, he said, so he started thinking about an epic kayaking trip.
He had picked the route, which wound around Michigan and ended up in the canal systems to get to New York, because it was a long stretch of uninterrupted inland water. It was, however, a stretch he wasn’t familiar with.
“Little do I know I have to deal with the Great Lakes,” Ciccarelli said. “Lake Michigan is like a washing machine. There’s no rhythm to it.”
Lake Huron was a little calmer, and he was relieved until he got to the mouth of the Saginaw Bay.
“That was my toughest crossing,” he said. “I got about two miles out and the water was very confused. I almost ended up in the water.”
Be sure to click below for more…
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080714/BLOG12/80713037/1025/rss05