Big paddling expeditions have a reputation of being for the rich or retired, for the career adventurers and legacy paddlers, but a handful of young paddlers are charting their own course. In a world long past the paddling heyday of the nineties, where Gen Z has a reputation for being glued to an iPhone, meet the Gen Z adventurers who have bucked the stereotype to live out their own dream paddling trips.
They’re broke and they’re crowd-funded; they’re setting records and making history, paddling ambling paths and following historic routes, but they all have one thing in common – these young adventurers are out proving the soul of expedition paddling is alive and well.
The Hudson Bay Girls are paddling from Lake Superior to the Hudson Bay
The all-female Girl Scout team that makes up the Hudson Bay Girls aims to paddle from Lake Superior to the Hudson Bay, in summer 2025 a route that will take the paddlers 1,200 miles through the Canadian Wilderness. Abby Cichocki, Emma Brackett, Helena Karlstrom and Olivia Bledsoe connected through their various roles in Girl Scouts and Scouting America. The team then spent the school year prepping for their expedition between college classes.
The expedition was inspired by Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho’s first documented female journey of the same route, and the now historic route was first popularized in Eric Sevareid’s 1935 Canoeing With The Cree.
One of the goals of the Hudson Bay Girls expedition is to inspire young women in paddlesports. After years of guiding in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and hearing the phrase “is that a girl under there” on the portage trail, the Hudson Bay Girls are committed to being the next role models for a new generation of young paddlers.
“If we can change one person’s life and have one young girl look up at us and think maybe I can do that too, I think that would be a success for us,” said expedition member Helena Karlstrom.
30+ Indigenous youth paddlers are paddling a “first descent” on the undammed Klamath River
Beginning June 12, 2025 a group of over 30 teenagers from multiple tribes throughout the Klamath Basin will paddle the Klamath River, now free-flowing for the first time in over a hundred years. These teens will paddle over 300 miles in celebration of the largest dam removal project in history, a project supported by nonprofit Rios to Rivers.
“We’ve really grappled with this [the term first descent] a lot, recognizing that our river’s been a highway for water transit since time immemorial, canoes have existed from the top of the headwaters down to the mouth at Requa,” Danielle Frank, Director of Development and Community Engagement for Rios to Rivers and member of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes shared. “We may not be the first people to run these places and we recognize that, but we will be the first ultimate source to sea whitewater kayaking descent.”
The team will reach the mouth of Klamath River at the Pacific Ocean in mid-July.
Kyle Parker is paddling from the Pacific Ocean to Miami
When Kyle Parker secured the fastest known time for solo canoeing the Wisconsin River in September 2024, the need for speed was motivated by a need to work within the constraints of a full-time job.
Angling for a long canoe trip for summer 2025, Parker doubled up on work over the winter before quitting his jobs in the spring to head up to Cape Flattery, Washington and begin his paddle from the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States to the southeasternmost point in Miami, Florida. Parker’s latest route is in stark contrast to his speedy Wisconsin River trip. Parker is tackling this new challenge with the express goal of slowing down, experiencing the paddling route and catching a few fish along the way.
“I’m going to be traveling at three miles an hour, but at the end of the day after doing the whole thing it might feel like the United States is actually kind of small,” shared Parker.
While a big paddle trip like Parker’s might seem unattainable for the average twentysomething, Parker maintains it might be more in reach than most realize.
“I want to show people that it takes a little bit of planning and a little bit training and some hard work, but if you want something you can get it,” Parker said. “You just have to start planning. That’s it. Figure out a route, figure out what you want to do and then just start, because I’ll put it this way, how do you eat an elephant? You eat it one bite at a time.”
This all-female team is paddling the Inside Passage
Sea kayak guides Alex Corboy, Whitney Frame, Ella Pratt, Heather McLoughlin and Michelle Martin make up the all-female team headed from Telegraph Cove, British Columbia up to Skagway, Alaska along the classing sea kayaking route the Inside Passage. Most of the team works as seasonal guides in New Zealand, making June-September their off season. They expect the route to take around 80 days and to travel approximately 1000 miles.
According to expedition member Whitney Frame, the expedition is just as much about living simply as it is reaching a destination.
“Just because we have a start goal and an end goal doesn’t mean we have to stick to that or complete it,” shared Frame. “It’s about pushing our bodies to see what we can do and just exploring and having fun.”
Beyond the simple heart of the expedition, part of the goal of the team is to create and share stories about young women in paddlesports and inspire more women to tackle all-female trips.
“I’ve worked for some companies where I’ve been the only female guide or instructor there,” explained Frame. “What an interesting experience that was – adapting to a strong male crew, coming in as a female…you really have to prove yourself.”
Frame explained that while most of the barriers she and other female guides encountered in the field were initially small, these small barriers often compounded over time and started with assumptions.
“I can drive a car with manual or stick shift and I can back a trailer down a ramp,” explained Frame. “Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t do it.”
Peter Frank is canoeing the 6,000-mile Great Loop dressed like a pirate
In a canoe trip of odyssey-like proportions, Peter Frank is paddling from Michigan to Michigan, circumnavigating the eastern United States. Frank’s route has taken him from the Great Lakes to the Erie Canal, down the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, and will take him up the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and Mississippi River eventually back to the Great Lakes, a classic route known as the Great Loop.
Frank is paddling the loop clockwise, against the prevailing winds and currents, and has faced hurricanes, freezing temperatures, brutal headwinds and alligators. Tackling the route in clothes he made himself, Frank’s pirate-like costume has proved more functional than meets the eye, with every detail aimed for practicality.
When asked what advice he had for aspiring young long-trip paddlers, Frank said “it’s going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life, but it’ll definitely be the most rewarding.”
John Coyne kayaked from Dublin to Istanbul
Facing freezing temperatures, multiple arrests and even a night spent camping beneath the Cliffs of Dover, John Coyne, Liam Cotter and Ryan Fallow tackled a route of epic proportions sea kayaking from Dublin, Ireland, to Istanbul, Turkey. It was the first recorded sea kayak journey of this route.
While Coyne was the only paddler to tackle the entirety of the journey, both Cotter and Fallow paddled large sections of the route alongside Coyne.
Coyne recommends that paddlers looking to have an adventure of their own start by putting some money aside.
“If you’re a paddler that’s the first step, isn’t it?” said Coyne. “It’s all about just going for it, I think, and just not being afraid. Even if you do run out of money and you do have to come home, at least you tried it. You are still going to have a story and you’re still going to have an experience for life.”
For my next trick, I’ll prove that people need air to breath. You’re welcome.