Hunter’s Island Fastest Known Paddle: 28H, 27M, 15S

(this is also the 1st tandem male FKP)

Dan Litchfield, 57, of Ely, MN & Steve Park. 52, of Ely, MN

June 20-22, 2005

145 miles including 38 portages totaling about 8 miles

Unsupported

Start: Prairie Portage, Rainy River, Manitoba, Canada. 10:30pm on June 20th

Finish: Prairie Portage, Rainy River, Manitoba, Canada. 2:54am on June 22nd*.

*the start and stop times published in a newspaper account are approximately 3 minutes faster than the total time given in the same article. This website will recognize the slower time unless and until receiving clarification.

Boat: 18 foot Wenonah carbon fiber Racing canoe and carbon fiber ZRE paddles.

This route is entirely within Quetico Provincial Park, and permits are needed in order to paddle it.

NOTE: All of the pictures and articles above are from their 1994 trip except one, dated in the upper left corner Sunday, July 3rd, 2005, the text of which is copied here:

Paddlers improve on Hunter Island best
BY SAM COOK
NEWS TRIBUNE OUTDOORS WRITER

Ely long-distance paddlers Dan Litchfield and Steve Park improved by 21 minutes their record for paddling the Hunter Island canoe route through Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park. They did it over the summer solstice, June 20-22.

The route, defined by the major river systems that flow through the 1.2-million-acre park, covers 145 miles and includes 38 portages. Litchfield, 57, and Park, 52, covered the distance, paddling day and night, in 28 hours, 27 minutes and 15 seconds.

That erases their former record, set in June 1994, when they paddled the distance in 28 hours, 49 minutes and 7 seconds.

The men were on track to break the record by about two hours but encountered strong westerly winds during the day on June 21, slowing their progress. Still, they averaged more than 5 mph over the grueling trek.

The Hunter Island loop begins at Prairie Portage on Basswood Lake near Ely. It follows the Minnesota-Ontario border east to Saganaga Lake, then runs northwest to Kawnipi, Shelley, Keats and Russell. From there it turns southwest down Sturgeon to the Maligne River and Lac La Croix, and from there east along the border to Prairie Portage.

The men used GPS navigation to locate portages and channels. They had pre-set important way-points from map coordinates.

Several other groups, including Quetico park portage crew members, had attempted the route since 1994, but none had come closer than five hours to Litchfield and Park's former record. Before 1994, the record of 33 hours and 38 minutes had been held by former Quetico park ranger Joe Meany and a partner, who paddled it in a two-person kayak.

Litchfield, a wildlife biologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and Park, a physician, paddled an 18-foot We-no-nah racing canoe of carbon fiber weighing just 28 pounds. Their carbon fiber paddles, made by Zaveral Racing Equipment, weighed 8 ounces.

The men ate peanut butter and jelly and ham and cheese sandwiches, granola bars and Pop Tarts. They drank Gatorade mixed from powder with lake water. They estimate they consumed 24,000 calories each.

"I think this time was harder than last time because of the wind," Litchfield said. "Our conditioning was as good or better."

They started their trip at 10:30 p.m. June 20, paddled through the day and into the full-moon night on June 21, finishing at 2:54 a.m. June 22.

Park completed the trip after having rotator-cuff surgery on one of his shoulders a year ago.

"The shoulder never talked to me once," Park said. "My wrist and forearm talked to me quite a bit."

No formal records of the Hunter Island challenge are kept. "It's an honor thing," Litchfield said.

(Fastestknownpaddle.org note: As of Feb. 2026 we are attempting to keep formal records!)