Kayaker Hannes Zacharias will miss the solitude of spending months on the river – “something about the measured pace,” he said – but he won’t seek to repeat the solo adventure he just finished.
Zacharias paddled – and partially hiked, drove, and rode – as he followed water flowing east from the Continental Divide in Colorado to the Mississippi River and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico. He began the journey May 2,6 capturing snow from Tennessee Pass in Colorado that he poured into the Mississippi River Over Labor Day weekend.
Zacharias grew up in Dodge City and paddled from Dodge City to New Orleans in 1976 when he was a 22-year-old. He was determined that one day he would do the complete trip, following the water from Colorado to New Orleans.
This year found him between jobs as the former county manager of Johnson County and the future professor of practice at the University of Kansas’ School of Public Affairs and Administration, so he undertook the adventure on the Arkansas River.
(Read more: News – The Hutchinson News)