Mike Ward on his paddleboard in the BWCAW. 
Ward’s view on a training mission in the BWCAW.
Earlier this month, 23-year-old Mike Ward of Duluth traveled some 250 miles across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by stand-up paddleboard (SUP) in five days, 10 hours, and 31 seconds. The time was a new “fastest known record” for such a watercraft on the historic Border Route, or “Voyageurs Highway,” which traverses the wilderness area along the Canadian border.
Ward carried minimal camping equipment on a specialized racing paddleboard, paddling an average of 13 hours per day.
The five-and-a-half days it took Ward to cover the route is significantly slower than the fastest known time set by tandem canoe. A pair of paddlers set a new record for the route in 2019, covering it in less than three days, breaking the 50-year-old record first set in 1968 by Verlen Kruger and Clint Waddell.
But SUP are a popular craft today, and several paddlers from across the country have attempted to set new records on the Border Route in recent years. Ward explained the appeal in a blog post written about a training mission.
“For some reason, travel via SUP seemed more appealing or cool than a canoe or kayak,” Ward wrote. “A kayak is probably much more efficient and reasonable for solo wilderness travel across lakes and rivers but something gravitated me towards the stand up. Perhaps it was my running background and boredom from sitting for long periods.”
One particular challenge presented by the paddleboard was fighting the wind. It was a major concern of Ward’s, and something he trained for.
“Open water crossings were intense, and I got my first taste at Thursday [B]ay sitting all the way down and experiencing waves washing over the nose of my board and flowing under my dry bag,” Ward wrote.
The breezy training missions proved difficult but rewarding, and provided reassurance that he could take what the Boundary Waters dished out.
“I could manage a straight headwind with 10-20mph winds on relatively big water,” Ward wrote. “Crooked Lake wasn’t anything to compare to Rainy Lake… maybe not Lac La Croix, or the section of Basswood Lake east that I didn’t travel on, or Saganaga. But, it’s still a big lake and I was pretty happy to crush it.”
Ward launched from Sha-Sha Resort on Rainy Lake at the western edge of Voyageurs National Park on Sept. 4 at 6:23 a.m. He reached Lake Superior after the eight-mile Grand Portage on Sept. 9 at 4:54 p.m.
