EVERETT — Last week, Kyle Parker hiked out to the tip of Cape Flattery, marking the northwestern point of his journey across the country.
While his trip started on foot, Parker isn’t hiking across the country — he’s canoeing.
On May 1, he slid his canoe into Neah Bay, a northern-facing inlet on the Makah Reservation, and started paddling east.
If everything goes to plan for the 24-year-old, he’ll be lying on the beaches of Miami, Florida, in 6 to 8 months.
Parker got into paddling during college, working as an outfitter in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area of Minnesota. After graduation, he started training to beat the record for fastest time solo canoeing the Wisconsin River, which he accomplished in September 2024 with a 5 days, 19 hours and 54 minutes trip.
After taking the record for the Wisconsin River, Parker started brainstorming what he could do next.
“Eventually, I was like, ‘Why don’t I just see how far I can go? Log the biggest route I can find and go for it,’” he said.
So he came up with his next adventure, which he dubbed “Tip to Tip.” His planned route takes him from Neah Bay into Puget Sound and then Possession Sound, where he’ll then start canoeing up the Skykomish River.
He’ll have to hike some of the way, portaging his canoe over Steven’s Pass until he hits the Columbia River. He’ll take the Columbia as far as he can until he has to portage through Spokane to get to the Clark Fork River, which he’ll take down to Missoula, Montana.
When he reaches Missoula, he’ll then carry his canoe roughly 150 miles to Helena, Montana, where he can get to the Missouri River. From there, he’ll paddle the rest of the way through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri until he reaches the Mississippi River in St. Louis.
The Mississippi will take him the rest of the way to the Gulf of Mexico, his final stretch to paddle around the tip of Florida to Miami.
It’s “so cool to be able to connect as [many] different environments as you can,” he said. “You have everything from the mountains and the coniferous forests, to the plains, to the swamps, to the ocean.”
Parker regularly posts on his Instagram @parker.paddles and his blog parkerpaddles.com. He writes updates on his journeys, lays out the gear he uses and sponsorships he’s a part of, and shares the motivation behind his canoeing adventures.
“It’s about pushing myself, embracing new experiences, and connecting with both the places I visit and the people I meet along the way,” he wrote in his post about preparing for the Tip to Tip trip. “I want to connect with locals, hear their stories, and experience the culture of each place I visit.”
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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