Region

North America

The Inside Passage, Alaska, the Channel Islands of California, Baja, the Great Lakes.

North America offers more genuinely accessible expedition kayaking than anywhere else on earth. The Inside Passage from Washington State up to Alaska is the world's premier expedition route. California's Channel Islands, the Sea of Cortez, Baja peninsula, Vancouver Island, Quebec/Labrador - each a multi-week journey in itself. And Alaska, where Paul Caffyn became the first to solo circumnavigate in 1989-91.

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Notable expeditions in North America

Catalogued expeditions

1977-78

Caribbean - Klepper double, 8 months

John & Beatrice Dowd, Ken Beard, Stephen Benson / Richard Gillet

Caribbean8 months
1978

Aleutian Islands - Dutch Harbor to Nikolski

Derek Hutchinson

250 milesMulti-week
1984

Queen Charlotte Islands - first solo circumnavigation

Wayne Haack

Queen Charlotte (Haida Gwaii)Multi-week
1989-91

Alaska - first solo circumnavigation

Paul Caffyn

4,700 milesThree summers (179 days paddling)
1990

Grenada to Puerto Rico

Joe Weight

Caribbean island chainMulti-week
1993

BC to BC (Baja) - 1,600 miles wearing an artificial leg

Steph Dutton

1,600 miles54 days paddling (64 total)
1993

Baja Pacific - San Diego to Cabo San Lucas

Jan Richards & John Reseck

1,200 miles34 days
1996

Sea of Cortez solo - 850 miles

Ed Darack

850 milesSolo
1997

East Baja - San Felipe to Cabo San Lucas

Scott McGuire & Kurt Rinehart

Full length of East BajaMulti-week
1999

Aleutians - Islands of the Four Mountains

Scott McGuire, Jon Bowermaster, Barry Tessman, Sean Farrell

AleutiansMulti-week
1999-2000

Japan to Alaska via Kurils and Kamchatka

Jon Turk (with Franz Helfenstein 1999, Misha Petrov 2000)

2,000+ miles120 days
2001

Sea America Expedition - Washington to Maine

Mike Falconeri

4,500+ milesMulti-month
2005-06

USA - 18,200km circumnavigation by kayak and bicycle

Renata Chlumska

18,200 kmMulti-month
2008

Newfoundland - fastest circumnavigation

Greg Stamer

2,102 km (1,306 miles)44 days (35 paddling)
In progress

North American Odyssey

(in progress)

ContinentalMulti-year
2018-19

The Great Loop - North America fundraiser

Retired paddler (2018-19)

~5,000 miles16 months
2017

All five Great Lakes in one calendar year

Traci Lynn Martin

Multiple thousand miles1 calendar year
1998-2001

Mexico to Panama - both coasts (book forthcoming)

(book forthcoming)

5,000 km3 years (2 paddlers)
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Know of an expedition in North America we should include? Submit it here - we review and add manually.