News Oct 18, 2017 by Upon reaching St. Joseph on Oct. 12, Martin had just kayaked 25.6 miles in one day. Her one-day record was a few days previous, when she travelled nearly 50 miles, kayaking from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
That’s how Traci Lynn Martin day went as she tried to circumnavigate all five Great Lakes and hopefully break a world record in the process.
Despite painful arthritis, and a doctor telling her to quit, Martin as far as she knows, the first person to kayak around the three largest Great Lakes — Michigan, Superior and Huron — in the same year.
Speaking to the Times-Advocate last week, Martin said she had a rough start in the ice in March on Lake Huron, but since about April the trip has been fantastic. She said she has made many friends and visited wonderful places that she would like to return to in the future.
All great journey’s get off to rough starts!!!
Her ”rough start” in the ice was a long ordeal in the Saginaw Bay area of Lake Huron in March. There was an ice storm and Martin had to rely on her compass instead of her GPS. In addition, her cellphone wasn’t working. There were also strong waves, and Martin went off course. After about 11 hours of paddling, instead of going straight across, she ended up nearly going in a circle and arrived just a few miles away, where there was solid ice and nowhere to land. The battery of her marine radio was dead, her cellphone battery was nearly dead, and the decision was made to call the authorities and have her rescued out of the ice.
Throughout the trip, Martin said the support she has received and the people who have reached out to her have been “a Godsend.”
An award-winning competitive kayak racer, Martin began researching the idea of kayaking around the Great Lakes when she was taking care of her ailing mother, who was battling pancreatic cancer. Martin learned that no one had ever paddled all five Great Lakes in the same year. After her mom died, Martin decided to go for it, and spent two years planning for her record-breaking attempt. Throughout, many people have tried to talk Martin out of the trip due to her rheumatoid arthritis.
But Martin was determined, and has dedicated her journey to people who have chronic illnesses.
“You should always do the things in life that give you meaning,” she said. “If you stop living, then you’re just existing, and that’s a horrible way to spend the rest of your life.”
Dealing with arthritis through the trip has been a major challenge for Martin. She said a person with rheumatoid arthritis typically has certain joints that hurt all the time. With Martin, it’s her wrists, feet and ankles. But during “flare-ups,” her whole body hurts, and that has happened many times throughout the trip.
“It’s like someone has taken a baseball bat and just beaten you. Literally every joint in your body hurts.”
Martin has had a physician tell her he is doing damage to her hands and she should stop the voyage.
She also damaged her shoulder on Lake Michigan, which made her change her paddling style. According to project manager Edwards, cold weather is Martin’s “biggest enemy,” and there has been plenty of that over the past eight months.
But Martin said the trip has made her much stronger physically and mentally, and she describes herself as more self assured.
“I feel like I’m much more at peace with myself and with the R.A. (rheumatoid arthritis).”
Martin said her grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis and was in a wheelchair by the time she was 40. Martin was always afraid she would meet the same fate. Having just turned 50 herself, Martin says she is no longer afraid.
There have been many surprises for Martin throughout her journey, but she says the biggest is the overwhelming number of people who have reached out to her to offer help. On Lake Superior, she pulled up on the beach and a complete stranger, after talking to her and learning about her quest, invited her and Bill Noble, who has been assisting with the trip, to stay at his home.
“It’s just phenomenal, and it really restores your faith in people,” Martin said. She’s also quick to credit her team, which includes project manager Scott Edwards and driver Noble, as well as others behind the scenes.
“I value these people very much.”
Kayaking the Great Lakes presented a learning curve for Martin. She said she had to learn how to navigate “the craziness of the waves of the Great Lakes.” She said the lakes can become rough very quickly.
The trip has also deepened Martin’s love of nature, particularly birds, which she has watched all summer, including loons and pelicans.
There have been many scary moments during the trip, including being stuck in the ice on Lake Huron. On Lake Superior, Martin was paddling along an area where there were eight miles of cliffs. When a thunderstorm hit, there was nowhere for her to land, and the waves kicked up and were over Martin’s head. She had no choice but to paddle through it.
“You just had to sort of man up and do it,” she said.
She also experienced very strong winds in the Tobermory area, and Martin said she has had to learn to adapt to the conditions.
“The first time it might be scary, the second time it’s a little less scary. The third time, you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I can do this. I’ve already done it.’”
But while cold weather, ice, and rheumatoid arthritis haven’t been able to stop Martin, there is one challenge that’s making her reconsider her plans to finish the last two Great Lakes — Ontario and Erie.
“I miss my children,” Martin said. “There are times I wake up and I just miss them so badly, and I’m thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’”
Martin’s children are aged 12 to 25 and her daughter is pregnant, due to give birth to Martin’s first grandchild in November.
To break the world record and do all five Great Lakes in the same year, Martin had until Dec. 31. Once she reaches Port Huron (which she hoped would happen last Sunday) Martin will have completed the three largest Great Lakes.
“Once I hit Port Huron, I’ve done something that no one else in the world has done,” Martin said.
At that point, she expected to take a few days to determine if she will go on to the two remaining Great Lakes. Weather will also be a factor in her decision, Martin said.
Whichever decision she makes, Martin said she is glad she made the journey and would never give up the experiences she has had. Colder temperatures leave her feeling “like an ice cube” and prevent her from paddling at night. Fewer daylight hours also have cut her progress to an average of 20 miles a day, down from 35 over the summer on Superior and Huron. And the lake’s shallowness means even calm winds of 8 mph from the north can generate huge waves and force her to shore, like they did one day early this week.
Martin, 50, said she wants to be a role model and inspiration for people with chronic disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, which was her diagnosis in 2010.
“If I can paddle 3,600 miles with rheumatoid arthritis, then if you have a chronic illness you can get up out of bed and do the things in life that you love, whether it’s walking your dog, gardening or painting,” she said.
As an intensive care unit nurse, she cared for dispirited patients who found little reason to get up out of bed and moving.
“You can lay in bed and hurt. You can sit in your chair and never move and hurt,” she said. “Or you can get up and do the things that you love. In the beginning you’re going to hurt but once you start doing the things you love it takes your mind off the physical pain and mentally you feel better.”
Another inspiration for undertaking the arduous journey was her mother, who, in 2015, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“Before she passed away she told me if I had any dreams or anything I wanted to do, to do it now and not to wait or put it off because you never know when your life’s going to be over,” she said. “People put off what they want to do because they think they have all this time and suddenly they’re passing away with all these regrets.”
An experienced kayaker, Martin decided to tackle the largest collection of freshwater lakes in the world. She cashed in a portion of her retirement savings and set off in March from Port Huron, Mich., with a goal of 5,800 miles. That’s been cut to 3,900 by Dec. 31, still enough to break the Guinness world record for longest nonstop solo trip on a surf ski in a calendar year.
Created by lifeguards in Australia and popular on the West Coast, a surf ski is longer and thinner than a kayak, she said. While the ends of a kayak flare up out of the water, a surf ski’s entire length is in the water, making it sleeker and faster, and, like a sailboat, it has an understern rudder controlled by foot pedals.
“What you give up on maneuverability, those really sharp turns, you gain in speed,” she said. “They’re designed to surf the ocean waves. They’re really good in the big waves.”
She recruited Bill Noble, a friend from their paddling club in Kansas City, as driver of her support vehicle and trailer. He’s watched over the months as fatigue set in, and her arthritis in the cold makes it more difficult to paddle.
“It’s hard to watch her go through that,” he said. “You want to encourage her on one hand and yet you’re concerned about her overall long-term health on the other hand. It’s been tough to help her negotiate that and decide what the best route is.”
The sun shines over Lake Erie as Martin paddles her surf ski near Dunkirk.
Highlights from her trip a day spent exploring the sea caves of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, and paddling along the huge cliffs that stretch for miles along that lake.
“On a calm day paddling along these cliffs with the sun, it’s just beautiful,” she said. “It’s just breathtakingly beautiful.”
Pukaskwa National Park on the Canadian side of Lake Superior was another highlight. “It’s remote and you have waterfalls and little islands you can weave in and out of,” she said. “You don’t see another person there.”
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan was “absolutely spiritual and beautiful and some place I’d like to go back,” she said.
While Lake Erie has been the most challenging body of water, its shoreline inhabitants have also been more welcoming than the other lakes combined, she said. A man in Dunkirk paid for her hotel room Tuesday night.
“The amount of people here on Lake Erie who have been so kind and generous, it’s just mind-blowing,” she said. “It really makes me just want to sit and cry.”
Lesson Learned: “You just can’t let life pass you by,” she said. “You can’t sit in your chair and just exist. You have to be active and continue doing the things in life that you love.”
Lost paddle
While Martin paddled an amazing 50 miles in one day recently north of Goderich, there was one unfortunate incident. At the Port Albert beach, she left behind her primary, favorite paddle. When her crew called the area reporting it lost, they found out someone had found the paddle and left it on a bench. However, when Martin’s crew returned, the paddle wasn’t there. The paddle has the letters “rpc3.com” on it and Martin has an emotional attachment to it. Anyone who knows anything about its whereabouts is asked to call project manager Scott Edwards at 610-299-8468.
Traci Lynn Martin paddles her surf ski in Lake Erie near Wright Park in Dunkirk. Clear water reveals rock formations on the lake bed during a segment of her journey around all five Great Lakes. (Derek Gee/Buffalo News)
Having a strong constitution…
constitution con·sti·tu·tion
[kon″stĭ-too´shun]
