Bucket List: Whitney's list has one less item after historic paddle

Gil Whitney just crossed another item off his own “bucket list.”

The 67-year-old from Lakeville became the first person to complete a solo kayak trip through the entire 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail. Whitney began on the Fulton Chain of Lakes in Old Forge, N.Y.,  and 57 days ended the trip in Fort Kent.

Whitney is a retired truck driver and battled rain, raging river rapids in New York, an ear infection and a swimming black bear on Flagstaff Lake to complete the trip -- paddling more than 30 miles a day over the final week of the trip. By keeping up the torrid pace, Whitney beat a fellow paddler from New Jersey who was also attempting to become the first through paddler in a kayak.

A rough rundown of the trip was kept by Gil’s wife, Kathy, on a blog appropriately titled “Gil’s Bucket List.”

The Northern Forest Canoe Trail opened to the public in 2006, and follows historic American Indian paddling routes on the major watersheds of northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and a portion of southern Quebec, Canada. It is the longest inland water trail in the northeast.

Another Maine resident, Donnie Mullen of Hope, completed the first unofficial through-paddle of the 740-mile trail in a canoe in 2000 in a canoe. Nicole Grohoski and Tommy Perkins, from Ellsworth, Maine, made the first official end-to-end canoe paddle in 2006. Twenty other paddlers have accomplished the feat. The majority of trail users spend a day or weekend exploring one of the 13 sections of the waterway.