EXTREME PADDLER PLANS TO PADDLE EVERY RIVER ON THE PLANET

As springtime comes, many paddlers are contemplating their plans for summer adventures. Extreme adventure kayaker Rick "Rhino" Ryan is gearing up for a never been done before odyssey paddling every river on earth. It will be a 50-million-mile journey that will take him to unexplored wildernesses in the far reaches of the world.

"I'm always looking for new epic challenges," said Rhino, "I thought I'd start with all the rivers of America. But then I thought maybe not big enough, maybe North America, and from there it just cascaded into all the rivers of the world. So, I'm going colossal!"

According to Alexa, there are about 165 major rivers in the world. Rivers vary in size and distance. There are 76 rivers in the world over 1000 miles long. Located in the continent of Africa, the Nile River is the longest at 4,135 miles. The Amazon River in South America is 3,980 miles long, while the Mississippi River and the Missouri Rivers is the longest river system in North America at 3,902 miles, just to name a few. There are thousands of smaller rivers, but the exact number is difficult to determine. Hydrologists studying images from a NASA Landsat satellite estimate the United States alone has around 3.5 million miles of river miles. While the earth calculates some 58 million river miles on the planet.
"It's definingly going to be a lot of paddle strokes, "said Rhino.

Rhino is a world-class paddler who's always looking for his next challenge. He's tackled some of the planet's most dangerous waterways for nearly a decade, always looking for that next thrill that most would consider a death wish. He has traveled all the big rivers of the world like the Colorado, Amazon, the rivers of Nepal. But it was down a jungle river in California that made him a legend in the paddling world.
In 2021, brought on during the Covid-19 shutdown, he jumped the fence at Disneyland to paddle Adventureland's Jungle Cruise Waterway, what some called the globe’s most treacherous river.
"I remembered the river ride as a kid," said Rhino, "That was the first trip river trip that got me hooked on paddling. It was crazy! Lions, hippos, tigers, and danger everywhere! I was lucky to survive."
Officials weren't too happy, however. That voyage trip did get him arrested, and he now has a lifetime ban in the park.

"He been thinking of doing this for quite a while," said Dan Masters of Master of Disasters Kayaking & Trips, "A lot of paddling expeditions compare their trip to that of like that of going to the moon. This one is like going to every star in the heavens. But he'll do it. I'm sure he will get it done in half the time most people would think. It would take two or three lifetimes for a lot of paddlers."

While the big-name rivers like the Colorado, Nile, Amazon, and Indus River are all well known. It's the not-so-famous ones that Rhino is looking forward to running the most.
"I plan to be shooting the big whitewater waves, the easy flat water, and every in-between. There will be a lot of first descents down forgotten rivers. There will be some spectacular drops and challenging water along with some incredible views of both remote as well as urban landscapes."

And you will be able to come along. Rhino's odyssey will be shown on Extreme Sports Adventure productions. ESA is the company that produces, The Real Wives of Kayakers. It's a highly rated TV show featuring women partnered with paddlers living the life, that believe it or not, does not always go steady with the flow. That show focuses on women living their dream of setting camera shots, making room for another boat in the garage, lonely shuttle drives, and dealing with smelly wet neoprene.

"I'm excited about having them along." said Rhino, "It will be part travel show, part food, and a lot of action. It will be a really great show or at least a swell beer commercial."

Rhino, who seems to have been prepping for this voyage for years, says he will use 57 different types of boats for his epic expedition.
"I got them all stashed in the garage," said Rhino, "I'll use pack rafts for those small hard-to-navigate rivers. My creek boats for the wild rivers. My sea-going kayaks for long stretches of water. And my canoe for places like the Mississippi. I'll even have a horse tank in Nebraska and a bathtub for Florida."

Rhino's wife Debbie, who will be along for a good part of the trip, said, "I'll miss him when I can't be with him, but it will be great to finally park the car in the garage."

Rhino expects the epic expedition to begin on April 1st.

Keep up with Outside Adventure to the Max, on our Facebook page and Instagram, and now on Youtube.

MARS ROVER FINDS KAYAK IN ANCIENT LAKEBED

The rover Perseverance ended all scientific theories that Mars has once had rivers, lakes, and seas with the discovery of a beached kayak in an ancient lakebed called Jezero Crater, last week.
"Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected, in this case," said NASA scientist Peter Chekov, “It was simply staggering to see a boat in the dried-up lake bed. It's very, very clear that Mars was once a planet much like our Earth with oceans and rivers. And this is proof. Someone navigated those rivers and seas like highways in a kayak.”

Photos Courtesy of NASA

Since its spectacular landing last month, NASA's Perseverance rover has been roaming around inside Jezero Crater on a mission to hunt for evidence of past microbial life and collect samples for a return to Earth. Scientists think the crater was where a lake once was about 3.5 billion years ago. They were hoping to find evidence left behind in the rocks of past life forms.
Planetary scientists have long marveled at ancient evidence of flowing water carved in the Martian surface gigantic canyons, tendrils of winding river channels, and deltas where the rivers disgorged sediments into lakes.
However, the data and simulations have indicated that the water was almost gone three billion years ago. Scientists think that the kayak has been there beached in ancient crater lake bed ever since it dried up.

"That was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away so speak," said Chekov, "But as we all know, kayakers like to boldly go where no man has gone before."

While the 17-foot kayak is estimated to be between 3 to 5 billion years old, scientists and planetary archeologists have no idea where it came from or who left it there. The Perseverance team tweeted, "This odd one has my science team trading lots of hypotheses."

“Who knows," said space archeologist Sherwood Smith author of Lost in Space, the Search for Treasures of the Universe, "Maybe some extraterrestrial either beached his boat or lost it. There's no evidence of advanced life on Mars. So, I don't think it was left behind by my favorite Martian but some other out-of-this-world paddler. Who knows how long it was floating around there before it washed ashore. But the ET paddler was able to phone home and catch a ride but obviously marooning his boat."

"That would have been one long paddle," said Dan Masters of Master of Disasters Outfitting & Kayaking, "Or at least one long portage. But I know guys who would probably do it. The universal aspect of kayaking is guys go where the water is or in this case was. There is no try. Just do. Paddlers will go everywhere taking epic trips to make first descents down wild rivers or go over 100' waterfalls. So going to another planet to paddle its rivers, oceans, or what have you is not out of the question."

The Perseverance will be headed to a river delta at the edge of Jezero Crater in hopes of finding signs of past life and who knows maybe even more kayaks.

"It's no secret that space is full of mysteries." said Chekov, "Our species has barely gone past our own planet's moon. We still can't explain a lot about the universe. Without a time machine, there is no way to observe how much water was on a younger Mars had and who paddled on those waters. I can only imagine."

Keep up with Outside Adventure to the Max, on our Facebook page and Instagram and now on Youtube.