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Petoskey Man Canoes The Great Lakes

A picture of Stephen Brede from his blog.
A picture of Stephen Brede from his blog.

<p><a href="mailto:PayettePC@interlochen.org"><em>By Rachel Lane</em></a></p> <p>A Petoskey man will begin canoeing around Lake Erie starting this weekend. He has been canoeing the perimeters of the Great Lakes.</p> <p>Stephen Brede was a family man with a desk job, when he decided to do something for his body. He chose to paddle the Great Lakes to spend some time outside with nature, with the support of his family.</p> <p>"I wanted to take a non-motorized trip, and paddling seemed a good way to go. I read about this guy Verlen Kruger and he traveled thousands of miles in a boat and that appealed to me," says Brede.</p> <p>Verlen Kruger has paddled more than 100,000 miles and holds Guinness World Records. Brede paddled Lake Huron in 2009. He then took a year off after Huron when his father died and paddled Lake Michigan in 2010. Brede hesitates to suggest that he will paddle all of the Great Lakes, but if Erie goes well, he may try the next lake.</p> <p>"Weather is a big factor. And Lake Erie is known to be very windy-like. And that's sort of my biggest nemesis," says Brede.</p> <p>Brede is a photographer and takes pictures on his paddling adventures. He says he never gets bored but it does feel very different from day to day life.</p> <p>Brede says he would "get in the boat to go into outer space all day and then come back to civilization."</p> <p>Brede always has to be aware of the weather though and what the water is doing. He has spent a lot of time stuck on shore because of wind, weather, and waves.</p> <p>He says, "every wave has its own personality it seems like. Especially when it is very wavy I sort of liken it to rush hour traffic in Detroit where every wave is a drunk driver out to get you."</p> <p>On calm days, he calls it a moving meditation. Brede enjoys his time exercising outside after years of driving and sitting behind a desk for his job. He calls himself a nature lover.</p> <p>"We are all a part of nature, it's just how we choose to participate in it I guess," Brede says.</p> <p>Stephen says the hardest part of the trip is not the physical strain or the weather, but missing his wife. She stays home in Petoskey.</p> <p>Follow Brede's journey at <a href="http://www.greatlakescanoe.com/">www.greatlakescanoe.com</a></p>