Kwin Morris, Joe Lorenz and Jeff Guy set off on a paddle board journey across Lake Ontario on June 9 as well-wishers watch from shore at the Humber Bay Park boat launch in Toronto.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Three friends from Michigan stood on the Toronto side of Lake Ontario early this month with a plan to paddle board more than 100 kilometres across the lake and back, a journey they expected would take them 24 hours.
With two safety boats accompanying them, the crossing would mark the end of an eight-year quest to cross all five Great Lakes – a personal challenge for the friends that doubles as an effort to raise awareness about the importance of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and raise money to help protect them.
The wildfires raging across the country may be the most pressing environmental issue for most Canadians, but the goal of the Lake Ontario crossing was to shine a light on the Great Lakes, which contain nearly one-fifth of the world’s surface fresh water, and face many threats, from sewage leakage to agricultural runoff. Environmental groups are pleading with Canadians to take notice of the lakes and the vital ecological role they play.
Kwin Morris hugs his mother, Jo Morris, as his daughter Fitz looks up.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
“We realized we had this unique opportunity to show positive things about the Great Lakes,” says Kwin Morris, a 36-year-old middle-school science teacher and one of the paddle boarders.
Mr. Morris and his friends hoped to raise $25,000 for the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, a partnership between the University of Michigan and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to support student training.
“The future of the Great Lakes depends on having the next generation of Great Lakes scientists and stewards,” said Gregory Dick, director of the institute.
Swim Drink Fish is a Toronto-based organization that advocates for the protection and cleanup of bodies of water around the world.
This month, the group is launching a project called Biinaagami, from the Anishinaabemowin word meaning pure, clean water.
Its goal is to engage national and international audiences in understanding the history and future of the Great Lakes, said Mark Mattson, president of Swim Drink Fish.
“The big thing about it is really just to make people aware that the Great Lakes are the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem feeding the world’s biggest estuary, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and that we all need to share responsibility for protecting and restoring them,” Mr. Mattson says.
Before today, Mr. Morris and his friends had paddled all the Great Lakes except Ontario to raise awareness about the important freshwater resource and its ecosystems.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Lorenz, Mr. Guy and Mr. Morris celebrate in Michigan after crossing Lake Superior in 2018.Scott Lorenz via AP
Mr. Morris and his friends didn’t set out to try and save the Great Lakes.
He and Jeff Guy, a 37-year-old financial adviser, had both recently taken up paddle boarding and were at a party a decade ago in their hometown of Traverse City, Mich., when they wondered if they could cross Lake Michigan.
Of course they could, said Joe Lorenz, a 37-year-old personal trainer, and he would join them.
“Joe had never been on a paddle board in his life,” laughs Mr. Morris. “We just kind of decided to do this challenge of a lifetime.”
They successfully crossed the lake in 2015, pausing in the cold of the night to look at the Northern Lights. They finished the nearly 100-kilometre journey in just under 25 hours.
That accomplishment convinced them to launch Stand Up for Great Lakes, a non-profit organization to raise money and awareness for the protection of the lakes.
From there, they would go on to paddle 144 kilometres across Lake Huron in 2017; battle head winds and rough waves while dodging toxic algae blooms across Lake Erie in 2019; and to commemorate the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, by casting a wreath on waters above the ship during their 96-kilometre crossing, which they did in just under 22 hours.
The paddlers lay a wreath in 2018 over the wreck of SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a U.S. freighter that sank in 1975.9 & 10 News of Traverse City via AP
The trio had planned to tackle Lake Ontario in 2020 – which would make them the first to ever cross all five Great Lakes on paddle boards – but were delayed by the pandemic.
In the meantime, their project had caught the attention of Derek Niles, president of Orange Force Marine, a marine services company in Port Stanley, Ont., who volunteered to assist on their Lake Ontario crossing.
“If they get heatstroke or hypothermia, we can provide them with medical support. If we get into trouble medically for any reason, we can get them ashore to emergency EMS fairly quickly,” Mr. Niles said.
Whereas swimmers typically opt for Great Lake crossings in late August, when the water is at its warmest, a June date was probably ideal for paddle boarders, Mr. Niles said, because the weather is more predictable.
“It’s not too hot, so we’re not getting crazy amounts of evaporation and convection and thunderstorms that pop out of nowhere,” he said.
Katie McCormack and Megan Morris watch from the Toronto dock as the trio set out. Umbrellas protect the onlookers from the light June rain.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Conditions at the start of the journey were favourable, but got less so as the day continued.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Ultimately, the weather would dash the trio’s hopes of doing a double crossing of Lake Ontario, from Etobicoke to Fort Niagara, N.Y., and back again.
When they left just after 7 a.m., a light rain was helping to dispel smoke from far-away forest fires and the wind coming out of the north was mild. The forecast called for a relatively smooth crossing.
But soon enough, waves of more than half a metre and winds of 25 kilometres an hour were battering them from the west.
“It was brutal,” Mr. Guy said.
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All three men had to spend hours paddling on their knees to deal with fatigue. Still, they tried to keep their spirits light – joking and doing their best to enjoy the experience.
By the time they reached Fort Niagara they had paddled for close to 50 kilometres.
Facing the prospect of even higher waves and stronger winds at midnight in the middle of the lake, the group decided it would be unsafe to attempt the return voyage.
“We’re dumb, but we’re not stupid,” Mr. Lorenz said.
Mr. Mattson says he hopes the crossing inspires others to enjoy the Great Lakes and help protect them.
“These athletes that are doing these paddles, for example, are bring a whole different awareness to the immensity, the beauty, the power of the Great Lakes,” he said.
“There’s so many people who are connecting to the Great Lakes recreationally in a way that they haven’t in the past because of the ‘No swimming’ signs and thinking it was polluted and you can’t go in the water.”
Even though the trio didn’t do the double crossing they had planned, they successfully made it across Lake Ontario and completed their quest to conquer all five Great Lakes. And so far, they have raised just over $25,000 for the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research from their latest journey.
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Without a paddle: How a swimmer battled Lake Ontario
For today’s athletes, crossing Lake Ontario involves much stricter rules than what Marilyn Bell faced in 1954. Last year, The Globe followed swimmer Greg Maitinsky in his attempt