"First day off the river, your joints are sore and everything's a little raw," said Jeff Nelson of Minnetonka. "We're taking a quick break today and getting back out there tomorrow."
The team of four nicknamed, "Mister-ssippi," is on a 50-day canoe journey from Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. Friends from college, they have thought about a trip like this for five years, but it's more than an opportunity to build memories.
"It's good to be useful beyond ourselves," says Mark Downy. "It's a way to get intimate with the river."
They are part of a much larger project called "Riverview." It's like Google's Street View, but for rivers.
"Basically, it's a portal for people to connect to rivers around the country," says Downy. "Once it's rolled out, others will be able to contribute, too."
The Riverview Project, with help from the Environmental Protection Agency and the non-profit group Below the Surface, will be a permanent, photographic record of current conditions from hundreds of America's rivers. The database will be used for recreation and environmental research.
"This gives us a great excuse to document our trip," says Nelson. "We're taking pictures every mile."
Riverview will be unveiled later this year. To follow the group down the Mississippi River you can visit their official blog. Their 2,000 mile-long trip will wrap up in August.
Written by Dave Berggren
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