4 paddlers recently broke the speed record for the entire Missouri River, traveling nearly 2,400 miles

KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He also focuses on stories of consumer interest. Share your story idea with Grant.

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Ahead of this year's MR-340 race , I spoke to a team of paddlers who took on an even bigger challenge on the Missouri River last month - with help from MR-340 volunteers.

Four paddlers broke the speed record for the entire Missouri River, traveling nearly 2,400 miles from Montana to St. Louis in just over 24 days.

Team leader Scott Miller described what the journey felt like.

"It's just an extraordinary experience to feel that much current sweeping you through the landscape and to see what 95% of the time looks like untrammeled wilderness," Miller said.

Scott Miller

The crew paddled day and night, sleeping in shifts inside a customized 23-foot canoe while support teams followed them downriver.

"It’s a 23 foot Winona Minnesota four canoe made primarily for use in the boundary waters up on the Minnesota Canadian border, but it does seat four people. He customized it with a custom canoe cover, the two middle seats, the cover could actually be converted into a tent so people could sleep under there. So we took turns sleeping and paddling, particularly in the channelized portion. It gave us a huge advantage because with the steady current in that section, two guys could power that canoe," Miller said.

"You're not seeing human things. You're seeing trees, water, clouds, light, sunrises, sunsets, moonscapes," Miller said.

The operation required a large team behind the scenes.

"We had over 20 people on the shore support crew, and then an additional 10 people or so on three different support boats," Miller said.

Miller said his ties to Kansas City's paddling community made the record run possible.

“The whole idea to even do this came from our support boat leader Scott Mansker, who's the founder of the Missouri River 340," he said.

"My fellow paddlers, including myself, we all have done that race. Some of us multiple times, and then a bunch of people on our support team came from the support boat crews that volunteer for that race."

"Has built up such a tremendous community centered on the river, particularly in the Kansas City area, that we were the beneficiaries of all of those relationships and that community that's been built over all of those years. So we really felt that on this trip, When we got to Kansas City," Miller said.

Miller is from Minneapolis, but he hopes his team's achievement encourages others to get out on the river, no matter where they live.

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