After 2,150 miles canoeing on the Mississippi River, two Decorah residents are back home

(Once again, our thanks to Justin Sellers from the Vicksburg Post for sharing his photos with us

Decorah residents Corey Smock and Lance Loney are back home in the Decorah area after canoeing 2,150 miles of the Mississippi River this summer.

Smock and Loney are both 2009 graduates of Decorah High School.  Smock is a 2013 graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and the son of Mike and Renee Smock of Decorah.  Loney is a 2013 graduate of Iowa State University and the son of Mike and Kristin Loney of Decorah.

They took an 18-foot-long, three-foot-wide Wenonah canoe to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota in June, then kept paddling until August 2nd, when they stopped 146 miles from the Gulf of Mexico because floodwaters had made the Mississippi too dangerous to canoe.

Both Lance and Corey say the thing they will remember most from their trip was how helpful and friendly everyone was whom they met.  "It was an awesome experience," says Smock, who adds that the people the two met along the river restored his faith in humanity.  Loney says total strangers would help the two Decorah residents when they reached shore.

That was especially the case when people learned the trip was raising funds on behalf of suicide awareness programs and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  Smock's cousin, Adam Christopherson, committed suicide in January of 2013.  The two had set a goal of $10,000 in donations--but brought in over $16,000.

Loney and Smock usually paddled for eight or ten hours a day, but Smock says it was the weather in the south--hot and humid with heat indexes in the 100s--that "tested your endurance."

Nevertheless, the two didn't lose their love of canoeing.  Loney told decorahnews.com he wished he was on the river right now--although probably the Upper Iowa instead of the Mississippi.

For more about Smock's and Loney's trip, visit www.paddleforprevention.weebly.com