Adventure Magazine

USA
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FROM SEA TO
SHINING SEA
an American journey
His name is Neal Moore. He is a storyteller and a paddler, and an adventurer. He undertook a
remarkable journey of over 7,500 river and portage miles (that’s 12070.08 km) from the Columbia
River in Oregon on the West Coast of America, all the way to New York City on the East Coast.
To give it an antipodean comparison that is like paddling across the width of Australia three times,
back to back!
It took 2 years, traversing 22 rivers and waterways, touching 22 states and stopping off in over
100 towns. We caught up Neal, - and asked the interesting hard questions about his epic
adventure! This is his story!
When did this idea come to mind
– what started you out on this
journey? I got the idea to connect
rivers during my 2009 descent of the
Mississippi River. The person who
introduced me to the concept was
the great paddler Dick Conant. We
paddled on and off together – he
was connecting rivers from near the
headwaters of the Mississippi all
the way to Norfolk, Virginia. In the
years afterwards, I based overseas
in Africa and East Asia, I unfurled
the map across the table and in my
mind, coming up with my own point A
and point B – with the exciting idea to
travel from coast to coast, from sea to
shining sea.
Was the trip continuous or was
there breaks between rivers? The
journey was continuous, following the
seasons. I spent different amounts
of time in various towns and cities.
Sometimes it’d be an afternoon
and sometimes a couple of days.
In Demopolis, Alabama, along the
Tombigbee, I spent an entire month,
waiting out two sets of twisters and
severe flooding to push through.
If you could state one objective
of the trip what would it be? The
number one priority, or goal, was
to explore connections between a
nation often divided by race, class,
and political stripe. Unfiltered,
unadulterated, raw and exposed
and real. But then, to paddle into the
pandemic was a surprise.
I read that you had spent a lot of
your life outside of America – was
that motivation to see so much
of the country by canoe? After the
better part of a lifetime abroad, where
one explores the idea of that perfect
destination with fellow travelers from
all over the show, the epiphany hit
me hard and strong. What if the
greatest adventure of my life was in
my own backyard? To explore my
home country slow and low down and
personal from the view of a canoe.
What type of Canoe?
Old Town Penobscot 16 foot Royalex
(16RX)
.
How much of the timing of the trip
was based around the weather I
guess you needed to be aware of
freezing cold and hurricanes? Yes,
the route was designed to follow the
seasons and to miss the hurricane
season in the gulf.
I read there was almost a tornado
issue – can you tell us more about
that? There was quite a bit of severe
weather. Coming down the Missouri
near Bismarck, North Dakota, I took
cover as a severe storm blew over. It
downed half the cottonwood trees in
the park where I’d made camp and
took the roof off a nearby farmhouse.
Above left: Neal Moore in his canoe
Above right: The highlight of the trip was seeing the beacon hand of the Statue of Liberty in NY Harbour
Right: Laden for a two year adventure
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