Father and son from Middleport win 90-mile canoe race in Adirondacks, again

Provided photos: Dan Vanderwalker, rear, and son Todd of Middleport compete in the 90-Miler Adirondack Classic Canoe Race. The pair won the race, completing the distance in 15 hours, 36 minutes and 0 seconds. The race goes from Old Forge to Saranac Lake.

MIDDLEPORT – A Middleport family’s passion for canoeing has led to an impressive win of the 40th prestigious 90-Miler Adirondack Canoe Classic race. Dan Vanderwalker and his son Todd are both avid canoeists who have participated multiple times in the 90-Miler.

Canoeing has been in Dan’s blood since he was 14 years old and went camping in the Adirondack Mountains with his dad. It is a passion now shared by son Todd, who also learned to love canoeing as a child visiting the mountains with his family.

Dan heard about the 90-miler Adirondack Canoe Classic race when it was started in 1983, and it was a challenge he couldn’t ignore. The race goes from Old Forge to Saranac Lake and encompasses three days. It is the first 90 miles of the 300-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail.

Dan entered the first three years of the race, winning first place all three years. His partners were Kurt Knisley in the first and third years and Greg Denzel the second year. Dan also entered and won several other area races during that time.

A handful of the 260 canoes entered in this year’s 90-Miler Adirondack Classic Canoe Race cross Long Lake on day two of the race.

Todd won his first race in 2019 with daughter FaithAnn. There was no race in 2020. He raced with his dad in 2021, winning first place. In 2022, father and son started the race, but Dan became ill and couldn’t finish. Todd had worked too hard to quit, so FaithAnn jumped in the canoe and finished with her dad. Although that disqualified them from winning, they did finish the race.

Dan and Todd’s win this year is the closest in the race’s history, a mere nine seconds.

A record 260 canoeists competed this year in the race which travels over 16 lakes, three rivers and a number of ponds. Canoeists are entered in 10 classes, based on the dimension of their canoe and ages. Dan, 69, and Todd, 42, compete in the C2 Masters, the class for those 40 and older.

Participants come from all over the Northeast, Canada and some from foreign countries. Last year, Dan said there were two teams from Norway.

Todd’s wife Alicia and children FaithAnn and David accompany them and follow their route the entire way. Although there are campgrounds for the two nights on the race, the Vanderwalkers stay in their camper. Alicia and the kids meet Dan and Todd at every portage (there are nine of them), and give them watermelon and energy gel and swap their bladder of energy drink in the canoe for a fresh one.

Dan and Todd Vanderwalker (tan canoe at rear) paddle through a marshy area in Brown’s Tract near the end of day one of the historic canoe race.

In one river, Alicia even waded knee-deep into the water to pass Todd an energy drink as they paddled by. Dan and Todd have long tubes which come from the bladder container of the drink through their jackets so they can get fluids by just bending their heads.

Even Dan and Todd are amazed at their impressive win. They finished in 15 hours, 36 minutes, and 0 seconds – 9 seconds in front of the second-place team and about a half hour before the third-place finishers.

Dan said he knew it was going to be close.

“One-quarter mile from the finish, Todd started picking up the pace,” Dan said. “His long arms mean longer strokes.”

“A win by nine seconds over three days is basically nine strokes of the paddle,” Todd said.

Their canoe is a P-2 stock boat made of Kevlar, the same material bullet-proof vests are made of. They do wax it for maximum speed, but the secret is just to maintain an even pace, like a marathon, so you don’t burn out, Todd said.

Dan and Todd practice several times a week all summer on the canal, putting in at the canoe launch between Middleport and Medina.

Todd and Alicia have long been active with Boy Scout Troop 28 in Medina, where Alicia is chaplain and Todd is an adult leader and canoe merit badge counselor.