‘Greybeard’ canoes down Mississippi River, stops in Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - Forty-seven days and counting. That’s how long the “Greybearded Adventurer” has been paddling his canoe down the Mississippi River to break a world record.

Dale Sanders is looking to break the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to paddle through the entire Mississippi River.

And this isn’t his first time to set the record.

“To be honest with you, it’s a little hard this time,” he said. “I don’t think it, I don’t know, it might have something to do with age. I’m seven years older.”

That’s right. He already did it once, but lost the record in 2021.

In 2015, Sanders passed through the same spot in Cape Girardeau.

He’s paddling at the age of 86 and said there is no way anybody can stop him.

Sanders is not traveling alone. He has the company of several veterans, all part of Warrior Expedition.

“History behind Warrior Expedition is literally for veterans to unscrew their heads from PTSD, and this has been the trip of a lifetime,” Matt Taylor said.

He said there are special people who make a trip like Sanders’ possible.

“We call them trail angels, and they are everywhere. They come out of the woodwork. It’s absolutely amazing,” he explained. “Thousands of people we never hear about who donate time and money, who open up their house, their yard to you. Total strangers, out of the blue. It’s not what you hear, it’s not the typical stuff you hear on the news every day.”

“I don’t know any other 80-some-year-old, let alone someone who is 87, who could be out here on the river, doing it day in and day out,” Dan Foust said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

After stopping in Cape Girardeau, he plans to continue towards the finish line then head back home to Tennessee.

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