The Milwaukee man who began his journey at the headwaters of the Wisconsin River in Vilas county two weeks ago is making his way to the mouth of the state's largest river on a paddle board. It's just not going as quickly as anticipated.
30 year old Jesse Hieb is a filmmaker and avid paddleboarder. He once tried to paddleboard across Lake Michigan before weather stopped the trip.
Last week he was at the Petenwell Flowage south of Wisconsin Rapids. He says the amount of wildlife he's seen was amazing. He says bad weather slowed him, but he says the most treacherous part was at Hat Rapids south of Rhinelander. He hit the rapids at dusk...
"....I had gotten to the point where I had fallen off three times, there were too many close calls. I couldn't see anything in front of me and I had just had enough. I ended up camping on a slab of rock...."
Hieb says that was a scary point, but other wise he's enjoyed seeing and filming nature along the river. He wants to make a documentary about his trip. The project is in cooperation with the River Alliance of Wisconsin. Hieb says the bounty of nature is what has impressed him...
"....I've never seen beavers and otters actually outside of a zoo and I've gotten the joy of seeing things like that out in the wild, ospreys I never expected. Then on top of that, the people I've met along the way have just been incredible...."
Hieb says he's running behind his original schedule, but he's thinking he'll be at the end of his journey sometime this week.
