Canoe and Kayak magazine is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Forty years–that’s a hell of a long time for any magazine to be around. Especially these days, with magazine after magazine succumbing to the whole “print is dead” mantra, rendering the lives of print writers mortifying.

In honor of their 40 years in existence, Canoe and Kayak is digging into the vault and republishing some of their most famous pieces. Recently, they decided to republish their 1984 story on Verlen Kruger and Steve Landick, two guys who embarked on, and finished, a canoe trip unlike any other before it–28,000 miles, and three and a half years through North America. The journey appropriately became known as the “Ultimate Canoe Challenge.”

To read the story, click the photo above, or click here.