Susie Cotsworth and Gwen Comstra, the women from Wautoma Beach who are taking on the Great Lakes one at a time, have returned from their most recent trek - this time around Lake Erie. "We did about 900 miles and logged about 50 hours of ride time," Cotsworth said. "The lake was pretty rough and we battled waves most of the time. There were times the swells were so high we couldn't even see each other." The two women, who traversed Lake Ontario twice on their personal water craft, dedicated the trip this year to the memory of Comstra's father, Roy Comstra, who passed away in mid-July after suffering the effects of Alzheimer's. They also dedicated themselves to conducting some fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association of Rochester. "The ride this year was called 'Riding for Memories' in honor of my father," Comstra said. Lorena Delantey, vice president of marketing and development at the Alzheimer's Association of Rochester said, "We were just amazed by their energy and enthusiasm when they approached us with the idea of dedicating the ride to Gwen's father and to helping raise funds and awareness for the association." Comstra said they have raised more than $1,000 in donations for the Association. "We did the ride and the fundraising to raise awareness of the disease as much as to raise money to support the work that the Alzheimer's Association does." As with the past trips, Cotsworth said they met "the best people." They tented on lakeshores and even in a parking lot one night during their week-long trek. "On the last night, a couple came over to us and let us sleep on their ship," Cotsworth said. "One other time we were docked and planned to take a bus into the town when a man on a yacht handed over the keys to his vehicle and said, 'here use my car.' The kindness of people was just amazing." From being to exhausted to move their tents out of the cover of trees during a "fierce" lightning storm to getting caught up in a shallow water area and getting their personal water craft tangled in the weeds, Cotsworth and Comstra have stories to tell. "We also made a wrong turn at an island and instead of heading back to the states we ended up in Canada again," Cotsworth added. Comstra said that Lake Erie was much more challenging than Lake Ontario. "From the two foot waves to the sandbars, it was a challenge," she said. "We went from areas where the water was warm and shallow to places where it was more than 300 feet deep. It was eerie at times." As for what's up next - the women are planning to ride around Lake Huron and plan to once again raise funds for an organization that is near to them but they haven't determined which one yet. "Every year we want to do this for a different charity," Comstra said. "And we want to make friends with all the Great Lakes." Comstra said that anyone who wants to pledge their support can do so by calling either her at 392-0905, Cotsworth at 392-1860 or the Alzheimer's Association at 585-760-5400. Donation forms are available on line at www.alz-rochesterny.org. Donations will be sorted by zip codes and the money will be distributed to the Alzheimer's Association Chapter near the donor. |
