Haller family/Fritz Sprandel revisits area 47 years after historic visit
Fritz Sprandel to be in Kittanning Dec. 12
FOR THE LEADER TIMES Dec 14, 2024
FOGELSVILLE, Pa. – Road Less Traveled Publishing recently announced its following of Fritz Sprandel on his new adventure, Grand Marshall of the Top of the Lake Museum Mackinac Bridge Crossing on Saturday.
More than 100 vintage snowmobiles will cross the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan with Fritz leading the parade in a 1971 Viking snowmobile.
A renowned adventurer, Sprandel, made national headlines and the Guin7ess World Book of Records when he crossed the Mackinac Bridge the first time as part of his coast-to-coast journey in 1977 completely on snow eventually riding into Eastport, Maine in February of 1978, and riding hisrled into the Atlantic Ocean.
This isn’t Fritz’s first adventure, of course, others of which are chronicled in Finding Fritz and Adventure on a Dare, but it does herald his re-entry into the world of sporting adventures.
Fritz left sporting adventures behind in 1978 when he paddled his canoe from Oregon to the east coast.
He was about 36 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, more than halfway through the trip, when he paddled up to the Kittanning Marina.
Autumn was coming and the workers at the marina were pulling a houseboat out of the water with some big equipment and were surprised to see someone in a canoe.
Chris Haller, son of the owner of the marina, asks him what he’s doing, and Fritz pulls out a copy of Sports Illustrated with his story in it.
They quickly became friends, and his stay turned out to be a turning point for Fritz.
He had to leave as he was obligated to paddle his canoe into New York Harbor on Thanksgiving Day, but he promised he would be back to give the marina a month of free labor to pay for their hospitality.
The next February he came back.
The owner laughed when he told him he came to give him his free month.
“February is the shortest month!” the owner said.
That visit changed Fritz’s life.
He found an occupation, a wife and a family.
He eventually lost all of it, but a series of lucky encounters has put Fritz back on the trail.
He is Grand Marshall of the Top of the Lake Snowmobile crossing on the Mackinac Bridge and he is planning to take a pontoon around the Great Loop.
But en route, he has some calls to make, one of them to his old friends at Kittanning Marina and Chris Haller.
He was in Kittanning on Dec. 12 to meeting with Chris Haller and visit the graves of his twins, who he lost when they were born.
“Fritz’s is a great story, and we are pleased to be a part in it,” a Road Less Traveled Publishing official stated in the release.
Editor’s note – A second story further elaborating on Mr. Sprandel’s background, his connection to the Kittanning area and theHaller family will tentatively appear in Tuesday’s Leader Times.
Kieran Woynicz
Staff Reporter