COAST TO COAST (VIA KITTANNING) Renowned adventurer Fritz Sprandel returns to riverside town after 47 years
Well-traveled man meets with old friend Chris Haller at Allegheny Mariner restaurant before moving on again
FOR THE LEADER TIMES
Dec 17, 2024
Halfway through a coast-to-coast canoe trip, in the autumn of 1978, renowned adventurer Fritz Sprandel paddled up the Allegheny River and into the Kittanning Marina.
There was heated activity, lots of men and some big equipment were pulling houseboats out of the water in anticipation of winter.
They were surprised to see someone in a canoe.
Chris Haller, son of the owner, Russ Haller, greeted him, wondering what he was doing canoeing in the cold weather.
“This is me,” Fritz said, pulling out a copy of a recent Sports Illustrated with a story about his adventures in it.
Fritz always carried magazines with stories of his exploits in them because he knew he cut a peculiar figure and, even though he was famous, people had a hard time believing what he was doing, alone and often in the middle of nowhere.
His previous adventure, a coast-to-coast trip across America on a snowmobile, had garnered him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Sports Illustrated article gave Fritz credibility and he and Chris became friends.
Fritz was overjoyed with the warmth and hospitality the Haller family gave him. He was impressed, as he says now with a smile, “Not only with the hospitality, but Chris had three good looking sisters.”
Chris got a local television station to do a clip on Fritz.
It turns out the entire nation was tuned into Fritz’s trip, and this was a great update.
But he could only stay a week. He was expected in New York City on Thanksgiving Day.
But he promised he would be back and give them a week’s free labor to repay them for their generosity.
Fritz got to New York City, as promised on Thanksgiving, but the expected crowds and press weren’t there to meet him as he expected.
Disillusioned, he dropped out of the public eye, determined to find a different way to live, rather than live other people’s fantasies of adventure.
At the end of January, he decided to just go.
He had no idea of his destination, but he thought about a 60-foot snowdrift he had been stuck in on his snowmobile trip.
Maybe he would just go there and let the elements do their work.
But then he remembered that he promised the older Haller a free month of work and decided to return to Kittanning to pay that debt, first.
When he arrived in Kittanning and announced his intentions to him, the old man laughed.
“Of course, February is the shortest month,” he said.
But he found lots of work for him.
That visit changed Fritz’s life.
He found an occupation, a second family, and a wife.
He found professional success as a representative for motors and parts.
He remained anonymous for decades.
It is only recently, due to some lucky coincidences (that he writes about in his book, Finding Fritz: The Heart of An Adventurer) that Fritz decided to re-enter the world of sporting adventures.
He is on his way to Michigan to be Grand Master of the Top of the Lake Museum Mackinac Bridge Crossing where he was to lead 100 vintage snowmobiles across the bridge where he found fame 47 years ago.
He will ride a 1971 Viking sled.
His next planned adventure is piloting a pontoon around the Great Loop.
But first, he has to close the loop to his past.
He lost both the wife he wed in Kittanning and the children they had together.
And he lost contact with the second family, the Hallers, he made there.
Once again, at the beginning of a new chapter in his life, Fritz finds himself going back to the place that welcomed him so warmly almost 50 years ago.
He is back in touch with Chris Haller who was interviewed for a documentary about Fritz’s life.
They met on Dec. 12 at the Allegheny Mariner on North Water Street, for lunch and to do more filming for the project.
Afterwards, Fritz continued on to be Grand Marshal at the Mackinac Bridge Crossing.
“The Hallers and Kittanning have always held a special place in my heart and in my life,” Fritz says. “I always associate them with warmth and family. And I feel like I need to see them before I start on a new adventure.”
To get their blessing?
“Yes,” he says, smiling. “To get their blessing.”