During stage 1 we will kayak 1,400 miles from Seattle, Washington to Skagway, Alaska. The Pacific Northwest is home to a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial animals. We will be studying whales and other marine mammals, kelp forests, salmon, and many other species.

The Pacific Northwest is home to a variety of large land mammals including Grizzly Bears, and Black Bears. Above and below the surface we are sure to find plenty of things to learn about. Many of these large mammals need large undeveloped spaces to thrive and the roadless sections of British Columbia and Alaska provide the perfect habitat.

From Skagway, Alaska we will hike over the Chilkoot Pass in the footsteps of thousands of gold seekers who struggled across the pass to reach the Klondike. Many of artifacts remain from those early days, and we will follow their path all the way to Dawson City along the mighty Yukon River.

From Bennet Lake on the eastern side of the Chilkoot Pass we will canoe through a chain of lakes that form the headwaters of the Yukon River past White Horse and down the swift flowing Yukon River to Dawson City.

From Dawson we will hike 100 miles through the mountains to the headwaters of the Blackstone River. The Blackstone flows into the Peel River, which flows in the McKenzie River, which will lead us to the Arctic Ocean. The rivers flowing through these rugged mountains as some of the most pristine wild rivers in North America, with hundreds of miles of flowing waterways between towns or roads.

After over 2,600 miles of paddling and hiking we hope to reach the Arctic Ocean before freeze up. We will spend the month of October,2010 training our dogs, and learning about native life in the Arctic. In November we will head south along the McKenzie River by dog team, crossing 1,800 miles of frozen wilderness. There are many remote native communities along our way and we are sure to learn a lot from the people we encounter.

When the ice melts in the Spring of 2011 we will transition from dogsled to canoe and paddle 2,300 miles along the historic travel and trade route pioneered by Alexander McKenzie, Samuel Hearne, and other Canadian Explorers in the 1700's. We will finish this stage of our journey in the fall of 2011 by completing the 8 1/2 mile Grand Portage which will lead us to the rock shore of Lake Superior.

After spending the winter giving presentations and making final preparations we will begin 4,800 mile kayak journey from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Key West, Florida. The first 2,200 miles will take us through the Great Lakes and out the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The Great Lakes contain 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water, which is one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water. We plan to demonstrate the importance of properly managing and protecting this amazing resource.

During the final stage of our journey we will kayak the length of the Atlantic Coast from the Saint Lawrence Seaway to Key West, Florida. We will be following the seasonal whale migration from the Bay of Fundy in Maine to the warm clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way we will visit cities large and small, and study a variety of ecosystems and environmental topics. We also plan to take side trips into the cyprus swamps and Everglades National Park looking for Alligators, birds, and other critters.

Wenonah Canoe and Current Designs Kayaks

GoMacro makes wonderful macrobiotic energy bars.

Exploring the Yukon Wilderness

Wednesday, 28 July 2010 11:11 Written by Dave Freeman

by Kevin Boltz and Konrad Taube

As we have been traveling down the Yukon River for the past two days, we have seen many forms of wildlife: vast acres of dense green forest and steem shores of sand and rock. These beautiful scenes seem perfectly pristine, but human artifacts, such as boat wrecks, old abandoned cabins, wood camps, and washed up tires and barrels are physical blemishes of the Klondike Gold Rush on this wilderness. It is amazing to research the evolution of the Yukon River from primitive wilderness to industrial highway. Now, people are working to transform the river to its original state.

“The term wilderness originates from Teutonic and Norse languages: ‘will’ meaning self-willed, ‘deor’ meaning animal and ‘ness’ meaning place.” (Nash, 1967) A single definition of wilderness is very difficult to assemble because of how subjective it is. A student in Chicago might consider the Chicago River to be Wilderness, while a Yukon trapper might completely disagree and give his or her own definition. Our group defined wilderness as: “a large isolated area, untrammeled by humans with a true sense of freedom, where everything feels uncaged.” Our definition is based off of our expectation of seeing fewer people; we’ve encountered numerous adventurers seeking similar solitude in nature (contrary to our initial belief), fewer signs of human contact (people, trash, roads, sounds, etc.), and the frequency of spotting the numerous kinds of wildlife (we had thought we’d find much more than we have so far).

-What is your definition of wilderness?

-What would you expect to find there?

-What is been the wildest place you have been?

-There is a federally designated wilderness area in almost every state in the US. What is the closest area near you?