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. 
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.
Home 
Green and Simple
Green and Simple
Green and Simple
One of the main goals of the North American Odyssey is to encourage people to make changes in their lives the will leave more time for friends, family, and the natural world, as well as reduce people's environmental impact. The food we eat, the water we use, the things we purchase, discard, and transport all affect our lives, and the environment. Sometimes less is more and this is certainly the case for Amy and Dave's lives on the trail; the water they drink comes from the water ways they use as highways, and everything they need fits into a backpack, kayak hatch, or dogsled. The Green and Simple section of the website is designed to provide information about clean energy, locally grown and organic foods, water conservation, energy usage, and cleaner modes of transportation.
Apple Adds More Environmental Impact Information to Website
Friday, 25 September 2009 19:00 Last Updated on Friday, 25 September 2009 19:04
Image via Apple Yesterday, Apple updated more information about the environmental impacts of its products on its website, bringing a little more transparency to consumers. That added information includes life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions for its products. Yesterday we were just noting how carbon footprint measurements can be sticky business because it all depends on how far down the supply chain, how broad across the business oper...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo: ERA
One More Electric Two-Seater
The Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences has recently unveiled the Electric RaceAbout (ERA), an electric car designed and built in Finland that will compete in the 
They call it the Net-Zero Energy home. It has ground source heat pumps (promising a 30% reduction in energy use), photovoltaic arrays, supplementary wind power, high efficiency appliances and battery storage, all talking to each other through a Home Energy Manager.
That's a lot of impressive technology. But are green gizmos the best way to achieve net zero energy?
...
Image courtesy of