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.
Expedition Blog Forest Fire in the Boundary Waters
Forest Fire in the Boundary Waters
Sunday, 16 October 2011 10:32
Student Response Worksheet (Lower)
Student Response Worksheet (Upper)
Fires are an important natural process. They help forests regenerate. They return nutrients to the soil. They create openings in the trees for animals to graze. Moose and deer like these openings. Some plants, such as jack pine, won't grow until after their seed cones have been in a fire. However, when a wildfire burns close to a town, threatening people and buildings, the wildland firefighters work to contain the fire.
These jack pine cones just opened up after the fire burned through. Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service
When we arrived in Ely, the town was bustling. Many wildland firefighters were here to contain the Pagami Creek fire. This wildfire was started by lightning in mid-August in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Since then, it has burned over 92,000 acres.
LynnAnne Vesper is one of about one thousand people working on this fire incident. She has spent three years working for the US Forest Service doing campsite and portage trail maintenance. This is the first fire incident she has been assigned to. We were lucky enough to have a chance to interview her in Ely. She has also shared her photos with us. Our questions are in bold.
LynnAnne Vesper taking a break by the canoes. Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service
Have you ever been scared when you were fighting a forest fire?
No. The Forest Service puts a huge emphasis on safety. The highest priority of every incident is on public and firefighter safety. We learn in our basic firefighting class about the four key elements of safety: lookouts, communication, escape routes and safety zones. Every day during our morning briefing, the safety officer reminds us of some specific safety message that is relevant for the day. On this fire, they talked a lot about the possibility of trees coming down when we are working. You see, the fire has burned around the roots of the trees, so they can blow over in the slightest breeze. So we have to be extra careful when working around trees with burned out roots.
How many days do you spend fighting the fire at a time?
Normally, a twenty-person crew goes out for fourteen days at a time. Then we are required to have at least two days off before we work again.
Where do you sleep and what do you eat?
On this fire, we camped at Boundary Waters campsites. Our twenty-person crew is broken down into three squads of six people each. (That makes 18 people.) The other two people are the crew boss and assistant or trainee. I camped with my squad, so we had six people in our camp. The Ely outfitters supplied our cooking equipment and food.
Did you see any animals?
Our chainsaws and pumps make a lot of noise, so we didn’t see any large animals, but we did see birds such as woodpeckers and grouse. However, we did see animal tracks and scat. In one football-field sized area, we saw moose tracks, wolf scat and bear prints. In the “black,” which is what we call the burned area, the understory vegetation has burned off, so the animals have an easy time walking around. On some of the reconnaissance flights, pilots have reported seeing moose in the black area.
Fires often cause animals such as this Canada Lynx to find new places to live. Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service
How do you put the fire out?
We work in conjunction with the airplanes and helicopters. Think of the task of putting out a fire as like mopping your kitchen floor. If all you were allowed to use was your foot and a towel, you could mop the floor, but you wouldn’t be able to do a very thorough job. That is like what the planes and helicopters do when they drop water on the fire. The bucket drops take the heat out of the fire so the ground crews can get in and use fire hoses to put out the flames on the very edge of the fire. That would be like scrubbing in the corners the floor with a rag. Maybe that is why they call what we were doing “mopping up.”
Sometimes fire hotspots are not obvious until blanketed with water. Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service
What is it like to fly in a helicopter?
Amazing! It feels like you are floating, but in a somewhat noisy, vibrating machine. The helicopter can spin around, bank, and hover. We sometimes use the helicopter to search for campers ahead of the fire so the public safety crews can go in and contact the campers to get them out of the area where the fire could potentially spread.
What was the hardest part?
The hoses were really heavy. When we were laying out the hose, we would sling four rolled up hoses at a time onto our tool and carry them over our shoulder up to a half a mile over uneven terrain. Four hoses plus our fireline pack probably weigh about sixty pounds.
How do you become a forest fire fighter?
To start with, we take a basic wildland firefighting class. We memorize LCES. We learn that when the temperature goes up and the relative humidity goes down (almost every afternoon), the fire is likely to get more active. Every year, we take a refresher class and have to demonstrate that we can open our fire shelter and get in it within sixty seconds. We also have to walk 3 miles in less than 45 minutes with a 40-pound pack on. That way, we know that everyone on the fireline has a certain level of physical fitness. Every firefighter keeps a “red card” which lists the fires he or she has worked on and whether he or she has been trained to operate machinery such as chainsaws and pumps or is qualified to work with aircraft. The red card is an actual card, but the information on it nowadays is also stored in a nationwide computer database. If you think wildland firefighting sounds like fun, make sure you stay in shape.
To see more pictures from the Pagami Creek Fire:
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/photographs/2534/20/
https://picasaweb.google.com/112717872039965407359
Fennel’s Field Notes
Fennel sleeping by the fire
This week the weather changed and another person joined our group. Bryan, a friend from Grand Marais, joined us. I still ride in the same spot in the canoe between Dave and Amy while Bryan paddles another smaller canoe. I like to watch him paddling nearby.
One day it was warm just like summer and the next was cold and rainy. It rained for days. As you already know, I do not like rain. I really don't like riding in the canoe in the rain. I had just about the worst day ever. . . I rode in the canoe in the rain. Then we had to portage, so I got out of the canoe and Dave strapped my pack on. There is nothing worse than wearing a wet pack over wet fur. We had three portages that day!
The day ended well though. When we got to our campsite, I searched around for a dry spot. When I didn't find any dry ground, I scratched the dirt under a tree stump. I found dry dirt and relaxed for a while. Then I noticed that everyone was gathered around this metal grate with stones piled around. Even though it was dark out, there was light coming from this spot.
I walked closer to investigate. It was warm! I guess this is called a fire. Dave somehow started this fire and was cooking over it. Bryan and Amy must have liked this warm spot too. We all hung out there for a long time. I fell asleep. My fur dried out. Even after the humans went into their tents for the night, I stayed in this spot. The fire was out, but it stayed warm for a while.
Daily Data
10/7/11: 0 miles, 2 Black Ducks, 1 Common Garter Snake, 1 White Tail Deer
10/8/11: 27 miles, 3 loons, 29 gulls, 6 Bald Eagles, 1 Red Squirrel
10/9/11: 15 miles, 4 loons, 34 gulls, 2 Bald Eagles, 4 Red Squirrels
10/10/11: 2 Bald Eagles, 3 loons, 2 Black Ducks, 1 bat, 2 Blue Jays
10/11/11: 5 loons, 1 Black Bear, 4 otters, 4 Bald Eagles, 2 ravens, 1 Gray Jay, 2 grouse, heard 1 Barred Owl, 3 Red Squirrels, 20 Black Ducks
10/12/11: 18 miles, 3 Bald Eagles, 2 otters, 4 Red Squirrels, 5 ducks, 1 Leopard Frog, 1 worm, 2 loons, heard a pack of wolves howling
10/13/11: 27 miles, 2 beavers, 5 Red Squirrels, 4 Bald Eagles, 6 ducks, 1 Pine Marten, 1 Small Mouth Bass, 2 swans, 2 mice
Wildland firefighters traveling by canoe to access the fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service
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