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 Grassy Narrows, Protecting the Boreal Forest
Grassy Narrows, Protecting the Boreal Forest
Friday, 07 October 2011 16:48
When Dave and I were in Kenora, Ontario, we were very near a place that has been in a heated environmental and human rights battle for years. Grassy Narrows is just 49 miles north of Kenora, located along the English-Wabigoon River. Grassy Narrows has been home to the Anishinaabe for a very long time. Their traditional lands are about 2,500 square miles of forest. Even today, about half of the community still depends on hunting, trapping, and gathering plants from the land.
They went through various traumas over the years, like children being forced to attend residential schools, relocation away from their traditional lands, damming of the river which flooded wild rice beds and sacred sites, mercury contamination of their water, mining of their lands, and logging of their forests.
This summer, on August 17, they achieved a major victory. The Ontario Superior Court ruled that the province cannot authorize logging if the operations infringe on federal treaty promises protecting aboriginal rights to traditional hunting and trapping. This victory has been seen as a turning point in the battle, with expectations for conservation of the Boreal forest and support for the Anishinaabe way of life.
I regret that we did not visit Grassy Narrows when we were so close! However, I am glad to share the news of their victory.
To learn more about Grassy Narrows, check out these links:
http://freegrassy.org/2011/08/18/grassy-narrows-declares-victory-in-logging-dispute/
http://archives.cbc.ca/environment/pollution/topics/1178/
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