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.
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Expedition Blog Kettle Island
Expedition Blog Kettle Island
Kettle Island
Sunday, 15 July 2012 21:21
After yesterday's eventful day, it was awesome to sleep in a little bit today. Louis came and picked us up around 8:00 and we filled the morning with some office work and a trip to the Farmer's Market. We picked up some great looking fresh local fruits and vegetables, some eggs and a couple awesome triple chocolate almond cookies! Then we had a delicious brunch at Julia and Louis' house of eggs, fruit salad and toast. With all the shopping, eating and work we did this morning we didn't get the boats packed and on the water until 2:30. It was sad to leave our generous hosts and tour guides, but we hope to see them again soon. After saying goodbye to Julia and Louis, we paddled off towards downtown Ottawa. Before long, we went through three sets of rapids and the first two were pretty fun! Then we portaged along the bike path around a dam. We stopped for a great, quick dinner at a floating riverside restaurant. Then we paddled a few more miles and set up camp at the end of kettle Island just as it was getting dark. Music was the theme of our paddling today; while we portaged around the dam, we had some music from the Jazz Fest to listen to. Then, as we paddled past the Museum of Civilization, we had some more thumping beats for about a mile. Finally, as we approached Kettle Island, there was a party boat with an insanely loud stereo system that chased us all the way to the other end of the island. We can still hear it pretty well two miles away! Good thing we all like music! We have had another awesome day today. We saw a huge gull rookery, a black squirrel, a gaggle of geese, a woodchuck, two mallard families, and a few cormorants. We paddled 13 miles today in six hours (including the portage and dinner).
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