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 Perth-Andover, New Brunswick
Perth-Andover, New Brunswick
Wednesday, 15 August 2012 15:54
I am overdue in writing the Daily Data by a couple of days. Really we didn't move very far over the past couple of days. On the 13th we paddled just 8 miles to the town of Grand Falls, New Brunswick. We had to portage through town. After a bend in the river, it narrows down into a very deep gorge and drops in a waterfall. There is a dam above the waterfall to control the flow. Water is diverted in another channel that leads to a power generating station. We enjoyed walking across the bridge and peering over the edge into the gorge, watching people zip line across. We ended up camping in Grand Falls and taking a layover day on the 14th. There is a nice campground near the gorge and we used the time to catch up on computer work and gear maintenance. 
This morning, we wheeled our boats the rest of the way through town and down to the river. Paddling in the swift current below the gorge was fun. We made good time. I enjoyed seeing cormorants perched on power lines above the river. We also saw quite a few osprey and bald eagles. Along the riverbank near Perth-Andover, we saw several construction crews using backhoes to move large rocks, shoring up the bank. The area is still recovering from a massive flood that happened this spring. The links below include images and news stories about the flood. A thunderstorm caught up to us here, so we parked our boats and ducked in the library just before the downpour hit. We made it a few miles out of town before stopping for the evening. In total, we paddled 26 miles today.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Photos+Perth+Andover+flood/6357342/story.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/03/23/nb-fredericton-flood-advisory-616.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/03/24/nb-flooding-continues.html
Miles paddled: 8 on August 13; 26 today
Miles walked with kayaks on carts: .5
Animals: 4 osprey
8 kingfishers
9 bald eagles
12 mergansers
9 cormorants
11 ducks
Demolished cars seen along riverbank: 4
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