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 Sandy Hook, New Jersey
Sandy Hook, New Jersey
Thursday, 11 October 2012 18:06
We left Coney Island in the late morning. Eugene helped with our kayaks and Almira helped us carry our gear out to the beach. We were sad to say goodbye, but fortunately we will be seeing her again soon. The beach concerned us. It was filled with all sorts of litter. Plastic bottles, wrappers, plastic bags and other random things were scattered all over the sand. Basically, all sorts of debris that ends up in the water near other parts of New York flows down the East River and ends up washing ashore here.
The wind had been strong, but fortunately it was predicted to diminish. The forecast was right. Our paddle was fairly easy. The wind was from the northwest, so it was blowing us sideways, rather than a headwind. The waves were small. We encountered a fair bit of current that helped us along as well. We made our way across to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The shipping lane was in the middle of our route. We watched a large container ship motor past, in front of us. We paddled quickly across the shipping lane after it passed, because we could see four more container ships heading our way. Our timing worked out well and we were well out of the lane before the next ship came. We stopped for lunch on the beach at the end of Sandy Hook. All sorts of gulls, cormorants and terns were on this beach. I even saw a type of tern that I hadn’t seen before.
Once we reached the marina, we were both quite happy. We will be taking a break from paddling for a while. We have lots of school visits planned in the New York City area. We will also take advantage of this time to let our muscles rest and do some gear maintenance. Since we won’t be kayaking next week, we won’t be posting Daily Data during this time. We hope you check back after next week when our posts resume.
Distance traveled: 12 miles by kayak
Animals:
40 Herring Gulls
21 Great Black-backed Gulls
40 Ring-billed Gulls
50 cormorants
12 terns
6 pigeons
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