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 Searching for Seagulls
Searching for Seagulls
Saturday, 29 September 2012 13:34
Student Response Worksheet (Upper) Student Response Worksheet (Lower)
In last week's Cast YOUR Vote we asked students to send us questions that they would like us to investigate. The question we chose to answer was, “What animals have you been seeing lately?” That is a great question and we figure that other students would be interested in this too. Our answer will focus on gulls, because we have been seeing a lot of them. In any given day, we might see over 100 gulls! Also, we have a special opportunity to help with a gull research project.
The research project
We are helping Dr. Julie Ellis find banded Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls. Dr. Ellis and her team have put color-coded bands on the legs and wings of specific gulls. Every day when we paddle our kayaks, we are keeping an eye out for these gulls. Studying gulls that have been banded helps Dr. Ellis and her colleagues learn where gulls go in the winter, how far young gulls travel during their first few years, their survival rate and their behaviors. If we find a banded gull, our job is to record the location of the gull, their band number, their behavior and take a digital photo of it.
We found out about Dr. Ellis's study through a great nonprofit organization called Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation. They help to pair adventurers (like us) with scientists (like Dr. Ellis). We are happy to help with this project, because our route is where Dr. Ellis is looking for gull observations. The only tools we needed are a pair of binoculars, a GPS and a camera. It doesn't take much extra time – when we see any gulls, we spend a few minutes identifying them and looking closely at their ankles with the binoculars.
What is so interesting about gulls?
Did you know that gulls were hunted for their eggs and feathers in the 1800s? Since then, gulls have been protected from hunting. Their numbers increased due to this protection and increased availability of garbage and fisheries discards. However, over the past ten years, some gull populations have been declining. This might be due to landfills being closed or managed to reduce gull numbers.
Gulls are quite common in urban areas because they can easily find food and places to live there. They are often considered to be nuisances. Gulls are actually top predators in coastal marine food webs. They can have a big effect on marine invertebrate populations. They contribute nutrients to the soils and plants in areas where they nest. They are also competitors and predators of other seabird species.
You can help!
Do these gulls live in your area? You can find out by checking their range maps here. If so, you can help Dr. Ellis too! Here are the instructions. I also hope that you will take the time to learn more about Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls in the Wilderness Library.
All photos courtesy of Dr. Ellis, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
Further exploration and sources
http://www.adventureandscience.org/gulls.html
http://gullsofappledore.wordpress.com/
http://oceanlink.info/biodiversity/foodweb/foodweb.html
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