After 85 days of paddling and portaging, Ann Raiho, Myhan Raiho-Warren (he’s got a long tail and big ears and didn’t do any paddling or help with the portaging, and only joined them the last couple weeks of their journey), and Natalie Warren finished their trip to Hudson Bay. In doing so, they became the first women (partly with a puppy) to complete the 2,250-mile trip from Fort Snelling to York Factory.
They said they cried only once and had only one argument in their threemonth trip to Hudson Bay. They said the trip exhausted them and exhilarated them, emptied them and filled them, pushed them and pulled them.
They said a lot, Ann Raiho and Natalie Warren, when they addressed a packed, appreciative house at Stone Harbor on Friday, September 2.
But as usual Warren and Raiho kept the banter (mostly) humorous— even stopping to sing a duet, Willie Nelson’s Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain—as they recounted the eddies and currents of their epic paddle.
It was, after all, an adventure of a lifetime. And to think, on top of it, Warren and Raiho accomplished something no other women had done before when they finished their 2,250- mile canoe trip across parts of two countries and the Continental Divide, covering the same territory Eric Sevareid and Walter Port paddled and portaged in 1931.
So let’s go back to the beginning. Back even before they left Fort Snelling on a swollen, flooded, muddy brown Minnesota River on June 2, paddling the first month upstream against a strong current in heat that sometimes exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Back before they graduated from St. Olaf College on May 28—Ann with a degree in mathematics and Natalie in ecological journalism.
Back to when the two met at Camp Menogyn on a 50-day canoe trip during the summer of 2007. They became fast friends on that trip into the sub-Canadian arctic, and at St. Olaf played on the same Ultimate Frisbee team that went to nationals their senior year while they also pursued academics. It was during their final year in college that they began planning and fundraising for this trip, which cost about $4,000.
Neither is large in stature. Not bulky in muscle, or projecting the toughness it takes to complete a trip like this. But as it’s been said, looks can be deceiving. And it would be a mistake to think that these young ladies aren’t tough, even though they come across more tender than tenacious, more soft than sedulous, more butterfly than bull moose. But think about it, butterflies travel thousands of miles during migration, and are known for their amazing endurance and strength. Ann and Natalie are butterflies, using paddles for wings.
On August 25 the girls cruised into York Factory and met the small crew left at the famous trading post established in 1684. Their trip took 85 days. The last two weeks they traveled with a puppy they rescued from a Cree reservation. He was their defender against any polar bears they might encounter. They named the puppy Myhan, which means wolf in the Cree language, or ‘snack’ in polar bear language. They have “joint custody” of Myhan, and he will travel back and forth between the girls as their situations dictate. Along the way they met and made armloads of new friends, learned about the health of the river systems leading to Hudson Bay, and the plight of the native people living in Manitoba along the Hayes River. They may write a book about their experience and they plan to do another trip, maybe smaller, in a couple of years.
Their trustworthy canoe, bumps, bruises, bangs and all will be on display at Stone Harbor. A new Langford Prospector, identical to the one they used on their voyage, and also donated by Stone Harbor, was auctioned off on Thursday, September 22 at Bloomington at an event hosted by Warren and Raiho. The money from that auction and extra money left over from their trip was donated to YMCA Camp Menogyn to help defray the costs of trips for other young people.
Hopefully Raiho and Warren’s adventure will inspire other young people to get out and enjoy the outdoors. That’s a large part of their message. As Raiho gets ready to attend Colorado State University in January to begin her master’s degree in ecology, Warren will attempt to land a job in Washington D.C., New York, or even Cook County if the right opportunity presented itself.
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