Natalie Warren (left) and Ann Raiho are nearing the completion of their historic 2,250-mile canoe trip from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. The girls are alumni of Camp Menogyn and Ann has been coming to her family’s cabin up the Gunflint Trail since she was little. If successful, Warren and Raiho will become the first women to complete this journey made famous by Eric Sevareid in is book Canoeing with the Cree. Warren and Raiho are paddling a canoe donated to them by Stone Harbor. The canoe will return with them and be auctioned off. The proceeds will be dedicated to a scholarship fund for kids attending Camp Menogyn.
Other than a bear trying to enter their tent (when they were sleeping), lightning blowing up a tree about 20 feet from their tent another night and the adrenaline rush of running Class 2 and Class 3 rapids on the Hayes River, not a lot out of the ordinary has happened to Ann Raiho and Natalie Warren as they make their way to Hudson Bay.
And that’s the way the young ladies— recent graduates of St. Olaf College and alumni of Camp Menogyn—would like to keep it as they continue on with their journey to become the first two women to paddle from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. Along the way they hope to inspire young people to get out and enjoy the outdoors and they also hope to raise money to use as scholarships to help kids attend Camp Menogyn.
Due to wind delays and sheer distance to paddle, it took Raiho and Warren 18 days to traverse Lake Winnipeg.
If the weather holds, the dynamic duo will finish their 2,250-mile canoe trip in about one week. One of the most difficult parts of this 300-mile long river is Whitemud Falls, where there are Class 3 Rapids. Once past this stretch it gets easier until they reach historic York Factory, established in 1684 as Hudson Bay Company’s headquarters and used for 200 years. It is now a Canadian National Historic Site.
Here are a few excerpts from their most recent posting on their website, www.hudsonbaybound.com. Natalie writes about some of their trials on Lake Winnipeg.
“We spent most of the day crossing Bloodvein Bay. We had a West wind and so we quartered the waves for the crossing. The waves picked up once we passed one of the islands blocking the wind; and we were forced to go into the bay with the flow. These were some of the largest waves we had paddled yet and Ann and I were both tense as we paddled hard to an island for protection. I was in the stern and when I looked back and I saw huge crashing waves chasing us from the open water”.
“The water was glass. The sunset reflected pink and yellow on the surface of the lake, only disturbed by the ripples from our canoe trail. It was gorgeous. It got later and later until we realized that the moon had not come out; we were in the dark”.
“During breakfast Ann let out a yell and I turned around to see a snake slithering away. We scared it off and then sat back down to laugh at our reaction to the snake encounter. Just then a different snake slithered up and this time Ann threw a stick to scare it off, the stick trapped the snake. It clearly didn’t like that because it turned and hissed unhappily in our direction. We set it free and it, too, slithered off. Then we saw the third snake by our canoe. We took it as a sign from Mother Nature to try harder to paddle the waves so we packed up quickly and loaded the boat (we later discovered that there are several snake nests in this area).
“WE DID IT!!!! We made it to Playgreen Lake today. When saw the opening to the Nelson (river) tears came to our eyes. Celebrations galore. Raw cookie dough for desert!
“Let the white water adventure begin.” August 16
Ann’s comments are as follows.
“So the last time we posted was at the York Boat Days in Norway House, which was a lot of fun. We hung out there for a bit and before we left, we managed to get a dog.
Mike Muswagon is a Councilor with the Norway House Cree Nation and was our host during our time at Norway House. We were talking one night and they told us we should get a dog for protection once we got into polar bear country.
“There are a lot of stray dogs around Norway House so his daughter Crystal took us out driving that night with the windows down in search of a dog. We found one licking old ketchup packets so we ran over, picked it up and put it into the truck. We named it Myhan, similar to the Cree word for wolf. She’s part German Shepard we think and a few other things. We made a little leash out of rope for her and she’s still a puppy so she just loves us.
“The Hayes River baptized us back into the world of whitewater rapids and that first set on the Hayes was the largest set we’ve ever run.
“Now we’re entering some really difficult rapids, about 26 left to go, and we are getting into polar bear country. We talked to somebody who was at Churchill the other day and there were 57 polar bear sightings in one day alone. We are really excited but also really nervous.
“We’ve practiced shooting the gun and using flares. We also have the dog. Everything we’ve read said that once you make this stretch of river, it’s normally so foggy you wouldn’t know if a polar bear was near anyways.
“From here, we go into Knee Lake which can be difficult during windy conditions. The lake is 65 kilometers long and will take us 3 days to get across. From there, we go all the way to the White blood falls and then after that it’s a straight shot to York factory. That stretch of river is really moving and can get you going 10 miles an hour in some stretches.
Another concern we have is that we won’t know what the tide will be like once we near Hudson Bay so we could still get wind bound near our endpoint. It’s going to be interesting for sure.”
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