You reached this page through the archive. Click here to return to the archive.

Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

Up a creek . . . paddles included

By Mara Kumagai Fink '11
May 16, 2011

"Sometimes people feel like they can't go out to the woods because it's too distant, but you can hop in a canoe in Minneapolis and paddle all the way to Hudson Bay," say Natalie Warren '11 (left) and Ann Raiho '11. The two plan to donate any additional money raised through their journey to help pay for scholarships at Camp Menogyn.

Ann Raiho '11 and Natalie Warren '11 are graduating May 29 with the rest of their class. But after they pick up their diplomas, pack up their rooms, and say their goodbyes, they're not starting a new job or preparing for graduate school. Instead, on June 2 Raiho and Warren will put a canoe in the Minnesota River near Fort Snelling and attempt to be the first women to paddle the 2,250 miles from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay.

Following the route taken in the book Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid, the duo will travel upstream on the Minnesota River to the Red River, then up to Lake Winnipeg to the Hayes River, finally ending at York Factory in Manitoba, Canada. If they complete the trip, Raiho and Warren will be among only a handful of people to have done so. Sevareid completed the route in 1930, and it has been completed two other times by teams of men in 2005 and 2008. The 2005 team included St. Olaf alumnus Scott Miller '97.

For Raiho and Warren, the main goal of the trip is not only to complete the journey, but also to encourage young women to get outside and go on wilderness trips. Warren, an environmental studies major, and Raiho, a math major, met on a seven-week canoe trip that took them to Northern Canada in 2007. That adventure was part of YMCA Camp Menogyn, and because it was a life-changing experience for both of them, they are hoping to give back.

"You get such a sense of self and your place, and the happiest I've ever been is on trail. You just can't express that to other people — they have to experience it," Warren says. "It's also built our confidence; I mean, God knows we're more confident than we should be sometimes. It's shaped my entire life." They say that the ability of experiences like this to build self esteem is why they will donate any additional money raised through their journey to help pay for scholarships at Camp Menogyn to help more girls have the ability to go on trips.

They also want to prove to a wider community that the wilderness is not as daunting or far away as it may seem. "This trip is really accessible, and it shows that wilderness can be really accessible. Sometimes people feel like they can't go out to the woods because it's too distant, but you can hop in a canoe in Minneapolis and paddle all the way to Hudson Bay; that's pretty impressive," Warren and Raiho say.

Read more about their adventure in Canoe & Kayak and the Northfield News.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.