By Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho
By day 21 of our 90-day adventure to Hudson Bay, we’d had our share of challenges and good times already. For the first five days, we were hopping from city to city and camping wherever seemed fit for a tent—as long as it was well away from the raging Minnesota River, which was actually much more beautiful than we anticipated. Surrounded by wildlife refuges and state parks, it’s truly a hidden wilderness in Minnesota. We saw otters, eagles, orioles, turtles, pelicans, beavers, deer, and even the occasional cow in the river. We would recommend it to any sort of paddler especially one headed downstream.
We’ve had record rains here in Minnesota this summer. Natalie and I experienced those effects, particularly on day 10 when we got about 5 inches overnight near New Ulm. The following days of going upstream over swollen rapids sets and obtrusive dead falls were the toughest we faced yet. But we made it to Montevideo on the 17th of June—in time to celebrate Fiesta Days with CURE Minnesota, an organization that has done wonders to clean up the Minnesota River and has continued to work diligently today.
We had a nice easy day out of Montevideo, and the next day the beginning of a loafing low-pressure system gusted out of the south and helped us paddle 30 miles in 10 hours on Lac Qui Parle and Marsh Lake. We decided to portage the last four miles of the Minnesota River to the dam below Lac Qui Parle because of the numerous down trees over the river and a heavy current after the dam. That left us wind bound on Big Stone Lake. Luckily, members of CURE MN hosted us all day! We got to go in a hot tub and eat food provided by Farmer’s Market vendors in Big Stone County.
It was such a marvelous few weeks that we couldn’t wait to continue onto the Red River where we finally got to go downstream! Natalie had to make it to Fargo by June 30th to catch a flight to Philadelphia for her sister’s wedding, where she was the maid of honor.
Now, we’re in Winnipeg, Manitoba, getting ready to paddle Lake Winnipeg and head into the Canadian wilderness. We are almost done with the Red River since we paddled the last 100 miles in a 20-hour stretch—even paddling overnight—to avoid wind and get to Winnipeg quickly. We also thought it would be good practice for Lake Winnipeg. Other than that we’ve still been meeting a lot of people who live on the river. This year is a record flood year, so most people can’t believe that we are able to paddle.
We can’t stop talking about getting out on Lake Winnipeg and are really excited for the next part of our adventure. We’ll stop again at Norway House where we will stay with Cree Chief Mike Muswagons.
Until next time, happy paddling!
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Follow more of Ann and Natalie’s adventure on their Hudson Bay Bound website or blog.
