Back from Spring Break

Hello!

Natalie and I got back at midnight last night from an awesome week in sunny Georgia! Our ultimate team placed 17th out of 34 at Georgia Southerns and 7th our of 31 at the Chicago Invite. We got some canoeing in too! Our rental home in Dahlonega, GA was well equipped with a pet goat, hiking trails, private lake and canoe!

We'll be heading up north this weekend to be on WTIP The Roadhouse Friday night and to pick up our Langford Canoe from Stone Harbor as well as pick up our packs from Ostrom Outdoors in Thunder Bay.

More Soon!
Ann and Natalie

Photo shoot with the Northfield Newspaper

Hey everyone!

Ann met up with our Femmes guide, Em Torg, to make copies of the our maps up in Minneapolis today. We laid them all out to follow our route. It was an exciting experience to look at all of the places we were going to see. We laughed at how difficult it is going to be to navigate from Lake Winnipeg to the Hayes -- it looks like a bunch of lakes, glorified creeks, and islands going in all directions. It hit me that it may not be so amusing once we are out there trying to navigate the area, but for the time being even our biggest challenges seem distant. I just can't wait to get out there!

We had an interview and photo shoot with the Northfield Newspaper today. If you know me and Ann at all, the idea of us participating in a photo shoot should be pretty entertaining. I think we did great though. Vogue magazine here we come! Our interview went well too. The article should be out within the next few weeks and we hope to use this media momentum to get in the Star Tribune and other papers in the Midwest. It was great hanging out and talking with Shane and we can't wait to read the article!

As all of our gear comes together Ann and I are discussing specific funds. The float plane is going to be the largest cost (about $1,500) and the SAT phone will be about $9/day. Thanks to everyone who has donated already-- don't forget to keep spreading the word! We've still got a ways to go before we reach our goal.


This Wednesday I am headed up to Menogyn's Womens Night to connect with other Menogyn women and to talk about our Hudson Bay adventure. This is what our cause is all about and I can't wait to reach out to other young women explorers!

As classes start piling up at school I can't help but daydream about the river. I can't wait to see the wind ripple across the water before it even hits my face or to mistake a distant rock for a bear, and then argue with Ann whether or not it is actually moving. I can't wait to make up my own songs when I have exhausted the ones I already know. Life on trail is a simple one with simple pleasures; a life so distant from the business of school and work; a life few people ever get to experience. We sure are lucky.

I'll leave you with the wise words of Ann Raiho to sum up our trip-planning days:

"Hang on, I'm gonna make a protein shake and then we can strategize."

Peace,
Natalie

CANOECOPIA IS THE BEST

Natalie and I had an awesome time in Madison this weekend at Canoecopia! We talked to just about every booth there and found some more top-notch sponsors.

After a meeting with the great Darren Bush, Rutabaga has agreed to sponsor us! We can't wait to work with Wisconsin's premier outdoor retailer.

Ostrom Outdoors of Thunder Bay Canada will be providing us with our packing system. Two packs and a barrel. Check them out at http://ostromoutdoors.com/.

Ely's Wintergreen Northern Wear will graciously be donating our cold weather gear!  We will surely be protected from the wind.

Olympic Granola will be sponsoring us with some of their delicious oats.

We loved talking with Scott Harris, and we're really looking forward to using our Bungee Dealy Bobs!

Spirit of the Wilderness in Ely, MN will be giving us some sunglasses!

Kinetic Koffee will keep us awake with 13 pounds of organic coffee!

Kokatat will be keeping us afloat with PFDs!

At the steripen booth we met with Larry who was very excited about our trip. He gave a three Princeton Tech headlamps and a Steripen. We hope to look to these corporations for future support.

We spoke with several other vendors, outfitters and magazines at Canoecopia and we can't wait to get in touch with Granite Gear, NRS, Icebreaker, Smartwood, Sea to Summit, SeaLife Cameras, Core Concepts, Adventure Egg, Katadyn, WindPaddle, NorthWater and Pemba. We'll keep you up to date on who we end up partnering with. We also talked to Silent Sports Magazine, Canoe and Kayak, Canoeroots Magazine, the Sierra Club, and paddling.net about being featured in their magazines.

What a weekend! Natalie will be writing more about our overall experience later!

Ann

I forgot to mention we also are partnering with GSI Outdoors. They will be giving us the Pinnacle Dualist and the Halulite Ketalist. Um ya ya.

Interview with WTIP

Hey everyone! If you weren't listening in, we just had our first radio interview with WTIP North Shore Community Radio. Ann and I talked about why our trip is important and different ways you can help. Check out our website at www.hudsonbaybound.com for more information.

We are really excited! Things are starting to come together right before we head off to Canoecopia in Madison, WI this weekend. We still need to find more food and gear sponsors, but we hope to find those in the coming weeks. We're really looking forward to our trip and hope that you can help us spread the word!

Besides planning for our trip, I played at an ultimate frisbee tournament in St. Louis this weekend. Even though the weather wasn't great we still played pretty well, placing 17th out of 32 teams. Ann would have attended the ultimate tournament as well, but instead this weekend went to Luther in Decorah, Iowa to be a workshop presenter at the Noble Peace Prize Forum. NPPF is in it's 23rd year. Check it out: http://www.peaceprizeforum.org/

Thanks for your continued support! Tell your friends!

Natalie

WTIP Monday March 7th at 9:40AM

You can stream online at http://www.wtip.org/!

Emails, Phones Calls and Interviews...

We've been working really hard for the past two weeks contacting every retailer, outfitter, non-profit, organization, company or whoever we think would be interested in our adventure. We have gotten a hold of Rutabaga in Madison, Dan Cooke the great pack/canoe skirt creator, Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville and a few other pro-deals from Chota and BugShirt. Next weekend, March 12th - 13th we're going to Madison to advertise ourselves at Canoecopia! It'll be so great to meet other adventures and get the word out about our cause. As for media, look for us on Monday March 7th on North Shore Community Radio WTIP at 9:40AM. They will do a follow up interview with us closer to the beginning of the trip. Sometime in April we will be going to Grand Marais to be on a longer program with WTIP called "The Roadhouse" which airs on Friday nights. The Northfield Newspaper, Nick Coleman, The St. Olaf Magazine, Paddling Life and a few other online journals have also shown interest in writing about us. woo! That's all for now. We'll keep you in the loop. Meanwhile, send us any ideas at hudsonbaybound@gmail.com