They're Back! St. Olaf Grads Complete Historic Canoe Trek

On Aug. 3, graduates Ann Raiho and Natalie Warren were a little more than two months into to become the first women to canoe from Fort Snelling in Minneapolis to Hudson Bay in Canada.

They were cold, tired and on their 15th day paddling Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba—the 11th-largest lake in the world, at just more than 9,000 square miles. They knew they had to be getting close to the end of the lake.

“We got to six of those points (where we thought we had reached the end) when we saw we had to keep going,” Raiho told Patch. “When we did see (the end) … that was a big moment. We both started crying.”

But it wasn’t the end of their trip. The pair still had more than 360 miles of their journey to go.

Finally, on Aug. 25, they reached York Factory, Manitoba, on the southwestern edge of Hudson Bay and accomplished their goal.

In all, the trip covered 2,250 miles, lasted 85 days, entered three states and one Canadian province—and garnered them one dog. That’s right, in Norway House, Manitoba, Raiho and Warren adopted a stray German Shepard mix they named Myhan, a word similar to “wolf” in the language of the Cree First Nations tribe.

But the pair wasn’t thinking about adopting a dog when they set out on June 2. They were more concerned with the high water levels on the Minnesota River.

“We had a hard time (at first),” Raiho said. “The Minnesota River was at flood stage.” And most of the way, they were paddling upstream, instead of down.

Still, they found time to enjoy their surroundings.

“We thought it was just going to be a river of mud,” Warren said at a Sept. 22 presentation at REI, the outdoor equipment store, in Bloomington. “We found it unbelievably beautiful.”

After they finished the Minnesota River stretch (335 miles), they started on the Red River on June 25, where Raiho said the paddling was “easy but pretty boring.” They finished the Red River leg on July 16, beginning on the massive Lake Winnipeg on July 19.

Two people, many spirits

Both Raiho and Warren raved about the kindness of the people they met along the way. From meals to lodging, generous support was everywhere, like in Montevideo, MN, where a farmer offered them his retrofitted silo—complete with satellite TV—for the night.

“We had to switch the mentality of our trip,” Warren said. “Maybe we should eat this home-cooked meal.”

The trip allowed Raiho and Warren to display generosity of their own, fundraising for YMCA Camp Menogyn, where the pair met and became friends.

As of Sept. 12, when the most recent numbers were available, they had raised $1600, Raiho said. And at the Sept. 22 presentation at REI, they auctioned off a new Langford Prospector canoe, just like the one they used on the trip, which retails for $3,570 at shopcanoeing.com.

Jack Stone, owner of Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply in Grand Marais, MN, gave Raiho and Warren the canoe for their trip after they quickly won him over. Raiho sent him an email several months ago explaining their plan for the trip.

“The first thing that (appealed to me) was that they were taking the route Eric Sevareid took in Canoeing with the Cree,” Stone said. “As a young man I read the book and it really spoke to me. After sitting down with them and listening … I was so impressed. It was a no-brainer (to give them the canoe). They didn’t let me down.”

Indeed they didn’t, but it wasn't easy.

There were the thousands of miles. There was the changing weather. But it may have been the uncertainty that faced them at times that may have been most challenging.

Warren said there was one day on Lake Winnepeg that was so foggy that “it was the first time I had ever paddled … without being able to see land.”

But the duo persevered and eventually completed the journey. And as a bonus, the trip taught them a valuable lesson, too.

“I think the biggest thing we took from it … [was that] if nature was telling us to stay back, stay back,” Raiho said. “I learned that you shouldn’t push yourself on wilderness trips.”