LIFE

Cathedral grads prep for Gulf-to-Arctic adventure

Ann Wessel
awessel@stcloudtimes.com
  • Two of the canoeists have led Les Voyageurs canoe expeditions
  • Part of the challenge in North America? Finding new ways to explore familiar routes
  • Supplies include about 250 pounds of hot cereal and 130 pounds of pasta.

Most of the 5,200-mile Gulf-to-Arctic paddle traverses well-traveled, even densely populated corridors as it bisects North America. But as far as the six friends planning a nine-month expedition know, no one's ever done this 11-river route all at once, or in this order.

"I think this trip affords us unique paddling experiences. For instance, I've never paddled in a snowstorm," Winchell Delano said, a hint of excitement edging into his voice.

Rediscovering North America: A Journey From the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean is set to launch Jan. 2 from the Mississippi Delta.

Delano, 30, was seeking a challenge to top 2012's four-person, 129-day, 2,600-mile Pacific Ocean-to-Hudson bay Trans-Territorial Canoe Expedition organized by fellow Cathedral High School grad Peter Marshall. Avalanches, against-the-current hauls and polar bear watches marked that trip. The resulting documentary earned an IMAX award and $25,000.

Winchell Delano, (left to right) Adam Trigg and Dan Flynn fit skirts on their canoes that will travel the 5,200-mile Gulf-to-Arctic canoe trip at Delano's home near Cold Spring Monday, Oct. 20. Six friends will set off in January on the nine month expedition.

The challenge

This time, Delano will travel with fellow Cathedral grads Adam Trigg, Dan Flynn and John Keaveny plus Iowa natives Jarrad Moore and Luke Kimmes. All but Kimmes had worked together at Second Nature, a Utah-based wilderness therapy program. All four Minnesotans have experience paddling in the Arctic.

"We were thinking about what we could do bigger and better, and all we could come up with logistically was making it longer. ... It was Adam's bright idea to paddle up the Mississippi, up the Minnesota, down the Red — just add a quick 2,200 miles to the trip," Delano said.

Fred Rupp founded Sartell-based Les Voyageurs — a program that offers high school students monthlong leadership-building paddles in the Canadian wilderness — and knows Delano, Trigg and Flynn through that program.

"He (Delano) can see the fun in the challenge. Some people see work in challenge. He sees the fun in challenge. For him, it's going to be exciting — even the hard things are going to be exciting," Rupp said.

On a sunny October afternoon, Delano, Trigg and Flynn assembled at the home of Delano's parents to start packing food and work out other trip details.

Delano can pull off major expeditions because he's laid-back yet organized and able to anticipate hardships, Rupp said.

Delano, 30, last summer led a 45-day Les Voyageurs trip on the Coppermine River, which runs through Nunavut. Trigg, 28, also has guided for the program; Flynn, 26, who will handle the cameras for the planned documentary, has participated.

Rupp said the three will complement each other. If Delano is the planner, then Trigg is the MacGyver and Flynn is the peacemaker.

"If something breaks, if there's a challenge with stuff, (Adam is) the guy," Rupp said. "Not that the other guys can't, but Adam's the one most likely to come up with the most time-efficient solution to the problem."

"(Dan) is a very softspoken, kind person," Rupp said. "He's going to keep situations mild when they otherwise wouldn't be."

For experienced adventurers — while the Iowans have done only short canoe trips, they're rock climbers and long-distance bicyclists — Rupp said it's the unexpected challenges, not the daily rigors, that prove to be life-changing.

On this trip, that might include snow in the Midwest, low water levels in northern Canada, strong winds that put paddling on hold.

"It's kind of something that becomes a part of who you are, too, that yearning for adventure," Rupp said.

Flynn, (left to right) Trigg and Delano start boxing the food they’ve arranged by meal. Pasta is among the staples.

The preparation

The garage smelled like chili powder.

Organized by meal, the neat rows of plastic bags containing pasta, rice, beans, quinoa, textured vegetable protein (less bulky and lighter than dehydrated meat) and trail mix formed a horseshoe on the garage floor. A few large jars of peanut butter stood in one corner.

Fruit jerky and candy bars were on the way.

The crew will have about 270 pounds of nuts, 250 pounds of hot cereal, 130 pounds of pasta and 25 pounds of freeze-dried tomato powder.

Spices will flavor the otherwise tasteless mainstays.

Food is one of the big expenses. Delano budgeted about $23,000 for the trip; the crew has spent less than $7,000 to date.

They've planned 16 or 17 resupply points; 25 days is the longest stretch between drops.

Before the launch, the crew will take the three Wenonah Spirit II canoes on the lake to see how they maneuver with a full load.

Delano has assembled about 35 1:250,000 scale maps for the more remote regions.

They've learned from experience. "We were naive," Delano said of mapping the Trans-Territorial route. For example, the crew started in a national park, believing the route would be well-marked and National Geographic maps would be sufficient. Avalanches obscured the route.

The crew will rely on Google maps for part of this trip, too. But even the most up-to-date maps and research can't determine how melt, water or weather conditions will alter a route.

Sometimes even the well-mapped rivers leave questions. For example, Delano saw the notation "channelized, do not recommend for paddling" on a stretch of the Minnesota River near Ortonville. He's not quite sure what that means.

"You telling us that now?" Flynn said.

The where

The crew only recently learned about a 19-kilometer Saskatchewan portage.

"But that's part of the fun, right?" Delano said.

"That's kind of how it's been, though," Flynn said.

"That's how he got me roped into this trip. He told me, 'Do you want to go on this four-month trip with me?' Flynn said. "Yeah, sure, sounds great. Then the next time I heard about it was five months, then I overheard him telling someone else and it was seven months. And now it's nine months."

"But it's been a firm nine months for a while," Delano said.

"So I hope it doesn't turn into 10 months, 11," said Flynn, the only one of the crew leaving a girlfriend behind.

The nine-month schedule includes a 30-day cushion.

The plan is to reach Bathurst Inlet by Sept. 1. But they've got food for another 30 days in case weather, injuries or other circumstances slow them down. They've also got alternate routes planned.

Cellphone service should last for the first 3,000 miles. That will take them from the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana — starting with the Atchafalaya River, and connecting to the Mississippi, the Minnesota and eventually the Red — all the way to Lake Winnipeg.

It'll be an upstream paddle, about 1,700 miles upstream, until they reach the Red River, which is why Trigg lists the Red among the spots he's most looking forward to seeing.

All along the route, they plan to update daily progress with a SPOT GPS navigation system. Once they get farther into Canada, a satellite phone will be their main form of emergency communication. Delano is planning monthly blogs.

Collectively, the group is most looking forward to the Coppermine River, a Canadian Heritage River that Delano described as a classic whitewater route chosen partly because it empties into the Arctic at a community from which they can fly out.

Rediscovering North America runs through 10 states and five provinces.

"With the places they're going, any of those places could be relatively easy or extremely difficult," Rupp said. "The hardest thing is they don't know what will happen."

Trigg, (left to right) Flynn and Delano discuss how the route evolved and why they tacked on another 2,200 miles to make the trip more challenging.

The why

Expedition types like to put lines on maps, Rupp knows.

It's difficult to stop.

"It's not a hobby. It's not an interest. It's not a pursuit. I don't know what it is. But as soon as you do a two-week trip in the Boundary Waters, you want to do a one-month trip, you want to go bigger and better, longer and harder," Delano said.

For him, this could be the trip to end all trips.

Or at least the expedition-length ones.

"I was hoping the last trip would be all the wild oats I needed to sow, and I would have a career, a desk job, a dog — maybe a girlfriend, I don't know. But I went right back to work at the same place I used to work and made progress there."

This trip could be his biggest. "And from then on it'll be more about rivers that I can travel to by plane and ... expeditions that are remote and beautiful and stuff like that."

Trigg, who said he planned to return to Utah after the expedition, expressed a similar goal.

"I kind of hope that this kind of ends my draw for a big canoe trip like this," said Trigg, whose long-distance wilderness paddles have included the Hayes, Back and Pigeon rivers. "I'm excited to see what it feels like to finish, if we do finish, and that sense of accomplishment that will come with finishing this route."

As the cameraman, Flynn knows his return will be filled with editing.

"I hope we complete the route, get all the way through. Lose some weight — no, that was a joke," Flynn said. "But I guess I haven' really thought that hard about it."

While the lines on these particular maps have been traced and retraced by generations of paddlers, Delano sees a challenge in finding new ways to explore even the most populated segments.

And he's started thinking about the next trip.

"It's always like, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's already over.' " Trigg said. "I know that this is a lot of work but me personally, I look at this as a nine-month vacation. How many people get to go on a nine-month vacation?

"Granted, there is a lot of work during this trip, but it's still really enjoyable for the majority of it. There's days that'll suck but they don't usually outweigh the ones that are amazing," Trigg said.

Follow Ann Wessel on Twitter @AnnWessel.