Sevareid revisited

Canoeists to tackle journalist's 1930 journey

By Tim Krohn

Todd Foster and Scott Miller hope their canoe trip past Mankato goes better than it did for the young Eric Sevareid 75 years ago.

Sevareid, one of America’s best-known journalists, recounted in his book how he and his friend’s 2,250-mile river voyage nearly ended early on as they approached a bridge in Mankato.

“The river narrowed to a small channel through which the water poured with a foaming rush. Recklessly we decided to attempt to pole the canoe up through the channel ... That was our mistake,” wrote Sevareid in “Canoeing with the Cree.”

Their canvas and wood canoe was battered by a concrete bridge pier, but Sevareid and Walter C. Port got past Mankato and arrived months later at Hudson Bay.

Foster, of St. Cloud, and Miller, of St. Paul, will set their canoe in the Minnesota River this spring to retrace the trip made by the 17-year-old Sevareid in 1930. The idea was planted when Foster ran across Sevareid’s book last summer.

“I read it and said, ‘Wow.’ I told Scott he should read it and we should do this trip.”

The two will start at Fort Snelling on the Mississippi, canoe up the Minnesota River, go north down the Red River to Lake Winnipeg, and then through a series of rivers and lakes in Canada to their final destination of York Factory, a former fur-trading post on Hudson Bay.

They will leave in early May and hope to finish the trip by late August, about 110 days later.

Sevareid and Port were the first, and among only a handful of people since, to make the journey from the Mississippi to Hudson Bay entirely by water. (See related story.)

Paddling upstream

Foster and Miller are avid outdoorsmen who know each other through work at a winter Boy Scout camp in northern Minnesota. Committing to a long summer of canoeing, and the related loss of income, was not easy.

“We’re both 28 and should be settling down and have real 9-5 jobs,” Foster said.

Miller, who is single, is a substitute teacher and camp director. Foster is married and an emergency medical technician in St. Cloud.

The trip, coinciding with the anniversary of Sevareid’s trip, quickly grew into a bigger endeavor that is drawing media attention. The men created a Web site — www.hudsonbayexpedition.com — where they are promoting the trip and will provide journal and photo updates during the voyage. Sponsorships have come in to cover some of the costs of equipment and supplies.

They will use a 45-pound Weenonah brand canoe made of lightweight Kevlar. A laptop computer, a solar panel for battery-charging, and a satellite phone will allow them to update their Web page every few days of the trip.

Although experienced canoeists, they’ve never attempted a trip nearly this long. They took a weeklong class on whitewater canoeing in preparation for some of the faster rapids on the Canadian end of the trip.

The start of the trip, paddling against the current of the 332-mile-long Minnesota River, will be slow going. “We’ll average 12 to 17 miles a day going upstream. On the Red River and Lake Winnipeg and the last dash to the bay, we’ll make anywhere from 25 to 45 miles a day,” Foster said.

Miller said the last half of the trip, in the remote Canadian wilderness, will be the most dangerous, “But the thing with the Minnesota (River) is we’ll be going upstream. It’s a formidable physical challenge.”

The two have been conditioning for the trip through weightlifting, running and swimming.

They expect to spend about 26 days to get up the Minnesota River.

If there is spring flooding that prevents them from making progress up the Minnesota, they will delay the start a couple of weeks.

“We’re leaving early in the spring so we have some extra time built in,” Foster said.

They also want to leave earlier than Sevareid and Port did to avoid another problem. “Sevareid left on June 16 and they ran into things freezing up when they got to Hudson Bay.”

The pair hope to spend a day or so in Mankato (mid May), Fargo, and Grand Forks. They are coordinating with local canoeing groups to line up some type of public event at the three cities.

Remote and wild

Miller said the trip from Lake Winnipeg to Hudson Bay will be the most dangerous.

Lake Winnipeg, up to 30 miles wide and 300 miles long, is remote and whips up storms quickly.

“The big problem there is rock jetties that go out a half mile or more from shore,” Miller said. When waves come up, the treacherous rocks are hard to see.

“That’s almost what did Sevareid in. They almost crashed into the rocks, but a big wave carried them over. It would have been the end of their trip, or worse.”

“You have to know when to wait it out on shore, maybe for a few days, until it’s calm. But even then, the waves can come up in an instant,” Miller said.

The area from Lake Winnipeg to York Factory is even more remote. Besides a few Cree Indian villages and fishing camps, there are few people or roads.

Their final destination, York Factory, a Canadian national historic site, still contains the 171-year-old fur processing building. It’s the largest wooden structure in Canada built on permafrost (permanently frozen ground). The only way in or out is by canoe or bush plane.

A few Canadian park officials and Cree Indians live around York Factory. “The park rangers’ cabins are all covered with barbed-wire to keep the polar bears out,” Miller said.

Once they get to York Factory, they will fly to a rail line and take the train back to Winnipeg.

Miller admits he thinks about all that could go wrong: storms, rapids, breaking an ankle. But he says he and Foster have no second thoughts.

“It’s like a Huck Finn adventure. I’m completely excited about it.”

For more information on their trip, visit www.hudsonbayexpedition.com