Redwood Falls
Hudson Bay or bust: The canoe trip of a lifetime
By Erik Posz / Staff Writer

Scott Miller and Todd Foster are on the trip of a lifetime. The two men began their trek on May 1, leaving from Miller's backyard, which has the Sauk River running through it.

The pair hopes to complete a 2,250 mile canoe voyage by Aug. 20 when they reach Hudson Bay.
Their trip will take them from the Sauk, to the Mississippi, into the Minnesota, up to Big Stone Lake where they will portage into Lake Travers.

Seven miles more down stream the Red River begins which flows north into Canada.

They will make their way from there to Lake Winn-ipeg. They will then follow several lakes and rivers from Norway House, which is on Lake Winnipeg to York Fac-tory into Hudson Bay.

The trip came about almost by accident.

If Foster hadn't read the book Canoeing with the Cree, by Eric Sevareid, the trip may never have taken place.

"Scott and I work together at a winter camp for the Boy Scouts," Foster said. "In the process of doing some research for the camp I came across this book by Eric Sevareid. So, I checked it out and read it cover to cover that night.

"The next morning I called (Scott) and said, 'Hey Scott, you've got to read this book and then let's do the trip.'"

Miller and Foster's trip is a re-creation of the 1930 trip taken by Eric Sevareid (17) and Walter Port (19).

Sevareid and Port made the 2,250 mile trek with much less planning and log-istical support than Brad and Scott.

However, Sevareid and Port almost died several times on the trip.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of that trip which resulted in Sevareid's best selling book.

"At first I thought (Todd) was crazy," Scott said. "The first thing I thought of was, 'how am I going to escape my life for that long to take the trip?' But I figured, in this life you only live once, so you might as well do what you want to do."

Miller and Foster quickly jumped into action. Miller said that once they committed to making the trip, things began to fall into place.

The pair did research, talked with others who had made long-distance canoe trips, started a Web site and found sponsors.

"We were going to make the trip last year, however, we discovered that this year is the 75th anniversary of Sevareid and Port making their trip," Miller said. "For me, the purpose of the trip is to put all of my wilderness skills to the test.

"That and having left from my backyard, we can say there is adventure in your own backyard."

Miller said that the biggest challenge he faced was saying yes in the first place.

"The trip has been a lot of fun," he said. "I actually kind of got sick of all the planning and preparation. We spent about a year and a half getting everything lined up."