BRINGING THE OUTDOORS INTO THE CLASSROOM PHOTOS AND TEXT BY BRYAN HANSEL
“T
HERE’S A BEAR,” Amy Freeman whispered, pointing at the rocky shore- line. I scanned the Canadian Shield granite, hoping to see its hunched, black
silhouette walking along the edge of the lake. It wasn’t until Amy and husband Dave’s Kevlar canoe clunked against a boulder at the portage that I spotted the bear. Unfazed by the sound, it poked its nose into the water and pushed around stones, looking for food before the long northern winter set in. “I hope Fennell doesn’t see it,” said Amy. The Freeman’s 104-pound sled dog
has accompanied them on the last 3,900 miles of a three-year, 11,700-mile journey across North America by canoe, kayak and dogsled. They call this trip the North American Odyssey. I joined them in Voyageurs National Park in October 2011 for the last 20 days of
the fourth stage of the expedition, which they hope to complete this year by paddling to Florida. Together, we would paddle to Lake Superior following the Minnesota- Ontario border through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA). When we started portaging, the bear turned into the birch forest and ambled away
over a ground covered with the season’s last fallen yellow leaves. According to the map, the campsite we wanted was on the opposite side of a peninsula in the exact direction that the bear headed. By the time we paddled to the campsite, the low-hanging cumulus clouds covering
the sky were turning pink with the setting sun. As Amy placed a foot on the sloping granite, I noticed the bear walking away from us. “We can get another campsite if you want,” offered Dave. Too tired to paddle
any more, I said no and we set up camp for the night. Following a routine that they developed over the last year and a half of travel, Amy set up their tent and rolled out their sleeping bags while Dave started cooking dinner.
ef T
he North American Odyssey is a Wilderness Classroom Organization (WCO) expedition. Dave founded WCO in 2001 with the simple idea of sharing his ex-
peditions with classrooms online. Now based in a suburb of Chicago, the nonprofit’s mission is to introduce elementary and middle school students to exploration and wilderness travel, and use those themes to help improve their core academic skills and appreciation for the outdoors. Each year, the Freemans travel to a remote corner of the globe, from the Amazon
to the Arctic. Once there, they interact with over 65,000 students and 1,800 teachers through journal entries, videos, podcasts, field interviews, lesson plans and interac- tive polls sent via their laptops and satellite Internet connections.
www.canoerootsmag.com 43
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