Preparation

Since about mid-April, Jonathon (Taylor) and I have been meeting just about every week to begin our preparations for our big expedition starting a year from now in early May 2024. Taylor has been busy finishing up his schoolwork for the spring semester, as well as starting an internship in the twin cities area for the summer. Zach is in his busy season with the start of paddling season and prepping crews for their own expeditions north this summer with Les Voyageurs Inc.

In our preparations, we have finished laminating our maps, while marking mileage out on them and determining resupply locations, looking at historical maps of rivers, and jotting down helpful pieces of information we have acquired from paddlers, books, and online resources.

We have drafted out our rough menu and meals for next year as well. We have started to purchase some of this food and will begin bagging a lot of this food soon to prep it into the different meals and waterproof bags. Later this summer or early fall, we plan to have the food finalized and drop off our resupply boxes at their various locations while we are still able to drive north before winter returns.

In addition to the lengthy food preparations, we will be going through all our personal and group gear soon to determine what needs to be replaced or purchased. Our aim is to have virtually everything packed and prepped by late summer so we have minimal to do once the cold weather arrives. There are a lot of preparations to do for a trip of this length, but we are enjoying the process and very excited about all that is ahead!

Z & J