Today, Amy and Dave Freeman embark on a year-long expedition through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota. They will camp and travel the park, resupplied along the way by friends and fellow campers. They seek to highlight the value of the BWCAW amid what they see as the dangers of proposed mining projects near these federally-protected lands. (PHOTO: screen shot from promotional video)
At this hour, Ely and Grand Marais-area educational adventurers Dave and Amy Freeman are entering the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That, in itself, isn’t very surprising. The Freemans make a living showing people the BWCA while going on educational adventures all over the world. But one thing is unusual: they aren’t coming back for a year.
Starting today on the first day of fall, the Freemans will spend four seasons camping in the BWCA, moving from site to site throughout the park and relaying their adventures back through their website.
That’s a tough task. Camping in all conditions is something many people do, but the sustained effort it takes to stay out in the snow and cold, through rainy days and sudden storms, is something most people would never do.
As we’ve written here before, the Freemans are going on this adventure to bring attention to the dangers they feel are posed by the proximity of controversial new copper-nickel mines near the BWCA. While this topic is very divisive here at my blog, the passion required for a trip of this kind is remarkable. The couple will return to Ely on Sept. 22, 2016.
Here is a video Dave and Amy Freeman produced to preview their year in the BWCA.
A Year in the Wilderness – Bear Witness from Save The BWCA on Vimeo.
I wonder if we can get folks to pay for a year of following around an unemployed miner, his wife and 2 kids with cameras to show the struggle of not having a job? Let’s watch the soul sucking act of having to go to one of the many Government programs and beg for someone else’s money you didn’t earn. I doubt it because that is not as cool as a couple living in the woods.
If Ken can’t find mining job in Northern Minnesota, he must be not be trying hard enough, or he’s too lazy to move…
https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Mining&l=Minnesota&mna=5&aceid=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8vqGBhC_ARIsADMSd1D2cpGVTG5kT28LNmWexvNgmIO4r-aiNP1J60zFTg3Z26dfautjcdsaAnqZEALw_wcB
Either way, if Ken is having that much difficulty finding a mining job, it sounds like Ken should think about a career change.
I would also add: if Ken does land a job trashing the environment, wildlife and resources around a protected wilderness area, how about we make a film following around all of the displaced and jobless people who rely on the BWCA wilderness for their livelihoods in the towns of Ely, Tower, Cook, Grand Marais. We could also include all of the people now unemployed by lodges and outfitters up and down the Gunflint Trail, all because Ken, his wife and 2 kids misguidedly awaited for a temporary environmentally poisonous mining job within watershed of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area and Superior National Forest. Or do you only have issues when a miner is jobless, and you couldn’t care less about anyone else in Northeast Minnesota?