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Bridging Oceans

Bridging Oceans

Released Friday, 22nd November 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Bridging Oceans

Bridging Oceans

Bridging Oceans

Bridging Oceans

Friday, 22nd November 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

With the holidays approaching, most of us would

0:02

give powder days if the weather would cooperate.

0:05

Instead, we're trying to figure out what our belay

0:07

partner could possibly need. This year, you

0:10

can give the gift of the diaries by sending

0:12

a Diaries Plus membership to someone who needs a

0:14

little inspiration in their life. Your

0:17

friend, your loved one, your ski buddy, they

0:19

get a subscription to Diaries Plus. That's

0:22

Gift One. Now, here's

0:25

Gift Two. You're also giving

0:27

something to the community. For

0:29

the last year, listeners have been doing

0:31

the heavy lifting. We weren't even

0:33

sure if we were going to make it through this year,

0:35

but y'all have stepped up. A lot

0:37

of you have said that this project matters, that

0:40

this project maybe even helped nudge you in

0:42

a different direction in life, and that you

0:44

hope others might have the same chance. There's

0:47

a lot of dark stuff out there, and you've

0:49

told us that the diaries is a bright spot,

0:52

so now you can give it. Diaries

0:54

Plus, the gift that gives twice.

0:57

Once for a friend, once for the community.

1:00

So, check it out. It's super easy to do.

1:02

We've put a link in the show notes. Happy

1:05

gifting. Cordelia, welcome.

1:08

I feel like people are going to think this is

1:10

a rerun, but it's not. It's

1:13

not a rerun. I'm here in the flesh. You're

1:15

back for a hot second. It's

1:18

good to be back. We were texting

1:20

last week, the week of the election. I

1:22

just appreciated you reaching out so

1:24

much, and we were

1:26

talking about how we miss sometimes these

1:29

opportunities to debrief and start the

1:31

show. And

1:33

I think you said, well, let's just do it again. There's

1:35

nothing stopping us. Well, I

1:37

realized you and Becca

1:39

and the diaries was really

1:41

my bedrock for

1:44

so many significant events that happened during my time at

1:46

the Dripag Diaries. Yeah. Like, we

1:48

went through COVID together, the Black Lives Matter

1:50

protests in George Floyd, the 2020 election, January

1:52

6th. Like,

1:55

all these things happened while

1:57

I was a producer at the Dripag Diaries. And

2:00

we just had these moments

2:02

because of our production schedule

2:05

to check in and reflect and

2:07

process how we were feeling

2:09

and what was going on in the world in

2:11

the context of the stories that we were telling. And

2:14

yeah, it was just these beautiful opportunities for

2:16

us to connect and talk to

2:18

people, to make music and

2:21

to process these things together as a community

2:24

because it's actually really hard

2:26

to process alone. It's

2:28

funny how those years, I feel like we

2:30

were all on this little tiny boat in

2:32

this big ocean together, all pulling

2:35

in the same direction, just being like, we're

2:37

on a little tiny dinghy, we're going for

2:39

it. And it was like, those were very

2:41

memorable, powerful years, I felt like. They

2:43

were, yeah. I feel like last week,

2:46

just with all the turmoil that was happening

2:48

in our country, all I wanted to hear

2:50

was the Dirtbag Diaries theme music and Yurin

2:52

Becca's voice on the phone. It just like

2:54

that sense of familiarity. It

2:56

was like a homesick feeling, which made me realize,

2:59

even though I haven't been on the team for

3:01

a couple of years, how much

3:03

duct tape and beer is still home

3:05

for me. You

3:07

have left the diaries to embark

3:09

on your own incredible

3:12

community building endeavor, the Empathy

3:14

Theater Project. You're

3:17

two years in, how is it

3:19

going? It's going great.

3:21

We are in the middle of producing

3:23

a musical right now that

3:25

we workshopped last year.

3:27

It's called We're Still Here. And it's

3:30

actually the whole inspiration for the musical,

3:32

which we talked about on the diaries a couple of years ago,

3:35

was the story that I reported about Oak

3:37

Flat on an Endangered Spaces

3:39

episode, I think in 2021. And

3:43

it's a musical that has evolved

3:45

over several years and has

3:47

been co-authored in community with indigenous

3:50

people out here in Colorado. And

3:53

it's about a indigenous family

3:55

fighting to save their sacred

3:57

river against a proposed copper mine.

4:00

mine that's threatening to destroy their

4:02

sacred ceremonial grounds. And

4:04

then it's also about a rural mining

4:06

family who is really struggling economically and

4:08

is viewing this mine

4:11

as their lifeline. And so it's

4:13

kind of an Oak Flat meets

4:15

Romeo and Juliet type of story

4:18

that we've put on stage with a lot of

4:20

music and we're doing our second production of it

4:23

now. So we ran it last year in Boulder. We

4:26

actually sold out every show. We ran it

4:28

eight shows. That's incredible. Yeah. Had

4:30

a great run and then we workshopped it all

4:32

year. So it's been edited for

4:35

another year, like gone through a huge revision

4:37

on the script, all of the music. And

4:40

now it's in an even more solid place than it

4:42

was last year. And we have a brand new cast

4:44

this year and we just were in week three of

4:46

rehearsals. So it's pretty exciting. It's busy

4:48

around here, but really fun.

4:50

You know, I think the

4:53

one thing I've admired watching you go

4:55

through this process is that you

4:58

as a creative, as somebody who's

5:00

creating art and trying to bring

5:02

people together through that, is

5:05

that you're not creating something that that's simply

5:07

black and white. With your sort

5:09

of storytelling, with your music,

5:12

you're sort of prepared to kind of be like

5:14

the world is a complex place and

5:17

many things can be true at once. And

5:20

I really appreciate that. Well,

5:23

I think it's hard to

5:26

do, but it's needed to build

5:28

empathy for people and

5:30

perspectives that you don't consider

5:32

to be your own. And I

5:36

think that we as artists, I know my

5:38

whole team really perceives this painful

5:41

rift in our democracy right now and

5:44

that it's getting more and more

5:46

and more polarized. And that's

5:48

putting all of our features at risk

5:50

in certain ways. We

5:52

started Empathy Theater Project to try

5:55

to counterbalance that with the

5:57

arts and that we

5:59

create original art. productions that try

6:01

to tell multiple perspectives of

6:03

a single story. So we look

6:05

at polarizing issues, we look at divisive

6:08

issues, and then we, I mean it's

6:10

very like journalistic based, just given my

6:12

background, and we do a lot of

6:14

research to try to understand where everybody

6:16

is coming on this issue and where

6:19

every stakeholder has humanity

6:22

in certain fights and certain issues, and then

6:24

we bring those stories to the stage through

6:27

spoken word and through music

6:29

in a way that hits you just totally differently

6:31

on a different emotional level than like

6:33

seeing someone's irate Facebook post or reading

6:35

a newspaper article from

6:37

your whatever source of

6:39

media is swung towards your bias,

6:43

you know, and so we

6:45

try at least, we strive to equally represent

6:47

multiple sides of the story. It's not always

6:49

easy, but I do think that our audiences

6:52

have really resonated with the

6:54

work that we're doing and found it to be

6:56

a breath of fresh air in

6:58

this like hostile polarized environment that we're in.

7:00

And I think our world needs it because,

7:03

you know, issues are never black and white, and

7:06

we all have to work on our capacity to

7:08

empathize, regardless of who is elected president, you know,

7:10

we all have to play the long game here

7:13

for our country. Yeah. And

7:15

for the sake of just

7:17

being humans. Yeah. Well,

7:19

and I think the dirtbag diaries is similar

7:22

in the way that we sort of share missions to

7:25

tell stories and to create bonds to

7:28

important people in places that we want to

7:30

protect into the future because we

7:33

all want to get outside. We all want to be

7:35

around people that we love, and it's

7:38

going to take work to be able to do that. Yeah,

7:40

I saw this this quote pop up in

7:42

a couple of different places in the last

7:44

few weeks. It's from E.B. White, the famed

7:47

author who wrote Charlotte's Web

7:49

and Stuart Little and he was also an

7:51

incredible essayist. Basically is this,

7:53

it's every morning I wake up torn

7:55

between the desire to save the world

7:58

and the to

8:00

savor it. This makes it hard to

8:02

plan the day, but if we forget

8:04

to savor the world, what

8:06

possible reason do we have for saving it?

8:09

In a way, the savoring must come

8:11

first. And that's

8:14

what I wanted to do today. I wanted

8:16

to take a moment to savor

8:19

difficult things, to try

8:21

hard things, whether that's building a theater

8:24

project that's designed to create more empathy in

8:26

our world, whether it's putting

8:28

on the show for 18 years,

8:30

right? Or taking

8:33

an incredible journey through

8:36

wild wild landscapes. Because

8:38

I think audacious projects, being

8:41

in the toil of hard work, some

8:43

risk, maybe some fear, that makes

8:46

you savor your world and

8:49

your people even more. When you're

8:51

building something, in my experience, whether that's a mega

8:54

outdoor adventure or a theater production,

8:56

somehow gets you closer to the

8:58

heartbeat of the natural world and

9:00

the heartbeat of humanity. Today, producer

9:03

Laura Azaza brings us a

9:05

story about an audacious vision. It

9:07

begins with a red canoe at the

9:09

Pacific Ocean in Hanes, Alaska, and a

9:11

simple question with a complex answer. How

9:14

do you connect rivers and portages

9:16

over the continental divide, all

9:18

the way to the Arctic Ocean 1000

9:21

miles away, looking at maps and connecting

9:23

a web of waterways. Jared Gents and

9:25

Nikki Chu thought that they had found

9:27

a solution. The three and

9:29

a half month journey that followed can

9:31

only be described as

9:33

completely freaking epic. I've

9:36

never thought of canoeing as an extreme sport until

9:38

now. So go dream up an audacious

9:40

idea, do the work to make it happen

9:43

and savor that process, savor

9:45

the friendships in the world around us. And

9:48

then learn from that experience. And I imagine

9:50

there will be a moment in the

9:53

future when challenge finds you and

9:55

those learnings earned in the midst of

9:57

that effort, maybe even fear. will

10:00

come in handy. I'm Cordelia Zars. I'm

10:03

Fitzcahol. Do you want to say it?

10:05

And you're listening to the Dirtbag Diaries. Thanks

10:09

for being here. I'm

10:31

Jared Gents. I

10:41

live in South Lake Tahoe, California. And

10:45

I grew up in Michigan. I'm

10:47

Nikki Chu. I live in South Lake Tahoe as

10:49

well. And I

10:51

grew up in Ottawa, Canada. In the summer

10:53

of 2022, Nikki and Jared

10:55

set off on a big adventure.

10:57

I had always wanted to do

11:00

a big canoe trip in

11:03

the west or in the north part of Canada. Nikki

11:06

had grown up hearing stories about

11:08

people paddling on the Nahanni River

11:10

in the northwestern territories. It

11:13

flows through the Nahanni National Park, which

11:15

in 1978 became

11:17

one of the first UNESCO World Heritage

11:19

sites. And that's

11:22

where the idea started from, was just like,

11:25

how can we link different rivers

11:28

together to join the

11:30

Pacific and the Arctic Ocean?

11:32

So Nikki and Jared started gathering

11:34

a bunch of maps and scoping out rivers. We

11:36

started with looking at the Blackstone River, which is

11:39

kind of like an iconic river in the Yukon.

11:42

And I was like, all right, like what

11:44

flows into the Blackstone and out of the

11:46

Blackstone? And we realized that it

11:49

could join with the Pacific Ocean. When

11:52

they started dreaming up this trip, the

11:54

pandemic was in full swing. And there

11:56

was really nothing to do but research and draw

11:58

lines on maps and... We kind of

12:00

had our little war room with pictures and

12:03

maps and all of our ideas spread

12:05

out on the wall and on the floor. And

12:07

it was kind of this perfect storm of creativity

12:10

and having this trip grow into something

12:12

bigger and bigger. And as soon

12:14

as we thought like, oh man, this could be possible,

12:16

that ended up being the flagstone

12:19

idea that we sort of like ran

12:21

with. So we started just tracing all

12:23

the lines and connecting the dots and seeing how we

12:26

could maybe make it happen. Why

12:28

not just try it if we fail? It's

12:30

like no sweat off our backs. It'll be

12:32

a cool adventure no matter what. So

12:35

they moved beyond the maps, researching

12:37

the specifics of each river. And

12:39

then it was like a bit of

12:41

breaking each river down and each section

12:43

down to see like, okay, what are

12:45

you getting ourselves into here? What

12:48

they were getting themselves into was this. They'd

12:51

set off on their big red canoe, paddling

12:53

downstream for about 930 miles and upstream for

12:55

about 53. With additional travel

13:00

on land, they were looking at a 1,145 mile

13:02

journey over the course of three months to get

13:08

from Hanes, Alaska to

13:10

Tuk-Tuk-Tuk in Canada's Northwest

13:12

Territories. They'd put aside three

13:14

and a half months to have some

13:16

buffer. Every hurdle that we

13:18

came to were like, oh, there's like a

13:21

reasonable solution to that hurdle. So it just

13:23

felt like at every step it was like, oh, this

13:26

is still possible. Once they'd scoured the

13:28

maps for a path and chosen which

13:30

rivers would lead them from Hanes to

13:33

Tuk-Tuk-Tuk, they had to figure out what the

13:35

conditions were going to be like. They

13:37

read the trip reports by other paddlers,

13:40

but in a lot of cases, information

13:42

about the rivers was scarce. Sometimes

13:44

the available reports were a few years

13:46

old. Plus, they typically covered

13:48

only a portion of the rivers that people

13:50

tend to paddle on. Like the

13:53

Blackstone River, for example, is a

13:55

popular paddle spot, but people

13:57

tend to only paddle on half of it.

14:00

So there was zero beta for the

14:02

first 20 miles of their paddle. And

14:05

for some rivers, they found no trip reports

14:07

at all. So they

14:09

took the information that was available and

14:12

got friends and mentors involved. So

14:15

I had like flown over this

14:17

particular river and we got to see

14:19

like photos and little video

14:21

clips and we're like, okay, like

14:23

from what we can tell, this

14:25

looks possible. He's a pretty experienced whitewater

14:28

kayaker and rafter, but she hadn't

14:30

done many long canoe trips. As

14:32

for Jared, this would be his first

14:35

multi-day canoe trip, aside from a few

14:37

prep trips they'd made beforehand. The

14:39

longest canoe trip I'd probably done to that point was

14:42

two weeks. And so to

14:44

me, as soon as you

14:46

go beyond like that two week mark, it's

14:49

kind of like the same year. It's a bit

14:51

of extra logistics, but the

14:54

whole process is like not that different. This

14:57

was going to be a whole lot longer

14:59

than two weeks. For the

15:01

downstream portion, they plan to paddle 15

15:03

to 30 miles a day, depending on

15:05

the day, wind and water conditions. For

15:09

upstream paddle, they calculated they'd

15:11

go between four and seven

15:13

miles daily, depending on conditions.

15:16

They had to be prepared for anything. I

15:18

think we have the tendency to like weigh

15:20

over prepare for things, which I think served

15:22

us well. It just maybe meant that our bags were

15:25

a little too heavy with gear sometimes. On

15:27

any given portion of the trip, depending

15:29

on how much food they were taking,

15:32

they were carrying between 250 and 450 pounds. Along

15:37

the way, they'd planned four food

15:39

drops. We had planned

15:42

the trip for 2021 and

15:44

COVID was still like really an unknown

15:47

and we didn't want to be irresponsible

15:50

and like travel and communities up

15:52

there are much more isolated. Like

15:54

it just wasn't the right time to do it. So

15:56

I think like that was the first kind of big

15:58

hurdle to decide, okay. I think we are going

16:01

to push this year and we'll still try and do it

16:03

in 2022. Over

16:09

the span of that extra year, they

16:11

took the time to continue practicing using

16:13

their gear and spending time paddling whitewater

16:16

whenever they could. They

16:18

did several prep paddles in

16:20

Lake Tahoe and practiced portaging,

16:23

burying the boat and lining the boat.

16:26

They also got their wilderness first

16:28

response training and Jared

16:30

took two swiftwater rescue

16:32

courses. Then before

16:35

they knew it, their start date

16:37

June 1st was right around the

16:39

corner. Nikki, Jared, and

16:41

their dog Benson, who would be joining

16:43

them for the trip took about

16:46

a week and a half to drive north to

16:48

Canada. They stayed with

16:50

a friend in Whitehorse as they finished

16:52

organizing the food drop logistics. But

16:55

two days before we were supposed to leave, we were walking

16:58

him and a couple dogs and he was

17:00

getting chased by these like

17:03

three dogs and he turned around and

17:06

just slammed into a tree and he

17:08

ended up breaking

17:10

both his like dog

17:12

ACLs. And at first

17:14

we thought it was a spine and because

17:17

there's no surgeons in Whitehorse, we had to

17:19

fly him to Calgary to get double TPLO

17:21

surgery. And we

17:25

didn't really know if we should leave him or do the

17:27

trip without him or like

17:31

stay with him and forgo the trip altogether.

17:33

Nikki had a really tough time with

17:36

the decision because just two years before

17:38

when the trip planning started, she'd

17:40

been recovering from a torn ACL. Benson

17:44

was there through my knee surgery

17:46

and he was like the most

17:48

steadfast buddy. And then to

17:50

think about like leaving him with someone

17:52

else to rehab felt really

17:55

painful. At the

17:58

same time, they'd already postponed the their

18:00

trip once, and they'd

18:02

already set a bunch of logistics in

18:04

motion. We had, at this

18:06

point, already shipped all

18:09

of our drops off to further down the

18:11

river. We had things that were perishable that

18:13

we would have to replace, so financially it

18:15

would be difficult and in terms

18:18

of our day jobs, organizing the

18:20

time off work. They

18:22

found a facility that could provide

18:24

hands-on daily care for Benson with

18:27

PT, a water treadmill, and laser

18:29

therapy. So after about

18:31

two weeks of coordinating and making

18:33

sure Benson would be in good

18:35

hands, they decided to go ahead with

18:37

the trip. They set off on June

18:39

14. Starting

18:45

in the ocean was really important to us. From

18:48

Hidden Cove in Haines, they paddled

18:50

upstream towards the Chilkat River, which

18:52

makes its way under the towering

18:55

mountains of the Chilkat Range, teeming

18:57

with evergreens. Five

18:59

miles up the Chilkat River, they hopped

19:01

out of the boat and onto bikes.

19:06

The Chilkat doesn't connect to Kloony Lake,

19:08

so they pedaled their way to their

19:10

next stop, on bikes they'd carried in

19:12

the canoe. About a

19:14

week in, they got their first food drop and

19:16

had their bikes picked up. From

19:19

now on, they'd be traveling by canoe or

19:21

on foot. They got

19:23

ready to paddle and ready to

19:25

confront any conditions. On

19:27

Kloony Lake, there's a whole town that got wiped

19:29

out from a windstorm, and

19:32

so we just knew that

19:34

our timelines could shift because of delays

19:36

in weather or various different things. On

19:39

the lake, winds were mild and the water

19:41

was glassy. They paddled north,

19:44

towards the Chlouani River, spotting

19:46

lupin, eagles, and bear paw prints

19:49

along the way. Then,

19:52

they paddled down the Chlouani River,

19:54

towards the Donjek. Where

19:56

the Donjek River met the Chlouani, the

19:58

water started getting rougher. and

20:00

they felt the impacts of a big snow

20:02

year. On the rivers, the

20:05

Yukon had 200% of the snowfall that winter, and

20:09

so they were in flood for longer

20:12

than we had expected or anticipated. The

20:14

water levels didn't drop till like the

20:17

beginning of August, and so that changed

20:19

the nature of the trip. As

20:22

they paddled on the Donjek, which they connected to

20:24

the White River, they managed strong

20:26

rapids and above average water levels.

20:28

When they reached the Yukon River,

20:31

they found calmer waters on a

20:33

swift, silty river as they

20:36

paddled on towards Dawson City. That

20:38

was also where they encountered their first

20:41

bout of bad bugs. From

20:45

their tent, handfuls of

20:47

mosquitoes accumulated between the tent

20:49

and the rainfly. They

20:51

were about 530 miles into the

20:54

trip, close to halfway. North

20:57

of Dawson City, the cities and

20:59

towns are fewer and farther between.

21:02

In Dawson City, they'd post up in a

21:04

hotel to rest before setting

21:06

out upstream towards the Continental Divide

21:09

on the river that would prove to

21:11

be their biggest challenge yet, the

21:14

Chandin do. We've been in tricky

21:16

situations before, like having to suffer

21:19

sometimes over like, you know, a couple days, maybe

21:21

a week, but never to like,

21:24

I think the extent that we

21:26

actually did endure suffering. Several

21:28

of the rivers they'd traveled on

21:30

had gauges to measure water levels,

21:32

but not the Chandin do. So

21:35

they relied on scouting missions, photos,

21:37

and videos of a flyover taken

21:40

the previous fall. From

21:42

their prep, Nicky and Jared had expected

21:44

to encounter about five or six log

21:46

jams over the course of an 18-mile

21:49

stretch. Instead... I

21:51

think in the first probably four or five miles,

21:53

we passed like maybe 30 log jams.

21:57

It took us like eight hours to move, like six.

21:59

600 feet. These

22:02

log jams are made up of

22:04

a bunch of downed trees piled

22:06

up along different sections of a

22:08

river, creating dam-like obstacles. Branches

22:11

are sticking out in every direction, and

22:14

the water moving through the log jams

22:16

was fast. This

22:18

river looked a lot different, a

22:21

lot less meandering than what they'd seen

22:23

in the footage taken last fall. It

22:26

was really pushing much more straight

22:28

downhill. There wasn't as

22:31

many places to protect

22:33

you from the current or to be

22:35

in shallow water that just made

22:37

the log jams even more dangerous because the

22:40

current is flowing through them. They

22:42

had to carefully make their way around them. Where

22:45

there was an opening, they could ferry across

22:47

the river towards the opening and paddle through

22:49

it, or line the boat

22:51

and pull it upstream from the shore. What

22:54

made the Chande Aunu particularly difficult was

22:56

that there was a lot of overhanging

22:58

trees on the shoreline, so you're either

23:01

having to saw the trees themselves or

23:03

work around them. Often

23:05

they'd end up portaging around the log jams. Each

23:07

of the portages involved making two or

23:10

three trips to carry the boat and

23:12

all of the gear as they bushwacked

23:14

a trail alongside the river. If

23:17

they were in the water, they had to make

23:19

sure the boat angle was just right so they

23:21

wouldn't get swept downstream into the log jams. To

23:24

give you an idea of how strong the current

23:26

is, the water level was maybe up to our

23:28

thighs, and I had misplaced

23:30

my foot and the current swept me off

23:32

my feet. The only thing I

23:34

could hold onto is the canoe. If

23:37

Jared wasn't holding onto the canoe, I would have

23:39

just been swept downstream. I can remember

23:42

having to make a ferry across

23:44

maybe 50 feet

23:46

above a huge log jam where,

23:49

if we didn't make it, we were both ending

23:51

up in that log jam probably. Best

23:54

case scenario, we're able to jump out on top

23:56

and our canoe's getting sucked under and we're calling

23:58

a helicopter for rescue. to

30:00

just hanging out with friends. I just don't think about

30:02

it. I don't think about a change of clothes. It's

30:04

awesome. Dewar is also known

30:06

for integrating organic cotton, beechwood, and

30:08

eucalyptus fibers and recycled materials into

30:10

their products. With a range

30:13

of styles for both men and women,

30:15

Dewar's pants are passing the test of

30:17

owning fewer well-made things. So

30:19

whether you're wanting to upgrade your

30:21

wardrobe or looking for a holiday

30:23

gift, Dewar's sale runs through December

30:25

2nd. But don't doddle because items

30:28

will sell out. Go

30:31

to shopdewar.com backslash diaries.

30:33

That's shopdewar.com/diaries and say

30:36

50% off today. There's

30:39

a link in the show notes. Dewar

30:41

is built for doing. The

30:44

original plan had been to paddle 53 miles

30:47

up the Chandendu and stop at

30:50

Sila Pass, where they'd portage their

30:52

canoe and gear east, cross the

30:55

Continental Divide, and end up

30:57

on the Blackstone River. From

30:59

there, they'd head north, paddling

31:01

downstream towards the Peel River and

31:04

continued towards the Arctic. Instead,

31:06

they shuttled 150 kilometers to a point where the Blackstone

31:11

meets the highway, north

31:13

of Sila Pass, and started

31:15

paddling south. We upstreamed

31:17

again to the Continental

31:20

Divide because that was like one of the

31:22

big milestones of the trip, crossing the two

31:24

watersheds. And so upstreaming

31:26

on the Blackstone is like a completely

31:28

different experience. It's a lot less gray

31:31

to the river. It's a little

31:33

bit shallower. The water is a little bit warmer. It

31:35

was also incredibly blue from

31:38

ice and snowmelt. The

31:40

banks were lined with polished river

31:42

rocks where low-lying, hardy flowers

31:45

found places to grow. When

31:48

they reached Sila Pass, they hiked their

31:50

way to the Continental Divide. It felt

31:52

like redemption. It felt like

31:54

we had salvaged the trip. It felt like,

31:57

in our minds, we are still completing the route. as

32:02

much as we could. And Celapas was

32:04

just this magical place where

32:06

it didn't seem like anyone had been, and who

32:09

knows how long, and just

32:11

absolutely stunning terrain. There's mountains on

32:13

either side. It's

32:15

got tundra area, and there's amazing wildflowers

32:17

everywhere. And

32:21

we decided to swim in the river, and you

32:23

can see the glacier that's feeding the river, and

32:25

it's freezing cold, but just the idea that we're

32:27

choosing to be in freezing

32:29

cold water, and not being forced to be in

32:31

freezing cold water every day, to me

32:34

felt like the mood of the trip had

32:36

flipped. It rained a little

32:38

bit, and then there was

32:41

this gorgeous rainbow that formed, and

32:43

it was just so magical.

32:45

There's caribou, which is

32:48

cool to be that

32:50

in touch with nature, and the

32:52

surrounding, and like the earth, and all

32:55

of the seasons that get to occur in

32:57

that area. Once they'd

32:59

crossed the continental divide, they made their way

33:01

back towards the canoe on the banks of

33:04

the Blackstone River. At this point,

33:06

they downstreamed what they'd paddled up, and

33:09

continued on towards the Peel River. With

33:11

560 miles to go, they'd

33:14

continued downstream to the Arctic.

33:17

They still expected to have one and a half

33:19

to two months left to go. Though

33:21

the challenge of the Chandendu was

33:23

over, there were still some tricky

33:26

sections ahead. The next

33:28

was Aberdeen Canyon, along the Peel

33:30

River. There, the

33:32

river narrows, going from over 200

33:34

feet wide to about 15 feet. It's

33:39

squeezed between the canyon's sheer

33:41

rock faces, accelerating and

33:43

forming rapids that have been

33:45

described as unrunnable. As

33:48

they were approaching the spot where they'd

33:50

start their portage, they got a

33:52

puncture in their boat, running some Class

33:55

III rapids. But

34:01

it also forced us to like take a rest day

34:03

and that rest day was just a gorgeous sunny day.

34:06

They rested on a gravel bar

34:08

scattered with smooth river rocks and low

34:10

lying plants. We're on the Peel River

34:13

and we decided to make pizza on

34:15

a peel on the peel. And it

34:17

was just like really

34:20

wonderful to like have a good meal like

34:22

and to be forced to just sit and

34:24

wait for like I think it was 24

34:26

hours for the boat to dry. And

34:29

it was just like kind

34:32

of magical to think about fixing the

34:34

boat ourselves, being able to

34:36

continue the trip and then also having this

34:38

like really great rest day. It was now

34:40

early August and they had a little over

34:42

300 miles of paddling left

34:45

and one difficult portage around the

34:47

churning rapids of Aberdeen Canyon. But

34:51

they felt ready. We knew with

34:53

the portage it was just gonna be like three days

34:56

of hard work. It wasn't like this infinite like

34:58

how long is this gonna last kind of thing?

35:01

Though Nicky makes it sound

35:03

relatively relaxed compared to the

35:05

Chandendu, they were still

35:08

portaging on a remote trail. Nicky

35:10

and Jared made trips back and

35:12

forth to transport their gear and

35:14

canoe as they bushwacked through dense

35:17

brush and trees to the flat

35:19

top of the canyon and eventually

35:21

back down. Once

35:23

they reconnected with the peel, they set

35:25

out towards the Mackenzie River. After

35:28

Aberdeen Canyon, the waterways widened

35:30

and the water slowed, moving

35:33

between sloped banks. On

35:35

the Mackenzie River, despite being so far

35:38

north, the water was the

35:40

warmest they'd experience yet. Nicky

35:42

took advantage of the warmer waters going

35:44

for some swims. And

35:46

now the end was in sight.

35:49

For the most part, it was fully smooth

35:52

sailing, but we still had

35:54

unexpected challenges. Along

35:57

the way, a big one was as

35:59

you get... towards the Arctic Ocean, the

36:02

rivers really slow down. So you're paddling a

36:04

lot more. And we started

36:06

to encounter pretty bad headwinds, so that's

36:08

impeding your progress. When

36:10

they got to the Delta of the Mackenzie

36:12

River, where it drains into the Arctic Ocean,

36:15

they hit a storm. We had been paddling

36:19

late into the evening, looking

36:21

for a place to camp. It's the

36:23

land of the midnight sun. And so we think it was

36:25

maybe 11 p.m. before we found a campsite

36:28

and set up camp. And we knew that there

36:30

was gonna be a storm the next day. So

36:32

we found this beach that we could get as

36:35

far off the water as we could. And

36:37

the next

36:39

day, we were on the ocean and

36:41

we were just tent bound. We knew it would be about

36:44

24 hours of this storm. And

36:46

so we were just gonna wait it out in the tent. They

36:49

made it through the first high tide

36:51

without getting flooded out of their campsite.

36:53

A huge relief. And what happened

36:55

was the wind switched directions. So then we had

36:58

not just the second high tide, but we had

37:00

a storm surge. And in

37:02

a matter of less than a half

37:04

an hour, we went from our tent

37:07

and our canoe fully out of the water to our canoe

37:10

was floating and starting to flood. And

37:13

water was lapping up against our tent. And

37:16

behind them was a hundred foot cliff.

37:19

We had no choice but just to pack up and

37:22

throw everything in the canoe hastily and try

37:24

to paddle somewhere with higher ground. And

37:27

we had ocean swell coming in from

37:29

one direction and wind swell coming in

37:31

from another direction, creating just

37:34

really unpredictable waves. And we

37:37

kind of accepted that we were probably

37:39

gonna swim and maybe

37:42

be dragging the boat out of the waterfall, maybe be

37:45

losing the boat and all of our gear and calling

37:47

for a rescue at this point, less

37:49

than 20 miles from the end of the trip. They

37:52

spotted a pile of huge logs that had

37:54

pushed up against the shore. They

37:56

paddled to it and used it to get

37:58

the boat back on shore. From

38:01

there, they found what they

38:03

described as a swamp and

38:05

set up their tent, which was sitting

38:07

in a puddle, being blasted by wind

38:10

for hours until the storm subsided the

38:12

next day. I think that was like

38:14

probably one of the scariest points of

38:16

the trip for me because we had

38:18

known that people

38:20

caught in storms

38:22

in that area have died being

38:25

swept out to see. This is like

38:27

really hard to find you in like the

38:29

continental United States if you hit your Garmin

38:31

SOS button, like someone is probably there within

38:34

under 24 hours, almost guaranteed. And

38:37

when you're dealing with the Arctic, you know, expect

38:39

someone maybe to come in 48 hours. And

38:42

so I think like just having that in

38:44

my mind, we learned later that they call

38:46

that section of the river Hurricane Alley because

38:49

the winds can like be so dramatic

38:51

that I think it's a motorboat

38:53

can't like really get up the channel. Using

38:56

their in reach, they'd been messaging someone they'd

38:58

met earlier on the trip to keep him

39:00

up to speed on the storm. He

39:03

let them know that there was a First

39:05

Nations wailing camp close by. He'd

39:07

been in touch with them. He was like, you should

39:09

just go there and like they'll have hot

39:12

food ready for you and coffee and can

39:14

probably put a roof over your head. And

39:16

so we ended up paddling there and they

39:19

did put us up in a little cabin

39:21

with a wood stove and we were able

39:24

to dry all of our stuff out, which

39:26

really just I think was the relief we

39:28

needed and like enabled us to kind

39:30

of like take a deep breath and then

39:33

focus on, OK, how do

39:35

we paddle this last day into tuk-tuk-tuk

39:37

to finish the trip? They

39:40

were finally dry, drinking hot drinks and

39:42

there was a fire to keep them

39:45

warm. And then Jared, he

39:47

was like, you know, we

39:49

haven't really even like touched the Arctic Ocean

39:51

because we weren't technically on the ocean. I

39:53

was like, that's silly. Like we're going to

39:55

be on the ocean tomorrow. Like why why

39:58

are you asking me to do this? But

40:00

finally, Nikki agreed. to walk out to the

40:02

ocean with Jared in the rain. I was

40:04

getting really introspective and asking questions about the

40:07

trip and our lives together. Yeah, he was

40:09

asking like a bunch of introspective questions and

40:12

then, yeah, asked

40:15

me to marry him. ["Ave

40:17

Maria"] ["Ave

40:20

Maria"] And

40:27

had craftily smuggled a

40:30

ring with me the entire time, which was

40:32

terrifying. When they'd started planning this

40:34

trip in 2020, it had

40:36

been an earlier stage of their relationship.

40:39

You're very much dreaming about the future and

40:41

dreaming big and thinking about the potential of

40:44

what you can do together. And now they

40:46

were here, living out those big

40:49

dreams with only a few

40:51

miles of this one left to go.

40:53

Kind of like relief when we kind

40:55

of know we've made it, at least

40:57

we're gonna make it to the end,

40:59

didn't come until we were a couple miles away

41:02

from tuk-tuk-tuk, because

41:05

I knew at any point this, like

41:07

a storm or some wind could come up and

41:09

really derail us. As they finished

41:11

their thousand plus mile journey to

41:14

tuk-tuk-tuk, they paddled by

41:16

ice-cored hills called pingos, which

41:19

have been used as navigational landmarks

41:21

for the Inuvialit people, traveling

41:23

on land and water for centuries.

41:27

As Niki reflected on the vast

41:29

landscapes of the Arctic and

41:31

their vulnerability to climate change, it

41:34

made her think of the relationship between

41:36

people and the environment. I

41:38

think there's probably about like eight or nine

41:40

different First Nations territories

41:42

that we traveled through and

41:45

everybody who was there, like who

41:48

helped us along the way, like very

41:50

much have like a historic attachment

41:53

to the land. Throughout the

41:55

trip, we traveled on First Nations land and

41:57

I want to respectfully acknowledge that we're on

41:59

the traditional land. territory of the

42:01

Champaign, Aishac, the Kalani First

42:03

Nation, the White River First

42:05

Nation, Selkirk First Nation, Trondec

42:08

Guitian, Nacho Dyac, Tetland Guitian,

42:11

Guitian, and Inuvolent First Nations.

42:14

The connection between like human

42:17

land animal is tenuous

42:19

and we should regard that

42:21

as something that is like sacred

42:23

and special. For Jared

42:26

too, after a long and mostly

42:28

isolated journey, a key takeaway was

42:30

that none of it could have

42:32

been possible without community. Even

42:34

though we were alone there was like people looking out for

42:36

us out there and there was people that we were

42:38

able to text on in reach who were there

42:42

and willing to help and there was

42:44

people who were willing to do long

42:46

drives to drop food

42:49

and supplies for us or

42:51

replace gear that broke along

42:53

the way. So I just think that it's

42:56

a trip that wouldn't have happened without all of that

42:58

generosity. Through meandering

43:01

rivers, log jams, aggressive

43:03

rapids, sunny days, and

43:05

storms, they'd emerged onto

43:07

the Arctic Ocean, its

43:10

vastness extending into the horizon.

43:13

After traveling more than a thousand

43:15

miles, their journey had come to

43:18

an end. There was

43:20

just one thing left to do. Reunite

43:23

with their dog Benson. He

43:25

was just like so excited to see us and by

43:27

that point he could run around a little bit and

43:29

like he just like jumped three feet in the air

43:31

when he saw us. Yeah it was the

43:33

ultimate case of the zoomies when he saw

43:36

us. He was

43:38

bouncing off the walls. This

43:41

adventure that they'd been dreaming about

43:43

for years was over. They

43:46

had paddled, walked, struggled, and

43:48

stood awestruck through the rivers

43:50

and places that had

43:52

started as lines on a map. For

43:55

me like looking at maps and

43:57

things like that being kind of plan

44:00

out and see where

44:02

it is you want to travel, and if

44:04

it's possible, and then figure out all the logistics

44:07

of how do you make this happen. But

44:09

I think it doesn't really matter what you're

44:12

solving for as long as it's holding your interest and

44:14

you want to solve the problem. I think

44:16

it just comes down to imagination, where

44:18

your interests are pulling you. How do

44:21

you want to experience the world? What

45:00

is your story? Many

45:06

thanks to Nicky and Jared for sharing their story with us.

45:09

A portion of the funding for their

45:11

trip came from We Got Next, an

45:13

organization that amplifies individual stories of adventure

45:15

and activism from communities that have been

45:17

underrepresented in outdoor spaces. Nicky

45:20

and Jared are scheming on climbing and skiing

45:22

around Lake Tahoe. A lot. Our

45:24

stories come from friends, from friends of friends, and

45:27

from you. If you have

45:29

a compelling idea for a guest

45:31

or story lead, please give us

45:33

a shout. You can email us

45:35

at editor at ducktapethembear.com. Music today

45:37

from Marcus Huber, Cindy Skor, Matthew

45:39

D. Morgan, and Lilac Canyon. The

45:41

tracks are courtesy of Track Club. Jacob

45:44

Bain and Niece Cotto composed our theme song. You

45:47

can find links to the artists at

45:49

our website, dirtbagdairies.com. This episode was produced

45:51

by Laura Izzaza, with additional production help

45:53

from me and edited by Skyler Perwins.

45:56

Illustration by Walker Cajal. Fitz

45:58

is our creative director. and in Baja.

46:01

I'm Becca Cahall and you've been listening to

46:03

the Dirtbag Diaries. Thanks for tuning

46:05

in.

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