Wilderness Adventurers Return Home

Online, October 4, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Last Monday Dave and Amy Freeman of the Wilderness Classroom Organization finished the first stage of a human-powered expedition across North America. In April, they launched the North American Odyssey, a 3 year-long, 11,000 mile educational expedition, with the purpose of calling attention to North America's waterways and wilderness. The expedition serves as a call to action, urging people to simplify their lives, reduce their carbon footprints, and get outside to enjoy nature. Their message has been heard by about 60,000 school children from around the globe so far.

These students are actually following the expedition team's every move through the internet. Whether they are traveling by kayak, canoe, ski, or dogsled, Dave and Amy update an educational website where students, teachers, and parents interact with the expedition team. A second website serves as a blog for adults to follow the adventure.

The expedition began by kayak in the Inside Passage, observing the temperate rainforests and marine life of the Pacific Northwest. Next, they hiked from Skagway , Alaska up the Chilkoot Trail and worked their way into the Yukon River. They then retraced the Klondike Gold Rush to Dawson, Yukon Territory. The adventure didn't end there. A hike over the Tombstone Mountains brought them to the Blackstone River, which they canoed to the Peel River. Above the Arctic Circle, where the Peel met the Mackenzie River, Dave and Amy turned their canoe upstream and worked their way south to the Northwest Territories town of Norman Wells. This is where they stopped on Monday. Now, as they wait for ice to form on the river and snow to blanket the land, they will take a break and return home to conduct school presentations and other speaking engagements.

When Dave and Amy return to Norman Wells in late January, they will dogsled through north/central Canada. After the snow melts, they will resume canoeing south through central Canada, kayak across the Great Lakes, finishing up by following the annual whale migration down the Atlantic Coast, to the Florida Keys.

"Why are they doing this?" you might ask. They are working to fulfill the mission of the nonprofit organization, the Wilderness Classroom. Dave founded the organization eight years ago with a simple idea in mind: to show students from around the world the wonders of exploration and wilderness. Their mission of instilling in young people a lifelong appreciation of wilderness by highlighting the joy of discovery is especially pertinent to the urban youth of today and a key component to the No Child Left Inside movement.