During the Rio Roosevelt Expedition we will use our InReach to send short messages and our location on this map.
Piranhas at Walmart?
We went to Walmart and Sam’s Club today to buy our lunch supplies. Tonico is packing all of our dinners and Jack is packing all of our breakfasts. Each team member is in charge of their own lunches. Paul and I are packing our lunches together. We pushed the cart up and down the isles past flat screen TVs, blenders, beer, produce, and the million other things for sale at mega stores like Walmart. The packaging on the food looks a little different, but it was easy to find nuts, dried fruit, summer sausage, and cheese, which combined with our Cliff Bars will be our lunch each day on the Rio Roosevelt. The biggest surprise was a giant pile of Piranhas for sale for about $3.50 a pound! We were tempted to buy some, but decided to wait and catch our own in the Rio Roosevelt. DO you think they are farm raise or wild caught? Do Piranhas come with the Walmart low price guarantee?
In the morning 6 of our 8 member team will meet up for the first time and start packing. We have a ton of stuff to cram into two cars for the 2,400 KM drive to the River of Doubt. The drive will take us 2 and 1/2 days and we will probably leave Saturday morning. If all goes well we can start paddling on Tuesday!
Paddling and hiking in Ubatuba
After a day in Sao Paulo our new friend, and team member, Eurico took Paul and me to Ubatuba for a few days. Ubatuba is on the coast, about 3 hours from Sao Paulo. It is a spectacular place where the mountains tower above secluded white sand beaches. We have been studying the Atlantic Forest and gathering content for the Wilderness Classroom, getting to know Eurico and testing our new folding canoe. On the drive to Ubatuba we stopped in a small town to wander around the market. We bought some fruit and listened to a local band.
Eurico is like a mountain goat. He is 74, twice my age, but led us up and down the steep, rocky trails, stopping only briefly to point out plants, birds, or insects. He is a botanist and knows an incredible amount about the plants we encounter. He is a great guy and a wonderful addition to our team.
Everywhere we look, we see something new. While paddling this morning we saw 5 sea turtles in the bay and countless birds and crabs in the mangroves. When we returned to Eurico’s house for lunch, it seemed like all we did was eat.We also watched these beautiful birds feeding right out the window. Everyone has been feeding us like crazy and telling us that soon we will only have rice and beans to eat on the Rio Roosevelt. We are doing our best to pack away as much food as possible before we hit the river!
Following in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt: Our Bull Moose President, Champion of Wildlands and Wildlife
As I prepare to follow Theodore Roosevelt’s footsteps and paddle strokes down the Rio Roosevelt in a few weeks I am amazed by impact that Roosevelt had as a Champion of Wildlands and Wildlife. Theodore Roosevelt, America’s greatest conservation president, provided federal protection for almost 230 million acres, a land area equivalent to that of all of the eastern states from Maine to Florida. He succeeded in the face of public apathy and strong congressional opposition. With the American land grab in full surge, he knew that if he didn’t protect our nation’s precious wild places, they would be gone forever. His convictions stemmed from a lifetime love affair with the outdoors, natural history & adventure.
Consider these fun facts:
At age 24, when his passion with the Wild West was launched following buffalo hunts in the Dakota Territories, his adventure bug got bumped to a new level. For the next 4 decades, even during his White House years, Roosevelt averaged 30 days per year sleeping out under the stars. He’d slip out of the executive mansion alone to park his bedroll in D.C.’s Rock Creek Park and was known to skinny dip in the Potomac – in the winter!
Born severely asthmatic and with a weak heart, he was advised to remain sedentary or risk a short life. His response, “If I have to live that way, I don’t care how short my life is.” Health issues later left him blind in one eye and deaf in one ear.
How tough was he? In 1912 while he campaigned in Milwaukee a crazed man shot him point blank in the chest. He shouted to the crowd, “It will take more than that to kill a bull moose!” & he finished his hour-long speech before heading to the hospital.
How gentle was he? While hunting in Mississippi, his hosts sought to ensure his success by treeing a small, young bear and summoning him to shoot it. No way, he said, would he engage in such unsporting cruelty. When the story went national, a toy maker asked if he could attach the president’s first name to a stuffed bear he was making. “Sure,” responded Roosevelt, “but I can’t image my name will be of much benefit to the bear business.” (In a similar vein, when a waiter asked how Roosevelt liked the new brand of Maxwell House coffee he was drinking, he said, “Why, that cup was good to the last drop!” Sound familiar?)
Roosevelt was the first president to
- travel outside the US (to oversee construction of the Panama Canal)
- fly (in a Wright brothers’ airplane)
- win a Nobel Peace Prize (for ending the Russo-Japanese War)
- host a black man at a White House dinner and appoint a Jewish cabinet member
Roosevelt was a staunch proponent of
- women’s right to vote and women’s right to equal work for equal pay
- separation of church & state (he refused to swear on the Bible at his 1901 inauguration and in 1907 he insisted that the phrase “In God We Trust” be removed from a new gold coin being minted)
Tough as he was, the rigors of the 1914 River of Doubt expedition left his health debilitated & shaved years off his life. In 1919 he died in his sleep at age 60. The nation was shocked. “Death had to take him sleeping for if Roosevelt had been taken awake, there would have been a fight,” commented Vice President Thomas Marshall in his condolences to Roosevelt’s family.
At Roosevelt’s request, his funeral was a private family affair with no fanfare and no eulogy. Yet on that day, life in New York City was briefly suspended. Just before 2 p.m. as Roosevelt’s flag-draped coffin was lowered into the ground, the city traction company turned off the power grid for a full minute. Streetcars & subways ground to a halt. Lights dimmed as men & women across the nation’s largest city stood with bowed heads for a moment of reverent silence.
No one else of his generation accomplished so much along so many different lines: 2-term US president, governor of New York, war hero, cattle rancher, deputy sheriff, lawyer, police commissioner, father of 6, historian & biographer, author of 38 books, architect of the “Square Deal,” renowned naturalist & explorer. By his own reckoning, written in a letter a month before he died, “Nobody ever packed more varieties of fun & interest in….60 years!”
Oh, and regarding that photo of Roosevelt riding a moose, did we mention that he invented Photoshop? Actually, during the 1912 presidential campaign with Roosevelt as the founding father of the independent Bull Moose Party, a photo firm associated with the campaign cut & pasted a portrait of him riding a horse onto a swimming moose photo – just for fun.
Then there’s Mt. Rushmore. Here he is in 60-feet of granite next to the father of our country, the author of the Declaration of Independence and Honest Abe. How cool is that?
Paul Schurke
Amazon expedition gear list
Paul Schurke and I have been working with our Brazilian team mates to organize and pack all of the gear we will need for our canoeing expedition on the Rio Roosevelt. A 35 day unsupported canoe trip in the Amazon Rainforest takes a lot of careful planning and high quality equipment. One hundred years ago this year President Theodore Roosevelt and Cornell Rondon completed the first descent of the River of Doubt, which was renamed the Rio Roosevelt. Poor planning and equipment choices cost their expedition dearly. Three members of their party died and the epic journey almost killed President Roosevelt.
We hope that proper planning and high quality, modern equipment will help us have a safe journey without serious mishap. Probably the biggest difference between our equipment and the Roosevelt Rondon Scientific Expedition’s equipment is our canoes. Paul and I will be paddling a 17 foot folding canoe made by Pak Boat and our Brazilian team members will paddle lightweight, modern canoes made of kevlar and fiberglass. Roosevelt’s team used waterlogged dugout canoes that weighed over a thousand pounds each. They lost several canoes in the numerous rapids and had to stop and build new canoes out of giant trees they chopped from the rainforest several times.
Below is as breakdown of the personal items that I will carry during our Amazon Rainforest canoeing expedition.
Rio Roosevelt expedition gear list
Shelter:
Sea to Summit Specialist Solo Tent
Hennessy Deep Jungle Hammock
Hennessy insulating pad
Sea to Summit Cool Max Adaptor Traveller sleeping bag liner
Small Items:
Sea to Summit micro fiber travel towel
Sea to Summit Hand Cleaning Gel
Sea to Summit Wilderness Wash soap
Adventure Medical Kits Bath Wipes
Bug spray x 4
toothbrush and tooth paste
Multi vitamins
Gold Bond Powder
Sunglasses
SOL survival pack
Chapstick with sunscreen
Sunscreen x 3
Petzl Tikka RXP headlamp
Petzl Tikka XP headlamp
LifeStraw (water purification)
Klean Kanteen 40oz water bottle
Klean Kanteen insulated water bottle
Sea to Summit Delta Spork and Bowl
Multitool
Lighter
Thin rope (40 feet)
Clothing:
ExOfficio Nio Amphi Shorts
ExOfficio Nomad Pants
ExOfficio Nio Amphi Pants
ExOfficio Sol Cool Long-Sleeve Tee
ExOfficio Baja Sur Long Sleeve Shirt
ExOfficio Give-N-Go Underwear x 2
ExOfficio Purdom Venter Hiker Socks x 2
ExOfficio Cape Hat
ExOfficio Sol Cool Neck Gaiter
ExOfficio Short Sleeve Tee
ExOfficio Rain Logic Jacket
Original Bug Shirt
Tennis shoes
Rubber boots
Sandals
Paddling equipment:
Mitchell canoe paddle x 2
MTI Adventurewear Slipstream Life Jacket
North Water throw bag
Helmet
Adventurers to Descend Amazon’s “River of Doubt”
PRESS RELEASE May 8, 2014
FR: FreemansExplore.com, WildernessClassroom.org, Dave & Amy Freeman 312-505-9973, Paul Schurke 218-365-6022, Ely, MN
Ely Adventurers to Descend Amazon’s “River of Doubt”
What’s the best way to celebrate 2014 as the 50th anniversary year of the National Wilderness Act and the founding of the Boundary Waters, America’s most popular & heavily-visited wilderness? With an epic wilderness adventure! For Ely-area guides Dave Freeman & Paul Schurke, that adventure will involve a Centennial Year retracing of the greatest adventure in the life of our greatest conservation president, Theodore President. In 1909, Roosevelt set the stage for the Boundary Waters by establishing Superior National Forest, one of the largest of nearly 250 National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks and National Monuments instituted during his 1901-1909 White House tenure.
“He had the vision to realize how precious America’s wildlands would be for future generations,” said Dave. “And because he championed what he called the ‘strenuous life,’ he realized how important wild places are for kindling the human spirit and for exercising his own spirit of adventure.” One hundred years ago in 1914, Roosevelt, America’s ‘Rough Rider’ & ‘Wild West” adventure president, undertook his biggest adventure — the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon, the legendary “River of Doubt.” During the two-month trek, Roosevelt’s crew faced unbelievable hardships. They lost their boats and supplies to punishing whitewater. They endured starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning and a murder within their own ranks. The ordeal brought Roosevelt to the brink of suicide and left his health debilitated. But he later said he wouldn’t have traded this epic experience for anything. It added the Rio Roosevelt, as it’s now called, to the map of the Western Hemisphere and prompted several books, including his own and the 2005 national bestseller “The River of Doubt,” by Candice Millard.
As Roosevelt did, Dave & Paul are teaming up with native Brazilians for their trek, including Brazil’s top canoe builder, Antonio Carlos Osse. Unlike Roosevelt, this centennial trip will employ lightweight Kevlar and backpackable folding canoes. In contrast, Roosevelt’s crew relied on 1-ton dugouts they crafted along the way and that they found nearly impossible to portage around the miles of whitewater rapids through dense jungle that define the river’s upper end. That portion of the river remains unchanged, surrounded by impenetrable jungle that’s protected from development of any kind. And it remains the realm of the Cinta Larga, an Amazon tribe whose first significant contact with the outside world didn’t occur until the 1970s. Dave’s and Paul’s Brazilian team members were recently able to secure permission from Cinta Larga chieftains to enter the area. Their plans call for a 6-week, 400-mile descent, from late May through the end of June, starting near the headwaters and finishing where the Trans-Amazonian Highway crosses the Rio Roosevelt’s lower reaches.
“We’re dedicating this journey to the conservation legacy of President Roosevelt,” said Paul Schurke, who operates Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge near Ely. “Without his vision, we wouldn’t have Superior National Forest and the protected lakeland vacation region that’s now considered the ‘Soul of Minnesota’ and a global wildlands treasure.” Dave & Paul plan to share stories from the “River of Doubt” journey and Roosevelt’s public land legacy at 50th anniversary events for the National Wilderness Act set for this September in Duluth and Ely.
Roosevelt’s great grandson, Ted Roosevelt IV, has advised them on their plans. A long-standing board member of The Wilderness Society, Roosevelt IV’s tireless crusade for wilderness protection was prompted during high school summers as a Camp Keewaydin canoe guide “My great grandfather was a passionate wilderness advocate and a passionate wilderness adventurer,” said Ted Roosevelt IV. “Dave’s and Paul’s Rio Roosevelt expedition and their dedication to wilderness protection is testimony that these passions live on.” The September anniversary events will coincide with the launch of yet another big canoe adventure for Dave.
This fall he and his wife Amy, who are 2014 National Geographic Adventurers of the Year, will paddle from the Boundary Waters to the White House. They hope this 100-day “Paddle to DC” trek will culminate in delivery to President Obama of a petition canoe signed by thousands of people calling for national action on the threat that proposals for sulfide mining in northeastern Minnesota pose to Superior National Forest. “As Minnesotans may recall,” said Dave, “President Obama sent a personal letter to Ely in September 2012 that was featured in the NBC Today’s coverage of Obama’s 2nd inauguration festivities. In that letter, Obama expressed his hope that the ‘wilderness surrounding Ely remains spectacular.’
We’ll include a copy of that letter with the canoe in hopes that President Obama will build upon President Roosevelt’s vision for Superior National Forest by ensuring that this precious vacationland is not threatened by the nation’s most polluting industry.” Ted Roosevelt IV plans to paddle the Potomac with Dave & Amy on the last leg of their 2,000-mile “Paddle to DC.” Daily updates on this spring’s “River of Doubt” Expedition and next fall’s “Paddle to D.C.” can be followed on WildernessClassroom.org, Dave and Amy Freeman’s geography and wilderness education website that has served over 600 schools involving 85,000 students. Paddle to D.C. is sponsored by Sustainable Ely, an advocacy center focused on the threat of sulfide mining to the Boundary Waters and surrounding communities.
Dave’s & Amy’s expeditions have taken them over 30,000 miles by canoe, kayak, and dogsled through some of the world’s wildest places, from the Amazon to the Arctic. Paul Schurke is an arctic adventurer & author who has received the Explorers Award and presidential commendations for the 1986 dogsled expedition he led to the North Pole with Will Steger and for his 1990 Bering Bridge Expedition that helped thaw Soviet-American relations in the Bering Strait region. Dave & Paul depart for the Amazon on Friday, May 16, 2014, & return to Minnesota in early July.
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FOR MORE INFO: Dave & Amy Freeman 312-505-9973, Paul Schurke 218-365-6022, Ely, MN
