Inver Grove Heights Native, Best Friend Complete Historic Canoe Trip

On Aug. 3, Inver Grove Heights native Ann Raiho and her friend Natalie Warren were a little more than two months into their quest to become the first women to canoe from Fort Snelling in Minneapolis to Hudson Bay in Canada.

They were cold, tired and on their 15th day paddling Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba—the 11th-largest lake in the world. They knew they had to be getting close to the end of the lake.

“We got to six of those points [where we thought we had reached the end] when we saw we had to keep going” Raiho said in a phone interview.

“When we did see [the end] … that was a big moment. We both started crying.”

But it wasn’t the end of their trip. The pair still had more than 360 miles of their journey to go.

On Aug. 25, they reached York Factory, Manitoba on the southwestern edge of Hudson Bay and accomplished their goal. In all, they covered 2,250 miles, spent 85 days canoeing, passed three states and one Canadian province—and even adopted one dog. In Norway House, Manitoba, Raiho and Warren picked up a stray German Shepard mix they named Myhan, a word similar to “wolf” in the language of the Cree First Nations tribe.

But the pair wasn’t thinking about adopting a dog when they set out on June 2. They were more concerned with the high water levels on the Minnesota River.

“We had a hard time [at first],” Raiho said. “The Minnesota River was at flood stage.” For much of their journey along the river, they were paddling upstream, instead of following the current.

Still, they found time to enjoy their surroundings.

“We thought it was just going to be a river of mud,” Warren said at a Sept. 22 presentation at the REI outdoor equipment store in Bloomington. “We found it unbelievably beautiful.”

After they finished the Minnesota River stretch (335 miles), they started on the Red River on June 25. They finished the Red River leg on July 16, and started crossing the massive Lake Winnipeg on July 19.

Both Raiho and Warren raved about the kindness of the people they met along the way. From meals to lodging, generous support followed them everywhere. In Montevideo, for example, a farmer offered them his retrofitted silo—complete with satellite TV—for the night.

The trip allowed Raiho and Warren to display generosity of their own; as of Sept. 12, when the most recent numbers were available, they raised roughly $1,600 for YMCA Camp Menogyn, where the pair met and became friends.

And at the Sept. 22 presentation at REI, they auctioned off a new Langford Prospector canoe, just like the one they used on the trip, which retails for $3,570 at shopcanoeing.com.

Jack Stone, owner of Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply in Grand Marais, gave Raiho and Warren the canoe for their trip, after they quickly won him over. Raiho sent him an email several months ago explaining their plan for the trip.

“The first thing that [appealed to me] was that they were taking the route Eric Sevareid took in Canoeing with the Cree,” Stone said. “As a young man I read the book and it really spoke to me.

“After sitting down with them and listening … I was so impressed. It was a no-brainer [to give them the canoe]. They didn’t let me down.”

After the exhausting trip on Lake Winnipeg and the stop in Norway House, they finished by paddling the Hayes River from Aug. 7-25.

Raiho and Warren are happy to be home and at the same time proud of what they accomplished.

And as a bonus, the trip taught them some things, too.

“I think the biggest thing we took from it … [was that] if nature was telling us to stay back, stay back,” Raiho said. “I learned that you shouldn’t push yourself on wilderness trips.”

For more information on Raiho's journey, click here.