Hudson Bay Bound: Two Women, One Dog, Two Thousand Miles to the Arctic

by Natalie Warren

The remarkable eighty-five-day journey of the first two women to canoe the 2,000-mile route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay Unrelenting winds, carnivorous polar bears, snake nests, sweltering heat, and constant hunger. Paddling from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, following the 2,000-mile route made famous by Eric Sevareid in his 1935 classic Canoeing with the Cree , Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho faced unexpected trials, some harrowing, some simply odd. But for the two friends—the first women to make this expedition—there was one timeless the occasional pitfalls that test character and friendship. Warren’s spellbinding account retraces the women’s journey from inspiration to Arctic waters, giving readers an insider view from the practicalities of planning a three-month canoe expedition to the successful accomplishment of the adventure of a lifetime. 

Along the route we meet the people who live and work on the waterways, including denizens of a resort who supply much-needed sustenance; a solitary resident in the wilderness who helps plug a leak; and the people of the Cree First Nation at Norway House, where the canoeists acquire a furry companion. Describing the tensions that erupt between the women (who at one point communicate with each other only by note) and the natural and human-made phenomena they encounter—from islands of trash to waterfalls and a wolf pack—Warren brings us into her experience, and we join these modern women (and their dog) as they recreate this historic trip, including the pleasures and perils, the sexism, the social and environmental implications, and the enduring wonder of the wilderness.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir, Book Club, Adventure, Nature, Audiobook

226 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

A lifelong paddler and river lover, Natalie was one of the first two women to paddle over 2,000 miles from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. From Miami, FL, Natalie’s first overnight camping experience was a two-week canoe trip through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Northern Minnesota through YMCA Camp Menogyn. At Menogyn, Natalie canoed for 30-days in Wabakimi Provincial Park in Ontario and 50-days on the Kazan and Kunwak Inuit Heritage Rivers in Nunavut, Canada through the arctic tundra. She has since canoed the length of the Mississippi River and won first place in the Yukon River Quest in the women’s voyageur division, paddling 444 miles in fifty-three hours. A contributing writer to outdoor publications, she has worked with Bancroft Arnesen Explore, St. Croix River Association, and River Management Society, and she started a nonprofit to present urban rivers as natural, dynamic classrooms for youth. Natalie is currently a PhD candidate researching environmental communication at the University of Minnesota, where she studies the human-nature relationship and works with the publication Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place, and Community. She enjoys playing music with her husband under the band name QAWALA, growing more vegetables than she can eat, and paddling the Mississippi River during sunset. Natalie lives in Minneapolis with her husband, daughter, and dog.

Reviews

[Olive Fellows (abookolive)]

My review is in the Christian Science Monitor.

[The Sassy Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book (for the most part). It was a fast-paced read and kept me entertained. Be aware it gets a little "environmentally preachy" at times. But I am guessing that was a major part for writing it in the first place!

Natalie was an engaging narrator. However, I also found her (and Ann) not the most likable of people. It annoyed me that every time someone questioned them, offered advice, or tried to help, they would get an attitude and wonder "if we were men, would they be doing/asking the same?" 99% of the time I thought to myself "Yeah, Natalie, they probably would have!" I also didn't like a few times when people would give them gifts and they acted like they were a hassle. They both just came across...ungrateful at times, I guess.

That said, I enjoyed reading about the places and people that they met along their journey. Especially the Canadian leg and their visits to the First Nations. So, a bit of a mixed bag with this one. But overall it was an interesting read and gets a thumbs up from yours truly.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

[Sylvie · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those great adventure tales of journeys that are so vivid and harrowing they make you never want to do the thing—like Into Thin Air? Or the ones that are so humorous that, despite the many obvious difficulties, you really, really want to do the thing—like A Walk in the Woods? Or the ones where people are incredibly naïve or stupid but you root for them anyway—like Wild? Sadly, this was none of those.

It’s not really compelling, sort of whiny, and surprisingly uninspiring. I mean, the feat itself is impressive, but that’s not captured in this story at all. It’s a shame because this book should have been right up my alley. Instead, I found it incredibly frustrating—mostly because almost every “disaster” is self-created due to ineptitude, naiveté, or just a blatant disregard of the advice these two adventurers were given. And those scare quotes are one of the problems: The disasters aren’t even really disasters so, on top of everything, there’s no real sense of danger or urgency. In fact, we aren’t given enough details to even understand the dangers or the wonders of a trip like this. Even the basics aren’t very well explained: What exactly was their process of setting up camp? What does “packing out” mean exactly? Maybe if this process was explained better we would understand how you could “pack out” and yet leave behind all your perishable food? I mean, seriously.

But my biggest problem with this book was the victimhood: There was a lot of framing of interactions as sexism when they just didn’t seem to be. For example, a host was praying over them and they were wondering, “Would they be doing this if we were men?” Yes, probably, have you met religious people? And, at the same time, they were annoyed that they had to convince sponsors to fund them, apparently thinking “Hey, we’re two women doing this!” should be enough. 1.5 stars.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just completed my review of "Canoeing with the Cree" and it dawned on me that, by changing the pronoun, the same review applies to this book.

Review (Canoeing with the Cree): A classic outdoor adventure story composed by a young writer still trying to find *his* voice and written with the sensibilities of *his* era.

Sevareid/Port and Warren/Raiho - similar expeditions/similar accounts. Both make for riveting reads.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book just fine, but I sure wish I had liked the author and her paddling partner better.

I admire the journey the women undertook, no doubt about that. And their travels got more and more interesting the closer they got to Hudson Bay. However, in nearly every encounter they had with people along the way (and even before the journey began), the narrator and her paddling companion came across as entitled and ungrateful. I don't recall any words of appreciation and thanks for the (often free) meals and shelter that was offered to them (they seemed to think that was due to them for some unarticulated reason) and in fact went so far as to mock some of their helpers. As for gifts that were given to them? Just useless burdens gifted to them by people who were too unenlightened to know better than to give paddlers stuff they'd have to carry along with them. I found that really grating throughout.

I am all for female empowerment and am so glad that on behalf of womankind they undertook and successfully completed this remarkable achievement. I think if they had been able to better explain why they felt this was important to do as the first team of women, or perhaps found ways to engage/pay it forward to other women along the way or in the future, I might not have found their tone-deaf lack of appreciation for others so annoying. Also, overall, I would have enjoyed more (authentic and heart-felt) stories about the people they met to balance out long passages about how difficult it was to paddle and portage. I assumed the actual journey part would be difficult, so tell me something I wouldn't know otherwise.

[Jo Cavins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a seriously un-outdoorsy person. A friend lent me this because it's our One Community, One Book read for the year. It's terrific. Two college grads decide to canoe up the Minnesota River to the Red River and into Canada to reach Hudson Bay (a 2000 mile trip).

While it didn't make me want to buy a canoe (I can't even swim), the story of their trip is engaging and beautifully shared.

[Leo W. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eric Sevareid was a respected journalist, an anachronism in today’s world, of my parents generation (and I’m 67). Fresh out of high school he and school buddy undertook a canoe voyage from Minnesota to Hudson Bay. They were young, bullet-proof and clueless, yet survived to make it all the way. He tells the tale delightfully in Canoeing with the Cree. (Sevareid, incidentally, wrote a compelling memoir of his World War 2 experiences, Not So Wild a Dream including an overland journey through Japanese held Burma after his plane went down.)
Sevareid’s youthful original trek has been repeated several times, indeed it seems to have become a thing amongst canoeists. This book is a travelogue of the first trip undertaken by two women, which speaks to how idiosyncratic the achievements must now be to be a first. But it no less impressive a feat for that. I found the book wanting, though, as it failed as a memoir. Memoirs should bare the soul, or reveal something of the reader’s or, failing that, awe with the language. The author surely makes the attempt, but failed to reach me at a visceral level. Curiously, the most honest and revealing part of the book was its afterward, where the two (now quite accomplished) women engage in a dialogue, 10 years later, on the impact of the journey on their lives.

This review based on ARC obtained via NetGalley from University of Minnesota Press in return for candid review.

[Sandra Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Epic journey, vapid and unlikable storytelling.

[Charlene]

3.5 Two best friend/canoeing partners are on the verge of college graduation in 2011 when they decide to paddle from St. Paul, MN north to Hudson Bay over the summer, before starting graduate school and work. They are experienced and strong paddlers but even so, this is a daunting undertaking, both dangerous and logistically complicated. They are following the 1931 route of Eric Sevareid and high school friend who described the experience in the book, Canoeing with the Cree, and hope to be the first women paddlers to make the trip to Hudson Bay.

This isn't my usual type of memoir but after reading The Tender Land, with an escape by canoe on the Minnesota River (also early part of this journey) and Indian Horse, set in the Canadian area of the journey, I was interested in the landscape and what they might come across. Of course, 2011 is a different time period; most of the area was highly agricultural, with corn growing right to the riverbanks and causing its own version of pollution and environmental damage. The Far North was very depopulated, compared to the 1931 time of Eric Sevareid's paddle.

These are very young women, smart and strong, but their reflections are perhaps not as deep or thoughtful as they might be later in life. Still, enjoyable and a learning experience for me.

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this - it's not particularly complicated, but it's a very nice story of this trip - particularly because I am incapable of canoeing any direction other than backwards. No, you cannot teach me to do it correctly. I have tried. I have tried so many times. I cannot manage to learn to canoe forwards. So 2000 miles is very impressive. A+ Minnesota content.

(Also she went to St Olaf, crosstown rival of my alma mater Carleton College, and that delighted me.)

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A joyful read. Makes me miss the Midwest and the slow pace of life that comes with adventures outside.

[Eric Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing tale by an amazing author/friend - detailing the hard work, perseverance, and exciting accomplishment of two friends. Strong themes of reflection, person vs nature and how humans are changing (for the worse?) the world around them, and there are layers of lessons to be taken from this story whether Natalie intended them or not. 👍 👍 👍

[Madeline Altman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely (nonfiction!) adventure story written by a St. Olaf alumni! This was the perfect read as I look toward the summer following graduation and grapple with what I want to do with my life :)

[KellyS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of the title, and when I realized what it was about I was game to go along for the ride!

I will be honest, my main attraction to this book is because I grew up in northwestern Manitoba (sub arctic just below the tree line), "land of the little sticks", where you stand atop an Esker and all you see is shield rock, bush, muskeg and lake, after lake, after lake carved from the last ice age.

As they left Lake Winnipeg i could smell the northern river, the spruce, and muskeg as I was reading. I could hear the whine of mosquitos. And feel the stinging bite of black flies. The wild life. I'm feeling a bit homesick to be honest.

I appreciated someone writing about their experience in this part of Manitoba.

It was a quick read, it touched on some of the issues in that geographical area: social, food insecurity, environmental, changing biospheres .... It's a start. Continue to bring the story forward, nature is always changing, will continue to change. And each individual's experience is theirs to share.

[Jesse Amdahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is so tricky. I loved Canoeing with Jose, which was a story of a different duo traveling the same route to Hudson Bay from Minneapolis, and I thought this one was a different take on a similar angle and focused on different aspects of the journey, specifically discussing water resources and river communities, that were compelling and distinct. The fact that it was the first time two women have completed the journey was also very cool!

Some of the interpersonal conflict came across as a bit young, and the mustache-and-british-accent brand of millennial humor style got to be a bit grating after awhile. But still a cool book and a fun read for adventurers and environmentalists alike!

[Samantha Velazquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author would randomly sprinkle in thoughts and words about the environmental standing of places they were going through. But go off on a tangent in the process. It really took me out of the narrative. I’m reading for the adventure, not the environment…and I love the environment and believe we should take care of it. The author just did it so often it became redundant and didn’t add anything to the book.

Also, the title is misleading. The dog doesn’t even show up until the last 40 pages of the book.

I also hate how the author was upset that her friend was “too worried” about safety. It was a topic of contention for them and I just don’t get it. Like this is a life-endangering situation. Let her look out for you.

[Jess Witkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A travelogue and adventure story about the first two women to paddle over 2,000 miles from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. Natalie Warren's book is fast paced and fans of outdoors adventures will enjoy it. She chronicles where her love of paddling began and her fascination with Minnesota.

Along the trip, she and her friend Ann face the wild of both the river and the people they encounter. It's a tour of rivertowns and reservations - what poverty impacts them both, as well as ideas for a more sustainable future.

The book is an introduction to ecology and our part in it, and why our natural spaces are so important to us all.

[Don Alesi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Two friends embark on canoe trip from Minneapolis to the Hudson bay. During the trip their friendship is tested and see many things that only someone on the water can appreciate.
If you are thinking about going on a canoe trip, you will find this book very interesting and very well written.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like books like this: people going on real world adventures, and sharing their experiences. I didn't necessarily love how the author was using page after page to tell us why water pollution is bad, but I understand that she's an advocate for rivers and waterways remaining clean and this book was one platform for her to do so. Overall, a good and fun read.

[Chantelle ellesbooksandbakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and moving story about a grand adventure. The storytelling felt a little perfunctory and I wished for more meditative or detailed content at times. A lot of what is there in terms of environmental/cultural philosophy is really basic and is probably preaching to the choir for most who would pick up this book. Still, an evocative read for anyone who likes paddling and the outdoors.

[Anne Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive accounting of two young women canoeing from Minneapolis to the Hudson Bay. Part travel journal, part introspection by the author.

[Maddie Sanford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought was overall pretty good. Read because it covered one of the rivers that i will be paddling this summer which is fun but they didn’t really write a lot about that section🤣 got me excited for this summer tho!

[Grace MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omg the end of it was gonna make me cry. It’s so nice to see other women do crazy canoe adventures

[Becky Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subtitled „two women, one dog, 2000 miles to the Arctic“
My question still remains, „Why?“
Answer: „They‘re crazy“

[Rachel Short · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story that inspires one to have adventure of their own. The story moves along at a good clip and doesn’t seem to over exaggerated at all.

As someone who lives in the Minnesota River valley the environmental issues she brought up are very real concerns

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always up for a good adventuring story! I appreciated the reflection on the communities they traveled through, and the underlying focus on the environment through all of its changes.

[V · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I was disappointed that this was the story of two very young women--callow youths, really--because I was expecting 30- or 40-somethings, leaving their established lives behind for a bit to tackle this maybe midlife-crisis project to achieve a higher level of understanding about themselves or generate publicity for a cause. Nope--even though it required a ton of planning and fundraising, this expedition was essentially a lark. I found Natalie and Ann really annoying at first. Then their interactions became more interesting because of their youth and inexperience, although maybe not interesting in a very good way. Warren describes their plans for physical setbacks (e.g. what to do if a bear bites off someone's leg) but there is nothing in their planning about the settling of interpersonal conflicts. This is a thing more mature women would have planned for because it is so. fucking. predictable.

Warren continually harps on her perception that people don't take them seriously because they are women... but I think it is equally likely that people don't take them seriously because they are a pair of 22-year-olds doing something ambitious and dangerous. In fact, I would guess that men of that age are more likely to meet with disaster. I do, however, completely understand the pressure they are under to complete their expedition successfully--failure to do so would have absolutely been ascribed to their sex in people's minds.

It is interesting to read a book written by the more reckless member of a partnership; usually it is the careful, conservative individual that does the writing, inevitably complaining about how dangerous and reckless the partner is. Not that Warren's text made her more relatable to me, a consummate scaredy-cat. And not that both of these women are not batshit crazy for undertaking an expedition that even the most expert outdoorspeople would require a good deal of luck to complete.

Unsurprisingly, I suppose, Warren uses this book as a vehicle to muse on both the existential matters that plague us all at 22 as well as the social and environmental problems she encounters along the journey. The former seems tortured and kind of embarrassing, the latter seem shoehorned in without the benefit of deep detail.

The dog doesn't show up until 2/3 of the way through the book. Disappointing.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book at Drury Lane book store in Grand Marais, MN on our annual family camping trip (10 years!) (also we are from Duluth so… you know… its easy to do that haha). I picked it up while waiting for my mother to help me decide between a few picks, and immediately had to have it. While I do occasionally read memoirs, I never read travel books, and I never ever have read a travel memoir. But the cover and the title (and sub title) absolutely drew me in. I had to have it.

I devoured this book, had my mom not broken her leg and ankle on a trail cutting the trip short, I am certain I would have read this book easily in the couple days we had left. Instead it got spread out for a few weeks between…. Life.

Anyway enough complaining. I loved this book. I mean it was really wonderful. There were a few moments that I got a little irritated with repeated ideas, but in hindsight I think they were important ideas to hammer in. I loved the details and I loved Ann and Natalie. She took us on the adventure with them. Their successes were my successes, and their failures, mine too. I couldn’t help but feel triumphant in this book, many times over. It was all so easy to connect to. It is not a book about “you” but it caused me to reflect.

I loved the imagery in this book, I’ve grown up in Minnesota and spent a few years living in Ontario (and visiting other provinces throughout my life) and this imagery felt so relatable AND foreign. There are many places in this book I’ve always wanted to visit but now I have very specific locations in mind that I’ve never had before. It was all so beautiful, and heart breaking. This journey took place in 2011 and I can only imagine the environmental concerns have worsened, maybe drastically. But its heartening to know people like Ann and Natalie and many, many others are working hard to save it.

This book got me thinking about adventures I’d love to take with my boyfriend(and my best friend, but I think that would be harder to coordinate, haha). I have never had the desire to do anything beyond the casual camping trip but now? I don’t know.. now I’m craving a bigger adventure. I’ve always loved the water… its just something to think about I suppose. A much smaller version but the sights… the sights would be unimaginable. It would be worth it. Bugs though…. I really hate bugs.

Myhan- I cant be the only one who spent half the book thinking “so… where’s the dog?” I guess I just assumed they���d be two girls and a dog the whole time. I was DEFINITELY not expecting that origin story!!! In the afterward Natalie talks about being on other expeditions and the group shutting down unique or unexpected ideas and how she loved that she and Ann went along with this. Yes! Thats amazing. Ive been trying to be more open to new things for exactly this reason.

Complaints about this book? I wish it had been longer, had gone even more in depth about the camping portions, especially the two (nude apparently? Lol!) days on that island. It sounds like paradise! I want to do that! And seeing that abandoned lodge after such a killer day of canoeing! That was incredible. I loved how real Natalie got about all the people she met along the way, even if I felt a little bad for the well-meaning but potentially overbearing folks. Maybe thats why this book came out ten years later, haha!

Basically I loved this book. I will be rereading it one day. I really relate to Natalie being stressed about life after college. I hope to read this again in a time where things work out as well for me as they seemed to have for her! Will I be reading it as a Canadian Citizen? Or back in the US? Only time will tell!

I have some quotes I have to share. Normally I don’t do quotes from physical books because its such a pain in the ass, but here I had to.

“Sometimes when I get too "inside my own head" I try to simplify my surroundings. Where once I may have been thinking, "Holy crap, I don't want this dog. I feel bad telling this amazing family that there is no way we are going to take this fragile fluff ball on trail," I transitioned to thinking, "I am a woman on a canoe trip, currently in Norway House, Manitoba. A family that I've never met before is trying to convince me and my best friend to take a stray dog on a big journey." That exercise, usually paired with a deep breath, reminds me that I am both painfully insignificant and extremely lucky to be alive. That nothing matters but everything needs caring for. And that it is okay to tell the Muswagons there is no flipping way we are taking this dog out on the river!”
•Really good advice!! I need to reframe like this more often, but its something I’ve been doing lately as well.

“For two nights we lived comfortably on our very own island. We decided that clothes were not necessary. We played music and took naps in hammocks. We fished and swam and wrote poems that no one will ever read. Myhan barked for the first time at a fish flopping on a granite slope before we killed it, filleted it, and fried it for dinner.”
•I just really want to do something like this before I die.

“Ann and I had found the world to be much
more gentle and welcoming than what was typically portrayed in the news. We learned over several cups of hot chocolate that he was a musician before he went into the Air Force.”
•this is a really lovely sentiment, and something about it being followed up by hot chocolate and conversation really seals the comforting deal. It is so easy as an adult in 2022 to be afraid of the world. And I don’t want to be. Not all the time.

A fierce-looking woman approached the van and took the passports from Megan. “What were you doing in Canada?" she asked sternly. "Well, these two women just paddled all the way to Hudson
Bay! Megan exclaimed. "No shit! That's awesome!" said the agent. "Go on ahead." "We picked up a stray dog and we have a gun!" I blurted from the back seat. Ann gave me a loving but exasperated look that
said, "You can't just stay quiet for once, can you?" "Sounds like you had a great trip. Come back soon.”
•CLASSIC Canadian border crossing energy right here. I would love to say something like this someday.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 2 out of 5]

All about emotions and relationships, little about nature. Chick-flick in a book.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

There's nothing like a good adventure story. Whether it's hiking, canoeing (I read Beyond the Trees by Adam Shoalts earlier this year, another canoeing adventure), or some other kind of trek through the wilderness. I'm in! And this one, also canoeing, was special, in that it was two women who were the first to make the journey for their gender.

I should start off by saying that I'm terrified of canoeing. Owing to some bad experiences in my youth, I can fairly say this probably isn't an adventure I would take. Which made it that much more pleasurable to live vicariously through the two women in this book. Deciding to recreate a journey that had only been done by a few (and none of those women) they traveled over 2k miles by canoe to the Hudson Bay. And along the way, they even picked up a dog!

The dog was actually less a part of the book than I thought it would be since they got it in the latter part of their journey. Still though, it's a cute dog and I greatly enjoyed hearing about her meanderings on the river with them. The narrator and her friend Anne were also engaging people to follow on the journey. From the different personalities they had (and the subsequent arguments that could cause) to their boldness to do this type of journey, they were definitely inspiring.

This book was just the right length; it kept you captivated without being long-winded. It introduced people and locations that were worth knowing about. And it shared why the adventure was important and touched on environmentalism and the effects of humans on the waterways. I have no outright complaints about any of the book. In fact, I think it serves well as an inspiration to those looking to do something different with their life before they are weighed down with the various responsibilities out there. I really wish I had taken some kind of journey before taking on that which keeps me from going and living those adventures now. And until I can, books like this will let me live vicariously!

Review by M. Reynard 2020