Nearly twenty years and countless canoe trips later, I look back at that summer as a pivotal moment. It shaped my passion for wilderness canoeing, launched my career in the outdoor industry, and laid the foundation for a lifetime of memories.
That is why today on Give to the Max Day, I am asking you to think about how the Boundary Waters has played a role in your life and make a gift to help protect it. All donations will be doubled until midnight tonight, please give generously.
Four halcyon summers of adventure as an outfitter and a passion for film and photography soon segued into a career with the activist outdoor brand Patagonia, where I’ve spent the last fifteen years crafting important environmental stories through my work as Senior Film and Video Editor at the company headquarters in Ventura, California.
While my job keeps me out west for most of the year, I’ve made a point to venture north each summer, running rivers deep in the heart of Ontario and high in the Alaskan Arctic, and always back to the place I love the best: The Boundary Waters.
What keeps me coming back, year after year? The reasons are many, but it all comes down to the memories and stories we create in the woods and on the water.
Every lake, every portage, and every campsite is filled with memories. The day we got lost and wound up in Canada. The missing hatchet. A close bear encounter with my dad. Crossing the Grand Portage during Amy and Dave Freeman’s historic Paddle to DC. And way more blueberries, mosquitos, and late nights around the campfire than I could ever count.
