2,000 Miles to Washington D.C.

12_9_14Student Response (Lower)

12_9_14Student Response (Upper)

Dave and I began portaging our canoe when we reached Annapolis, Maryland. We walked for about 30 miles with the canoe on a cart. As we reached Washington D.C., we were walking on city streets and sidewalks. We passed people waiting for the bus, walking on the sidewalk and visiting local stores. Many of these people would ask us what we were doing. We would stop and tell them about how far we had paddled and our goal to reach the U.S. Capitol. We told them all about the Boundary Waters and the Wilderness Act. Most of these people signed our canoe by the time the conversation was over. What would you do if you saw someone walking down your sidewalk with a canoe?

Our portage came to an end at the Anacostia River. We put the canoe in the water and started paddling again. We paddled past big buildings and a stadium. When we reached the Potomac River, we turned right. There is a big airport along the river. We watched planes taking off and landing. Here we began paddling upstream for a few miles.

From the river, we could tell that we were near the National Mall when we saw the Tidal Basin and the Washington Monument. Dave and I were so excited to have finally made it to Washington D.C.!

We paddled for a couple more miles. People in canoes paddled out to meet us. Some of these people were our friends from Minnesota. Some of the people were from Washington D.C. We were happy to see them! The weather was chilly and rainy. I was surprised that so many people came out to see us, even in this weather!

We landed at the Washington Canoe Club. After a few minutes of greeting everybody, we were in a car driving to our first event. The next few days are a blur. We met many people. We gave several presentations. We participated in a fun event for kids in a park. Dave and I made one out of five different stations that students visited. We showed kids our equipment, told them all about Paddle to DC and we showed them interesting things from the animals that live in the Boundary Waters. About 150 students from Washington D.C. area schools were there.

The Chief of the U.S. Forest Service came to this event too. He told us that the Forest Service would accept our canoe. The canoe will be on display at the Forest Service Headquarters in Washington D.C.!

Now we are driving back to Minnesota. This trip will be much faster than our 100-day journey by canoe. We will keep doing presentations about Paddle to DC. Soon, we will be guiding dogsledding trips for the winter. I hope that you learned a lot during Paddle to DC. We would love to hear from you about your favorite topics and parts of the website. We also want to know if you have suggestions for how we can make our online adventures better. You can share your ideas with us through email or by making a comment to this post. Thank you for participating. I hope you have a great school year. Keep exploring!