Old Journeys and New Beginnings

It has been a busy month for WRA! We have tweaked our mission and solidified our 2013 expedition schedule. Instead of taking young women on wilderness adventures, we have decided to provide wilderness excursions for women 25+, especially business women who are dissatisfied/bored with work and are looking for a different type of getaway experience. Instead of going to Vegas, on a cruise, or going to the beach, women can vacation from 3-5 days on a river in West Virginia to reconnect with nature and truly escape the business of the city.

What is Wild River Academy?

The Wild River Academy encourages women to seek out their full potential through outdoor experiences. In a society that emphasizes comfort and convenience, women need to search for opportunities to grow and realize their individual strength. The Wild River Academy empowers participants by providing wilderness experiences in the DC Metro Area and beyond, turning people from tech-savvy to tent-savvy. 

We provide river expeditions to women who are looking for an opportunity to reconnect with nature and get to know other professional women in the DC area. Trips generally run 3-5 days, from Thursday to Monday, March to September. We work hard during the day but at night we kick back with some music, good food, and great company. WRA leads bachelorette party wilderness excursions for groups of up to 11 women. Our motto? Earn your fun!

​The Wild River Academy also provides motivational public speaking services, emphasizing the benefits of wilderness travel in building happy individuals and healthy communities. In 2011, Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho were the first two women to travel the historic Hudson Bay Fur-Trade Route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, following Eric Sevareid's route from Canoeing With the Cree. Natalie is currently giving presentations on this adventure to encourage young women to get outdoors! For more information see www.hudsonbaybound.com, www.WildRiverAcademy.com, and email Natalie@WildRiverAcademy.com to schedule a presentation for your organization.

Upcoming Events and Presentations

Hudson Bay Bound Presentations

September 28th @ 8PM, Potomac Paddle Sports

December 7th @ 8PM, Clara Barton Community Center

December 10th @ Sadie Pope Dowdell Library

Office Presentations

Looking for a quick TED talk for your company? Hudson Bay Bound does 15 minute presentations to share stories and motivate business men and women to go on wilderness trips. Take a quick break from your work day, grab a cup of coffee, and get inspired!

For a little taste of the adventure, here is a journal entry from the last day of the Hudson Bay Bound trip:

August 25, 2011

"10 more hours of paddling ahead. We felt as far away from York Factory as we ever had. Our wrists ached, hands clenched, and our minds, more than anything, were on the verge of insanity. We needed a good kick in the ass to light our fire again. The river was beautiful -- high white-mud eskers on the right and low lying spruces decorating the left bank. The ruggedness of the terrain continuously reminded us of our isolation. As breath-taking as it was, it was not the tundra we had expected, not the tundra we knew and loved from years ago (Ann and I met on a river trip in the arctic tundra in 2007). Our stomachs turned, our stroked slowed, and we became desperate for the hours to pass. All of the sudden from behind us we heard a huge clap of thunder that spooked us both. Just then, a pack of wolves, 5 total, one black, came out to the river bank from behind the spruce. The air was still -- a suspicious calm. The wolves stopped in their tracks when they felt our presence. We stared. They stared. Myhan (our dog) barked. A bird broke the silence with a loud cry and goosebumps rose from our skin. We glanced at the dark cloud looming behind us and we were off with a motivation reminiscent of our efforts on the Red River. We reached "The Rock" (he hasn't been in movies lately because he has dedicated the rest of his life to be a kilometer marker on the route to Hudson Bay), a big rock on the river bank that signified our remaining distance of 50k....40k....30k...Two more hours. We sang every song we knew, including some Christmas medleys. We saw seals, woodland caribou, and a black bear. Every white rock looked as if it were swimming our way and I joked that someone should spray paint them all black to soothe the nerves of canoeists paddling through polar bear country..." TO BE CONTINUED

If you would like to join our mailing list, please go to www.WildRiverAcademy.com and send us your email. We will keep you posted on upcoming presentations and let you know when to register for wilderness trips. As always, thanks for your support!

Natalie Warren

Wild River Academy 

www.WildRiverAcademy.com

Natalie@WildRiverAcademy.com

Hudson Bay Bound Inspires New Startup in DC!

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the beginning stages of development for the Wild River Academy! We are excitedly putting together the website and planning a few paddling events for the fall, including a trip from DC to Philadelphia in October. After almost a year of public speaking through Hudson Bay Bound I decided, with the enthusiastic support of Punchrock, to expand the organization's mission from inspiring young women to get outdoors to actually providing outdoor experiences for women ages 18-24. 

Today's society stresses comfort and convenience. Modern advancements, especially our reliance on technology, have improved our quality of living, but at what cost? I believe that reliance on technology is inversely related to the ability to deal with simple, everyday challenges; the more we use technology as a crutch, the less we are able to stand on our own. When was the last time you traveled to a foreign location without your IPhone or GPS telling you which way to go? Can the average person still determine the direction of the wind and, even more, what it implies for the weather that day? Do these skill sets even have value anymore? I believe that they do. In fact, confronting these everyday challenges instills the confidence and self-reliance that every individual needs to reach his or her full potential.

When I was 15 I had my first real wilderness experience through YMCA Camp Menogyn. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Northern Minnesota and Canada was the most remote, beautiful, peaceful place I had ever been. I ventured off into the wilderness for 15 days with 5 other ambitious women. We used our strength to travel long expanses of water; our wits to explore new ideas; and our songs to pass the long hours. We used no fuel for transportation and there was no rush hour on the lake, except perhaps the occasional bird migration. 

However romantic it may sound, the trip was challenging and the lifestyle was unfamiliar for a young city-dwelling woman like myself. At home, if I could not lift something I could simply ask my dad or brother for help. If I was tired of helping in the yard I could go inside and rest. We have so many easy ways out of problems that we rarely rely on our own creative devices. On trail, if I did not portage the canoe, finding fallen trees for quick breaks, or carry the heavy Duluth packs, finding large rocks to rest up against, then they would not have reached the next lake. If I didn't want to paddle anymore because my arms felt tired then we would not reach our destination. If I couldn't sleep because I was too cold and wet, then that was that. I thrived off of these challenges and returned the following year for a 30-day canoe trip in Ontario, and the year after that for a 49-day white-water canoe trip on the Inuit heritage rivers of Nunavut, Canada. All of these trips had their own set of challenges, but whether we faced dangerous weather, whitewater, or portages, I had confidence in my personal and emotional strength and trusted the women around me to do the same.

In 2011, my friend Ann and I were the first two women to paddle the historic 2,000-mile Hudson Bay Fur-trade route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, retracing Eric Sevareid's route from Canoeing With the Cree. The trip had a larger impact than we initially expected. We received lots of media attention, including articles in Canoe&Kayak and Outside Magazine, and realized that we had an open opportunity to truly inspire people with our story. We have given presentations for different organizations (Women's groups, paddling clubs, schools, environmental and agricultural groups, outdoor conferences, etc.) in hopes that our experience will inspire people to go on their own adventures. It has almost been a year since we pulled our well-traveled, 17 ft. Langford canoe up onto the banks of Hudson Bay. Ann and I have gone our separate ways since then, but our story still lives on. Through Wild River Academy, I plan to give presentations about my wilderness experiences and to provide outdoor opportunities to young women, encouraging them to create share their own stories.

Wild River Academy believes that young women can realize their full potential through outdoor challenges and, as a result, create change to re-establish strong, self-reliant communities. We have several events in the works for this fall, including a paddling day on the Potomac and a paddling pilgrimage from DC to Philadelphia in early October. Future plans include providing Spring Break wilderness excursions for the colleges and universities in the DC metro area. The website is in the works, but will be up later this week with an events page to keep you updated with upcoming activities. For the mean time, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!

Enjoy the day!
Natalie Warren