They’ve paddled about 300 miles since launching at Lake Traverse and had “just a little over 100 miles to go” when they hit the river Thursday morning.
Brent Hemly and the Plummer Bear go back several years. He first live-trapped her “in 2011 or 2012” while assisting the DNR with a comprehensive research study of black bears in northwest Minnesota,
Madison Eklund has the winds under her wings now after battling the unrelenting current of a flooded Minnesota River and the severe weather that kept her off the water for days at a time. She aims to be the first solo kayaker to retrace the Fort Snelling to York Factory route made famous by Eric Sevareid and Walter Port and those who followed.