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  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Mission and Values >
        • EIJ Resources
      • Annual Reports and Financials
      • Contact
    • Our Team >
      • Staff
      • Board and Advisors
      • Science Advisory Board
      • Join our Team
      • Our Partners
    • Press >
      • COVID-19 Updates
      • Films
      • Writing
      • Audio
  • For Scientists
    • Our Services >
      • Project Design & Feasibility
      • Project Build
      • Volunteer Recruiting & Screening
      • Full Project Management
    • Scientific Partners
    • Project Reports and Scientific Publications
    • Access Data Sets
  • For Adventurers
    • Volunteer Basics
    • Current Projects >
      • Mexican Coral Reefs
      • Wildlife Connectivity
      • Timber Tracking
      • Wild and Scenic Rivers
  • Our Impact
    • Past Projects
  • Blog
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Welcome to Field Notes

A Year in the Wilderness

2/28/2017

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By: Amy Freeman

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Watching sunset on Ensign Lake. Photo by Dave Freeman
PictureAmy Freeman uses a secchi disc to measure water clarity on one of the more than 500 bodies of water the Freemans visited during their Year in the Wilderness. Photo by Dave Freeman
My husband, Dave, and I just spent a whole year in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to raise awareness about the threats of proposed sulfide-ore copper mining within its watershed. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the BWCAW is a 1.1 million acre federally designated Wilderness Area in northern Minnesota. That’s Wilderness with a capital “W.” The region is a maze of lakes, rivers, wetlands and roadless forests—a paddler’s paradise.

​It is also the most popular Wilderness Area in the country, receiving about a quarter of a million visitors annually. We teamed up with the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters to keep the beloved BWCAW on peoples’ minds for an entire year, sharing the experience through photos, blog posts, articles and social media. We were thrilled to have the chance to collect water samples for Adventure Scientist’s Global Microplastics Initiative along the way—adding samples from wilderness lakes along the Minnesota, Ontario border to their database. We also gathered water quality data for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.


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Kayaking Everglades National Park

2/21/2017

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Story & photos by Jordan Snyder and Martina Sestakova

It was our second day out and we had over six miles of open water traverse ahead of us. We clawed our way directly into oncoming waves, wind, and a flood current as the elements battled to restrain us.  Waves washed over our 21’ tandem sea kayak as it crept across the Gulf of Mexico, making no more than two miles per hour of slow and challenging forward progress.
We were paddling from Jewel Key to Pavilion Key in the 10,000 islands area of the Everglades National Park, Florida. This was our first wilderness adventure in the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states.
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Sunset and low tide on Rabbit Key, Florida Everglades National Park

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Paddleboarding with Polar Bears

2/15/2017

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By: Mike Libecki and Victoria Ortiz

It’s not one of those things your mother warns you about. But Mike Libecki’s mom probably never thought she’d have to say “Be careful paddleboarding with polar bears, honey.”
As part of Mike Libecki’s trip to Greenland last summer to climb two first ascents, he paddleboarded 80 miles through sea ice, around glaciers, and next to some of the largest carnivores on the planet.
Libecki has SUPed with polar bears before and been around more than 80 polar bears in the wild. “It’s an amazingly powerful feeling, almost a spiritual experience to be near these powerful god-like beasts,” says Libecki.

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The Joy of Obsessive Expedition Climbing Disorder

2/14/2017

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An Interview with Mike Libecki
​By: Victoria Ortiz

National Geographic Explorer and Adventure Scientist Mike Libecki is all about the pursuit of joy and passion. His incredible adventures to remote corners of the globe awe his vast network of followers, but it’s his characteristic enthusiasm, frequent use of exclamation marks, and overall joie de vivre that really inspire others, and himself.
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Mike's tent with an alarmed perimeter for polar bears while camping in Greenland.
PictureSlow going pushing through sea ice to get to the start of his voyage to the Daddy/Daughter towers.
He relies on that positive attitude while on solo expeditions, like last summer’s trip to Greenland to  climb two big wall first ascents, paddleboard with polar bears (yes, you read that correctly), and collect scat and microplastic water samples. "There is only joy, and pre-joy," says Libecki.

His five week expedition included shuttling gear 80 miles, paddleboarding over 100 miles, packrafting 40 miles, and climbing two first ascents, all 400 miles away from the nearest village.

“It’s a huge equation. Every single detail, every variable and constant is part of the journey to the final product of success, of making it to the summit, and of coming home alive.  But it’s really about embracing the 'now' and connecting with nature and challenging myself,” says Libecki.

Fortunately, on these solo trips he’s in good company. “I get to climb with my favorite partners: Me, Myself and I. We all talk to each other out there in order to be safe and make sure the right decisions are made.”


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Sampling Where No Human Has Ever Been

2/8/2017

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By: Pascale Marceau of Vertical Nepal
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Vertical Nepal team working their way up the glacier on Langju. Photo by Elias de Andres Martos.
Exploration, adventure, pioneering, remoteness – all words that describe this fall’s Vertical Nepal expedition. The team had an objective to complete the first ever ascent of Langju Himal (20,885ft), a mountain situated in the Tsum Valley, deep in the heart of the Himalayas.  Although snow conditions, extremely technical terrain, and respiratory colds forced us to turn around just a day from the summit, Vertical Nepal remains a great success.  The team was excited to see the results of the sampling they did in collaboration with Adventure Scientists.

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Sampling Central America by Sailboat

2/1/2017

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​By Kristian Beadle of Green Coconut Run Expedition
PictureCrew member Michael watches the lightning show in Oaxaca, thanks to Hurricane Blanca spinning offshore, photo by Kristian Beadle.

In the pitch black of a lightening storm off the coast of El Salvador, we steered under instruments alone. Suddenly a bright light shone from the port side of our sailboat. “Look out, it’s a panga!” cried Sabrina through the din of 30-knot winds shaking the rigging. In the disorienting chaos, with sails flapping wildly, our sailboat stalled into the wind, and I swung the wheel to starboard to avoid a collision with the small El Salvadorian fishing boat. 

It was four months into the Green Coconut Run, a cooperative sailing voyage on the 42-foot trimaran Aldebaran. Most people who own large cruising sailboats - capable of sailing across the ocean - are wealthy retirees. We circumvented this financial barrier by creating a sailing cooperative with over 50 participants, each joining for a week or longer. In order to crowd-source the voyage, everyone chipped in money or labor, depending on how much time they were coming aboard. 
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Near the Ranger Station at the Murcielago Islands, Costa Rica, photo by Kristian Beadle.

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