00:00 (wind howling)
00:02 (wind howling)
00:32 - There we have it.
00:33 Nice.
00:36 - Chances are you've probably heard of the controversy
00:49 involving a proposed mine near the Boundary Waters.
00:51 - What is our priority?
00:55 The treasure above,
00:56 or the riches below?
00:59 (dramatic music)
01:02 - When I'm inside a house and like warm,
01:05 I'm so scared to go on a trip like this.
01:09 But if I can show you what we're protecting
01:13 and show like my body experiencing it,
01:16 because places at the Boundary Waters
01:20 is a place that only exists
01:25 if we protect it.
01:29 (dramatic music)
01:32 the Boundary Waters.
01:34 (dramatic music)
01:36 (dramatic music)
01:39 (sawing)
01:43 - Oh, let me have it.
01:46 Diggy dog.
01:55 Ready?
01:58 Yeah, okay.
01:59 All right.
02:01 I'm gonna toss this over there.
02:03 Emily Ford is probably one of the bravest,
02:07 most tenacious people I've ever met.
02:10 (gentle music)
02:30 Just over a year ago,
02:31 Emily completed the Ice Age Scenic Hiking Trail.
02:35 That's a distance of 1,200 miles.
02:38 Now, people do that on a regular basis
02:41 and through hike it every year.
02:42 But she's the first woman,
02:48 the second person ever to hike it in winter.
02:51 And by having a experience like this
02:54 that is shared in film, in stories,
02:58 in magazine articles, that ultimately lets young people know
03:03 that they too have a place in these experiences.
03:06 This winter, Emily is undertaking
03:13 perhaps one of the most arduous hiking experiences
03:17 that you can have.
03:18 She's traversing a distance of 210 miles
03:22 through the Boundary Waters Recreation Area
03:25 over the course of just over a month
03:27 with Diggins as her companion.
03:30 Which at this time of the year
03:36 is going to have stretches of ice,
03:39 but also open water,
03:41 expansive areas of exposure to the wind, driving snow.
03:46 And because it's winter,
03:51 temperatures in excess of 50 degrees below zero at night.
03:55 But also she's in an environment
03:58 where she's literally all by herself.
04:00 (gentle music)
04:02 (water rushing)
04:05 (gentle music)
04:07 - When I was in high school,
04:32 my friend's parents decided to bring me
04:33 to the Boundary Waters on their family vacation.
04:36 And that's my first time in the Boundary Waters.
04:39 I loved it.
04:44 This place where wilderness gets to be wild.
04:47 Thousands of acres.
04:50 Miles and miles and miles of land
04:55 for all of these creatures to just live
04:58 and these trees to live and develop and grow.
05:02 Like it's this place where life exists.
05:05 I don't know what's better than that.
05:14 And things can kind of just be free.
05:19 (gentle music)
05:22 (water rushing)
05:28 (gentle music)
05:31 - I think there's a deeper story behind it
05:40 of really advancing what is the story of the Boundary Waters
05:43 and who uses it, who gets to be in this space.
05:47 And I think her journey in that
05:51 is really gonna open our eyes to understanding
05:53 this place that many of us know.
05:55 But Emily's journey to do that in the wintertime,
05:59 particularly in the off-shoulder season
06:01 in these conditions,
06:03 it's a way to see a place
06:06 that you might not particularly see in your everyday life.
06:10 And we're gonna see it through her eyes and her experiences.
06:13 And I'm really excited that she gets to be the voice
06:18 in which we get to understand that place in the winter.
06:23 - I'm not super vocal.
06:25 About how I feel, like my stance on things.
06:28 But if I can show you what we're protecting,
06:32 like I'm hoping people will be like, wow,
06:35 like this is a place that only exists
06:37 if we protect it.
06:41 Bye.
06:46 What are you doing out there, Diggs?
06:49 (wind whooshing)
06:52 (footsteps crunching)
07:19 - The Boundary Waters is in Northern Minnesota
07:23 near the border of Canada.
07:25 - Ow.
07:27 (Diggs laughing)
07:33 - Because it's so rich in its natural resources,
07:38 the Boundary Waters is constantly under threat.
07:42 - The battle for the Boundary Waters
07:44 between the beauty above and the riches below
07:46 has raged for years.
07:48 The issue is the long-planned Twin Metals Mine near Ely
07:51 on the edge of the BWCA.
07:53 Opponents sued the state.
07:55 - Copper mines, especially in that part
07:57 of Northern Minnesota, is still very much sought after
08:01 by extractive industries.
08:05 So these recreation areas are at risk
08:08 of the destruction that can come
08:09 from the extraction of these minerals.
08:12 - We as humans, we need these resources, right?
08:17 But we don't always know the implications
08:19 of what we're doing when we're gathering resources
08:21 from the earth.
08:22 Water is so sacred and so important.
08:25 It touches, water literally touches everything.
08:30 And as I travel across it and get to be in it,
08:36 in a part of it,
08:37 places like this don't just exist like this anymore.
08:43 We kind of have to work for them to exist.
08:45 (gentle music)
08:48 Enlighten them, just be wild.
08:51 (gentle music)
08:53 (laughing)
09:14 - You have so much more energy than me.
09:15 Why don't you cut all these up?
09:17 Huh?
09:18 All right, come here please, come on.
09:25 Can you sit?
09:33 Will you sit there?
09:34 Can you sit?
09:36 Yeah.
09:37 Sit there.
09:38 That's not called ground.
09:40 Can I have one?
09:41 Yeah, yes.
09:42 Can I have that one?
09:43 Okay, yeah.
09:44 Can I have this one?
09:45 One kiss?
09:46 Oh, thank you.
09:47 It's so nice of you.
09:48 - This trip is a whole different bear than the ISH trail.
09:52 Like there's no trail.
09:56 (wind blowing)
09:59 (footsteps crunching)
10:02 - Oh, jeez.
10:14 Wow, I love dragging you through the woods.
10:20 It's a lie.
10:21 The snow is like a thousand pounds.
10:24 It's so hard not to give up and be like,
10:25 "Well, just screw it."
10:27 (snow crunching)
10:29 - I mean, it was like 30 mile an hour winds and just snow.
10:42 And then just like the morale kind of just,
10:50 oh man, it was so low.
10:52 - Is she gonna fall through the ice?
10:54 Is her dog gonna get injured?
10:56 - Um, Diggins isn't eating.
10:59 And threw up yesterday on the ice.
11:01 - Is she gonna get injured?
11:03 - I wasn't thinking clearly.
11:05 I just booted it out there,
11:07 started knocking on the ice,
11:08 and I fell right through up to my chest.
11:10 And I got back in the tent,
11:12 took off my layers,
11:13 made a fire and everything like that.
11:15 Kind of crazy.
11:16 We're just alone.
11:21 It's just the two of us.
11:25 But once I get over that mindset of like,
11:28 "Holy crap, it's so cold outside."
11:30 It's like the silence and the solitude.
11:34 Oh yeah, that sun is nice.
11:53 So, you're looking at the bedroom.
11:55 Also known as the dressing room.
11:58 Also known as the concert hall
12:00 for a little ukulele harmonica time.
12:02 Also the reading room, if you will.
12:05 It's where Diggins lives,
12:07 underneath this beautiful quilt.
12:09 So you have the pantry,
12:10 the stove area,
12:13 countertop space,
12:14 endless snow supply for boiling.
12:16 And of course where you're sitting
12:18 is the one guest spot we have in the entire house.
12:23 And that's it, it's pretty awesome.
12:27 I've really thought about this a lot of like,
12:28 the why behind,
12:29 like why do we really need this place?
12:32 Like why does this place still need to exist?
12:34 It's a bunch of trees.
12:39 It's a bunch of lakes.
12:41 But like, that combination is like,
12:47 I think it's just like that it's so simple.
12:49 We just need this simplicity that's out here
12:54 that this offers.
12:55 Like when you come out here,
12:57 nothing's judging you.
12:59 I love you.
12:59 I love you more than anything else in the Boundary Waters.
13:04 Do you know that?
13:05 - Yes I do.
13:07 - Oh my goodness, you're four years old.
13:09 You're 28.
13:10 You're almost older than me.
13:11 Should we go for a little ski for your birthday?
13:15 (gentle music)
13:18 Your only responsibilities are just to enjoy this, right?
13:26 And be a part of it.
13:29 - I think that it's really important
13:36 that we have a cross section of the American public
13:39 that is representative of all people
13:42 to protect these areas.
13:44 Because our cultural and social demographics are shifting.
13:48 You know, we are seeing a higher percentage
13:52 of people of color being a majority of the population.
13:55 Also younger people are part of this new generation
14:00 that will ultimately be in charge of protecting
14:03 and preserving these wild areas.
14:04 And I think that if we can encourage them
14:08 to be aware of these areas, then that's the start.
14:11 - It's a beautiful day.
14:14 Right, Jax?
14:15 It's a beautiful day for a good ski.
14:19 Man, it is so pretty here.
14:21 Oh peekaboo, Dickie.
14:23 Oh, she can't even be bothered.
14:30 Oh my goodness.
14:31 I like, woo!
14:34 Woo!
14:38 That's awesome.
14:42 Oh my God.
14:43 Okay, we gotta keep skiing, but woo!
14:47 This is it.
15:05 We've lived out here for almost a month.
15:08 And...
15:11 Some of the times it really sucked.
15:13 But a lot of times there are days like today
15:17 and it's been awesome.
15:18 It's crazy.
15:22 I think I lost a lot of myself out here.
15:28 I don't know which parts.
15:32 And I found a lot of myself out here too.
15:38 Content was a word I came up with the other day.
15:40 That the inside of my head feels really content.
15:44 And my body feels content.
15:47 Something about this place, man.
15:52 There's something about the Boundary Waters.
15:57 It's not empty.
16:04 It's not an empty place.
16:07 It's not an empty place at all.
16:09 The world doesn't feel so small,
16:11 like so congested and so tight.
16:14 There's a lot of space to breathe out here, you know?
16:16 And the air is fresh.
16:19 There's a lot of space to work out
16:26 whatever's going on in the old head.
16:28 (water flowing)
16:30 You know, when we talk about the Boundary Waters,
16:46 we talk about how all the water is connected.
16:48 It's hard to grasp how like all the water
16:52 is connected to the world.
16:54 It's hard to grasp how all the water is connected.
16:56 It's hard to grasp how like one little thing
16:59 will affect something else hundreds of miles down the way.
17:02 It's hard to grasp when you've never even seen it before.
17:06 And for me, you know, skiing across the Boundary Waters,
17:11 like, it is now pounded into my head
17:14 that the whole stinking place is connected
17:17 from east to west and north to south.
17:19 But I knew that before going in there,
17:24 but now that I've like touched it and been immersed in it,
17:28 I know it in my heart and I know it in my soul,
17:30 which I think is what people kind of get at
17:33 when they're like, just being in it is a way to protect it.
17:37 Because if I'm not using it and other, you know,
17:45 backpackers or backcountry skiers aren't using it,
17:48 somebody else is gonna use it.
17:50 And it may not be a person that has the best interest
17:52 of the wilderness in their mind.
17:55 Clean plate club, woo!
17:57 Good job, Dix.
17:57 It's for you, it's for me.
18:01 This is your space.
18:03 This is your home also.
18:08 (silence)
18:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments