Two St. Olaf graduates (both with ties to Cook County) who 
became the first women to paddle 2,000 miles from Minneapolis to 
Hudson Bay in 2011 are returning to speak about their three-month
paddle. They will be at Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply on Saturday, 
February 23 at 4:30 p.m.
Ann Raiho and Natalie Warren will tell their story about following the 
path Eric Sevareid chronicled in his book Canoeing with the Cree.
Since their trip ended Raiho has attended graduate school while Warren 
spent a year speaking about their adventure and then started Wild 
River Academy in Washington DC in 2012. Wild River Academy hosts three-
day river trips designed to connect high school girls with successful 
women. It also seeks to inspire women to grow through wilderness 
adventures. Early this year Warren moved the business to the Twin 
Cities with her friend and business partner Nick Ryan.
Warren, from Miami, Florida, and Raiho, from Inver Grove Heights, 
Minnesota met at Camp Menogyn in 2007, getting to know each other on a 
50-day canoe trip into the Canadian wilderness.
The goal of their presentation is to encourage people to pursue their 
passions, resulting in greater opportunities for themselves and their 
communities.