"Dave was excellent and presented all information in a very kid-friendly manner. On a scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Freeman's presentation was an 11. The students enjoyed the poison dart blow gun, hammock and clothing.....I would love for him to come back in the very near future."
Colleen Hovanec
Principal
J. E. Fritz Elementary School
Pennsylvania
"Your presentation was excellent! It was very educational, yet fun and captivating. The students were eager to do and research more! This was by far the best assembly we have had, it was the most educational and inspiring for students. Keep up the great work!"
Dina Mendola
6th grade teacher
General Mitchell School
Cudahy, Wisconsin
"Your assembly was great because it related directly to one of our units of study, held the students' attention throughout, and also gave the students the opportunity to ask questions that they were curious about. We definitely want to bring a Wilderness Classroom assembly back next year when we study the rainforest again."
Beth Lisack
Riley Elementary School
Arlington Heights, Illinois
"Dave did a wonderful job of peaking the interest of a wide range of ages. The students were glued to screen and had tons of questions at the end. This was one of the best programs I have ever seen, and we would love to have another WCO assembly at our school."
"The combination of school assemblies and the online activities was awesome! My students learned so much....We can't wait for you to come back next year!"
These are just a few examples of the feedback we recieve from schools that we visit. If you would like the contact information for PTA members, teachers, or administrators from schools that we work with please contact us.
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During stage 1 we will kayak 1,400 miles from Seattle, Washington to Skagway, Alaska. The Pacific Northwest is home to a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial animals. We will be studying whales and other marine mammals, kelp forests, salmon, and many other species.
The Pacific Northwest is home to a variety of large land mammals including Grizzly Bears, and Black Bears. Above and below the surface we are sure to find plenty of things to learn about. Many of these large mammals need large undeveloped spaces to thrive and the roadless sections of British Columbia and Alaska provide the perfect habitat.
From Skagway, Alaska we will hike over the Chilkoot Pass in the footsteps of thousands of gold seekers who struggled across the pass to reach the Klondike. Many of artifacts remain from those early days, and we will follow their path all the way to Dawson City along the mighty Yukon River.
From Bennet Lake on the eastern side of the Chilkoot Pass we will canoe through a chain of lakes that form the headwaters of the Yukon River past White Horse and down the swift flowing Yukon River to Dawson City. 
From Dawson we will hike 100 miles through the mountains to the headwaters of the Blackstone River. The Blackstone flows into the Peel River, which flows in the McKenzie River, which will lead us to the Arctic Ocean. The rivers flowing through these rugged mountains as some of the most pristine wild rivers in North America, with hundreds of miles of flowing waterways between towns or roads.
After over 2,600 miles of paddling and hiking we hope to reach the Arctic Ocean before freeze up. We will spend the month of October,2010 training our dogs, and learning about native life in the Arctic. In November we will head south along the McKenzie River by dog team, crossing 1,800 miles of frozen wilderness. There are many remote native communities along our way and we are sure to learn a lot from the people we encounter.
When the ice melts in the Spring of 2011 we will transition from dogsled to canoe and paddle 2,300 miles along the historic travel and trade route pioneered by Alexander McKenzie, Samuel Hearne, and other Canadian Explorers in the 1700's. We will finish this stage of our journey in the fall of 2011 by completing the 8 1/2 mile Grand Portage which will lead us to the rock shore of Lake Superior.
After spending the winter giving presentations and making final preparations we will begin 4,800 mile kayak journey from Grand Portage, Minnesota to Key West, Florida. The first 2,200 miles will take us through the Great Lakes and out the Saint Lawrence Seaway. 
During the final stage of our journey we will kayak the length of the Atlantic Coast from the Saint Lawrence Seaway to Key West, Florida. We will be following the seasonal whale migration from the Bay of Fundy in Maine to the warm clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way we will visit cities large and small, and study a variety of ecosystems and environmental topics. We also plan to take side trips into the cyprus swamps and Everglades National Park looking for Alligators, birds, and other critters.
