Emily Ford is the first woman, and second-ever person to thru-hike the 1,200-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail during winter, and now she’s taking on her latest challenge. Emily and her dog, Diggins, will traverse 210 miles along the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota in winter to raise awareness for the preservation of the area. She will face exposure to high winds, blizzards, and freezing temperatures–all while being the only person there.
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LifestyleTranscript
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]