ELY—Two local adventurers are on their way to the Brazilian rain forest for a harrowing, weeks-long journey through some of the most remote and dangerous country remaining on the planet today.

Wilderness advocate Dave Freeman will be joined by Paul Schurke, best known for his polar explorations, as part of a small team of explorers who will retrace the historic route along the River of Doubt, taken by former President Teddy Roosevelt in 1914.

Back then, it was the first attempt by a westerner to traverse the unmapped and rapids-choked river and only two other groups have attempted to repeat the arduous journey since. During their two-month trek, Roosevelt’s crew faced unbelievable hardships. They lost their boats and supplies to punishing whitewater. They endured starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning and a murder within their own ranks. The ordeal brought Roosevelt to the brink of suicide and left his health debilitated. But he later said he wouldn’t have traded this epic experience for anything.

The journey added the Rio Roosevelt (Roosevelt River), as it’s now known, to the map of the Western Hemisphere and prompted several books, including his own and the 2005 national bestseller “The River of Doubt,” by Candice Millard.

Despite the passage of a century, little has changed along the river, which remains surrounded by impenetrable jungle and is essentially untouched by the modern world.

The area remains the realm of the Cinta Larga, an Amazonian tribe whose first significant contact with the outside world didn’t occur until the 1970s. Dave’s and Paul’s Brazilian team members were recently able to secure permission from Cinta Larga chieftains, at least one of whom maintains a Facebook page, to enter the area. 

Among the Brazilians joining Freeman and Schurke is Antonio Carlos Osse, the country’s best-known canoe builder. Freeman got to know Osse during a cross-South American canoe trek in 2007. It was during that trip, said Freeman, that he first read Millard’s book about Roosevelt’s journey on the River of Doubt and started contemplating his own adventure on the river.

While the Brazilian rain forest has seen extensive development in recent decades, the region controlled by the Cinta Larga remains a vast, undeveloped area, according to Freeman. During their six week, 400-mile journey, Freeman said the team expects to encounter no major settlements and only two wooden bridges connecting dirt roads through the jungle. They’ll spend their first week in Brazil with their five Brazilian traveling companions, getting prepared. They’ll then travel three days by van to the put-in spot, just upstream from one of the longest stretches of rapids on the river. They anticipate hitting the water late this month, and emergeingfrom the jungle by the end of June.

For Schurke and Freeman, the journey is their way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Wilderness Act and the founding of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, America’s most popular wilderness.

It’s also their way of paying homage to America’s greatest conservation president. In 1909, Roosevelt set the stage for the Boundary Waters by establishing Superior National Forest, one of the largest of nearly 250 national forests, national wildlife refuges, national parks and national monuments instituted during his eight years in the White House.

Roosevelt’s great grandson, Ted Roosevelt IV, a long-standing board member of The Wilderness Society, is continuing in that tradition— and he has advised Freeman and Schurke on their plans. 

 “My great grandfather was a passionate wilderness advocate and a passionate wilderness adventurer,” said Roosevelt. “Dave’s and Paul’s Rio Roosevelt expedition and their dedication to wilderness protection is testimony that these passions live on.”

Hazards of

the jungle

While Roosevelt’s experience on the river was grueling, Schurke said the participants on this centennial trip will have some significant advantages, including lightweight foldable canoes made of Kevlar. By contrast, Roosevelt’s crew relied on one-ton dugout canoes that they crafted along the way and that they found nearly impossible to portage around the miles of whitewater rapids through dense jungle that define the river’s upper end.

While the experience will be a hazardous one, both Freeman and Schurke say their experiences guiding in the northern Minnesota wilderness, as well as their extensive previous adventure travels, leave them well-prepared to deal with the river navigation. “I’m hoping the river itself will help me feel at home. It’s about the width of the Kawishiwi,” said Schurke, a northern Minnesota river he knows well. “But the rapids are much longer and there are no established portages,” he added. “Some of the rapids last for miles.”

But the rapids won’t be the only dangers they face. The Brazilian rain forest is full of poisonous creatures that sting, bite, or worse. “There are a lot of creepy crawlies,” said Freeman. “We’ll have to be very careful.”

Schurke, who has dealt with polar bears in the Arctic on more than one occasion, said some of the creatures they are likely to encounter give him more reason for pause. “A polar bear seems pretty benign when compared to the candiru,” a tiny parasitic fish that is attracted to urine and is known to lodge its spiny body in the urethras of large mammals, including humans.

The team, of course, will have a well-stocked first aid kit with antibiotics and anti-malarial medications.

Despite the potential hazards of the jungle, Freeman says it’s an astonishing place to visit. “The biodiversity is amazing. Everyday you see something you haven’t seen before and didn’t expect to see. It really makes the hardships worth it,” he said.

Hear the stories

Schurke and Freeman plan to share stories from their epic journey and Roosevelt’s public land legacy at 50th anniversary events for the National Wilderness Act set for this September in Duluth and Ely.  

The September anniversary events will coincide with the launch of yet another big canoe adventure for Dave.  This fall he and his wife Amy, who are 2014 National Geographic Adventurers of the Year, will paddle from the Boundary Waters to the White House.  They hope this 100-day “Paddle to D.C.” trek will culminate in delivery to President Obama of a petition canoe signed by thousands of people calling for national action on the threat that proposals for sulfide mining in northeastern Minnesota pose to Superior National Forest. 

Follow the journey

Daily updates on the River of Doubt expedition and next fall’s “Paddle to D.C.” can be followed on WildernessClassroom.org, Dave and Amy Freeman’s geography and wilderness education website that has served over 600 schools involving 85,000 students.