Onward, Despite

Early last summer, Kathleen Grube ’24 and three friends embarked on a 75-day canoe trip following a historic fur trade route through some of North America’s most remote and beautiful waterways, from Seagull Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to Hudson Bay. She was drawn to the outdoors, she says, “less as an escape from the world, but as an entrance into it.” It was a journey through the silliness of singing to a herd of caribou, the grit of a 55-mile paddle through polar bear territory, the exhaustion of a 17-mph headwind, the relief of dry clothes after a day of rain, and the beauty of morning fog on a calm lake. “It was the most alive I have ever felt,” Grube says. “Responding to the situations that arise, rather than waiting for the perfect circumstances, allows you to see your strength through both the beauties and discomforts.” Her lessons learned come straight from the Gustavus field guide: Learn to make each condition workable, be resourceful and creative with solutions, and keep putting paddle to water until you reach the bay.