Big Red Canoe - Friends of the Boundary Waters podcast · Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness

Biking for the Boundary Waters

·31 min·1 clip

A box truck swerved toward Mike on Highway 17, then rolled over in front of him.

Dave Meyer opens Big Red Canoe with a welcome to Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. The show sets out as a home for captivating people and intriguing stories from America's treasured wilderness. Earlier that summer, Colorado's Mike Quirk set off on a bike trip to raise funds for the Boundary Waters. Nico Peters rode with him. The plan began in St. Paul, where Dave Meyer and development director Mike Linneman met them before the ride started. After lunch, they hopped on their bikes and headed off toward the state capital, then turned north toward the Boundary Waters in Canada. From there, the route was supposed to run along Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters, up through Canada, and all the way to New York City. The trip was meant to take 30 days and cover almost 2,000 miles. It did not quite go as planned. Before it was over, Mike found himself swapping his bike for a canoe to cover some of the middle Canada miles on the Ottawa. One stretch brought a box truck up behind him. He could not see it coming because he had grown used to the noise of pickup trucks and semis passing by. A convoy of contractors caught the danger on the radio and warned the driver. The truck swerved, overcorrected, and flipped over in the road. Mike said he narrowly escaped with his life. The driver was fine. The box truck landed upside down, and the construction materials and generator inside scattered across the highway, shutting traffic in both directions. Mike carried the shock for weeks. He also talked about survivor's guilt and about wondering whether the crash was somehow his fault. The episode then turns back toward the larger fight around the Boundary Waters. Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness points to victories against copper sulfide mining. The organization says the threat still remains. It is working for a Prove-It-First bill in Minnesota that would require independent scientific proof before a copper sulfide mine could be permitted. The rule would ask for proof that one copper sulfide mine in the United States has operated for at least 10 years without causing pollution and then stayed closed for another 10 years without polluting.

As heard by us

A fundraising ride becomes a canoe detour, a near-miss, and a pointed case for protecting the Boundary Waters.

Big Red Canoe tracks Colorado's Mike Quirk and Nico Peters as they leave St. Paul on a fundraising bike trip for the Boundary Waters, moving along Lake Superior, through Canada, and on toward New York City.

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Why you'd press play

A bike-to-canoe fundraiser with a truck scare, a northern route, and almost 2,000 miles.

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