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The cold steady rain sheeting off the parking lot of the Chisago Lakes Area Library Monday night served as stark contrast to the warmth and good cheer just inside the library doors. A couple dozen people in the community room of the library were enjoying a special travelogue program, complete with sweet fiddle music. Through photos and commentary, the audience went along on the Yukon canoe adventure of local residents Tom Anderson and Nancy Conger.

This program was just one of many inspiring and mind-expanding first person presentations that the Audubon Chapter seeks to bring to this community.

Chapter President Sue Leaf, Center City, spoke briefly prior to the program's start about a symposium on songbirds she attended.

One of the most effective things an average person here can do to preserve rainforest habitat vital to songbird reproduction, is to consume shade-grown coffee. It can be more expensive than coffee grown on clear cut land, but migratory songbird habitat is disappearing rapidly. (FYI-- The Roasterie on Hwy. 8 in Lindstrom is a local shade-grown coffee retailer.)

The Audubon Chapter's biggest fundraiser of the year is this weekend. The group sells a variety of bird feed for a small profit to support programs. The sale is at County Road 20 and Hwy. 8 in Lindstrom (across from Koehn at the lights) from 9 a.m. to noon. There'll be suet, specialty feed mixes and your basic sunflower seeds.

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Program attendees enjoyed hearing Anderson and Conger share their experiences on a two and a half week canoe trek down the Gladys River near Teslin Lake, in the Yukon Territory.

Anderson, a retired naturalist and Conger, met up with Dick Person and his guide partner Sharon, for the adventure. Anderson had met Person, who frequently visited Minnesota on his speaking tour, and they set a goal to do a wilderness trip together.

Anderson and Conger flew commercially to Vancouver and arrived at their starting destination via smaller float plane.

Anderon and Conger advise any canoeist to "practice" on smaller bodies of water before undertaking a wilderness adventure. They went to the Snake and Kettle Rivers here in Minnesota before embarking on this trip. Anderson said there's no readily-available medical care where they were headed in the Yukon, so he and his canoe buddy Conger wanted to spend a little time together first on easier water. They also did shakedown paddles on a Yukon Lake before hitting the river with Dick and Sharon.

Anderson commented that he feels the more-experienced canoeist should take the bow on "gnarly" rivers like the Gladys River.

He says the best line of travel through a rock-filled river is easier to see from the bow, and the veteran canoe paddler should pick the route, while also getting the bow in the best position for the stern to follow along.

The photo slide show illustrated how abundant wild food like berries and fish were. Bears, Anderson said, were apparently well fed because the canoe trip was not marred by any intrusions, even without hanging their backpacks. "The bears were happy, they left us alone," he added, the pepper spray and shotgun they carried were not used.

He and Conger have plans to return to the Yukon and do a trip even closer to the Arctic Circle than the Gladys River was. They also fell so much in-love with the scenery and people that they purchased a primitive homestead on the edge of the Watson River, off the Klondike Highway. "And, it's just a 2,700 mile paddle to the ocean from there," Anderson teased.

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