Kayak Session: In April 2022, you set off on the Grand Salmon Source to Sea Expedition. Tell us more about it. What was the ultimate goal?
Brooke Hess: The Grand Salmon was a conservation campaign, promoting the removal of the four lower Snake River dams and a moratorium on the Stibnite Gold Project to save the rapidly dwindling Snake River Basin salmon populations from extinction. We used the narrative of our expedition to reach as many people as possible and encourage them to get involved in the political process that will be the deciding factor in whether these salmon species go extinct or not.
KS: What did the trip entail?
BH: Following the natural migration of anadromous fish from their spawning/hatching grounds to the ocean, we skied and kayaked for 79 days. We skied the mountains at the headwaters of the three main forks of Idaho's Salmon River before paddling them to where they confluence.
We put on Marsh Creek first and paddled the Middle Fork Salmon before shuttling back up and paddling the headwaters of the Main Salmon to the confluence. We got skunked by the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon and explored the Stibnite Gold Mine instead of paddling that section—we will go back for it!—before continuing downstream into the Main and Lower Salmon Rivers. We then swapped into sea kayaks and paddled the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific Ocean, stopping in communities along the way to host and speak at grassroots events, connect with Tribal members, and meet with communities impacted by the declining salmon populations.
KS: Ski touring? During a 1000-mile source-to-sea expedition? Why?
Hailey Thomspon: We wanted to paddle from the headwaters of the Salmon but then wanted to reach the *true* source,so we had to haul ourselves up into the Sawtooth Mountains in the midst of a blizzard. That was the way we operated the entire expedition. Instead of paddling one fork of the Salmon River, we tried to get them all, and rather than doing a few outreach events, we met with multiple groups of people in nearly every town we passed through.
KS: Why pick the Salmon, Snake,
