From left, Sherve-Ose, Knutson and White during a September 2024 get-together. The three women have been AARP members since 2010 (Sherve-Ose), 2001 (Knutson) and 2008 (White).

DEB LENOX WHITE: Anne and I were college roommates, and we’ve stayed close. One day in 2004, I called her to say, “Let’s canoe down the Mississippi River for a couple of weeks.” I knew she liked the outdoors, and I couldn’t think of anybody else crazy enough to just walk away and do that. My intention was to paddle the whole river—not all in one stint, mind you, because we were still working—and eventually make it to the Gulf of Mexico.

Anne Sherve-Ose: At first, I didn’t know about the long-term plan. But I was all in. Deb invited another friend to come along, and I invited another Deb: my St. Olaf College buddy Deb Knutson.

Deb Stephens Knutson: Anne and I were softball teammates. I didn’t know Deb [White], but when we got on the river, we were all compatible. It was a brave, brazen adventure.

White: Being together this way really deepened our friendships. We got to argue things out, to ponder whatever was happening in the world.

Sherve-Ose: We all have the same sense of humor and quirky lack of dignity, which helps when you’re out on the water for a week or two at a time.

White: There were four of us for the first four years, and other friends joined along the way, but we three were the only ones who stuck with it the whole time. A recurring trip on the Mississippi doesn’t fit into everyone’s schedule. But I always came off the river really looking forward to the next year.

Sherve-Ose: We took our time reaching New Orleans. We finally made it in 2016, though there was one section of river near Minneapolis that we hadn’t gotten to: the Minnesota River, the connecting link between Lake Traverse and the Mississippi. We decided to head north, following Eric Sevareid’s book Canoeing with the Cree into Canada to Hudson Bay.

White: Last July, we started the third leg of that journey. We were planning to end up in Hudson Bay, near the Arctic Ocean. You go from an area with brown and black bears, to one with grizzly bears, to one with polar bears.

Sherve-Ose: We were shooting some rapids on the Hayes River in the pelting rain. And then we hit a rock.

Knutson: When we tipped over, I gulped some water, and I thought, Well, that can’t be good.

Sherve-Ose: I felt a sharp pain in my ribs, and then I realized that our Garmin satellite communication device had gone down the river. At that point, I started sobbing because I knew that our trip was over. Some of my ribs were broken, so Deb and Deb had to drag the canoe five miles upstream and up rapids. It took nine hours.

White: Originally, I was up for trying again this year, but a few things stopped me. I’m getting over a back injury, and I have some personal travel to do. And I kept thinking about us being all alone in the wilderness with those bears.

Knutson: This summer I’m going on a family trip to Norway that I’d actually postponed in order to go to Canada last year. So I won’t be going back up either. But I want to be counted in for the next time.

Sherve-Ose: Me, I decided I wanted to complete the Canada trip this year, so I found an outfitter that’s leading a group. That’ll be safer than trying again on our own. I plan to make it to Hudson Bay in August.

White: Anne and I are both planning to paddle the Minnesota River this summer, too, though we won’t be able to do it at the same time. But I know we’ll all be out camping together again in the future. What that will entail and where we will go, I don’t know. But there are a lot of rivers in the world. —As told to Andrea Atkins

Anne Sherve-Ose, 72, is a retired teacher who lives in Cook, Minnesota. Deb Lenox White, 71, also a retired teacher, lives in Rosemount, Minnesota. Deb Stephens Knutson, 72, a retired nurse, lives in Owatonna, Minnesota.