(bright music) My name's Ryan Rumpca.

I'm the director of "A line in the Snow", which is a short documentary about a winter dog sledding trip into the Boundary Waters.

It follows a mother, Annie Aggens, who is a polar explorer, taking her two daughters into the Boundary Waters and teaching them life and wilderness skills along the way.

(dogs panting) (gentle bright music) - Why do I go back to the Boundary Waters?

Because there will never be a time when I do not learn something new.

I will always experience new things and I will always see new things.

I will always be amazed by the landscape around me and the waters around me.

(bright music) (dogs howling) You gotta do it a little bit tighter.

Just really remember.

So you gotta be in charge.

Actually, this is on backwards.

- Yeah.

- [Annie] A lead dog has a lot of responsibility and is really important to a successful dog team.

Okay, so now you can hold onto him here.

A lead dog is choosing the direction and it's kind of leading the way for the path.

There you go, good job you guys.

And so as a parent, yeah, I am definitely that way with my kids.

Okay.

- Wait.

- [Annie] Okay.

Great.

I love dog sledding.

I love the challenge of accomplishing a goal with a team of dogs.

Whether you're working with people or whether you're working with dogs, they're a part of your team.

Working with dog teams is really special.

- Paw.

- [Annie] You don't always have the language to communicate with them.

(dog howls) (dogs panting) (gentle music) I have a daughter who's Lola Ray.

She's 13.

Lola loves wilderness travel.

She has done a lot of canoeing.

Spent some time, quite a bit of time in the Boundary Waters.

- Piper, go over there.

Go over there.

- [Annie] And I have a daughter named Piper, Piper Hern is her middle name.

She's 11 and she's in sixth grade, and she has also spent quite a bit of time camping and experiencing wild places.

♪ I got the eye of the tiger ♪ The fire ♪ Dancing through the fire ♪ 'Cause I am a champion (dogs panting) (gentle music) - [Lola] Go, go!

Go!

Oh!

(gentle music) - My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my mother, my father spent time in the Boundary Waters.

I grew up going on canoe trips in the Boundary Waters.

(gentle music) My background is in wilderness adventure and taking people into wilderness areas and on expeditions to far away places.

The North Pole, it's one of the most unusual places on the planet.

There's nowhere else on the world that's like it.

The ice that you're on and that you're skiing across or dog sledding across, it's in constant motion.

Here's another thing that's really important, I think, to wilderness travel, and that is having an expedition mindset.

And that mindset is sort of looking inwards and saying, "How can I absorb this experience?"

And then, looking outwards and saying, "How can I give back to this place?"

(dogs panting) Yeah, I know.

Spending time in nature and spending time in wild places is the best way to grow up, the best gift to have in your back pocket and the best way to learn about yourself and to learn about other people.

What I've gained and what I've seen my daughters also gain from the Boundary Waters is that plan B is oftentimes better than plan A.

And I want them to learn from their own lessons, how strong they are, (dogs howling) how smart they are.

- No!

- No!

Whoa!

- [Annie] And how adaptable they are and how they can go with the flow, and how they can have really hard days that have such good benefits for them.

- It's really wet.

- I think one of the coolest things about taking kids camping, especially in wilderness areas, is that kids see that parents don't have everything in order, that parents aren't the masters of the world.

They're not experts in everything.

And so, for my kids to see me figuring things out helps me to see them start to figure things out.

It's just so beautiful because we're in this place together.

We're in a wild place together.

None of us are in control.

Very dry.

(fire crackling) (gentle joyful music) (people chattering) Look at it and you see where the tail is, so it's gonna go on him like this.

This is gonna be in the back.

So you're gonna go ahead and- - Oh, like this.

- Yeah, you can go ahead and put it on.

A lead dog is choosing the direction and it's listening to the musher, kind of leading the way for the pack.

And so as a parent, yeah, I am definitely that way with my kids.

Good, good.

Right there is good.

Good job.

Good job.

I help my daughters see that I am open to lots of different circumstances, that I give every challenge my greatest effort, that I accept when things aren't gonna turn out the way I hope they would, and that I look for the positive in any situation.

(dogs panting) What keeps driving me back to the Boundary Waters is how incredibly beautiful it is.

- [Piper] Go, go, go, go, go!

- [Annie] And how much solitude I experience there.

For hundreds of years, people have known that this is a incredibly special place, and they have passed this down through the generations of their families and through their friends.

(inspiring music) I want my legacy to be that the places that I love and the places that are biologically so important are protected.

I don't care if anybody knows that I had anything to do with it.

The legacies should be that our planet is cared for.

(inspiring music) (dogs panting) My name is Annie Aggens.

I am from outside of Chicago in Wilmette, Illinois.

Good job!

The best legacy I could have would be that- Nice, Mike!

I share with people how important it is to protect the places that you respect.

(inspiring music) (bright upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yeakel Jolene on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding and support for a thriving region.

More at wcif.org.

(bright music)