Dave and Amy Freeman of Grand Marias are almost a month into their yearlong journey through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The Freemans are doing weekly podcasts called A Year in the Wilderness (bit.ly/2freem) that air on WTIP (90.7 FM) on the North Shore.

Amy Freeman weighed in Monday: "Most of the route was burned in the Pagami Creek Fire four years ago. The south shore of Lake Two and most of lakes Three and Four and then Hudson and Insula were filled with the gray trunks of standing dead trees. Really, it was beautiful to see because the plants growing below these trunks were a brilliant patchwork of yellows, oranges and reds. The fall color in the burned areas is amazing. … Our travels that day took us all the way to Thomas, hunting for a campsite at dusk."

The Freemans said they're undertaking the trek to draw attention to the potential effects of proposed nearby sulfide-ore mining on the BWCA's watershed.