Erik Knudsen, Captain Valkyrie

Erik spent over twenty years leading small groups on wilderness expeditions throughout the Canadian North including several canoe trips to Hudson’s Bay with his family’s Langskib and Northwaters Wilderness Program. He has also trained in the arts of rock climbing, sailing, skiing, sea kayaking, dog mushing and caving as a senior field instructor and course director with Outward Bound programs in North Carolina, the Florida Everglades, Costa Rica, Ontario, Baffin Island and New Zealand.

David Knudsen, Co-founder Valkyrie 

David was a visionary wilderness educator, community builder, and lifelong adventurer whose influence stretched from the granite shores of Lake Temagami to the open waters of the Salish Sea.

In December 2025, Dave completed his final crossing. What remains is not only memory, but movement – currents set in motion through family, through the waters of Temagami, through the ribs of Valkyrie, and through the thousands of lives he helped move forward.

The currents Dave set in motion now move through us in our stories, in the way we meet challenges, in the quiet strength we carry forward. Each time we step away from the familiar, each time we choose courage over comfort, each time we return changed and offer something back, we are participating in that same rhythm.

Visit daveknudsen.com

At the age of sixteen David’s father put him on a Danish freighter bound for Argentina as a rite of passage, something that rarely happens for young men in today’s culture. After high school he worked as a cowhand for a dollar a day in southwestern Colorado. These experiences shaped his code for living an honorable and meaningful life. David began his educational career as a science teacher before directing two outdoor-based alternative schools for ten years. He pursued a masters in Environmental Science and wrote curriculum, counseled and three times won an ‘Outstanding Educator of America Award’.

Cynthia Knudsen, Co-founder Valkyrie

Cynthia has been a teacher in one way or another since 1978 when she earned a BA in English Literature from William and Mary— the only thing that has changed is her classroom location. After nine years as an English teacher at the middle, high school and university level, she had the good fortune to join Northwaters Wilderness programs and experience the extraordinary impact canoe tripping had upon young people. Without a doubt, her favorite classroom became the great Canadian outdoors!  In 1995 she developed Northern Lights, a wilderness rite of passage for girls which continues today to help young women from around the world cross the bridge into adolescence.