Mingo crossed over into Alaska last Thursday night after a hard push up through the Yukon Territory. “Boy was I glad to be back on US soil!” After going through customs, Mingo drove up to Tok to set up camp for the night and finally have some dinner.

Friday morning when the phone rang, Mingo sounded excited! “I’m here and just about four hours away from the Yukon. I also got some more technical issues worked out last night,” he continued. “I found a place to store my truck.” He went on to tell me about a couple he met at dinner who offered to let him keep the truck in their yard for the summer. (Thank you!!) They also directed him to someone who could drive the truck back from Eagle on Monday. “It was nice. Those two things just quickly worked out,” he marveled.

Through various calls on Friday and Saturday, Mingo explained the last minute details he was doing. Friday he was able to get his food re-supply packages mailed out to Galena and “talked with a few more people around here who know about this river.” On Saturday, I relayed some of the messages people have been leaving on this site as well as Facebook. “Oh, that’s cool! Tell everyone I say hello. Oh, and tell Mariusz he should be up here doing this with me right now.”

By Saturday afternoon Mingo was bored and ready to be on the move. “They have these cool concerts here at this campground so I’m going to go to that again tonight. I’m ready to be up there.” Sunday morning, Mingo was subdued. “This waiting, it messes with your head. I know once I see the water my head will be back in the game. But the waiting is hard. It makes you doubt what know you can do.”

A minute later he was back talking about the expedition. “I talked to some people about the rapids I’ve been hearing about. They should be no big deal.” As we finished up our latest conversation, we went over the last few technical details. “It will be a four hour drive from Tok to Eagle on what sounds like a pretty bad dirt road. I just can’t wait to see the river.”