“Hey, we’re in Circle 151 miles in,” Mingo tells me. “We have a problem. I pulled a shoulder.” There is crackling on the line and his voice digitizes for a second the comes back. “I started taking Salicilate (??) but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. I’ve gotta take it easy. I don’t want to rip a bicep.”

The phone cuts out again then comes back. When I get the connection back, he’s still talking: “I met the German guys. I have a partner, Ulley. He’s a police officer from Munich. We’re gonna make paddle down to Bridge.”

The phone cuts out again and the connection drops. I have a ton of questions about how he’s doing, what he thinks happened, what is going on with the shoulder. I wait a few minutes then try to call back - no luck. (This rarely works, but I figured I’d try.) I wait. And wait some more. I give Sharron and Crystal a quick call then post a quick blurb on the blog, Twitter and Facebook. Still he hasn’t called back. I know time is short with the sat so maybe he figured since I know he’s OK, then I’ll just talk to him tomorrow.

A little while later the phone rings again - it’s Mingo. The connection is one of the best we’ve had yet, thank goodness.

“Can you still paddle? Do you know what happened?” I quickly ask.

“I’ve got no power on the left. I can’t extend the shoulder and lock it like I need to. It sure does hurt,” he explains. “I paddled hard for the first three hours. I think what happened is a sweeper came up. I fought it. I wasn’t going to lose my paddle,” he chuckles. “I don’t think I tore it. Something’s going on in there though. I can hear it clicking. I can still paddle but not hard. Mostly I just floated.”

I asked him to tell me a little more about meeting up with the German kayakers. He explains he met them the day before (day 2) and they all ended up in Circle this evening (day 3). There were three guys altogether, 2 of which left today. Mingo asked Ulley if he wanted to continue and he agreed. So now they’re on the river together - Mingo in his kayak and Ulley in a canoe (I think).

“We’re gonna padding another 300 miles to Bridge. Then I’ll reassess my shoulder and figure out if I can continue. Or figure out how to get back to my truck.”

At this point I’m thinking “What is Bridge? It’s not a town I’ve seen on Google maps.” Later I do a quick Google search and discover Bridge is actually the Yukon River Bridge on the Dalton Highway just outside of Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. It is one of only four bridges that cross the Yukon River.

“Oh man, today was a good day to kayak,” Mingo says bringing me back to the present. “It was sunny. Warm. Not a bit of rain.” I can hear how pleased he was with the weather today. “This is an interesting river. The hydraulics are pretty serious. It can bounce my boat three or four feet to one side and all of a sudden I’m sideways in the water,” he tells me. “It’s a physically demanding river. You’re kayaking into a 20-25 mile an hour headwind every day. It’s not an easy river but not as dangerous as others. But if you go down in the middle, you’re a gonner. The ranger was telling me about this guy who drowned. His body was found 100 miles downriver from where he fell in.” Mingo’s quiet for a moment.

“But this is a trip of a lifetime,” he says. I can hear the exhilaration in his voice. Even hurt, he’s stoked to be up there, kayaking the river and seeing the beautiful Alaskan interior.

While, I’d love to continue talking my head keeps screaming at me to hurry up the call. We’ve talked much longer than our allotted five minutes today. “So you’re in Circle right now. Is Circle a big town?” I ask.

He kind of chuckles. “It’s really more of a collection of buildings. No asphalt in the entire town. But I’m able to get a full charge on everything tonight,” he tells me. Relief washes through me. We’ve been really worried about how the sat phone would do and how long it would actually last in the back country. So far, even though we don’t always get good connections, he’s been finding regular places to charge it. That’s good news.

“Tomorrow we’re going to be heading back into the backcountry. Should take us about two, two and a half days to get through Yukon Flats,” he continues. We say our goodbyes and hang up for the evening. A million things are running through my head. I’m glad he’s not hurt too bad, but worried about the extent of the injury. Yet, I keep going back to his earlier comment - “A trip of a lifetime.” He’s completely enjoying himself up there.