Along with the pictures (see previous post), Mingo sent me pages from his expedition journal. Here are a few excerpts.

June 16
Left Vegas and Crystal’s house. Headin’ on 95 past relentless, boring, barren desert. I thought that this would be a whole 13 hour driving day. Instead, I found some unexpected beauty near Alamo, NV in lakes, animal life and very beautiful scenery.

June 15
Crossed into Canada and went through customs with no problems. Then started my trek through B.C. Pretty country but I just want to get this journey moving…. I am tired of driving 10 to 12 hour days. I want to kayak long days. It is 9:32 pm here and still daylight. You could easily hike now. I hate the cost of gas in Canada, over $4.50 a gallon. Causing havoc on my budget. Later-out.

Thurs, June 18
Completely insane day. Paid about $9.00 a gallon for gas. Got 2 flats repaired. Saw hundreds of miles of absolutely beautiful mountains. Northern Rockies are spectacular! God’s country but it takes driving like hell to get here. I went to sleep around 12:30 AM with the sun just setting. Up at 6 AM with the sun way up. This is so weird. Today will be another long day but hoping to make it to Tok, Alaska.

Fri, June 19
Yesterday I drove another 10 hour day and made it to Tok, Alaska. Nice to see cheap gas again, $3.20 a gallon! …At the Boundary gas station and restaurant, I met a couple - Mike and Tawnya. He offered his land for my packing lot. [My truck] is safe there and on one will use it. Cool folks…. So logistically this thing is coming together at a higher expense than I thought. I hope that many will help support this expedition. I am a bit stressed at this time. Money is a problem and I am also stressed by the waiting. Make me think way too much.

I think that solo expeditions are many times harder than team expeditions. It is hard to remain unfluttered by all that needs to be done. The next two days will be difficult psychologically. This runup time is tough. Once on the river with my emotions in check I think I will settle down into my job. But now I am stressed and not pleased being stuck in town. Emotionally it is also difficult in that I miss my friends and family.

Well, folks, Mingo should be in Eagle, Alaska as this posts this evening! I spoke to him briefly this morning (at 3:30 am Alaska time!) and he was anxious, excited and ready to finally see the river. “I guess I couldn’t sleep. I can’t wait to see the river. I think it’s going to be bigger than what I saw in Whitehorse.”

As we went over last minute details (who do I call to confirm his truck made it back to Tok, what is his battery situation look like, is he going to go back to sleep for a few hours - he said he would take a nap!), he kept coming back to the river. “I should be up there around noon today. I’m gonna take some pictures of Eagle and all the destruction. And talk to the rangers up there. Then that will be it. Tomorrow morning I’ll finally get out on the water.”

And so tomorrow officially begins the adventure! Stay tuned for the daily updates, pictures and Mingo’s personal journal entries in the weeks to come. It should be an exciting summer!

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.”

“I’m in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory,” Mingo told me this afternoon when he called. “I finally made it out of British Columbia. Boy are these providences big!” Other than being long, the drive is going well. “There’s not much out here but it’s beautiful territory.” Mingo was glad to be back in a major town, if only for a half hour. “Whitehorse is a decent sized town. I have cell reception and they even have a Walmart!”

Mingo has been getting a lot of stories about the Yukon River this year. “All the truckers are telling me the river is a lot higher than normal. I’m ready to see the water to see just how high. I don’t want to be out there if it’s moving too fast but I can only postpone the trip on this end a few days. I don’t want to get into a dicey position on the Bering Sea.” The anticipation in his voice is getting stronger as he gets closer to the Alaskan border. He’s ready to see the river and get out there into it.

According to Google maps, he’s about five hours away from the Alaskan border. Once he crosses over, he’s only about five hours from Fairbanks. “I’ll probably camp again tonight then get a hotel when I get to Fairbanks to recharge everything. Hopefully the campground tonight won’t be underwater,” he chuckled. The tent area of the campground he stopped at last night was literally under a foot of water so he ended up pitching his tent in the RV section which was on higher ground. “I still got a decent night’s rest through.”

“I’m just coming up on Clinton in British Columbia. Boy is this a big providence,” Mingo told me on a quick satellite call this evening. “I still have quite a bit of driving for today. I want to make it to Prince George for the night.” All in all it sounds like today’s drive was relatively uneventful. He sounds exciting about crossing over into Alaska on Wednesday and even more anxious to get on the water in Eagle.

The satellite phone seems to be holding up well and the call quality was clear and crisp - a good sign for when he’s out in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. The only downfall to the sat phone is that satellites come in and out of range, so service could be down for a few minutes as a new satellite comes up on the horizon. Our call tonight was quick. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow evening,” he told me. “I have to stop when I use this thing because the signal fluctuates so much when I’m driving. It kills the battery.” Hopefully, reached Prince George early this evening and found a nice, comfy hotel bed to crash on tonight.

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