I just talked to Mingo (for literally 2 minutes before the sat phone connection dropped). He’s about an hour and a half outside of Fort Nelson at a campground for the night. He “just kinda cruising” as he puts it. He expects to be in Prince George by tomorrow then back in the States on Thursday.

And that’s as far as the conversation went! Darn sat phone. It will be nice when he’s back in the US and we can go back to using Verizon.

Mingo’s back in Canada and heading towards the States. When I talked to him last night he was in Watson Lake fighting off the mosquitoes as he wandered around a campground. Apparently, the mosquitoes are huge and everywhere up there!

He sounds like he is doing well - still managing the pain in his shoulder, yet enjoying the drive. He said he got some fantastic photography yesterday - bears and some beautiful landscapes. I’m really looking forward to seeing everything!

The phone rang early yesterday, around 6:30 CST.

“Hey. We’ve been paddling all day and just stopped on Devlin Island about 20 miles from Beaver,” Mingo tells me. “It was a fairly nice day. Did you talk to Crys yesterday?”

“Yes, I did,” I tell him. “So you got un-lost?” I ask.

“Yeah. There’s not as many islands down here. You just get caught in a channel and you can’t figure out where you are,” he explains. “Navigating this river is tricky. The maps don’t do the area justice. Now we’re just kinda crusin’. It looks like it’s gonna rain again though. Did Crys tell you about the bears?” he asks me.

“Bears! Um, no,” I respond.

“Yeah, we had big bear prints all around camp last night,” he says excitedly. “Looked like big blackies. We got up and looked around but couldn’t find them. I slept with my shotgun. In the morning there were more prints a little farther out. Never saw them but I got some pictures of the prints.”

We talk a little more about how his shoulder is doing. He’s dealing with the pain and numbness and trying to figure out what he wants to do when he gets to the bridge in 2-3 days. He’s balancing his desire to continue with the pain and loss of mobility in his shoulder.

Just as we finish up talking about his options when he gets to the bridge, the sat connection drops. I try calling back and get him on the line for about 30 seconds more, then neither of us can reconnect.

It doesn’t worry me. He sounds like he’s doing well and Crys and I have a few research tasks to complete. Today we’re checking on options for him when he gets to the bridge. If he decides he is not going to continue because of his shoulder, we need to figure out a way to get him back to his truck (or have someone drive his truck up to pick him up). We’ll keep you posted on what we find out!

P.S. – If you have any ideas or leads that would help us arrange for a pickup, please email us at webmaster@mingomorvin.com. Thank you!!

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.

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.”

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