Mingo made it to the Dalton Highway Bridge yesterday after a relatively “easy paddle.” Mingo, Ulley and Marcus found someplace to set up camp, then promptly went to take advantage of the shower facilities at the bridge.

“It’s a ten-dollar shower, but it does come with a towel,” Mingo told me yesterday on the phone. “You better believe I’m going to take advantage of that. It was the best ten-dollar shower I’ve ever had. I don’t even feel ripped off,” he laughed.

Later in the day he called to tell me they were “just cruising.” He was working with his hand to try to get some of the feeling back into it, but as of yesterday he was unsuccessful.

Today, he told me that he’s got feeling in his arm, but his fingers are still numb. He has some movement, but there is little power behind that movement. As hard of a decision as it was to stop, he said that he is glad he did so he can go home and get his shoulder looked at.

Currently, Mingo is hanging out waiting to catch a shuttle van back to Fairbanks this evening. By tomorrow afternoon, he’ll be back in Tok with his truck then begin planning the journey home (and hopefully to the hospital!).

“We’re in Steven’s Village,” Mingo tells me as I answer the phone. “But we’re passing by. The whole town was basically wiped out. There’s nothing. The store is gone. There’s no beach. We’re gonna find some place to camp lower down,” he says.

I ask how today went. He sounds tired.

“It’s was a good day but a lot of paddling. We’ve been at it 10 hours. There is very little current so it’s a very slow river,” he replies. “We did go past a big whirlpool today. It was probably 30-40 feet in diameter. I’ve never seen one so big, other than in the movies.” He chuckles then continues, “I got stuck in one the other day, but it wasn’t that big. One minute you’re fine then the next minute the kayak is doing something weird. Other than that, it was a pretty boring day.”

I quickly tell him that things are confirmed for his trip back to Fairbanks then back to Tok. We keep it short as he’s says he’s not sure when he’ll get to charge the sat phone next. As we hang up he tells me they should be at the bridge tomorrow (Thursday) and he’ll give me call.

“Libby, wanna take my position?” Mingo asks as I pick up the phone. The phone is crackly, not a good sign for a long conversation. I quickly rush to my office and grab a pen and notepad. Ok, now I’m ready.

“66.1957 North 14.75183 West,” Mingo relays. “We’re still moving, but that’s my most updated position. We’re stopping to take a break for awhile then we’re gonna continue on for another three to four hours,” he tells me. “Been a pretty nice day. No rain! The river’s doing good. We’re not lost!” he laughs a little.

I quickly ask how his shoulder is doing.

“About the same. It aches.” he says. “I’m up to taking eight Naproxen. It’s the maximum I can take a day.” We quickly talk about options for him to pull out of the river when he gets to the bridge. Crystal and I spent a good part of the day finding transportation services for him and the boat back to Tok. There are not many options for this part of the world, but we did come across a solution that will work, if he chooses to do that.

“I still don’t know what I want to do. I just need to make a decision,” he says after I explain that for the Saturday afternoon pickup we have to make the reservation tomorrow. He asks me to do some more research on getting him and his boat from Emmonak (on the coast of Alaska) back to Fairbanks.

I can tell he’s conflicted about leaving at the bridge. He wants to stay and continue on to the Bering Sea because he’s put so much effort into this expedition. But his body is not cooperating. His hurt shoulder is continuing to compromise a lot of things, mainly his ability to paddle through the river safely.

“Lemme think more about it tonight and I’ll call you back first thing tomorrow morning with what I’m gonna do,” he tells me. A minute later the sat connection drops. At least we got enough time to talk about the important stuff.

A few hours later my phone rings again.

“Go ahead and make the reservation,” he says as soon as I pick up the phone. I’m a little shocked. I didn’t expect to hear from him so soon. And I thought he’d want to hear his options for Emmonak before he made the decision.

“Um, OK,” I say. “I found some info about flights.” I relay the information I found, very little but enough to get him back to Tok if he makes it that far down the river.

“Yeah, as much as I want to continue, I don’t think it’s a viable option,” he responds. “We just paddled for the last three hours in a really strong headwind. I can feel my other shoulder starting to tighten up,” he tells me. “I know my body and know when it’s reached it’s limits.” He sounds tired, but resolved. The conflict I heard earlier is gone but it has been replaced with tinges of disappointment.

I know Mingo pretty well (he is my dad, after all!). When it comes to pain, he’s tougher than most of the population. The decision to stop because of his shoulder is significant – a true indication of the degree of the injury. (This is a guy who when I was younger tried to drive himself to the hospital after being severely electrocuted!)

We quickly talk about the logistics for Saturday. He’ll have to be at the river pick-up point before 4pm. He’ll arrive in Fairbanks around midnight. Then he’ll pick up a different shuttle back to Tok at 7 AM. 40 Mile Air, the company who drove his truck back from Eagle, will deliver his truck to the drop off point in Tok so he’s all set once he reaches town.

There are a few snags in the plan that he’ll have to figure out along the way, such as how to get him and his boat from the drop off point in Fairbanks to the pick up point for the Tok shuttle (we have to use two different companies for the return trip). Plus, he’ll need to figure out where to stay or hang out between the drop off time (midnight) and the pickup time (7 AM). He seems unconcerned. After navigating through the Yukon River, I image these are pretty mundane challenges at the moment.

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!!

“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.