As you can see, I had a busy day yesterday getting some of Mingo’s pictures and journal excerpts published on the blog and getting the sponsors section updated on his website. In the middle of all this excitement, Mingo called to check in and fill me in on his day kayaking the previous day (Saturday 6/27).

“Hey Lib. It rained like a big dog yesterday,” Mingo began. “Got hit by a microburst. We were paddling then all of a sudden the wind picked up to 40-50 miles an hour. Had to paddle like dogs to get back to shore,” Mingo tells me. “Then it rained hard for the next 2½ - 3 hours. It was a good day today because everyone was safe but it was sure wet and miserable.”

“But we got into Fort Yukon and were welcomed by everyone. They gave us chocolate and 2 5-gallon bottles of water and let me charge the phone up,” Mingo continued. “A big thank you goes out to David, Heidi and the gang from Arctic Circle Baptist Church. Gotta put that up on the website. We hung out talking to Philip by the fire until around midnight. Last night we were just trying to stay warm and dry out.”

I quickly ask how his shoulder is doing, especially after a rough day like today.

“I think I damaged something in the upper shoulder. I’m getting some numbness in my hands,” he tells me. “It’s another 5 days to the Bridge. Then I’ll figure out what I’m gonna do. I feel like the decision is already being made for me.”

He asks me to check on some flights between Fairbanks and a couple of small villages along the river so he has some options. I update him on some of the comments we’ve gotten through the blog and Facebook. He was very pleased to hear to hear from everyone.

Mingo, Ulley and Marcus had an exhausting and dangerous day on the Yukon yesterday. It seems they are kayaking when they can - day or night. Sharron received a call late last night from Mingo (since it was already past midnight CST here).

She said they are doing well but exhausted and soaked to the bone. They had to escape some microbursts today which on a river that is now about two miles wide is not a quick and easy feat. They did make it to shore in somewhere in Fort Yukon and were in the process of making their way through the Refuge.

Mingo’s shoulder is still aching and he’s now having some numbness in his hand. The group should be reaching the Yukon River Bridge on the Dalton Highway sometime late Sunday or early Monday.

Sharron said Mingo sounded tired. And as they were hanging up, she heard one of the guys in the background say, “We’re gonna do what the locals do. We’re gonna drink beer tonight!” Indeed, after a day like today, a little celebrating sounds like it’s in order.

“It’s still raining,” was one of the first things Mingo told me this morning as he chomped down on one of his “last real breakfasts” before he leaves. “Then I’ll be eating MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) for 60 days. At least they’re better than C-Rats,” he joked between bites (or whatever he was having; I forgot to ask).

Mingo made it to Boise, ID yesterday in the early evening, checked into his hotel, and began pouring over the maps again until he crashed. “I think I’m going to spend two extra days in Yukon Charley. I want to do some 20-mile radius hikes out from the river. It’s supposed to be gorgeous country. Then I’m going to push to Galena, 100-mile days on the water. It doesn’t look like there is much between Yukon Charley and Galena but I could get out there and be surprised.” Mingo then went on to tell me that he plans on taking a full rest day in Galena to see the town, pick up and organize his resupply packages, and just generally relax before heading out into Yukon River again. His voice has a mixture of unbridled excitement and some anxiousness: “I’m still unsure of what I’m going to find when I get to the Bering Sea. It could be a calm sea or it could be nasty.”

As we finish up the call (the first of many short ones today), he says that he’s going to get as close to the Canada border as possible tonight. Later in the day, he decides he’s going to stop in Okanogan for the night. I hop online and find him a hotel in Omak (a few miles north of Okanogan).

My phone rings again as he gets just outside of Ellensburg, WA to check on the hotel reservations. “It stopped raining for awhile, but now it’s starting to cloud up again,” he tells me. I relay the hotel info to him and we chat for a few more minutes about mundane things. I hang up with him thankful that I’ve gotten to talk to him so many times today - if only for a few minutes. In a few short days, I will get just a few precious minutes to find out what he’s doing, what gorgeous territory he’s seen, and how balmy the Yukon water is that day.

Today (and the next few days) was all about driving. Yesterday, Mingo made it to Las Vegas to drop off the food resupply packages and finish up last minute details (like testing his new satellite phone) with his youngest daughter, Crystal. This morning, he hopped in the truck and began the long drive north toward Canada.

I talked to him at various points throughout the day. After getting out of Vegas on Hwy 93 and driving “into nothingness,” he was awestruck by the beauty of central Nevada. As he passed through Ely, NV, he commented that the town looked like something you’d see in the mid-west: “I expected to see Dorothy walking down the street.” Needless to say, he really enjoyed this part of the drive.

That is until he hit the rain, pouring rain, and hail. “Hail was the last thing I thought I’d see in June,” he said. “A car a few miles ahead of me slid off the road and crashed because there was so much water and hail on the road.” Mingo stopped to make sure the passengers were OK (emergency services were already on the way) then continued driving toward the Idaho border.

He reached Twin Falls, ID about 3:30 pm (MST) and jumped on I84 to head toward Boise for the night. Mingo said he was looking forward to getting out of the weather and sleeping in a nice comfy bed - the last for awhile. He said he would also be repacking clothes. “I didn’t expect it to be this cold!”

All and all, he sounded like he had a good travel day - even if he was in the truck all day. Tomorrow he’s hoping to push as close as he can to the Canadian border before he stops for the night. He wants to be able to cross into Canada first thing Monday morning.