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.”