Day 43: May 15, 2026
Will’s audio cuts out in today’s choppy and truncated dispatch. Before audio is lost, he recounts starting a third consecutive day with early cold that allows for good travel up the river.
-
Yeah, Will here on May 15th, day 43. This was the third real cold morning, 15 degrees, which is normal in the last three days. Pots froze, the usual thing. And what was different, this wind had stopped. There was a real intensity to the sun. I've been getting up about 6 o'clock, and I get the sun where I was camped. I got the sun, usually about 5 o'clock it would start heating up the tent. And what was different was the intensity of the sun. This was the first time I didn't have frost on the inside of the ceiling of the tent. It was moisture, but it was heating up. And so my goal for the day, I thought ... it wasn't a real goal, but my projection ... There was a larger river that came in about 12 miles up. I thought maybe I'd possibly make that. The night before, the idea of going that far, I was really quite pensive about it. I'd done a lot of crossings. They were all safe. I was doing it all day long. You know, it kind of gets to you. And so I had this kind of a pensive feeling about it. I thought, well, I'll give it a shot.
And right out of the gate, when I left, it was perfect, it was one of the perfect conditions I've had, you know, ever. It gets better every morning. And really fast-growing river is simply beautiful. It winds all around. If you look at the satellite photo of the map of the topograph ... something how it winds. And then, well, it must have been three hours in. The overflow surface [...] I was going to pull again on the top. A couple times I got boxed in. I didn't know how I was going to get out of it, but I managed to kind of get around it. And it's a great thing about the river. I'm really learning a lot. I've had a lot of experience, usually with the security of a canoe sled. Because a canoe sled, I just travel right through. If I'm where ... right through the breakup and in the breakup with the canoe. And then I'm in the rapid.
[...]
it's very vulnerable. But the past experience is really something, kind of a combination of things I've learned and new things I'm seeing here. Nothing too out of, you know, I haven't made any, really, any errors at all.
[...]
I ... there was more intensity in the...
The start of today’s travel continued the trend of cold mornings that have made for optimal travel conditions. Visit Will’s interactive map for complete control of magnification and orientation.
In today’s dispatch Will mentions having used a canoe sled on past expeditions — such as his 2016 solo expedition, for which this video was recorded.