Day 48: May 20, 2026
The ice surface of the Horton River rose three feet, an ice dam is forming downstream, and with the snow melt from higher levels “the whole shoreline now is dripping.”
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Hello, Will here. It's May 20th, day 48 here on the Horton. This is my fifth day here of the wait for the break-up so I can start on the river again with the raft. What I'm going to do in a couple days, probably starting on the 22nd, since there's not a lot to report in every day, I want to talk more about the Steger Center, the ideas I have for that in particular, leadership, problem-solving, the three principles that I have: the quiet mind, the explorer's mindset, and collective wisdom.
And what I'm doing at the Venter, it's not book learning. It's something I ... I can just learn, just to experience the last 60-some years of expeditions in life. So it's not book learning. So I thought each day I could do an update here on what's happening on the big wait and then talk about leadership and so forth and do that kind of in an organized way every day.
And so today, fifth day of wait, actually a big change in the river. The river has risen about three feet—or the ice has. And it's open along near the shoreline here on the opposite shoreline. It's not like just breaking up or anything. But what's happening in front of my camp here is it's pooling up. In other words, the water is starting to rise up. It's not like a normal Mississippi River where the ice breaks and then you have all the current. It's a much different breakup where a different type of ice ... and it's a slower [...] above my camp about one mile up is where my last lunch was where I made the decision to quit. And that spot now is all set of rapids there. And about more than 50% of that is still ice. It's thick ice about 10 feet thick there. And it's flowing over the ice and there's channels in that, in that deep ice. And not a major rapids, but it's just the beginning of what's to come there. And below that is what's called an ice dam. There's a natural narrowing of the river there that collects the ice and the ice dams up. It's a very small ice dam right now. But I think as this gets going and momentum, these breakups can be really quite incredibly dramatic and impressive and violent.
And so it's just seeing just the beginning of it. And it looks like that may be an ice dam there. We can talk more about that. But it's really interesting just seeing this process unfold. The unfortunate thing this morning, there was a south wind again. So yesterday I mentioned a north wind came in and it got cooler. Clouds came in. I thought another spell of cool weather, cloudy weather, waiting. I got deadlines now too. And so this was really great. And about 11 o'clock, the sun broke through with incredible intensity. It only stayed ... it only warmed up, probably the thermometer was 41, 42, but in the woods where I'm at, it was about almost 60 degrees in the sunshine. The snow is rapidly melting, which is making this kind of greenhouse effect, making it very, very pleasant.
And along the shoreline, I'm up, I'm about 30 feet above the water. And the whole shoreline now is dripping. I mean, lots of water coming down. But these wetlands, they're all a wet sponge now. So there's a lot of water coming down. And that's all along the river, all up, 200 miles up all the way. You know, this water is starting to come down.
There's going to be some changes here. I don't expect anything like I'm going to be out of here in a day or two. I'm going to look at it. I'm planning for another five days for sure. I mean, I don't think I can get out of here in five days because once these ice dams form, there's a lot of dangers. You've got to be ... you've got to choose when you're moving here. But I am planning with everything. So I'm all set for the raft trip and then I have to hike out. It's a long, very long, arduous trip out: unknowns and crossing streams and that. So I've got to be really prepared for that. In other words, I've got to do it real lightweight and decide, being realistic, what I can bring and not bring.
What I'm going to do with all my gear is I'm going to cache it in a safe spot. And there's canoeists that do the river. And I'll be in touch with some of the canoeists now for taking the gear out, which is, you know, rafts and all this good gear. I'm just going to give it to them. And the main thing is to make sure it's not left there, that it's all taken care of. So I'm going to have all that in order too when I leave there and that has to be in the [...] and so forth.
But, yeah, so it's just a wonderful break here in my life, waiting out an iceout situation. It's one of the reasons I wanted to do this expedition is to have this time where I could watch this. And on the other hand, I'm very anxious to get back to work at the Center, you know, the construction. And I've got great help now with Julie and Geoff and all the other people now that are saying, "Come on board for me." And I'm going to be working more with the actual leadership as I'm now forming a team and I'm having more people take over various parts of the operation. Then I can work on what I want to do with my life, which is the leadership, the problem-solving, that part. So we'll be concentrating more on that. And I'm in a really good space and mindset here for this on this 45th day.
It's pretty gusty out there and sunny. There's warm weather clouds. You never know what's going to happen overnight here. But so I'll check in tomorrow on the 21st. And on the 22nd, I'll start talking more about leadership, problem-solving, things I've learned along the way and all that. So I'll check in tomorrow then. Will here, over and out.
Will’s position is unchanging as the thaw continues and river breakup unfolds on the Horton. Visit Will’s interactive map for complete control of magnification and orientation.
River ice breakup on the 2023 solo expedition. Ice jams such as seen here have to be waited out before the river is traversable—a waiting process that Will is doing now on the Horton.