3 July: Days-26, Total-27; Miles-35, Total-983 - Chuck
It was good to get a good night's sleep. It rained until
at least 1am. This morning it was clouded over and windy, but no rain.
A lot of my gear was wet so I hung it in the wind and waited until 8am
to start. Then I tied some clothing to the canoe cover to dry as I paddled.
I was beating into a strong headwind most of the day but only got rained
on twice, less than an hour each time.
Unfortunately, our maps for this portion of the river are the pits,
a 1:1,400,000 Delorme. The same map sheet goes to within 25 miles of
Prudhoe Bay on the Beaufort Sea. It is not much better than a roadmap
and there is very little detail. However, all this water is eventually
going to the Bering Sea so if we just follow the flow it will get us
there. Several times I thought Stevens Village must be around the next
bend. Finally, I saw a log cabin and yelled but I didn't expect an answer,
as it looked abandoned. Just a short distance later there was a nice
looking log house, again I yelled but no answer, there were also some
out buildings and an old log cabin with a sod roof. Not wanting to mistakenly
pass Stevens Village, I pulled the canoe to the bank and walked up the
steps to the house. Lots of dogs were barking, I only saw a little one
but could hear bigger ones tied or penned behind the house. I counted
17 rifles/shotguns on the front porch leaning against the house and
that was what I saw from a distance, it looked like more were on the
other side. Getting no answer to my shouted greetings, I canoed on downstream
hoping there was more to Stevens Village than this.
I thought I saw someone in red on a sandbar way ahead. The binos revealed
that it might be a Quayle, a Bill Quayle. Then the most beautiful yellow
tent came into view. I quickly called on the radio and Bill directed
me into the neatest little cove behind a gravel bar.
We spent the next couple hours catching up on what each of us had been
going through while Bill helped me put up my tent and I cooked some
pasta. As I ate, Bill read me his journal entries (starting at Whitehorse)
that he had written to send to Betty for typing and posting on the website.
Somehow, Bill had thought that I was ahead of him and he was hurrying
to catch me or at least not have me wait long for him. Guess we will
have to work on our communications (and mind reading).
We both acknowledged what a relief it was to link up again and to know
that the other was safe. Tomorrow, we will fine-tune our procedures
should we get separated again.
All's well!