The river continues to provide, intrigue and come full circle. 

We woke up on a muddy bank near a patch of thick willow shrubs with our new montana friends. A few large pots of coffee, some more talk of wild places and a hit of granola for breakfast set us up for the day. Before the Montana group pushed off Brett walked over and handed me a piece of torn notebook paper with his name and number scribbled on it. “See you in 15 days!”

Not long after Jack and I were packed up and on the water. We spent much of the day watching massive storm cells crawl across the sky, dropping dark curtains of rain over a large swath of horizon. One storm in particular chased us for most of the day Every time I turned around to look at the sky it seemed as though if we were to stop for a second we would be engulfed in rain and darkness. 

The day paddling was rather east. Smooth water and a decent current helped us hit the 40 mile mark as we entered Walker Slough, the slough which holds the town of Holy Cross. About 20 minutes before reaching town the storm on our tail finally caught up and it began dumping. 

Reaching town, we pulled off the water and walked up a mud road into Holy Cross. First stop was at the school, where we were able to get out of the rain and had a great conversation with a teacher who was in town. Most of the teachers, as we found out, are outsiders who are taken by plane and boat to the different communities throughout the school year. He then told us about a community center that sold concessions and snacks, and we set out to find it. 

While looking we met a local named William Sims who showed us around town and pointed us to the concession stand. We opened the door and waited behind a few folks for what would be a typical concession set up at a highschool basketball game. As we chatted with the folks in front of us we came to find out that we were standing next to one of Alaska's US Senators, Dan Sullivan. He was making rounds to the rural communities on the Yukon talking to constituents and pushing some PR. We enjoyed talking with him and he shot a quick video with us to send to our Montana Senator, who was a friend of his. He told us a few of the things he had heard from the constituents over and over was the need for safety officers (out of all the villages we visited along the Yukon, none had a police officer), infrastructure, and housing. He noted that many Americans have no idea and couldn’t believe that their fellow Americans are living without flushing toilets. He was also sure to inform us of the extremely high rate of Military service in the Native Alaskan community vs. the US population in whole. 

We then walked down to the river and chilled with William for a bit as tiny, no-see-um gnats swarmed. It turns out, William had intended to go to the memorial service in Anvik the other day, but got stranded on the way when his boat came unmoored and floated ten miles downriver with no one on board. As such, we hooked him up with one of our coffee mugs from the service, which he had asked if we had gotten. He was thrilled to now have the mug. The circle of river life continues. William also took our fish net, which we were thrilled to unload. All in all, a great stop with great people and a US Senator. 

For the evening we pushed out of town and found a camp spot one mile down river. It is not August 6th, and darkness has set in in the evenings for a few hours. It is odd to have to find and turn on the headlamp for the first time this trip. 

Life Rolls on.