June 15 - June 20, 2002 / Start - Winnipeg River

June 15 email excerpt, John Scanlan to Jennifer Garrison Brownell
We just arrived home after seeing Mark and Norah off yesterday. Friday we had a nice dinner with your mom on our first leg "up North".
After a late start from Mpls, we stayed in Virginia - couldn't go further because the flood victims had filled the motels. Saturday we were early off to Young's Bay resort in the NW Angle (that little bit on MN surrounded by Canada above Warroad).
Mark and Norah are truly impressive with their organizing, planning and humor. The people at Young's Bay were kind and helpful...



June 20, 2002

Update: email excerpt Jennifer Garrison Brownell to Mark and Norah's parents
... I got a call from Mark tonight and wanted to let you know that he sounds in exuberant spirits. Briefly, what he said was that they've had great weather (partly cloudy, and in the 60's and 70's), except for a 1/2 hour downpour yesterday that was "the hardest rain we've ever seen" and not too many flies.

The river is running 1- 2 feet higher than normal, so they've encountered some fast water - but not, he hastened to add, anything dangerous. :) Yesterday, they stopped earlier in the day than expected and found a great camping spot.

One tricky thing is that Mark lost the "zapper" for Scout's electronic collar, so that's a little worry, but they think they can pick another one up along the way, and so far "she's handling it really well."

As they started out, they were pretty tired (and Mark, as you know was sick too) and they had a hard first day as they were figuring out how to best balance the load but now they want us all to know that they're in great spirits, half a day ahead of schedule (passed White Dog yesterday), and feeling really strong and good...