Some people have the outdoors in their blood. Will Collins is one of them. From the time he attended his first summer camp as a child, he felt drawn to the outdoors. In this episode, I talk with Will about his path from childhood summer camps in Wisconsin to multi-week expeditions in remote areas. In 2017, he paddled source-to-sea on the Mississippi River. I ask him how he planned for the trip, about the generosity of people he met along the way and the daily rhythms of a long-distance trip, and also about adjusting to life after the completion of a big expedition. The year after his Mississippi River trip, he paddled for 70 days on the Yukon River. He describes how that trip differed from paddling the Mississippi. Will’s love for the outdoors extends well beyond his own expeditions, so we finish with a discussion of his podcast, Buffalo Roamer Outdoors, and the guided trips he coordinates. Will’s enthusiasm for getting outside is infectious and may inspire you to get out for your own adventures.
Show Notes
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Transcript
44. Will Collins on Outdoor Adventures
Mon, Jul 01, 2024 2:38PM • 1:05:24
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
river, trip, people, mississippi, paddling, podcast, canoe, year, long, canoe trip, talk, outdoors, man, wilderness, alaska, wisconsin, mississippi river, big, camp, absolutely
SPEAKERS
Dean Klinkenberg, Will Collins
Will Collins 00:00
You know, you take, like, take a 15, 16, 17 year old kid, and you throw them out in the middle of the woods. Like it was just magic, and it just totally jived with, with what I enjoyed, with what I liked.
Dean Klinkenberg 00:34
Welcome to the Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast. I’m Dean Klinkenberg, and I’ve been exploring the deep history and rich culture of the people and places along America’s greatest river, the Mississippi, since 2007. Join me as I go deep into the characters and places along the river, and occasionally wander into other stories from the Midwest and other rivers. Read the episode show notes and get more information on the Mississippi at MississippiValleyTraveler.com. Let’s get going.
Dean Klinkenberg 01:07
Welcome to Episode 44 of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast. In this episode, I feature an interview with Will Collins, host of the Buffalo Roamer Podcast, who had me on his podcast a while back. Will is just a delightful guy, fun to chat with, a deep passion for the outdoors that, as he talks about in this interview, he thinks maybe it was just in his blood. In this interview, we talk about his path to getting interested in the outdoors, which included a couple of very long backcountry trips when he was a teenager, part of a summer camp program he was affiliated with. He describes his path from that point on, leaving home, going out for college and having a chance to explore his passion for the outdoors, away from home for a while, before eventually coming back to run the family farm. But while he was out exploring, he had a source to sea trip on the Mississippi in 2017 and the following year, he did a long trip on the Yukon River before he came back home to run the farm. We spent a fair amount of time talking about his trip down the Mississippi, his impressions of the river from that trip and the people that he met, and generosity from folks he encountered along the way, the daily rhythm of the trip itself. And we talk a little bit also about the post trip adjustment. A lot of times, at the end of trips, people have told me there’s a letdown, sometimes a fairly severe letdown after completion of something big like that. So I was curious to get his take on that. We talk a little bit about the contrast between his trip on the Mississippi and the Yukon, and then we get into some of his other interests, including his podcast, what he’s hoping to do with that, the guided trips that he leads. So it’s a wide ranging conversation. He’s got a lot to say about being outdoors and wisdom to share from all of his experiences on these lengthy trips.
Dean Klinkenberg 03:13
Thanks to all of you who continue to show me support through Patreon. I am grateful for the love that you show and it keeps this podcast alive, you can join the pod, the Patreon community, for as little as $1 a month, which gets you early access to the podcast. If you don’t want to do that, you can buy me a coffee and just feed my caffeine habit. That’s another way to show some support. I appreciate either one of those. To find out how to join Patreon or buy me a coffee, go to MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast, there are instructions on both of those. You’ll also find at that same link the show notes for the episodes. And if you wish to leave a comment, I would say, go to that same link. And now let’s get on with the interview.
Dean Klinkenberg 04:08
Will Collins is an outdoorsman, wilderness guide, podcast host and farmer. Just a few things going on there. He has canoed 1000s of miles across North America, including a 103 day solo source to sea descent of the Mississippi River and a 70 day descent of Alaska’s famed Yukon river. He hosts guided back country canoe trips and publishes a biweekly podcast called Buffalo Roamers Outdoors, where he speaks with fellow adventurers, sharing stories and passion from the trails. Check out the podcast or join them on a guided river trip at BuffaloRoamer.com. Welcome to the podcast, Will.
Will Collins 04:44
Hey Dean, thanks. Good to good to reconnect with you. I actually just talked to somebody else for my podcast last night who we have mutual connection with, and that’s Boyce Upholt. He’s got a new book like you do, about the Mississippi, coming out. So chatted with him last night. He brought your name up, and yeah, good, good to reconnect with you. And flip the script a little bit, as I had you on my podcast some time ago.
Dean Klinkenberg 05:13
Right, this time I get to ask the questions
Will Collins 05:17
I like it that way.
Dean Klinkenberg 05:18
That’s cool. I guess it’s nice that we have these crossovers. I just saw Boyce a couple days ago when he was in St Louis for his book event. So we had a good chance to hang out and talk for a while. It’s a big it’s a big year for river, Mississippi River themed books.
Will Collins 05:32
Yeah, I guess so.
Dean Klinkenberg 05:34
I thought maybe where we would start is, I’m curious how you got interested in the outdoors and outdoor activities. When did that begin for you?
Will Collins 05:43
So for me, I think, man, I think it’s just a I think it’s in my blood. I really do Dean, I think it’s for whatever reason. I think it’s part of my DNA. But I remember as a kid, my dad taking me, you know, fishing just for bluegill. And, you know, running down to the local pond with friends fishing for bluegill and a little bass with a worm on a hook. And always loved that. And then for me, it really like, you know, kicked into high gear. I went to a I was fortunate enough to go to a summer camp in northern Wisconsin called Camp Manitowish and in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, and it’s kind of a classic canoe camp you do like, you know, in camp activities as a kid, archery, riflery, tennis, bike, bicycling, all that fun stuff. And then the big component of those of that camp is canoe trip, a canoe wilderness, canoe trip. And so as you progress through the ages, I went from I loved it, so I went from when I was maybe eight all the way until I was 17. And you progress each summer, something like that. Maybe I was a little older when I started. But you progress longer and longer wilderness trips as you get older. And you know, you start on a two or three night canoeing trip in Wisconsin. And the culmination, I was fortunate enough, when I was 16, I did a 30 day canoe trip in Saskatchewan, through this, through this camp, and then when I was 17, the next year, I did a 45 day backpacking trip in the Brooks Range of Alaska. And for me, man, that just, you know, you take, like, take a 15, 16, 17, year old kid, and you throw them out in the middle of the woods, like it was just magic, and it just totally jived with with what I enjoyed, with what I liked. I remember one specific time we were backpacking in Alaska and walking down this like loose scree field after we had just summited a pass like a saddle in order to get across mountain range. And we were coming down on this loose scree field, and I just remember looking all across the mountains of Alaska and just thinking like, boy, I am a long way from the cornfields of Illinois. And I just, I just loved it. And so since then, you know, since those trips, I just kind of took it on my own and kept running with it, kept doing all kinds of wilderness trips, anywhere from a day to, you know, as long as I possibly could. And yeah, I was hooked, and I’ve been hooked ever since. And I yeah, I love getting outside anytime I can.
Dean Klinkenberg 08:38
That’s pretty amazing at that age to be out on trips for that long. I remember like in high school, like being able to go away for a week for a camp like so that seemed like a luxury. So 30 days or 45 days, that wasn’t even anything on my radar at that age.
Will Collins 08:52
I mean, and it wouldn’t have been for mine, if I hadn’t have gone to that to that summer camp. And you know, as you can imagine, those summer camps aren’t cheap. So I was fortunate enough to have a family that that, you know, was supportive of what I wanted to do there. But I had my brother and sister also went to the same summer camp. And, you know, they went two or three years and petered out because, you know, wasn’t their thing. But for whatever reason, it clicked with me. And yeah, I feel real lucky to have found a passion at such a young age and to be able to stick with it. I mean, there’s a lot of people as you know who go through life without any kind of passion, so to be able to find something like that, yeah, it’s been great for me.
Dean Klinkenberg 09:36
So I know you live in Northern Illinois now, not too far from the Wisconsin border as I remember, like, is that home for you? Is that where you grew up?
Will Collins 09:44
It is, yep, yep. I’m here in DeKalb, Illinois is where I live, about halfway between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, here in Northern Illinois. And I manage a pig farm. I’m a pig farmer here. So that, that’s the day job.
Dean Klinkenberg 10:02
How long have you been farming?
Will Collins 10:04
So I took over. So I went to college and left in Colorado and left DeKalb, and was hightailing it out of here, never to come back. And I went to college, and I studied to be a sports announcer, which was another passion of mine, sports at the time. Now not quite as much, but so I studied broadcast journalism. And from Colorado, I moved to South Dakota for, think, four years, and I had a radio show out in South Dakota, and I did all the local high school sports on the radio in South Dakota. And then I moved to Montana for a few years. And so I was basically, I was gone about 10 years from my hometown, and then I was kind of spinning the wheels a little bit. I was working at a fly shop in Montana at the time, and, yeah, my dad called me and said, hey, you know, the current manager of our family farm here isn’t, isn’t working out. We have to make a change. Would you be interested in coming back and helping with the farm? And at the time, you know, didn’t sound that interesting, didn’t, didn’t sound right, but I thought about it more, and yeah, decided to come back. And it’s been a, been a great decision. Yeah, I have a wife and a little kid here now, and my baby gets to see my grandparents right down the her grandparents right down the road. In fact, my my daughter’s with my with my mom right now. So, yeah, it’s, it’s been a blessing, man. It’s been great.
Dean Klinkenberg 11:38
Wow. So you’ve come first full circle in that way. Then you had a chance to get out and explore some for a little while, and then come back to work the family farm.
Will Collins 11:47
Yeah, absolutely.
Dean Klinkenberg 11:48
A total digression, but I’m just sort of curious. Like, do you know, like, how many generations that farm has been in your family?
Will Collins 11:55
Yes, it would be. My great grandfather purchased it in 1905 I believe he came in a covered wagon. My grandfather, my dad is my dad’s dad had him when he was in his 50s, so he was older, and so my grandfather was born in 1899, and they came in a covered wagon from Southern Illinois and settled here in DeKalb on the same piece of property that I’m on now.
Dean Klinkenberg 12:25
Wow. Well, that’s a good story. Yeah. So when you were growing up, other than going up to the camp in Wisconsin, like what was kind of the landscape you got to explore as a kid around there, that get you outside when you weren’t busy helping on the farm?
Will Collins 12:42
It’s funny, I I never appreciated the stuff I had around me until I’ve come back. As a kid, you know, you’re with your friends, it’s always like, ah, this place sucks. It’s flat, it’s all full of corn. There’s nothing to do. I mean, I would go out and fish, basically, was the big thing was, yeah, bluegill fishing and bass fishing with a worm and a bobber, you know, just at the local pond with with the friends after school. But outside of that, it wasn’t really too much. You know, we would take one or two vacations a year and go out west and, you know, see the mountains of Colorado, or, you know, wherever else we might have gone. I did a road trip through South Dakota once, but for the outdoor stuff around me, I didn’t really understand it and experience it until I moved back. And even while, you know, after I moved back, I’ve realized, like, wow, Illinois has it’s a mecca for Illinois and Wisconsin for canoeing, which is what I love to do. I mean, when I was in Colorado and Montana, there’s no canoers out there. There’s no no water for it. And, yeah, there’s all kinds of beautiful little streams, creeks, rivers, all right around me pretty close. I got the Mighty Mississippi, you know, an hour, 20 minutes to the west, Lake Michigan, to the east, and all kinds of little creeks and streams to explore between there and, yeah, it’s been, it’s been cool to to explore the the home country that way, and in a way that I didn’t as a kid.
Dean Klinkenberg 14:20
Yeah, that’s fantastic. Yeah. When, when did the Mississippi trip come into play then? Were you already back working on the farm by then? Or were it was before?
Will Collins 14:30
It was before. So I did the Mississippi in 2017 and I did the Yukon the following summer in 2018. So how the Mississippi came about is, ever since that backpacking trip in Alaska when I was 17, in the back of my head, I was like, man, I need to do another big trip. I just know I need to get out there. It was just something in my in my gut, really, that was pulling me and for whatever reason, like many adventurers, Huck Finn, and whoever else, the largest river, the mightiest river of the land, was calling me. And I really can’t explain why, other than I knew I wanted to do a big, long trip. I knew that Mississippi, you know, is storied and long, and you know, I could do one big, long trip without too many portages. And yeah, for whatever reason, I just knew I needed to do it. And so at that time, I was working in South Dakota at a radio station, and I had been working there a few years, been doing a good job. Everybody was happy with the work I’d been doing. And I had finally, you know, it had been building up inside of me over a number of years. And finally, I was like, you know what, I’ve saved a little bit of money, not much, but a little bit of money that I could go and do this if I wanted. And so, yeah, I made the decision and the hardest part of the whole Mississippi river trip, 103 days solo was walking into my boss’s office and telling her what my plan was. And I asked for a leave of absence, and somehow she granted it to me, you know, I said, hey, this is a dream of mine. Basically, how I put it was, this is a dream of mine. I’m gonna go canoe the Mississippi River. I’d love to come back and work with you, if you’ll have me, if not kind of I understand, and lucky enough, yeah, she gave me a leave of absence. Three month leave of absence ended up being a little longer than that, but yeah, I came then I came back and worked at that job another year, before I got the itch to go paddle the big river of the Yukon again.
Dean Klinkenberg 16:50
Well, let’s talk about the Mississippi trip a little bit more than why. Why did you decide to do it solo? A lot of people do it with friends or something. You have somebody else to paddle with, to kind of share the burden with it, but, and some people prefer to do it solo. So what was your thinking there?
Will Collins 17:06
Basically, I couldn’t find anybody crazy enough or dumb enough to do it when I when I was doing it. Now that I am engaged in this world, you know, with the podcast and just I talked to a lot of people about the Mississippi, because it’s a river I love. Now I’m kind of tied into the world, so I know it’s a thing that people do, but back then, I didn’t know one person who’d done it. I didn’t know it was really even a thing that was possible. You know, I was pretty much just shooting from the hip. I didn’t know what it would take. I didn’t know what kind of gear I would need. Any of that. And the amount of people in the in the build up to the trip, the amount of people that told me, like you’re doing what, they you’re crazy. You’re gonna go float down a river. I mean, even my own, my own parents, once I once I got out there and did it, they were supportive. But, you know, in the build up to it, they just want what’s best for their son. And you’re like, you’re going to leave your job and go, you know, float like a hobo down the river. I’m like, exactly right.
Dean Klinkenberg 18:14
Sounds like Midwestern parents?
Will Collins 18:15
Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it was the the solo part was just couldn’t find anybody else to go do it with me, and I knew I needed to do it.
Dean Klinkenberg 18:30
So what did you do to prepare for that trip then?
Will Collins 18:33
Not much, Dean, not much. Honestly, I, you know, pretty much just gathering gear that I thought I would need, and I knew basically nothing. My whole my whole thing in my head when I started was I told myself, if I could make it to Minneapolis, then I think I could do the entire river. Because, you know, it’s a pretty good chunk from the start of the river to Minneapolis. And, you know, I so I just kept saying, you know, if I can get to Minneapolis, I think I can do this thing. And, boy, there’s a lot of learning, learning along the way. I mean, I had, I had a full acoustic guitar, I had, I think, I had two cast iron or I had one cast iron frying pan and a cast iron dutch oven. I had a cutting board. I had, you know, I was taking the kitchen sink. And of course, in Minnesota is the only state where there’s portages, because it’s before the lock and dam system. So I was my heaviest and most awkward, packing wise, during the stage of the most portages, but as I went down and, you know, progressed through the trip, I kind of whittled down my gear and left things with people and and got it to a spot where I felt like, you know, now I can kind of cruise.
Dean Klinkenberg 19:57
So were you in a canoe?
Will Collins 19:58
Canoe, yep and kind of funny story. So I started in an Old Town Penobscot and I paddled to Winona, Minnesota, which is home of Wenonah Canoes. And that weekend that I was in Winona, I had met a at Lake Itasca, at the start of the river, I had met a teacher and his son, and it was the summertime, and they were doing like their last father son weekend, and they’re doing a camping trip to check out the headwaters of the Mississippi. And the guy, as he’s walking by, kind of inquires, what’s going on with all the gear. I tell him what my plan is, and he says, Well, if you make it to Winona, give me a shout. And at that point, I didn’t know how far Winona was, didn’t you know, didn’t know much. But sure enough, I made it to Winona. Called the guy. He came and met me at the boat ramp with a cold six pack. And I ended up staying with him for three or four nights, with him, his family, his wife and his son, and he that same weekend that I was there, happened to be the factory defect sale for Wenonah Canoe Company. And Winona being a small town, he happened to know the owner of the Wenonah Canoe Company, Mike Cichanowski. I’m probably mispronouncing his last name, but so we go to this he takes me to this factory sale because I needed a new paddle, actually, is what I was looking for. And lo and behold, the owner of the company, Mike, is there, and they get to talk, and he’s like, hey, I just picked up this guy from the Mississippi blah, blah, blah. And I get to talking to Mike, and he’s like, well, what kind of boat you paddling? And I’m like, well, might be like a curse word around here, you know, but I’m in an Old Town, and he goes, you know, fine canoe, but not the right canoe, and gives me, like, a whole two hour tour, tells me to come back the next day. So I do, gives me a whole two hour tour of the factory and then shows me this, like brand new Wenonah Prism, which is like super fast, sleek solo canoe. And the way he described it is, he was like, the Penobscot you’re in, it’s like a mountain bike. This is like a road bike, you know, like a Tour de France bike. And he’s like, if you’re gonna bicycle across the country, you wouldn’t do it in a mountain bike. You’d do it in a road bike. And so he he offered me a deal that I couldn’t refuse, on the factory defect a boat. And lo and behold, I left the old town in Winona with with Marty and Finn, the people that were putting me up and finished out the rest of the river in in a brand spanking new Weonah Canoe.
Will Collins 20:13
Wow. I love those stories, like, people on the river are happy to give right.
Will Collins 21:29
Man, it’s, it’s a. And then the other thing is that weekend also was Boats and Bluegrass, which is a music festival in Winona, and I’ve gone almost every year since then. And it’s like one of my favorite weekends of the of the year. It’s like two of my favorite things, live music, let alone bluegrass. I love bluegrass and boats and canoes. Like right up my alley. It just so happened to be the weekend that I landed in Winona originally.
Dean Klinkenberg 23:16
So what time of year is that if people decide they need to get out there and take it, check it out themselves.
Will Collins 23:20
You should. Boats and Bluegrass is awesome. It’s in September, I think, like middle or end of September every year.
Dean Klinkenberg 23:28
So when you were looking at doing this trip then, did you, did you go just. When you started the trip was that just because that was the only time you could start the trip? Or did you think way different times of year for starting it?
Will Collins 23:41
I to tell you the truth, I don’t remember my reasoning for why I started when I started. I think it was just how it worked out. I started August 23 and I think it was looking back on it. I think it was the perfect time to do it. No bugs. You know, the bugs for the season had died off, and I was chasing the turning leafs the entire way south, which was awesome. It was like I started at Itasca when the leaves were kind of just starting to turn, and the speed of my travel down river was like the same exact speed that all the leafs were turning at. So, like, everywhere I was for that first, you know, huge section of it I was, like, right on the line of leafs turning and, yeah, it was really pretty. And then when I got down into the South, you know, it was November, November, December. I think I ended early December, so it wasn’t scorching hot, which is, you know, good for a northerner like me.
Dean Klinkenberg 24:46
Absolutely. I remember, I haven’t done too many overnight trips on the Mississippi north of the cities, but I remember one time I did, I was surprised by how cold it got overnight. It was mid August, and I woke up. It was 41 or 42 degrees, so, but you must have had some chilly nights too during that stretch.
Will Collins 25:05
There was some chilly nights. Yeah, I remember that. The chilliest I remember was, like, kind of in that northern Missouri, Southern Illinois, kind of section where it’s, you know, you’re not really into the heart of the South yet, and during that November, kind of September, November time timeframe, you can still get some cold nights. And there was, there was a few times I woke up with a little bit of frost on the tent. But it wasn’t anything too bad.
Dean Klinkenberg 25:38
Well, you mean, you’d hiked in the Alaska for 45 days by that point. So I guess that’s one of the things that’s important to emphasize here, is it’s not like you were a novice getting in a canoe and trying to paddle a long trip for the first time, like you had a fair amount of experience taking wilderness trips already. You had some skills. So you you had the ability to sort of figure out some things on the fly that maybe, maybe I wouldn’t have had if I had tried that.
Will Collins 26:04
I think that’s probably fair. And sometimes I’m sometimes I’m maybe too, too lackadaisical about encouraging people to get out there and figure it out. But I think your assessment is correct. I had been doing, you know, even outside of those, the the Alaskan backpacking trip in the Saskatchewan trip. Since then, you know, I would do, I would organize my buddies and we’d go out and, do, you know, three four nights. I did one on the Missouri River with my friends at, you know. So every year I did, I would do a couple trips, you know, three four night canoe trips. So, yeah, I was definitely not a novice. I don’t know if I would say I was an expert. Still don’t know if I am, but I yeah, I definitely knew a thing or two. I wasn’t like, totally green.
Will Collins 26:54
Yeah, I think maybe we touched on this before too. Like, sometimes I worry that today, because there’s so much information available, people tend to over prepare maybe for a trip like this. And I don’t know what your thoughts on this are, but I wonder if maybe people might if they feel, if they don’t have the confidence, or they feel like their their skills aren’t quite there yet, you know, maybe what they should do is just take a couple of days and do a quick overnight trip somewhere to get comfortable with the gear and the experience, rather than spending hours and hours reading information on Facebook or other sources and trying to feel like they’ve mastered all these details, because once the trip gets started, kind of a wild card, what’s going to happen from day to day.
Will Collins 27:33
100%. I yeah, I definitely agree with that. Yeah. If you can do, you know, in hiking, they call it like a shakedown hike, or like a, you know, a shakedown paddle where you have all the gear you think you’re going to take with you see how it feels in the boat. Exactly. Do you know, three or four night section, even if it’s on a different river than the one you can. Yeah, I highly recommend that. I think that’s a that’s a great idea. And what you said about over preparing, I think it’s true. And I with that being said, I think it just depends on everybody’s personality, you know, like some people are just that analytical and, you know, want to check off every box and make sure that they have, you know, every inch of everything they need. And then probably me on the other end of that spectrum, and is, is, you know, just load up in the boat and go and figure it out. So it’s a little bit of a personal thing, but everybody’s got their way of doing it. But you’re right that there is a lot more information out there now than even when I did it in 2017. There’s a lot more information. And that’s a good thing, I think, but it’s always odd. I can never say this word, just a position, juxtaposition. However you say it. It’s always kind of an odd two face, where we love these places, and so I want to talk about them, and I want to, you know, help people and tell people, but I don’t want to give it away. And also, you know, you don’t want, you know, you know, you don’t want to tell everybody your best fishing spot and then go show up and everybody’s at your fishing spot. But, you know, I think I’ve kind of gotten over that, and just gotten to think, Hey, man, if there’s more people out there doing it and enjoying it, it’s going to bode well for preserving these things in the future I think.
Dean Klinkenberg 29:27
Absolutely I agree, and I’m with you on that too. I write guidebooks, you know, and people may have already figured this out, but I don’t reveal all of my secrets in the guidebooks, like I want to hold back on a few places that I think are really nice, because there’s hardly anybody there, and I don’t want a bunch of people starting to show up. So, but there are plenty of places to go. So what was, what was the rhythm of the trip like for you? Like, what you kind of got underway, what was it like from day to day?
Will Collins 29:57
For me. Everybody does it differently. For me, I was trying to take in everything I could. I wasn’t going for record speed. I wasn’t going for miles per day. For me, I was trying to take in all the river towns. I was trying to take in all of the generosity of the people along the way. I was trying to take in all of the beauty of the river. So I just kind of as a general rule of thumb, I was stopping into town every five to seven or ten days, depending on the stretch, usually about every five days or so, sometimes more often, sometimes less, depending on the stretch of river I was at. And so I’d go into town, get supplies, run into a Walmart, get food, grab a burger and a beer at a restaurant if there happened to be one. I stayed with lots of people along the way. I think probably I don’t know what the number is, but probably I don’t know, 20 or so different people along the way. And just the generosity of people was amazing, welcoming me, welcoming me into their home, you know, doing laundry, making a meal, just fantastic generosity of people along the way. And so, yeah, the pace of mine was, you know, I’d wake up fairly slow, couple cups of coffee in the morning, two cups of coffee, a little bit of reading, push off maybe around 10 or so and paddle until sunset or so, set up camp and repeat.
Dean Klinkenberg 31:39
Rinse and repeat. Did you, I imagine like you probably found people who are helpful all along the river too. Like those of us who live on the upper part of the river, maybe associate the river angels mostly with the upper half. And to some degree, there’s probably higher concentration and up here. But I imagine you found helpful people along the whole thing.
Will Collins 31:58
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely along the whole way. And some of them, very few of them were organized through that. And I think it was still kind of in the in the early days of the Facebook of Mississippi River Paddlers, which is the Facebook page that’s kind of become the hub of the thru-paddling community on the Mississippi River. So there’s lots of river angels and lots of people posting on there. I connected with a few people through there, but most of them were just kind of happenstance, genuine encounters, where I’d pull over and, you know, just be talking to somebody at the at the restaurant, and they, you know, kind of ask what my story was, what’s going on, and pretty easy to tell. I was out of place. And yeah, most of them happened that way, and lots of them all on the southern river too. One in particular that I always remember was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m a big football fan. I love college football, so that’s where LSU is, Louisiana State University. They got a big, massive football stadium there. So one of my goals was to try and go to a game there. And so I stopped in Baton Rouge and was hanging out at the local college watering hole across from the stadium. And sure enough, just, you know, making small talk with a guy, and he’s like, oh yeah, you know, we’d throw a big tailgate over here, and blah, blah, blah. And then, sure enough, he’s like, and I got an extra ticket if you want to go to the game. So I ended up going to this. You know, at this point, it’s like day 90 of the trip, I got this nasty scraggly beard. Haven’t shaved. Probably smell like hell, and I’m here at this just extravagant southern Louisiana tailgate. And I don’t know if you know much about the culture down there, but boy, they know how to tailgate, and they know how to throw a party. And it was, it was just fantastic. So yeah, I hung out at their tailgate, and then went to the LSU game afterwards, and, yeah, it was just, just a blast man.
Dean Klinkenberg 34:05
Seems like fate was looking out for you there, like you managed to talk to the one person that had a spare ticket.
Will Collins 34:12
I know it’s, it’s funny how it works man. I think out there and you have that, and that’s another thing that I’ve took away from this trip, being, is that both of these trips and other things that I’ve done is that I mentioned earlier that, you know, I was lucky to find a passion in the outdoors. And I think if you if somebody is is genuine, people can tell when you’re genuinely, like, happy or passionate or interested, and you’re putting yourself out there, and people reciprocate that, you know, for whatever reason, you know, people could tell that I was a genuine guy, that I was, you know, just doing something that I loved, and I wasn’t trying to, you know, scam anybody or, you know, think I’m bigger than I am, or any of that stuff. They could just tell that I was genuine and had a passion, and people come out of the woodwork to help. And I think that’s the same thing for, you know, the guiding business that I’ve been doing, and for all this different stuff, even more so than, like the farm work or just, you know, other work that I do, when people kind of see that sparkle in your eye for whatever it is for you, for writing books, or for, you know, writing articles or whatever, people tend to to want to lend a hand, I think.
Dean Klinkenberg 35:32
I couldn’t agree more, like, you know, just, I think we have a pretty good sense for the most part, of when somebody’s genuine and passionate about something, and when somebody just try to out to try to get something from us. So, and it seems like most of the people who are among that long distance paddler group, though, like they’re these are all the adventurous, authentic folks who are trying to do something epic for themselves. So which, when you got. Did you paddle all the way to the Gulf?
Will Collins 36:03
Yes, sir.
Dean Klinkenberg 36:04
Which pass did you go down?
Will Collins 36:06
So I took the South Pass, right down the middle, and I ended just south of Port Eads, out into the past the jetty there, out into the Gulf of Mexico.
Dean Klinkenberg 36:17
Hey, Dean klinkenberg here, interrupting myself. Just wanted to remind you that if you’d like to know more about the Mississippi River, check out my books. I write the Mississippi Valley Traveler guide books for people who want to get to know the Mississippi better. I also write the Frank Dodge mystery series that is set in places along the Mississippi. My newest book, “The Wild Mississippi” goes deep into the world of Old Man River. Learn about the varied and complex ecosystem supported by the Mississippi, the plant and animal life that depends on them. And where you can go to experience it all. Find any of these wherever books are sold.
Dean Klinkenberg 36:57
One of the things I’ve heard sometimes from long distance paddlers, is that there’s a bit of a letdown after the trip is over. Like, did you experience anything like that?
Will Collins 37:08
Yeah. I mean, it is a change, yeah, definitely. It’s like, I think it’s similar to any any goal, right? Especially a big goal. It’s like, okay, I accomplished this. Now what? And it’s like you kind of go from being a, you know, like a river celebrity of sorts, stopping in different towns, popping in everybody wants to talk to you, hear your story, to, you know, all of a sudden you’re just another guy, another guy.
Dean Klinkenberg 37:39
Will Collins, again, right?
Will Collins 37:40
Yeah, exactly. And I think there is, there is some sort of a let down there, for sure. And, yeah, takes, takes getting used to also, because on a long trip like that, you’ve kind of adjusted your life, and you’ve gotten into the rhythm of the new way of living, which is just traveling by the river, and, you know, going from that into back to the hustle and bustle, back to the, you know, more or less, for lack of better, term into the rat race. It’s, it can be, it can be a little daunting.
Dean Klinkenberg 38:18
A little disorienting, I imagine, especially like getting back into that routine, the work world after being away for that long.
Will Collins 38:24
Yeah, I think that’s a fair way to put it.
Dean Klinkenberg 38:28
So what, what did you learn about the Mississippi from this? How did your perception or ideas about the Mississippi change from doing this trip?
Will Collins 38:37
Oh man, well, I didn’t know much going into it, other than, you know, longest river. And I kind of, you know, people around around me, where I grew up, you kind of think of it as a ditch, you know, just like not much to it. And boy, it is. I learned so much. It’s, it’s an amazing river, man, it’s and I think the biggest thing is that it’s like 2000 miles of wilderness. It’s like a 2000 mile wilderness corridor right through the heart of America that is so underappreciated and so underutilized by, you know, by people looking to get outside and outdoors. And I mean the Upper Mississippi in particular, with all of the refuge, the wildlife refuge, you know, you can camp on almost any island in the river. It’s public, you know. And then when you get to the southern river, you have these huge expanse of sandbars that you can camp on. And it’s just like it’s there for the pickings, but nobody’s picking. I don’t get it.
Dean Klinkenberg 39:44
Right, right. Well, boy, the time of year you went, you would have had some really gorgeous sandbars on the lower river too. So.
Will Collins 39:50
Oh yeah, big, massive ones. That was one of my, one of my fondest memories, especially of the of the lower river, is, yeah, just massive sandbars. And collecting as much driftwood as you could possibly want. And I would just have, like, a huge driftwood bonfire, and just sit on the shore and watch the barges go by and just watch the wildlife and the birds work. And just, you know, literally, I would have a huge bonfire like I’m talking like, you know, stumps, you know, like, almost, you know, the diameter of me, and I would have them buy the dozens, and, you know, it was awesome.
Dean Klinkenberg 40:33
Wow, yeah, there’s a certain, like, you said, like, there’s kind of a certain freedom from being able to experience that, but also then having the the luxury of all that time to kind of look closely at what’s going on around you, about the the life, the wilderness around you. I understand the attraction of it. I wish more people did.
Will Collins 40:54
I’m 100% with you, and I think that’s why I’m happy to talk on your podcast. And I’m glad you’re doing your podcast and me my podcast as well, Buffalo Roamer Outdoors. It’s funny, I didn’t, I didn’t set out to, in fact, I didn’t even really set out to talk to make it like a canoeing podcast, and I don’t necessarily think it is, and I certainly didn’t set out to do all of the episodes about the Mississippi that I have. I’ve talked a lot about the Mississippi on my podcast with different folks, but it just naturally keeps coming up because I’m interested in it, and I love it, and so I keep getting you know different guests who are connected to it, and you know different people and paddlers and adventures. And it’s just fascinating, man, it’s an amazing river, and I think, I think the part that I really love about it and among many things. But it’s just like, it just feels like such a diamond in the rough. It feels like we have to fight for people to appreciate it when it shouldn’t be that way. It could be like, you know, this crown jewel of paddling and of, like, outdoor recreation, but yet everybody, just like, you know, puts their nose up to it, like, it’s, it’s either too big, too scary, it’s either a ditch and, you know, too, barges are big, and it’s polluted and this and that, and so much trash and all this. And it’s like maybe those things are true to a small extent, but when you get out there, man, it’s as wild as a Serengeti.
Dean Klinkenberg 42:30
Absolutely. And it gets wilder as you go south, too. Like the when you get below Cairo, it seems like it feels much wilder, and actually is more much wilder. I didn’t know that, like when I first time, I finally got some canoe experience on the lower part of the river. I had expectations, basically, of a big ditch between the levees, and I was shocked at how wild it was and how much life there was between the levees.
Will Collins 42:52
Yeah, it’s amazing. That’s one of the things about Boyce Upholt’s new book, “The Great River”, and I got to get my hands on on your new Mississippi River guidebook. But that was one of the things that I took away from his book, is, I forget the term he uses, but it’s like the batture, I think, which is the Southern term for the forest that is on the like the river side of the levee. And yeah, it’s just like 1000 mile long forest that runs essentially from Cairo all the way to the Gulf, and there’s like hunting camps and different stuff there, but more or less it’s just wilderness. There’s no, you know, buildings, there’s no there might be a few, you know, camps on stilts and such, but it’s just out there for the animals, you know.
Dean Klinkenberg 43:41
Absolutely. Unlike the upper part of the river, there are very few towns that you pass like you can go for a lot of miles without seeing anybody.
Will Collins 43:49
Yeah, absolutely.
Dean Klinkenberg 43:51
So the Mississippi wasn’t enough for you. You decided the next year you had to go on the Yukon. So how was that experience different than paddling the Mississippi?
Will Collins 44:03
Oh, well, first, it was funny. I was paddling, so I did the Yukon with one of my old high school buddies, and somewhere on the lower river, somewhere maybe in Mississippi, I specifically remember the spot I had been talking to him. I tried to get him to go on this trip didn’t work out. And I’d been talking to him, and I was like, man, we got to do another big river like this is just amazing. And he was like, all right, I’m in. I was, you know, I’m thank God he was in, because at that point I was 100% in too. But once I got off the Mississippi and got back to the job and, you know, back into things, I was like, I can’t go again. But luckily, I had him kind of there prodding me like, hey, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do this. And he was, he was more of a planner on that second one. So thank thank God for that, because it was amazing. But I would say the biggest differences. The Mississippi was all, not all, but a lot about the towns, the people, kind of the fabric of America, if you will. And yeah, just like traveling America. The Yukon was all about the wilderness, the animals still about the people, like lots of native villages we popped into along the way that were amazing and the most hospitable and kind people along the way that we met that we didn’t expect to but it was much more of like a rural wilderness, like raw you’re out there, as opposed to the Mississippi, where it was a little bit more, you know, popping into towns and and seeing the fabric of the US.
Dean Klinkenberg 45:50
So the Mississippi, because of all the towns and the people live by, you kind of have this built in safety net. But maybe you didn’t have that on the Yukon then so much.
Will Collins 45:58
Absolutely. And it doesn’t feel like a safety net when you’re out in the middle of the main channel, right, but you’re right and and on the Yukon, I mean, there was parts where we were hundreds and hundreds of miles from the nearest road, you know, and no way to get you in or out, except for by float plane. And, yeah, the wilderness and the grizzly and the wolf and the moose and the salmon runs. Yeah, it was, it was a wild animal up there.
Dean Klinkenberg 46:27
I’m guessing you would probably rate that more as like an advanced level trip, then for advanced outdoor skills to do as long as you did, especially.
Will Collins 46:39
Yeah, I think so for sure. It’s just more, yeah, it’s just more rural, more wild, and you’re just kind of on your own more there’s, you know, obviously you gotta take care of yourself no matter where you’re at, but if things go south, it’s, it’s definitely tougher to get out of there.
Dean Klinkenberg 46:56
So is that a source to sea paddle also?
Will Collins 46:59
So that one, I’m I’m kind of loose and fast with the source to see term, but no. So this one we started at where the actual river starts, like where the named river on the map begins. It comes out of Marsh Lake, which is just north of Whitehorse, the Yukon Territory up there. And so that’s where it starts, which wouldn’t be the source. The source is technically, like several lakes up. It’s like a chain of lakes, and then once, once the river leaves this lake, that’s when it becomes the Yukon. So that’s where we started, and we did the first, I want to say maybe, like the first quarter of it, or maybe a little bit less, is in the Yukon Territory in Canada. And then you cross over the the border near Eagle, Alaska. And then the river bisects Alaska. It’s Alaska’s largest river, and bisects Alaska, kind of North and South, but it runs. The river runs east to west and then dumps out into the Bering Sea, which is where we ended.
Dean Klinkenberg 48:06
Wow, that it’s a very different feel on the Bering Sea than the Gulf of Mexico I imagine.
Will Collins 48:11
Yes, absolutely, boy, it was windy. And I imagine it’s windy probably about every day out there. Yeah, it was. It was quite the site.
Dean Klinkenberg 48:21
So what’s passport control like when you’re entering a country from a river?
Will Collins 48:25
Boy, I’ll tell you what, not much. It’s pretty funny actually. We were all kind of not worried, but, you know, we wanted to make sure we did everything official and did it right. And so we crossed over the border and we pulled into Eagle, Eagle Alaska, and we stopped into like, a small, little convenience store there, kind of told him what the deal was, and asked him what we were supposed to do with our passports. And he’s like, Oh, you see over there, there’s a band at the laundry mat. He’s like, around a corner, there’s a phone booth. He’s like, you pick up the phone and talk to customs. So we’re like, okay, so, you know, would have been just as easy not to do. But we walked up and picked up the phone. We figured we were going to get, like, you know, a long questioning, but we picked up the phone, connected to a customs agent somewhere, landline phone. Picked it up, and he was like, Where are you guys at? What are you doing? We’re like, we’re paddling the Yukon River. Just crossed over from Canada into into the US, and say, Great, have a fun trip. It’s like a two second conversation. It’s like the easiest border crossing in the world.
Dean Klinkenberg 49:37
I wonder how many times a year they get that phone call, probably not too many anyway.
Will Collins 49:42
I don’t think so.
Dean Klinkenberg 49:45
Well. So you have taken these long trips. I’ve got to believe you have a dream trip or an idea for what you want to do next. So what are you thinking?
Will Collins 49:57
Well, things have slightly changed. Just with life. I’m man. I’m lucky and happy that I did these trips when I did because when I was in 2017 I’m 32 now, so I don’t know how I was mid 20s and when I did them, then I was thinking like, I don’t get why, you know, I’m never gonna stop doing this stuff, like, you know, I’ll always be able to do it. And, you know, here I am now with a wife and a young, young child, and it seems like the long trip is, I’m definitely gonna do one again, but it seems like it’s a little bit more in the distance now. So I do all kinds of, you know, weekend trips, and I have my guiding business where I take people on guided canoe trips on the Mississippi and many other rivers across North America. So that keeps me busy and gets me my fill. But to be honest, I I want to do the Mississippi again, man, I would love to do a second Mississippi river trip. Maybe once, you know, maybe once my daughter’s old enough and kind of out of the house or whatever, which is a long way from now, even hard to think about. But man,
Dean Klinkenberg 51:14
Maybe she’ll want to go with you. You know, maybe at 12 or 14 she’ll be ready to join you on a long trip.
Will Collins 51:19
I know it that would be amazing. I’ve told that to my wife, like, yeah, I can’t wait till summer is when it’s like, you know, alright, pack up. We’re, you know, we’re going for however long it can be, however long they can take it. I’ll definitely be planning on doing that.
Dean Klinkenberg 51:35
Nice. Well, you get to indulge your your passion for the over the podcast, as you mentioned. So you’ve been doing it for for a little while, at least for maybe a couple years now.
Will Collins 51:45
Yeah, I started it in I think it was 2020, is when I started. So going on four years now, and, yeah, it’s been, it’s been great. It’s been awesome to be able to connect with like minded people. And pretty easy, you know, just to chat. I like doing it. It’s always, of course, not as much now, but you know, when I’m when I’m after a long day of work and I’m, you know, hot and sweaty and want to relax a little bit, I’m like, oh man, I gotta do a podcast tonight. But every time after I talk to the person I, you know, I’m totally rejuvenated and excited and a big smile on my face. So yeah, it’s been great. And met a lot of cool people, including yourself. And yeah, it’s been fun just talking adventure paddling. Talk a lot about a canoeing, a lot about the Mississippi, but also all kinds of other stuff. Talked to a guy who skateboarded from Chicago to New York. Talked to a guy, one of my favorites was a guy, named Buck Nelson who he paddled The Mississippi. And he’s done all these crazy trips, but he’s a was a retired Alaskan firefighter, like a fire smoke jumper, and so he would go and rural Alaska or wherever throughout North America, jump out of the plane with like a three man crew, fight these fires and and then he would take his off season and do all these just epic, amazing trips. And one of them he did was 70 days on the Alaskan coast, I think it was 70 days he did. And he’s done all kinds of different trips, but this one in particular, he went with, I think he had a rifle and a fishing rod and no food, and he he wanted to see how long he could stay out there. And so, yeah, he had, he lasted 70 days and just off of fishing and hunting and foraging. And I thought that was pretty amazing.
Dean Klinkenberg 53:47
Wow, yeah, he’s got some advanced skills.
Will Collins 53:52
Yes, no doubt about that. Man, he’s an Alaskan bushman.
Dean Klinkenberg 53:56
Yeah, goodness, the whole seems like a whole different personality, care, character that manages, or that stays, living in a place like Alaska, you have to be a certain kind of person to really appreciate that and tough it out.
Will Collins 54:12
Oh yeah, it’s a and you feel that when you go up there, man. Have you ever been?
Dean Klinkenberg 54:16
I have. Not on an expedition like that, but I’ve traveled as a tourist up there. Yeah.
Will Collins 54:21
Yeah, you can kind of feel it, you know, you feel like it. The people you talk to, it’s like they’re either they didn’t they’re not. They weren’t running for some from something, necessarily. But there was a reason that they got up to Alaska, and there was a reason that they stayed and whether it just be, you know, for the life or whatever, or trying to get away from the hustle and bustle or, you know, just settling into a more natural state. But you can kind of feel those characters around, you know.
Dean Klinkenberg 54:48
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. It’s a very unique place. I’d love, I’d love to spend more time up there, probably in a car, probably a road trip for me, rather than a long you know. But who knows? You never know. You.
Will Collins 55:00
Hey, there’s many ways to do it.
Dean Klinkenberg 55:01
Absolutely. So you do guided trips too now, like when you’re not with a busy with a farm or raising your your daughter, or, you know, interviewing people for your podcast. In your spare time, you have these little trips that you also arrange. So tell me a little bit about those.
Will Collins 55:20
Yeah, they’ve been an absolute blast. And this will be my, I guess it’ll be my either third or fourth season doing these trips. I just started them because, you know, I had all all my friends and people asking me, like, hey, I’d love to do one of these trips with you sometime. Because I’m always going on these trips, whether it’s, you know, three nights, two nights, four nights, however long, always doing these trips and posting pictures. And people were always asking. And so I decided I’ll throw it, throw a few trips together and see if anybody wants to go with me. And sure enough, the first one I did actually in 2022 the first commercial trip I did was up to the Yukon River, and we did the headwaters of the Yukon, which is just a stunning trip. I don’t do that trip anymore because it’s tricky to deal with the permitting process through Canada. But that was the first trip I did, and, yeah, I’ve just kind of been rolling with it and growing with it since the past two seasons I’ve done five guided trips per year, and this year I’m on pace for the same and then I’d like to eventually kind of transition, or try to transition, to doing the guiding, the podcast, and some of the other creative stuff, more on a full time, full time pace. But, yeah, it’s been a blast. So I do trips, Right now we do trips to the Green River, which is in Moab, Utah, on Labyrinth Canyon, which is just, do you know anything about that?
Dean Klinkenberg 56:58
I don’t.
Will Collins 57:00
Oh, man, you got to check it out. It’s, it’s stunningly beautiful. It’s like the Grand Canyon, except for it’s all flat water, and so you’re paddling. It’s, it’s like you’re on Mars, you’re paddling, and there’s these huge, towering red rock cliffs on either side of you. And it’s desert camping, no bugs, super easy living camping on sandbars and just beautiful sites. And, yeah, it looks just like the Grand Canyon. Just truly spectacular. One of the one of the best canoe trips in in North America. So we do, I do two of those this year, I did have two in October. Past years, I’ve done one in May. In 2025 I’ll be doing one in May, and then I have, this is my first year doing a trip on the Mississippi, which I’m super excited about. I’m hoping that this one kind of comes to be a to be a classic for me. One of the guys that I took on a Moab trip on the Green River trip last year was that talking to me, and he’s like, hey, you know, I’ve always wanted to see the Mississippi. You know, I know you’re well versed in it. Why don’t you put together a trip on your favorite part of the Mississippi, and we’ll do it next year. So next year is here now.
Dean Klinkenberg 58:21
So what’s the route going to be for that one?
Will Collins 58:24
We’re going, we are starting north of La Crosse, and we’re ending just south of La Crosse, which is your neck of the woods, right?
Dean Klinkenberg 58:31
I lived in La Crosse for six years. Yeah, I love that area. I live in St Louis now, but, yeah, okay, La Crosse for six glorious years.
Will Collins 58:39
Great. We’re starting on the Trempealeau River, and we’re ending Goose Island just south of La Crosse there. It’s a four night, three night, four day trip. And if anybody’s listening, I don’t know when this is coming out, but I still have one or two spots available on that trip. It’s in July, July 20, July 26 that weekend, and it’s called Mississippi River Bluff Country Canoe Trip. So if anybody’s listening and wants to join, please do. And also, I’ll have more trips for the 2025 season coming soon. But yeah, I’m really excited for that one. Like I said, it’s a new one, and as you know, well, that section of the river is just awesome. It’s like, huge, rolling bluffs, you know, just beautiful water all the back channels. It’s like you almost think you’re in, like, Appalachia or something.
Dean Klinkenberg 59:34
Yeah, it’s a really gorgeous stretch of river, and there’s a lot of variety to what you see, too. So that’s a really a good choice for for an expedition to lead. Well, this will probably go out early July of 2024, so people can still look up. Your will be able to still sign up, sign up. People will still have time to sign up for the trip. I know in the past. I’ve you’ve also done some Wisconsin River trips. Is anything like that coming up?
Will Collins 1:00:04
Yep, yeah, I got one in August on the Lower Wisconsin, which is another, I think, another unsung hero. I talked to people in the paddling community, and you mentioned the Wisconsin River, and they’re like, you know, I don’t know, blah, blah, blah, but the section that we do, I think it’s partly because there’s a lot of outfitters on the river, higher up, up higher up river. We end at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Wisconsin River, there at Wyalusing State Park. And again, stunningly beautiful. I feel like I’m using that a lot, but it’s true, and yeah, it’s just amazing camping on sandbars. It’s a awesome trip, really beautiful. And that one’s three nights, three nights, four days. And next year as well, I’m excited I’m going to be doing a bald eagle sightseeing trip. So one of the groups that I’m taking on the Green River in October is a it’s a guy who’s a wildlife photographer, and he does wildlife photography workshops, so he is going to be doing a workshop on the trip. So he’s bringing the group, and I’m leading the group down the river, and then he’s incorporating his photography workshops onto the trip, and so that’ll be really neat. But then next year, I’m in the talks with him to do a bald eagle and birds of prey specific trip, because on this section of the Wisconsin man, they’re everywhere. I think we saw over the four days, we saw over 70 bald eagles last summer when we did it. So, yeah, it’s spectacular. So I’m looking forward to that, and I think that’ll be cool, kind of a cool niche as well, to do the specific bald eagle viewing trip.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:01:58
I think so. I mean, the bald eagles kind of get a lot of attention in January, but it’s probably a lot more comfortable and more fun to be out there when the weather’s warm and you can spot them.
Will Collins 1:02:07
I think so.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:02:08
When you’re traveling around that way. I like that stretch the lower Wisconsin too, though it’s a lot like that, the Mississippi that nearby, except maybe some shallower and certainly not any commercial traffic to worry about.
Will Collins 1:02:21
Yeah, exactly. It’s a little a little tamer, a little more manageable, but there’s some sort of allure to be on the Mighty Mississippi too.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:02:31
Absolutely. So how can people keep up with your podcast, find out about your trips, those kinds of things? What’s the best way to follow your work?
Will Collins 1:02:41
Best way to do it is you can check out the website. It’s BuffaloRoamer.com I have all the trips listed there. You can put a deposit down for a trip. Or the best way is just to email me as well. I got all my information on the website, BuffaloRoamer@Yahoo. I’m pretty active on social media. Instagram is the one I just personally do the most. But Instagram, Facebook, all that stuff is @BuffaloRoamer. And then, of course, anywhere you listen to podcasts, if you’re listening to this, you know how to listen to podcasts, so just search out Buffalo Roamer Outdoors is the name of the podcast, and that’s probably a good place to start for people, is to check out the podcast and go listen to the episode with you.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:03:27
Well, you’ve had a lot of terrific guests. I don’t know if I count as one of them or not, but you’ve had some really terrific guests on there. I’ve been enjoyed listening to to you, talk with them, with folks, about their adventures and their experiences. So it’s a great podcast, especially if you’re interested in outdoors, and if you’re interested in maybe taking some longer trips and going a little deeper. I think it’s a podcast you should be listening to for sure. Well, Will thank you so much for your time. This was a great discussion. I appreciate you taking out, making some time for me in your busy schedule, and I wish you the best the rest of the year.
Will Collins 1:04:04
Absolutely. Dean, you too good to connect. And yeah, I enjoy listening to your podcast too and hearing different stories from the river. And yeah, keep on, keeping on, and hopefully we can reconnect down the line somewhere.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:04:19
I’ll see you on the river with any luck.
Will Collins 1:04:21
Amen.
Dean Klinkenberg 1:04:24
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the series on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss out on future episodes. I offer the podcast for free, but when you support the show with a few bucks through Patreon to help keep the program going, just go to patreon.com/dean.klinkenberg. If you want to know more about the Mississippi River, check out my books. I write the Mississippi Valley Traveler guidebooks for people who want to get to know the Mississippi better. I also write the Frank Dodge mystery series that’s set in places along the river. Find them wherever books are sold. The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast is written and produced by me, Dean klinkenberg. Original Music by Noah Fence. See you next time you.
