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Had I known that José was about to spend nearly all the money he had on entertainment, I would have blown a gasket. He’d told me he was planning to set aside two paychecks for the trip. But I would soon learn that he’d “loaned” most of that money to D and his grandmother, and left Saint Paul with about $50 in his pocket.

As we followed José back in the general direction of the registers, Kocher sensed my aggravation. “Don’t worry about it,” he whispered. “He’ll figure it out once he’s on the river.” And on one level, Kocher was right. José had always lived with nothing, and he was well adapted to it. Kocher had kindly packed rain gear and a fleece sweater for him in any case, and I had a sleeping bag and pad.

From Alexandria we drove to Fargo and met up with my old friends Greeny and Huck, who had followed us to North Dakota in order to help with logistics and see us off. We parked Kocher’s van in a ramp at a mall and piled into Huck’s 4Runner for the 60-mile drive south to the headwaters. We planned to return to the van in three days, after paddling 100 river miles, at which point Kocher would drive home.