Читать книгу Canoeing with Jose онлайн

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The recognition that we had done something that was unheard of in these parts gave us no small sense of satisfaction.

“We ain’t no little bitches,” José said, puffing up with pride.

“Hell no we ain’t,” Kocher agreed, snickering conspiratorially.

We pitched our tent on a campsite beside a young couple with a baby. Their vintage VW van sparked Kocher’s curiosity, and he walked over to strike up a conversation with them.

Kocher returned with the van’s owner, a man named Noah Suby. Noah offered us a ride across town to retrieve Kocher’s vehicle, and José volunteered to stay behind and watch the camp.

As we drove, searching for the parking ramp where we’d stashed Kocher’s van, we swapped stories with Noah. He was crisscrossing the continent with his family, filing quirky human-interest stories for Radio Free Bisbee, a station in Bisbee, Arizona. He had been attracted to Fargo by the region’s geology.

Growing up in the desert Southwest, Noah explained, he’d become interested in the Red River primarily because of its status as the only river in the country apart from the San Pedro (which runs within 15 miles of Bisbee) to flow north. As he talked, I was struck by how much more Noah knew about the natural history of the northern plains than we did. Noah told us about Lake Agassiz, and how the Red River was a remnant of an inland sea that covered parts of what are now Minnesota, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Manitoba. Covering an area 700 miles long by 200 miles wide, Agassiz covered more surface area than the present-day Great Lakes combined. This was news to me and Kocher.