 Media Credit: Eric O'Link John Napier finishes portaging his gear and cataraft around St. Cloud Dam Thursday. Napier stopped at SCSU to eat breakfast on his way down the Mississippi River. He expects the trip from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico will take about four months to complete.
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When John Napier's latest adventure brought him to SCSU last Thursday, he came and went without fanfare.
He could have passed for a student - albeit a little rough and dirty around the edges - wearing a hat and vest to keep warm against the morning's chilly air, soaking up the sun on Atwood Mall.
But Napier is far from ordinary. His brief visit to SCSU's campus for a bite of breakfast was one stop on what will become a long list of places he's been this fall. He's almost 500 miles into a journey that will take him 1,800 more.
Napier is floating the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.
"I don't want to look back in 10 years and think I squandered my time," he said.
He spends his summers in the Grand Canyon working as a river guide. During the off-season - September through April - he travels. Last winter he spent a month hiking in Nepal and visited Everest Base Camp. Three years ago he biked across the country from Oregon to South Carolina. He's biked across Europe, too, and has visited places on almost every continent.
This year, however, the Mississippi beckoned.
Defending America
His voyage down the river is about more than getting to the Gulf. When he traveled abroad, Napier said he spent a lot of time defending America against foreigners who think they know what America is about.
"So I said, 'You know what, I'm going to take another look at America rather than travel,'" he said. He plans to interview people along the way and write about his experience.
"I've got an editor friend in England; she says the Brits would love this, to hear 'The Heartland of America.' I think I have the sense of what Europeans think of America, so I could throw it back in their face, one final, 'Shut up, don't tell us we don't have culture,'" he said with a laugh.
Making it up as he goes
Napier, 32, did not start his trip with elaborate plans. He built a raft with Douglas fir trees and oil drums and towed it to the Twin Cities from Utah with a friend last month. They didn't even know if the raft would float until they got here, Napier said. Fortunately, it did, so they made arrangements to leave it at a marina on the river. Then it was off to Itasca State Park and the Mississippi Headwaters.
They left the headwaters in mid-September.
Napier's friend accompanied him for the first four days of the trip; they used a rented canoe. In Bemidji, he switched to his cataraft, a small river raft with a metal frame, oarlocks, two wooden oars and two inflatable sky-blue pontoons. The cataraft is light enough to portage around the numerous dams in the river's first 500 miles.
He will pick up his wood-and-oil-drum raft in St. Paul and theoretically spend the remainder of the trip on that raft, which is 8 feet by 16 feet with a hut on the deck. He's christened the raft the Don Quixote and titled his expedition "Don Quixote on the Mississippi."
Napier said he's noticed that floating the river with the intention of "going all the way" brings a sort of rock star status to those who do it.
"People think, 'Wow, he's such an adventurer,'" he said. "No; I'm scared of this. I don't know what I'm doing. I didn't do any research."
Not one for planning, he's been making it up as he goes.
Life on the river
He had been on the river for more than three weeks when he came through St. Cloud and already had stories to tell about his journey, which he referred to as a "great stumbling experience."
"Somehow, generally, I land on my feet - or when I land on my ass, the story is worth it," he said.
It was freezing when he arrived at the headwaters and he was surprised at the river's low water level.
"It was cold that week, and I thought, 'I'm going to die. What am I doing? There's no water,'" he said.
Navigating the bogs and wild rice fields of the upper Mississippi also proved challenging. Sometimes, Napier and his friend wondered if they inadvertently strayed up a side stream from the Mississippi. He was glad to have his friend along for the first four days.
"It was nice to have him, because I probably would have just sat down and wept," Napier said.
The lakes - Cass and 14-mile-wide Winnibigoshish - challenged Napier with huge expanses of open water, strong winds and three- and four-foot waves.
"Having been in big water in Arizona, I thought I could handle it, but holy rust, it's a bear out there," he recalled. "It was the ocean; I'd never been that far away from shore."
Now, he has settled into a routine. He tries to get on the river once it gets light in the morning and stays on the water until dusk - about 6:30 p.m. - then makes camp wherever he is.
He keeps about a week's supply of dehydrated food, lunch meat and cheese with him on the raft, cooks it on a small camp stove and gets his water right out of the river with a purifier. He sleeps in a tent at night and said even though Minnesota has seen some cold nights since he started his trip, he has stayed warm.
"You get in your routine, and I'm just loving it," Napier said. "Beavers and deer in the water and birds; I've been on a high for three weeks.
"You're the king of the world out there; you're sitting there looking at birds and kicking around in the woods."
Spending his days on the river has also given him a chance to think and process things, he said - a rewarding experience.
"It's been unbelievable to feel this alone and cut off. ... I felt like I had a great cleaning out of the closet, mental fermentation. So I'm feeling pretty light right now, feeling pretty clean, despite my appearance," he said.
'Minnesota Nice'
He also has fond memories of the people he's already met and talked to. Some people invited him to their homes for a meal and a shower.
"In Minnesota, everyone I meet is a saint," he said. "Things are just being laid out for me, all the time, unbelievable. I know it won't just be in Minnesota, but it's great that it starts here and I find out about Minnesota Nice."
"If people did stuff like this, if people got out and (talked to other people), we'd be so reassured about our country and the sense of community," he added. "It should be a college requirement; before you start bashing the country, get out and see it because it's unbelievable."
As he floats down the Mississippi, he hopes to motivate people to get involved in whatever cause is important to them.
"Americans own the country - not the government," Napier said. "Whoever gets elected in this next campaign season is not going to save the country. We have to realize that we own the country; we can be doing things right now for whatever. Find out what pisses you off, find out what needs to be changed."
If people do not know how to get involved, Napier suggested they check out the Web site www.grassroots.org.
Napier also wants to inspire people to live life to the fullest.
"If people are thinking about things and wanting to do things like this - they don't need be grand - it sounds clich� but there's never a better time," he said. "Don't wait 'til you feel comfortable or until you know everything about what you're about to do. Just start taking steps toward things you want to do and it will meet you half way.
"My point is, if you're inspired by it, go pick what you've always wanted to do, if it's start a garden or go skydiving. Get out and do things. The world is so rich outside of the walls that we confine ourselves to."
After stopping by campus for breakfast, Napier headed on his way. He walked back to the southeastern edge of campus and descended the steps to the floating dock that the SCSU crew team uses to launch its river shells.
There, his cataraft floated quietly in the leaf-filled water, waiting for its companion to return. With a few adjustments to his gear, he shoved off.
He rowed his boat across the river and pulled out on the opposite side in the shadow of University Bridge. After several sweaty portaging trips, his cataraft and gear were below St. Cloud Dam and he again stowed everything securely on the raft.
Then he pushed off into the gurgling Mississippi and became a stark silhouette against the blinding sun-sparkles that shimmered on the water.
He headed downstream - toward St. Paul and his waiting Don Quixote raft, toward the Gulf of Mexico, toward rediscovering America.
Learn more about John Napier and his expedition on the Web at www.dqonthems.com.
To get involved with a cause, Napier suggests people check out www.grassroots.org.
