Day 9: He's making miles!

Update from Mary...

I talked to Todd Wednesday night and all was well, in fact, better than well. He never fails to amaze me with his energy, and hasn't so much as made one comment about the cold weather. I have to wonder: is the suit he wears really that warm, or is he part bionic man??? I only ask because I for one, am chilly sitting INSIDE my house and he's OUTSIDE along the water, but I digress...

I pick up the phone and he yells, "LINKEVICCCCHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"  then laughs really long and hard. He does this Every. Single. Time.

At this point it's a little disturbing how much he seems to enjoy the hardship of what he's doing versus enduring it, but that's our Todd Bauman.

The main message Wednesday was to confirm we may not hear from him except for the Spot Locator updates for the next two days. He had some sketchy phone signals while we were talking and we both doubted his ability to update the blog or possibly even call if it kept up or got worse. He also will need to find somewhere to recharge and that may not happen until the weekend.

All to say I wasn't surprised not to get his nightly phone call, but as promised, he did hit the Spot Locator about 6 pm Thursday night and I'm impressed with the miles he made. The locator showed him at Oyster Cove, NJ, and I was glad to see he's closing in on his final destination, Cape May, NJ.

For everyone who's asked, he will NOT arrive early at Cape May, but if he's ahead of schedule, plans instead to have a day or two to explore some of the tiny coves and natural areas close to the Lighthouse.

For now, nearly the remainder of his trip is exactly what he's been waiting for: one long stretch of unbroken wild places, all part of various protected areas:

Cohansey Cove and the Dix Fish & Wildlife Management Area
Nantuxent Cove its accompanying F&W Management Area
Dyer and Beadon Cove and Fortescue F& W Management Area
Egg Island and its F& W Management Area

On the satelite map they show as enormous areas of green and brown, with what appear to be hundreds of tiny tidal creeks snaking into the landscape. Such places are gathering spots for waterfowl and critical stopover habitat for the hundreds of thousands of migrants following the Atlantic Flyway, birds that ultimately have to face crossing the 12-mile-wide mouth of the Delaware Bay. His wildlife report should be impressive.

Pete Dunne wrote about this area in his recent book "Bayshore Summer," and describes the landscape as one of mixed habitat, forests and reed thickets, dense pines and marshes. I plan to shoot Pete an email to see if he can share more insight, and I know that Todd has the book with him on the journey.

So together we wait for word from our paddler, and one little tease is that he did have a particularly interesting adventure that we agreed was enormously "blog-worthy." I can't wait for you to read it!!

One note on fundraising:
This week we received one $200 gift, several $50 and $25 gifts, and now the remainder is just $1000 or so odd dollars shy of the $10,000 goal with still five days to go. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! I'm *so* proud of Todd, and grateful to everyone who is following and helping him give back to support Hawk Mountain education programs.

So this morning I end this post asking that you join me and trust that Todd is fine and as his Spot Locator message always says, "Having the time of my life!!"

Mary Linkevich
Mountain-to-Sea: Join the Journey!