If you have talked to me at all over the last couple of weeks, I likely told you about Robert Lester.

I have been telling everyone about the 27-year-old Butte guy, and a lot of people have looked at me as if to say, “Robert who?” Then I go into a 10-minute explanation about the greatness — and coolness — or Robert.

I have been talking about him so much that my wife says I have a man crush on him. She says it is like the man crush she accused me of having on the Moreno brothers, Kameron and Kobe, when they played football and wrestled for Butte High.

She is basically saying I am infatuated with Robert the way George Costanza was mesmerized by Elaine’s cool boyfriend, Tony, on Seinfeld.

“He’s such a cool guy,” George said of Tony. “You should hear the way he talks to waitresses. He gets free pie.”

I would venture to bet that Robert gets free pie, too. He should. So should his cousin, Braxton Mitchell.

Like Tony, Robert is a handsome young man with long hair. They both wear hats, but Robert usually has his hat on facing the front, and he would never tell anyone to “step off” like Tony did. He is way too nice to do such a thing.

Robert can climb rocks better than Tony, too. He has climbed Mount Rainier multiple times, and stood on the top of Mount St. Helens.

You see, Robert is a mountaineer who does not seem to be afraid of anything. He climbs up to the top of the highest peaks just to ski down what would have to be considered a triple back diamond run.

He even skied down one of the black slag piles outside of Anaconda.

Like George, I would be scared to death if I attempted to climb a rock. Any rock. I don’t even like going on a Ferris wheel, and I once had to be carried down a relatively easy run at Discovery Ski Area.

If you go to his YouTube page, you can see Robert climbing a wall of ice or swinging on a long rope off Looking Glass Rock in Utah.

I would never attempt any one the many things Robert has accomplished. Not one.

But, like George, I could make him a sandwich for his journey — tuna or salmon salad.

Robert’s latest venture is the “Columbia River Canoe Project” film that will premier Friday at the Original Mine Yard. Gates open at 6 p.m., and the night will include a concert by Butte’s Levi Bloom before the film begins at 8:15.

Robert is showing the movie to the people of Butte for free — before, as I suspect, the film goes big time.

When I first heard about the “Columbia River Canoe Project” about a month before the duo got into the canoe, I figured Robert was kind of crazy. I figured it was a journey that was half Evel Knievel and half Lewis & Clark.

Then I saw the movie. Since Robert was once again a guest on my podcast, the ButteCast, last week, he sent me a link so I could watch the uncut version of the movie before the premier.

I watched it three times already.

“Crazy” is not the word to describe Robert. He is courageous and brave. Yes, those words might be the first-cousin of crazy, but there is a difference.

Robert and cousin Braxton, then 18, hopped into a canoe in Silver Bow Creek, just off of Montana Street in Butte. They floated, walked or paddled that canoe nearly 1,300 miles. They went to the Clark Fork River, the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.

They crossed Idaho, went in and out of Canada, and through Washington and Oregon. One of the experts talking in the beginning of the movie called the journey “bad ass,” and it is hard to find a better way to describe it.

Even thinking about the trip is bad ass. Following through with journey over 52 grueling days and nights is off the bad-ass charts, and the film documents it all.

The film runs for 1 hour, 1 minute, and it seems like it is even longer. That is not to say that it drags on. Rather, the movie makes you feel that you are a part of a journey that almost seemed impossible. You ride the highs and lows of moral with Robert and Braxton.

The film is funny, emotional and educational.

The funny part mostly comes from Braxton, who quickly learns that his calm, cool and collected cousin is also a bit of a drill sergeant. That is because Robert knew that they had to always be on the move if they were going to make it to the Pacific.

When talking about carrying the canoe through the Alberton Gorge, Braxton said, “I feel like it has been going OK, but it just really sucks.”

Braxton went on the trip with just 10 days’ notice, and he had never been in a raft or canoe before in his life. He later told Robert that he was afraid of the water.

Yet he was brave enough to take on such an incredible journey.

The emotional part comes mostly from Robert’s friend, Ty Stosich of Lima. Ty is quadriplegic, and his conversations with Robert inspired the trip that Robert had dreamed about since he was a young boy.  

Ty should make the circuit as a motivational speaker. Robert’s good friend just might be the most positive person in on the planet, even when he has all the reason in the world to be negative.

When you hear him read a letter to Robert late in the movie, you are not human if your eyes are dry.

Robert, though, is the star of the show. It was his idea, and he was the leader.

What amazed me most about Robert is his problem-solving ability. He never seems to get fazed, no matter how daunting the problem might have been.

You see that in the film when the duo dumps the canoe on Day 1. Robert had to figure out a way to get the vessel out of the bottom of the creek.

When they had to carry the canoe around the Columbia River Gorge because the wind made the water way too dangerous to navigate, Robert shrugged and handled the news like someone who ordered a Pepsi but told that the restaurant only had Coke products.

He was talking about carrying the canoe all day for four or five straight days, too.

When the two were thrown from the canoe in a dangerous stretch of river that was a waterfall before a dam was constructed, Braxton was borderline panicked. Robert giggled.

“Robert was laughing and woohooing,” Braxton said, “and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just almost died.’

“Without an attitude like his in charge of this trip, it wouldn’t be possible.”

The journey and the film also shine some light on the importance of dam removal and cleaning up the mine waste in the watershed from Butte to the Pacific.

Contamination from 100-plus years of mining should be cleaned up all the way. So should the former Smurfit-Stone Container site outside Missoula.

As it is now, only a small man-made berm separates ponds of water contaminated by cancer-causing chemicals from getting into the waterway by the Smurfit-Stone site.

Robert and Braxton brought that fact to the attention of the media as they floated through Missoula. Hopefully the right people pay attention.

As they stood and look at the ocean, Braxton said something very profound, even though I suspect he never realized it would be so moving.

“Silver Bow Creek water is in there,” he said. “Crazy. It might just be the dirty film across the top, but it’s in there.”

It sure would nice if someday we could be proud of that Silver Bow Creek water.

The movie gets two major thumbs up. Maybe even three. It would be crazy for Netflix — or some other giant streaming service — to not buy the movie. It would be crazy if you do not watch it.

Not only that, it would be crazy for Netflix to not try to get more content from Robert and Braxton. The duo should go on more adventures around the world to entertain and educate.

Those two should be household names.

It would be crazy if they didn’t invite me to join those adventures, too. After all, somebody needs to make the sandwiches.

Tuna or salmon salad.

— Bill Foley, who is also the master of PB&J, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.