Yukon River - The Race to the Midnight Sun

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AJF

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Kind of a different way of cruising a large river but thought some of you might find it interesting. In a week and half's time the the Yukon River Quest http://www.yukonriverquest.com/ will start its 13th running of the longest annual canoe and kayak race. The race is 444 miles/715 km long from Whitehorse to Dawson City on the Yukon River with some teams completing this race in under 45hrs. (that's averaging 10mph paddling) which is kind of impressive. The one team that I find very interesting is team called Paddlers Abreast which are made up breast cancer survivors who are paddling their 12th time in the race this year. They made a very good documentary (River of Life) of these women several years ago that is worth a watch if you want get a feel of the race. http://www.nfb.ca/film/river_of_life
 
My partner and I paddled the Yukon from Whitehorse To Dawson City in kayaks last year right before the YRQ. Beautiful country and an amazing trip that folks can do at any age, guided or unguided, in canoes or kayaks.

We run a very popular kayaking site online if anybody wants to read about it.

http://www.adventurekayaking.org/yukon-river/
 
AJF, Thanks for sharing the link to the film! River of Life. Fantastic story.

Robbi
 
The final team in the Yukon River Quest got into Dawson last night. Winning time was 41 hrs 51 mins. to travel 715 km / 444 miles Whitehorse to Dawson City, Yukon. Some great pictures of the race on http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yukon-Riv ... 3281403836 if any of you are interested. It is amazing what the human powered water craft can do.
 
AJF, thanks for posting this thread & Jingram for the link to the kayak travelogue.  JoLee & I enjoyed very much reading the travelogue describing their time in the same section of the Yukon River we traversed in 2003 in our CD 22 after being told not to make the attempt by a local jet boat owner.

Jay
 
When I first came to the Yukon as a very young man and before I got into sailboats, my first long distance canoe trip was down the Yukon River from Whitehorse to the Bering Sea. Now as my wife is a member of the Paddlers Abreast voyageur team, I've been involved with the Yukon River Quest since the team first enter the race 12 years ago.
 
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