River Questers off and paddling
by JEFF KORENKO
A Whitehorse Star Archive story originally published June 25, 2003

Emotions among the competitors at the Main Street starting line ranged from nervousness to excited anticipation as the fifth-annual Yukon River Quest got under way with its usual Le Mans-style start today. When the pistol went off promptly at 12:15 p.m., most of the 33 teams taking part in the 740-kilometre race down the Yukon River to Dawson City sprinted toward, then down the riverbank to behind the Yukon Government Building in an attempt to hit the water first. Doing so was the canoe class pairing of Mike and Fiona Vincent, who are from Regina, Sask. As they made their way past the viewing area at Main Street and First Avenue, they were followed by solo kayaker Dave Zietsma from Toronto and the canoe of Whitehorse’s Tim Hodgson and Toronto’s Paul Pageau. The 33 teams Ñ three less than last year’s record number of 36 Ñ are comprised of a total of 69 paddlers. This year’s race has also attracted the strongest international field in its five-year history, as competitors have come from as far away as the Guernsey Channel Islands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Scotland, Guam, and Austria. There are also teams hailing from the provinces of B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Manitoba; the Yukon and Northwest Territories; and the U.S. states of California, Texas, Alaska and Maine. Eighteen of the 69 participants are from the Yukon. Those 18 make up eight boats that have at least one local rower. A couple of local individuals Ñ Rick Brown and Hodgson Ñ have teamed with partners who hail from outside the territory, in the canoe class. The categorical breakdown of this year’s teams is as follows: 18 duos have registered in the canoe class; nine paddlers are competing as solo kayakers and there are four tandem kayak entries. There are also two eight-person squads stroking large voyageur canoes this time around. One is the Paddlers Abreast contingent consisting of local breast cancer survivors Dawn Olli, Linda Rapp, Claire Desmarais, Faye Swerhun, Lynn Rice-Rideout, Janet Moore, Robyn Findlater and Michelle Genest. This is the third consecutive year that a Paddlers Abreast team has entered the Yukon River Quest. Some of the race goals the team listed on the Yukon River Quest Web site include to regain full use of our upper bodies; to meet a physical and mental challenge; to prove that we can undertake strenuous exercise without developing lymphedema; to learn to trust our new bodies and to share a positive experience with other breast cancer survivors. Team captain Rapp reaffirmed those goals in a brief interview just prior to this afternoon’s start. She noted that the five members of the squad returning for either their second or third River Quest have learned a lot from previous events, which should make things that much easier this time. Making their first appearance in the River Quest are Rice-Rideout, Genest and Findlater. We practised paddling in the pool during the winter and were out on the river as soon as the ice was off, Rapp said. I think we’ve learned a lot about what we need to eat, when to sleep and the weather conditions, so this year should be a little easier for us. The eight women will be paddling an RCMP-donated, 9.3-metre Tlingit war canoe. The other voyageur canoe team hails from Maine and consists of Bruce Cough, Ron Muir, Ralph Robertson, David Blaney, Jen O’Donnell, Randy Walls, Neil Phillips and Phil Cole. They have coined themselves Maine Yahoos to the Yukon. Like most of the teams that enter this endurance paddling event, they are in it for the fun. Other local paddlers include the canoe class duos of Louis Pelletier and Francis Roy; William Kleedehn and Catherine Pinard; and Tony Arcand and Kevin Mellis. The local solo kayakers entered in this years race are event veterans Ingrid Wilcox and Linda Bourassa. The fifth-annual Yukon River Quest has built a prize purse of $15,525. Race rules stipulate that a category must have a minimum of three entries before prize money can be awarded in that category. The top seven finishers in each of the other three categories are eligible to win money, with additional payouts going to the top two men’s, women’s and mixed teams in the canoe and tandem kayak classes and the first two men and women in the solo kayak category. Steve VanVlaenderen, from Selkirk, Man., is competing in a solo kayak to raise funds and awareness for arthritis research, as the 53-year-old has dealt with the ailment for more than 30 years. He has competed in more than 60 spring and marathon kayak events. I’m a little nervous, for sure, VanVlaenderen offered a few minutes before the start. I’m as prepared as I’m gonna be. I know I have to pace myself through the whole race and I just hope to finish.ä Including his participation in the River Quest, VanVlaenderen hopes to paddle more than 3,000 kms by the end of the 2003 season by also taking part in a number of long distance races scheduled throughout western Canada, northern Ontario and the U.S. He added today that he would like his efforts to bring in $100,000 for arthritis research this year. Having arthritis means a lot of discipline is required to overcome it, VanVlaenderen surmised. Which is similar to what it takes to compete in an event such as this, so there is a bit of a correlation there. I just want to let people with arthritis know that they don’t have to give into it and that living a more active, healthy lifestyle helps. A new wrinkle to this year’s Yukon River Quest is that the mandatory stopover in Minto has been eliminated. In previous years, there has been a mandatory two-hour stop in Carmacks and a six-hour rest at the Minto checkpoint. This year, there will now be an eight-hour layover in Carmacks. Carmacks is roughly 315 kms down river from Whitehorse and it is expected the lead teams will take about 20 hours to reach that point. The race record is 52 hours, nine minutes, set by Michigan’s Steve Landick and Mark Churchill in 2001.