History
of the Yukon River Quest
How it all began...
Dyea
to Dawson Centennial Race to the Klondike,
1997-98
The
world’s longest annual canoe and
kayak race had its birth in the Dyea
to Dawson Centennial Race to the Klondike.
In
1997 and 1998, up to 50 two-person teams
hiked over the 33-mile Chilkoot Trail
from Dyea, Alaska to Lake Bennett, and
then got in their canoes and paddled
100 miles of headwater lakes to the
beginning of the Yukon River in Whitehorse,
where they continued on for another
460 miles to Dawson City.
The
event was a tremendous success, drawing
adventure athletes from around the world,
but the best teams were always the best
paddlers. The 1997 event was won by
the Fairbanks, Alaska team of Jim Lokken
and Art Ward, and the 1998 event was
won by the international team of Solomon
Carriere of Cumberland House, Sask.
and Steve Landick of Marquette, Mich.
The
event was held only during those Klondike
Gold Rush centennial years because its
length made it a two-week event and
difficult logistically to manage year
after year, but there was tremendous
interest among racers in continuing
part of the event.
Dyea
to Dawson organizers Jeff Brady and
Buckwheat Donahue of Skagway, Alaska
turned over their race notes to John
Firth of Whitehorse, a participant in
both races, and he solicited help from
the Yukon Quest International dog sled
race organization to promote a new summer
event.
1999
- Inaugural Yukon River Quest
Carriere-Lokken
win first event.
Firth
solicited the help of a core group of
volunteers who had helped with the Dyea
to Dawson events, and the first Yukon
River Quest began with a running LeMans-style
start at noon on June 9th, 1999.
Sixteen
teams of two ran to their canoes on
the shore near Rotary Park in Whitehorse
and started the 460 mile journey to
Dawson.
Aside
from an eight hour layover at Minto,
teams carried on nonstop to Dawson.
First
in at a time of 56 hours, nine minutes
was the elite pair of Solomon Carriere
and Jim Lokken, a combined team of Dyea
to Dawson winners. Mark Bayard and John
Roberts of British Columbia and Alberta
were three hours behind, and the Yukon
team of Mike Onesi and Jason Murphy
took third.
The
first women’s team was Laura Cabott
and Danusia Kanachowski of Whitehorse
in 71 hours, 20 minutes, and the top
mixed team was Roger Hanberg of Dawson
City and Pauline Frost of Old Crow in
75 hours, 56 minutes. There were four
scratches and the last team in was Jeff
and Dorothy
Brady,
in 106 hours, prompting race officials
to set time limits for future races.
2000
- Year Two
Carriere breaks
own record with Solie.
The
event moved to the last week in June
to take advantage of more daylight,
more water in the river, and to give
teachers a chance to enter after school
let out. It also was expanded to include
kayaks, and three of them entered along
with 14 canoes. A two-hour layover was
added at Carmacks, and the Minto layover
was reduced to six hours.
Carriere
returned to break his own record, this
time with a different Fairbanks paddler,
Daniel Solie. They finished in 53 hours,
35 minutes, an hour ahead of the Wenatchee,
Wash. team of Tom Feil and Jeff Mettler.
Solo kayaker Yannick Bedard, 18, of
Dawson City was the first Yukoner to
reach the finish in 61 hours, 15 minutes,
a full day faster than the next solo
kayak. Heather Birchard and Tara Waddle
were the top women’s team at a
time of 82 hours, 13 minutes, and the
fastest mixed team was Bob Vincent and
Gwyn Hayman of London, Ont. in a time
of 60 hours, 57 minutes, Alaskans Greg
and Jane Tibbetts were the first double
kayak in a time of 79 hours, 40 minutes.
Several
Wenonah Jensen 181 canoes were purchased
for the Yukon River Quest and sold by
the Yukon Quest International as a fund-raiser.
This guaranteed a fleet of fast recreation
canoes for visitors to use in future
races.
2001
- Year Three
Landick returns
to set new record
For
the third straight year, records were
broken, this year by two teams. Steve
Landick and Mark Churchill of Michigan,
using the same Landick-designed canoe
that won the 1998 Dyea to Dawson race,
won the River Quest in a total time
of 52 hours, nine minutes (elapsed time
44:09). Not far behind were Feil and
Mettler in 53:08 (45:08 elapsed). Protests
were filed about the Landick canoe,
because of its odd bend in the middle,
and the Washington canoe, which had
a hydration system.
The
race marshals concluded that for this
race, the boats would be allowed and
both records would stand, but that rules
would be tightened up for future races
to allow no modifications to any stock
canoes or kayaks.
In
third place, setting a mixed record,
was the Manitoba team of Clifford Grieves
and Leslie Baker in 57:52. Veteran Yukon
canoeist Yvonne Harris and Sue DeForest
of Whitehorse were the top women’s
canoe team at 71:16.
Michael
Rodinger led an Austrian contingent
and won the solo kayak race in a record
60:30. The fastest tandem kayak team
in 68:31 was Travis Holmes and Christopher
Read of Alberta. Linda Bourassa of Whitehorse
was the top woman solo kayaker in 85:40.
Twenty-four
teams entered the race, including the
first voyageur team, Paddlers Abreast,
a team of Yukon breast cancer survivors,
which finished in just under 86 hours.
2002
- Year Four
“The Old Guys” lead the
way
A
record 36 teams entered the event, and
for the first half of the race, it appeared
that a tandem kayak would win for the
first time. But a broken rudder at the
Minto checkpoint slowed down the team
of Brandon Nelson and John Weed of Lotus,
Calif. They were passed by “The
Old Guys”, Bob Vincent of Dorchester,
Ont. and Bob Bradford of Lapeer, Mich.,
two veteran marathon paddlers in their
60s. The image of these two paddling
into the midnight sunset near Minto
has been a fixture on race posters and
brochures, and they won the event in
55:22. Nelson and Weed set the tandem
kayak record in 56:23 (48:23 elapsed),
and in third place was the Yukon canoe
team of Marcus Waterreus and Jonathan
Kerr in 60:13, followed 30 seconds later
by Yukoners Tim Hodsgon and Paul Pageau.
In fifth was the top mixed team of Hank
Timm of Tok, Alaska and Colleen Raney
of Whitehorse in 60:59.
Other
records were broken. The women’s
canoe record was blitzed by Yvonne Harris
and Pat McKenna, finishing in 67:14
(59:15 elapsed), and Whitehorse’s
Ingrid Wilcox set the women’s
solo kayak record in 72:29 (64:29 elapsed).
Top male solo kayaker was Rick Amschler
of Spruce Grove, Alberta in 65:40. A
fun group of Voyageurs from Quesnel,
B.C., “Cariboo to the Klondike”,
challenged the “Paddlers Abreast”
but finished just a minute behind the
Yukon women, who broke their previous
record in 79:26. The field also included
England’s Debra Veal, who won
international acclaim for rowing solo
across the Atlantic Ocean, and a BBC
documentary team followed her and teammate
Bruce Parry of London in the Yukon River
Quest.
After
the 2002 race, the event was taken over
from the sled dog organization by a
group of Yukon and Alaska paddlers,
who formed the Yukon River Marathon
Paddlers Association.
2003
- Year Five
Vincent couple wins River Quest
Setting
a new mixed record was the winning team
of Mike and Fiona Vincent in 55 hours,
two minutes (47:02 elapsed). Mike is
the son of Bob Vincent, and his wife
Fiona had competed with him on a winning
Texas Water Safari team in 2002. The
Regina, Sask. couple came north in 2003
and kept it in the family.
Tied
for second place in 56:54 were new solo
kayak record holder Jerome Truran, and
the canoe team of Ken Stanick and Dave
Ross, all of N. Vancouver, B.C. The
Yukon-Ontario team of Tim Hodgson and
Paul Pageau took fourth, followed by
the “Maine Yahoos to the Yukon,”
setting a rowdy voyageur record in 64:13
(56:13 elapsed).
A
mixed tandem kayak record of 65:01 (57:01
elapsed) also was set by Jeff Raymond
and Katja Rademacher of Vancouver. Ingrid
Wilcox was the top female solo kayaker
again in 76:09. Jessica Reynolds and
David Nash won the red lantern with
a time of 93:36
Thirty-three
teams competed in the event, which featured
the largest international field yet
with participants from England, Austria,
Germany, Scotland, the Guernsey Channel
Islands, and Guam. Because of limited
facilities in Minto for the growing
race, the race’s mid-river checkpoint
was moved to the Coal Mine Campground
at Carmacks.
2004
- Year Six
Record field of 51 sees new checkpoints,
prize structure, 30º temps, high water,
and forest fires as Landick-Barton,
others break six records
Many
racers had requested a second rest stop
later in the race, so for the 2004 event,
the Carmacks layover was reduced to
seven hours, and a three-hour layover
was added at Kirkman Creek. With the
race now going to 10 hours of layovers,
all official times in the future will
be based on elapsed time on the river,
and the records have been changed to
reflect this.
Speaking
of records, six category records were
broken in the 2004 event, which saw
a huge increase in the number of participants
and a new prize structure. A record
51 teams started on a
hot
30º C day in downtown Whitehorse with
a TV crew from the BBC filming high
overhead from a helicopter. An English
team entered as part of the BBC Challenge
reality TV show, but it was Team Michigan
that set the pace. Two-time winner Steve
Landick returned with Bruce Barton as
partner and led from start to finish.
They were on pace to set a new overall
record, but were slowed down by smoky
conditions for the last third of the
race. The hot, dry summer resulted in
the costliest fire season ever in the
Yukon, and our racers passed several
fires along the river. Instead of t-shirts
this year, the race gave Buffs to racers,
and they came in handy for both cooling
off and protecting faces from smoke.
The river was high and Landick’s
and Barton’s winning time of 44:27
still set the stock canoe record. The
best photo finish came a few hours later
as the Yukon-Manitoba team of Tim Hodgson
and Chris Gerwing dueled with solo kayaker
Steve Mooney of Whitehorse. The canoe
won bragging rights by five seconds,
but Mooney shattered the men’s
solo kayak record with his time of 47:58.
In fourth was the Yukon team of Francis
Roy and Jean-Francois Latour in 48:54,
followed by another solo kayaker, Joe
Bishop of Whitehorse in 49:26. The BBC
mixed kayak team of Jason Merron and
Charmian Gradwell came in eighth overall
in a record time of 51:13. All women’s
records were shattered: Ingrid Wilcox
broke her own women’s solo kayak
record in 56:46, Yvonne Harris and Pat
McKenna broke their women’s canoe
record in 57:22, and Amy Byers and Denise
Kimball broke the women’s tandem
kayak record in 67:04.
The
new prize structure, modified after
other North American marathon paddling
races, awarded a top prize of $3,000
plus entry in the 2005 race. The rest
of the top 10, regardless of boat class,
also won money, and bonus money was
awarded to the top three in several
categories. All total, there was a potential
payout of about $15,000.
Once
again the Paddlers Abreast voyageur
team raised money for breast cancer
research, and their RCMP counterparts
raised money to battle diabetes, getting
a rousing welcome and $1,000 check from
the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First
Nation of Dawson City. Teams from England
and Scotland also raised money for children’s
charities in their homelands. Finally,
not content with completing the longest
paddling race in the world, the Australian
team of Terry Bolland and Edgar Vaneer
continued on to the Bering Sea.
2005
– Year Seven
Records
shattered as two kayaks share spotlight
The YRMPA announced a new partnership
with Kanoe People/Clipper Canoes which
enabled the purchase of seven Clipper
Jensens to replace the aging Wenonah
rental fleet. The 2005 event saw more
high water from an early snowmelt. A
record field of 66 teams started the
race on a cool, drizzly afternoon. Fifty
teams finished and eight records were
broken. Less then two minutes separated
the three leading teams after 20 straight
hours of paddling as they arrived into
Carmacks. Two tandem kayak teams paddled
by Yukoners Stephen Mooney and Greg
McHale and American marathon racers
Chris Swan and Sean Brennan of California
and New Jersey worked hard to stay ahead
of a canoe paddled by defending YRQ
champion Steve Landick of Michigan and
Texas Water Safari multi-champ Fred
Mynar of Texas. As they approached the
finish line, the two kayaks rafted together
for a winning time of by 42 hours and
51 minutes, shattering the course record.
Landick also broke his own open canoe
record in 43:10, and there were new
records set for solo kayak by David
Kelly in 45:22, women’s canoe
by Tunde Fulop and Danielle Boisvert
in 55:18, Mixed Tandem Kayak by Heather
and Brandon Nelson in 45:22, Women's
Tandem Kayak by Danise Kimball / Amy
Byers in 59:31, and Voyageur Canoe by
RCMP Scarlet Fever in 55:50. After the
race, the YRMPA board decided to change
the prize structure to reward all classes
and divisions equally, as a way of promoting
more competition within classes.
2006
– Year Eight
Course record
shattered again by kayak ‘super
team’ – voyageurs getting
popular, faster
Heavy rains at the start made for cool
temperatures but a fast river, and the
elite teams took advantage of it. First
overall with a new course record of
40:37:05 was the tandem kayak “super
team” of David Kelly and Brandon
Nelson from California and Washington.
The voyageur class continued to grow.
As a continuation of its partnership
with Kanoe People/Clipper, the YRMPA
jointly purchased a new Clipper Langley
Voyageur Canoe to be reserved for rental
by teams coming in from outside the
Yukon. During the first year, it was
paddled by the False Creek Women of
Vancouver, British Columbia. Five other
voyageur teams entered the 2006 race,
including the Yukon’s Paddlers
Abreast team, which was being filmed
for the National Film Board production,
“River of Life”, and Kissynew
from Saskatchewan which shattered the
old dragon boat record and finished
second overall in 42:56:13. The men’s
and women’s solo kayak records
also were broken by Carter Johnson and
Heather Nelson respectively, and Yukoner
Pauline Frost-Hanberg and Viki Cirkvencic
broke the women’s canoe record
(see records page). Veteran Steve Landick
and Gregg Nelson of Michigan took the
men’s canoe division, and Veronica
Wisniewski and Edoh Amiran of Washington
won in mixed canoe. Seventy-three teams
started the event, thanks in part to
a dozen entries from Great Britain,
including two kayak teams from the British
Army finished strong behind Kelly and
Nelson. Racers were able to benefit
from a new travel deal reached by the
YRMPA with Yukon carrier Air North.
However, the rainy and cool conditions
kept safety boats busy early in the
race, as 13 teams scratched before even
reaching Carmacks. After the race, officials
decided to add more items to the mandatory
gear list for 2007, so teams are better
prepared if they have to stop for a
while and warm up. The YRMPA board also
opened up the canoe division to allow
standard class canoes, as well as solo
canoes for 2007.
2007
– Year Nine
The race will
take place June 27 - July 1, 2007 starting
in Whitehorse and ending in Dawson City.
–
Compiled by Jeff Brady