The 2024 Yukon River Quest has hit the water.
One hundred seventy paddlers on 74 teams ran to their assorted watercraft at 9:00 this morning at Rotary Peace Park in Whitehorse.
The Yukon Star spoke with some of them before they took off on their epic journey.
Whitehorse’s Kimberly Dodds, from team Stroke of Serendipity, finished third in the women’s solo kayak in 2023.
She said she was feeling “pretty good. Beautiful weather. Calm winds. Ready to go.”
Dodds said 2023 was the only other time she’s done the race.
“I’m excited to go back out on the water and see how it goes this year.”
Of paddling solo, Dodds said, “I win all the arguments in my own boat.”
Dodds said she’s been training on Lake Laberge.
“I’m pretty familiar with the lake. I spent some time on the river and just get out as much as I can as soon as the ice comes off.”
Dodds said she is a little concerned about the smoke from the forest fires (including M0004 fire near Mayo) along the race route.
“We all have masks, so hoping that conditions are OK, but, we’ll see when we get there.”
Dodds added she’s “really excited to race. Thankful for all the volunteers and everybody else out here, and I hope everybody has a great day.”
Calgary’s Kevin Crowe, from team Forward Progress, was racing on a stand up paddle board, or SUP.
“We tried it in ’22, when we had the flood year, and we got hit with a big storm on Laberge and a bunch of things didn’t go our way, so only made it to Carmacks and came back to get ‘er done this year.”
Crowe said he was “feeling great, man. Learned a lot up here in ’22, a lot of lessons. Such a great community up here. They put such a great race together. It’s great to be back.”
Crowe was asked about taking on Lake Laberge again.
“The biggest enemy is headwind. You act like a big sail, so afternoon winds is something we’re keeping an eye on. We want to make sure we make good time where we can and if the wind picks up, just not burn ourselves out and make that cutoff at Laberge.”
(Racers must reach Checkpoint 2 at the end of the lake within 13 hours of their start time.)
“That’s the big goal today. Once we make that lake, get on the river and let the current be our friend.”
Crowe added, “We’re gonna be focused and that’s where we’re going to go into high gear, on the lake and make sure we get that cutoff this year.”
Alex Joseph (SuperiorSUPer) was part of a group from Calgary that didn’t finish in 2022.
One of those paddlers, Billy Bender, signed up for the 2019 race, and due to various circumstances, including the COVID-19 pandemic, wasn’t able to race until this year.
“This is five years in the making,” said Joseph.
Tamas Fustos and Erin Lane, in a tandem canoe team called FusteeTheHun X LaneTheCanuck, were also part of the group.
“We’re going to finish this year,” said Fustos. “We trained a lot and we feel good.”
“The weather looks so good. We’re ready,” said Lane.
Muriel Chahine was the support crew for the Calgarians. “She’s the best support crew; three years in a row,” said Fustos.
Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Chief Pauline Frost is part of a Tandem Canoe team with Kevin Mellis, team Din’ah va’h. She said she was feeling “pretty good. Pretty excited.”
“Kevin lives in B.C. I live in Old Crow, and it’s kind of difficult to spend a lot of time together, but we’ve spent the last two weeks together, so really enjoying that.
“He’s a seasoned paddler. He just hit the 5,000-kilometre mark in the Yukon River Quest, so he’s a strong paddler.”
When asked if she’s expecting any surprises this year, the veteran paddler said, “I’ve done it so many times. You just race your own race and enjoy (it).”
The Yukon River Quest goes from Whitehorse to Dawson City, approximately 715 kilometres. The first racers are expected to reach Dawson on Friday afternoon.
