06/08/2025
Yukon 1000 race debrief
Day1: 5.30am river side to load boats 7am Opening welcome by First Nations Leader and Race director Jon. 7.30 - race start - we had a great of the beach first boat into the fast moving water held 1st for the a few ks until Bob and Gordy went past where we wished them best of luck for the race as we knew we wouldn’t see them again. 30km- 10am - we were 2nd or third place down to Lake Laberge. 30 km down the lake in 2nd place we tipped out in big rolling waves.. Fell out again about 30 min later, kayak was too heavy and with poor rudder control handling was very difficult with waves breaking over us. We were very cold but in good headspace after stopping to warm up on the river side which took time but is an essential thing to do. Camped up and slept in a derelict log cabin keeping us a little bit warm as it was raining outside. Team Kudu were also camped here at Hootalinqua. Day total 135km
Day 2: Either our alarms didn’t go off or we sleep through it but we woke up with 20 minutes to be in the boat, so were 1 hour late onto the water at 5:30 still wet and cold. We had dehy’s heated up and were ready for the day. Tim still in the front struggling for foot space as couldn’t move his rudder pedals any further out, was very uncomfortable affecting his right hip and back unable to pedal efficiently. About 2 pm Kieran swapped to the front and Tim found some relief in the back been able to stretch his legs out. Got through to Five Finger Rapids with two teams just in front of us, then 5ks further down the Rink Rapids, where we managed to pass them both by going directly through rather than round the rapids. Paddled hard for the rest of the night and feeling in a better headspace to camp up just short of Minto Airport, a good nights sleep in the tent. Day total 235km
Day3 : Woke up in good time got water, jet boil and dehydrated food done, were efficient getting ready for the boat. We decided to pull out the front foot pegs for Tim to get back into the front with a lot more space for his legs. This was a game changer for the rest of our race. Kieran now rudder controls in the back, still not great but much better! Very solid day for us with Tim being a lot more comfortable in the boat, we could continue down the river without having stops which put us in good stead for the next following days. We got to White River confluence and camped up there we were pretty happy with the day how it went. Tim‘s hands were starting to breakup so were taped up and in gloves for the rest of the race, we didn’t really see that punishment on his hands until after and how severe they were! Day total 205km
Day4: During the night another team parked up 20 m from us rather late, we left before them in the morning and then passed the Spanish team, Maki Magoo, packing up camp a few kilometres down from where we camped. Heading towards Dawson city had 3 or 4 hours of quite dense wildfire smoke to paddle through which wasn’t fantastic, we both had our masks on! Had the Spanish team around us a bit until we broke out of the smoke just before Dawson City and put the hammer down, didn’t see them again. Through Dawson city at 12:30, about six hours before the cut-off time, very happy! Continued to paddle hard for the rest of the day trying to get to the Alaskan border, fell about 18ks short, both Tim and Kieran in good headspace and now very happy and pushing pretty hard, made up two places. Day total 243km
Day 5: Pretty organised morning, on the river on time and dehy’s all heated up and ready for a big day, 1st getting across the border into Alaska and then into Eagle at 8 am, now 7am local time as changed to USA Alaska time. Hopped out of a boat and walk through the Eagle Township and make a phone call to immigration to pass through from Canada to the United States, back into our boat and carried on. We had pretty severe weather and big thunderstorms and lightning all around us, pretty frightening but exciting too! Freezing cold and then the sun comes out and hot, then headwinds, got four seasons in one day! Started to get into a few braids just before Circle, a taste of the Flats to come! A nice evening sunset with lots of rock pillars and fast flowing water getting up to 17 or 18ks in some stretches which gave us good momentum. That evening parked up just before 11 pm but then found beer prints at our intended camp so had to move on 6K downstream to an island just short of Circle, where we were safe and we found two other teams which we were pretty excited about as we didn’t really seen anyone for quite some time. Had to text the race director to inform him of our shift because of the bear situation. Day total 246km
Day 6: Day started late at 5 am because of our late finish the night before, were on time really but felt like a slow start to the day as we watched the other teams depart before us! But soon through Circle and as we hit the flats it was pretty exciting! Crosswinds, headwinds and big waves, a lot of route choices. Spent most the start of the Flats not seeing anyone and just going through our navigational work we felt we are pretty going pretty good, most shortcuts working although one into some slow flowing water which we could see a boat in front of us and then they got further ahead! Caught up with the Little Duckers and paddled with them a bit. Camped close to Fort Yukon with The Duckers, pretty happy with our day. We had a windy night, had discussions that night about trying to push hard through to the finish, would need to do about 280 km which we thought potentially could be achievable if everything went our own way. Day total 178km
Day 7: Started bang on time ready to rumble from a good night’s sleep, had the Little Duckers with us and we were pushing hard to catch a canoe in the distance still doing a fair bit of navigating through the tailend of the flats where we made some good decisions and leaving the Duckers behind, catching the canoe the red Canadian boat Don’t tell Mum, we raced pretty hard with these guys towing and frowing, got in front of them for a little bit as they had to do a portage but soon overtaken again with a bad route choice. Rescue helicopter flew over us and circled us for a while, ended up being team Your Other Left had accidentally set off their PLB! Got us pretty excited as we had been going well however we then bonked badly, especially Kieran, he was vomiting over the side of the boat and we had to pull over to recover and hydrate! The rest of the day was pretty slow going, in a limp mode and we were caught by a couple of teams that we had passed earlier in the day and then ended up parking up half an hour early at 9:30 on an Island totally shattered and with mixed feelings, a day started out very well but finished very sluggishly. Little Duckers pulled in beside us a bit later on.
Day total 173
Day 8: We woke and were on the river on time with the Little Duckers knowing it was our last day approximately 90ks to paddle out to finish at Dalton Highway Bridge, we had a great day with the Little Duckers just talking about the race. Had Kudu behind us in their canoe, we were racing to make sure they didn’t catch us. We made an agreement with the Duckers to go over the line together, this was a great way to finish the race.
Was great to see Dawson Bridge finish line, finished in =8th with The Little Duckers in time of 7 days 6hrs and 56 min. Absolutely spent but still elated to finish and to get the Yukon medal and join the elite club. Day total 101km
Post race reflections:
Tim: Obviously are elated to have got there, feel very honoured to have been out there with such an awesome bunch of competitors, very appreciative of Kieran, my teammate looked after me and I think we worked really well as a team. We definitely had our highs and lows, but all in all wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Kieran: I second that, very much what Tim said so elated to get it done, we we definitely had our troubles throughout the race specially day one going for a couple of swims put us right at the back of the field but if anything that sort of put a challenge to us, to hunt the other teams down and very much going to race mode which I quite enjoyed, sort of the slowly picking up team sort of made it exciting for me, and Tim Yeah was fantastic race. Loved every moment of it even though there was highs and lows the lows make the highs so much better I think and you’re never gonna have a perfect race and we by no means did but at the end of the day we got through the race and the adventure. It was something spectacular and something I’ll never forget and one of the best races I’ve ever done in my life so very happy person. A big thank you to Tim and also Mandy and Michelle for all the help and support from everyone to make this race possible for us.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter we have raised $4,545. How awesome it woulbe if we could raise $5,000.
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/yukon-1000-or-worlds-longest-canoe-race
