Anchorage Daily News

It's the first of August and, surprisingly, Anchorage paddlers Brenda Forsythe and Larry Seethaler can walk.

That was never a given, because for 10 long days in June and July, they sat in an 18-foot Clipper canoe for at least 18 hours a day paddling, one stroke after another after another, racing down the Yukon River.

First was the 460-mile Yukon River Quest, which they finished after 58 hours, 24 minutes of around-the-clock paddling. A few short weeks later came the longest canoe and kayak race in the world, the inaugural Yukon River 1000 from Whitehorse to the trans-Alaska pipeline bridge on the Dalton Highway north of Fairbanks.

That took 7 days, 11 hours, 55 minutes.

The hard Kevlar seat of their Clipper canoe became exceedingly familiar.

"My butt gets sore," said Seethaler, 66. "When you're sitting 18 hours a day on a canoe seat, you can't avoid it."

"Actually, it was surprisingly OK," Forsythe added. "You always have to check your legs getting out of the canoe. And I discovered some abdominal muscles I didn't know I had."

Of the 56 teams to finish the Quest and the 15 that completed the Yukon 1000-miler, Forsythe and Seethaler were the only ones to complete a double.

They were the fifth canoe team -- and the first mixed team -- in the Yukon River 1000 and finished 33rd overall in the Quest, a race that includes solo racers as well as teams.

Yet they came close to not paddling a single stroke in either race.

On the way to the Whitehorse start of the Quest in late June, the couple hit a moose on the Alaska Highway, 12 miles outside of Tok. Their 18-foot Wenonah Jensen canoe was mounted on the roof of their Subaru, and it helped deflect the animal, which was killed.

"The canoe was a big factor in saving the moose from coming through the windshield," Forsythe said.

But the canoe was destroyed. So the couple turned around and returned to Anchorage, arriving at 3 a.m.

Later that morning they called the Quest organizers to offer up their spot in the race. But officials wanted Seethaler, the only racer to complete all 11 Yukon River Quests, to paddle. They offered to find him a boat.

That's when Peter Coates, race director of the Yukon 1000, stepped in, loaning the Anchorage team his canoe.

"I put it to Brenda whether we should give it a shot," Seethaler said. "And she said, 'Hey, let's do it.' "

The couple first tried Coates' boat just hours before the Quest started. It was heavier than the one they planned to use, but they grew to like it.

"Brenda and I paddled really well in that boat," Seethaler said.

For days on end.

"After a week, I don't see how anyone can spend 18 hours a day sitting," said Yukon 1000 race director Peter Coates. "What are these people are made of?

"You can't feel your feet, and it can take weeks or months to get back to normal."

Beyond an extra 540 miles, perhaps the biggest difference between the two paddling marathons was support -- or lack of it.

The Quest had safety boat teams, eight established checkpoints and dozens of volunteers. Yukon 1000 racers, on the other hand, were pretty much on their own.

Teams in the longer race were required to carry SPOT devices -- 7-ounce units with a built-in GPS receiver and transmitter that allow the holder to send one-way text or e-mail messages in areas with no cell phone or Internet access. They also act as a satellite emergency locator.

Each day, racers could press an OK button, a help button or a panic button describing their condition. To organizers' relief, the OK button was the only one used.

"We couldn't have asked for anything better," said Thomas Coates of Laramie, Wyo., a co-organizer of the race with his father, Peter. "It went swimmingly."

So much so that one of the few teams to withdraw during the race did so because they enjoyed the surroundings so much they didn't want to race any more.

Paddlers who were racing didn't do too badly, either.

"They surpassed our expectations," Thomas Coates said. "Beforehand, I thought they couldn't possibly do it in under seven days, and four teams did."

Kayakers Rob Colliver and Russ Dawkins of Great Britain led the way, finishing Sunday in 6 days, 2 hours and 7 seconds. Ardie Olson and Rod Price, also of Great Britain, were the only canoeists under seven hours, topping the runner-up team of Alaskans Josia Freeman of Port Alsworth and Ben Couturier of Eagle River by more than 15 hours.

All together, five teams with at least one Alaska racer finished.

The longer Yukon 1000 was blessed with exceptional weather, with only one day of rain and few headwinds.

But as the race hit the Yukon Flats near the end, the river braids and slows down.

"The river feels like it's miles wide," said Seethaler, a former Mayor's Marathon champion. "It feels like you're on a pond. In the first half of the race, the river flows at 6 miles per hour, but by (the Flats) it's so wide that it's very slow."

"There's a lot of history along the river, obviously. When cross over into Alaska in Eagle, the quietness and peacefulness are almost overwhelming. It's a race, not a vacation, but sometimes you have to remind yourself."

Reach Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

Yukon 1000 Canoe and Kayak Race

Canoe Finishers

1) Price and Olson -- Ardie Olson and Rod Price of England, 6 days 8 hours, 54 minutes; 2) The Dueling Banjos -- Josia Freeman of Port Alsworth and Ben Couturier of Eagle River, 7:00:18; 3) Frozen Hobos -- Jonathan Morgan of Anchorage and Ben Schmidt of Cantwell, 7:08:07; 4) Yukon Duet -- Roland Ring-Jarvi and Bob Carrigan of Minnesota, 7:11:27; 5) We Must Be Nuts -- Larry Seethaler and Brenda Forsythe of Anchorage, 7:11:55; 6) Tim x Two -- Tim Van Nest of Kent City, Mich., and Tim Van Nest Jr. of Palmer, 7:12:32; 7) Northern Current -- Cristan and Alex McLain of Seward, 7:22:34; 8) Best of the Mediocre -- David Dahl and Doug Berg of Minnesota, 8:03:46; 9) Gonzos -- Gordon Warnica and Allan Billard of Nova Scotia, Canada, 9:07:48.

Kayak Finishers

1) After the Gold Rush -- Rob Colliver and Russ Dawkins of England, 6 days, 2 hours, 11 minutes and 7 seconds; 2) Team Hendron -- Richard and Henry Hendron of England, 6:02:11:07; 3) All The Way 2 -- Darren Crocker and Earl Hewett of England, 6:30:45; 4) Humpbacks -- Michael Sullivan of Anchorage and Steve Daigle of Juneau, 8:00:30.

Voyageur Canoe Finishers

1) Yukon Voyageurs -- Kerry Newell, Paul Repak, Helen Crouch, Mike Trump, Matt Trump, Teresa Stout, Brian McDonnell, 6 day, 52 minutes.

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