There's something just a little bit different about grey-haired, big-bellied Buckwheat Donahue.

And not just that he walked from Miami, Fla., to Johnson's Crossing and is now paddling the Teslin River to Alaska.

There's something just a little bit different about Donahue besides the fact he he is walking, biking and canoeing from Miami back to his home town of Skagway, Alaska.

Donahue is paddling down the Teslin River until it joins the Yukon and all the way down to the Bering Sea.

From there, he will switch to a sea kayak and paddle until he is approximately 70 km south of Nome.

Then he will walk to Nome, fly to Whitehorse and walk home to Skagway via the Chilkoot Trail.

In many ways, Donahue's jovial, kind-hearted personality is reflected by his Santa Claus-like appearance. In fact, he seems a likely candidate for the job of impersonating Saint Nick at the company Christmas party.

But Donahue isn't a saint. A good man by all accounts, but he's got a couple of weaknesses. Like his love of food. Even after walking 6,000 km and biking 1,600 more, he has just as much gut as he started out with, despite gaining a few pounds in muscle.

'The truth is I'm not too disciplined about what I eat,' he said last week during an interview in Whitehorse.

As if in testament to that, he lists off with mild enthusiasm his plans to stock the canoe he is travelling in with buckets of canned shrimp and Mind you, that food has got to last him from Johnson's Crossing to the Bering Sea, but he will likely do some refuelling in Dawson City.

And as much as he loves the wildlife that flourishes in the North, it wasn't the deer or eagles on his mind as he sat down across the table to tell his story.

'There's all these beautiful women to look at,' he said, not with any distasteful lechery, but likely appreciative of the summer fashions some of the fairer sex started wearing as the weather warmed.

In an e-mail interview, Donahue came across as thoughtful and positive. In person, those qualities combine with his natural charisma and sense of humour to make for a great storyteller.

Like the story of why he started his Forrest Gump-style, cross-continent marathon back at the beginning of last October.

Donahue had suffered three episodes of congestive heart failure and a heart attack in 10 days.

Fortunately, he was visiting Juneau, Alaska at the time and could be stabilized and medevaced to Seattle. If he'd been in Skagway, with its bare-bones medical equipment, he could have died.

'Since then, I have wanted to re-evaluate life, and I have,' he says.

A part of that re-evaluation was a plan to walk across the continent and raise funds for the under-equipped Skagway medical centre.

'I know I will be able to help a lot of other people in the long run,' he said.

Sadly, it looks like Donahue will fall far short of his fundraising goal, but happily, he has still raised a whole lot of money.

'I had initially hoped to raise over $200,000 (US) but it looks like I'm going to fail in that goal, probably coming closer to $50,000.'

Donahue said he's disappointed with the result but still encouraged because the clinic has managed to buy a piece of equipment that can count and analyze white blood cells.

Before setting out for the canoe portion of the oddysey, Donahue says, he was looking forward to getting off his legs.

'After 6,000 km of walking and 1,600 km of riding a bicycle, I'm getting ready to start my 4,000-km water part of the trip .After eight months of being on land, I finally get to give my feet a rest.'

Donahue came to Whitehorse last week to stock up on supplies for his approximately three-month-long canoe trip. Besides food and propane, he was also planning to buy a graphite canoe paddle.

'They're expensive, but it's going to be worth it.'

Donahue also took the opportunity to stop by Mac's Fireweed Books and check out some maps of the waterways he would be traversing. He was happily surprised the store had detailed topographical maps of all the places he would be going.

'I've shown over the years a propensity for getting lost, but that's OK because it's just part of the trip.'

But there is one thing Donahue is not looking forward to. In fact, he is pretty worried about. Little creatures with wings and needles that puncture the skin to drink his blood or have powerful mandibles that simply tear off a small chunk of his flesh.

'I'm not looking forward to that .I've heard horror stories,' he says, referring to the bugs.

Bugs aside though, Donahue is glad to be back in his old stomping grounds, buried in the wilderness he loves and each day closer to the people he knows.

'I have become a firm believer that the further north you go, the friendlier the people become. So I guess that means that the people in Whitehorse are the friendliest people on the planet.'

So what drives a man to turn from all that is familiar and comfortable and face the cold, hard cities and highways of the Outside?

'The inspiration comes from many areas; my own personal medical challenges, wanting to do good for my community, and a touch of wanderlust.

'I also found myself learning more about Terry Fox and especially while walking across Canada, recalling his story and his will to survive,' he says of the legendary young Canadian runner who died 25 years ago this month.

'Just think if everybody in the world had a little bit of Terry Fox in them, how much nicer a place this world would be.'

If you'd like to support Donahue's efforts by donating to the Skagway health clinic, visit www.donahue.info