DAWSON CITY – Steve Ramsay and Crispin Studer crossed the finish line on the Yukon River in Dawson in their tandem canoe at 10:10 p.m. on Sunday evening, concluding their 393.7 km trip from Carmacks. The Class of 71 team cruised in well ahead of the other two entries in this late and abbreviated edition of the annual race.

Whitehorse-based Studer is no stranger to the Klondike, but is usually seen here with a dog team in March at the Percy DeWolfe Race. He says he has limited paddling experience.

Ramsay hails from Foothills, Alberta, and has paddled in the regular race a few times.

The other teams were Love of Paddling, a mixed Whitehorse team of Margo Millette and Brian Groves, also in a tandem canoe; and Team Lonely Wolf, a solo canoe paddled by Jake Paleczny, also of Whitehorse.

Race organizer Peter Coates was disappointed that there were only three teams for this consolation race, but was nevertheless happy with the spirit of the participants. He had been hoping for as many as 50 teams for the August 14-16 race, which turned out to end on the evening of August 15, having begun in Carmacks near the Coal Mine Campground at noon the day before.

Due to the darkness of mid-August, the teams were required to camp overnight for eight hours along the route and the race tracker (SPOT or InReach tracking devices) showed that they did so on what appeared to be a large sand and gravel island in the river.

“They camped just south of Selwyn River last night,” Coates said.

There was no prize money for this race, but racers received finisher certificates and pins.

Coates said they had a wet start, with rain the first day and headwinds when they set off on Sunday.

“The wind should have been in their favour, but it shifted,” Coates said.

He described their final approach after the White River as beautiful paddling weather in the evening, but it was spitting a light drizzle when they pulled in at the landing site.

Coates saw this race as a kind of consolation run.

“We had to cancel the River Quest because of the flood warnings in Carmacks. We had reports that the river really wasn’t very nice for paddlers.”

It was reported that there were stretches of the river with very aggressive, three-dimensional boils up to six inches high, that could’ve been very dangerous for paddlers in any size of boat from freight canoes to kayaks.

“So, I wanted to put on a race that wasn’t going to be cancelled,” Coates continued. “I wanted to avoid lakes and anything that was a potential difficulty, except possibly fire, so we put on this format, which we’ve used several times on different rivers.

“I was disappointed that we only had three paddlers, but three is a race; I’m having fun and they’re having fun, so it’s fine”.

Studer, brief as always during interviews, echoed Coates, with a quick ”fun”, and turned to Ramsay with an interrogative “You?”

Ramsay agreed, between bites of his pizza, but added, “The wind was tough, though. It beat us up a fair bit. It was not in our favour.”

“There was about 12 hours when it was not,” Studer added.

“It was good. It was nice paddling,” Ramsay continued. “We saw some wildlife, enjoyed each other, and the paddling, and it was great. “

Both of them felt there were some advantages to this shorter race and that they saw no reason why it could not be developed as a regular thing, probably attracting more locals and making a nice end to the season.