Steve Dawson

2024 Yukon 1000 – Day 4 – Monday Uncharted Territory – Checkpoint at Dawson – Forty Mile Start time:04:39:00Altitude:354.8 metres ASLTime Stopped:6 hrs 40 mins Kate woke first determined to be away on time. I was onboa…

2024 Yukon 1000 day 4 of the race
dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/11/2...

2024 Yukon 1000 – Day 3 – Sunday Fort Selkirk – Fires – Smoke – White River – Stuart River Start time:5:29:00Altitude:455.7 metres ASLTime Stopped:7 hrs 51 mins I’m not a morning person. I’m a night owl by …

2024 Yukon 1000 day 3 of the race
dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/11/2...

2024 Yukon 1000 – Day 2 – Saturday Carmacks – Five Fingers – Minto Start time:05:03:00Altitude:586.7 metres ASLTime Stopped:6 hrs 46 mins We woke to the alarms we’d set on our watches at the start of day two. We’d …

2024 Yukon 1000 day 2 of the race

dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/11/2...

2024 Yukon 1000 – Day 1 – Friday Whitehorse – Lake Laberge – Big Eddy Woodyard The plan for day one is simple. Get through Lake Laberge and as far down the river beyond it as you can in a short day, with 15-16 hours of…

2024 Yukon 1000 day 1 of the race
dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/10/2...

Arrival in Whitehorse With limited annual leave available, we’d decided to fly into Whitehorse on the Monday before the race (Friday) and leave ourselves with some buffer days in Fairbanks at the other end, in case thin…

2024 Yukon 1000 Part 3 - arrival in Whitehorse
dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/10/a...

Yukon River Quest Cut Short June 2024 When news started breaking that the Yukon River Quest had been cut short at Carmacks due to wildfires our worst fears were being realised. We were days away from flying out to Whitehorse …

2024 Yukon 1000 Part 2 - in the weeks before the race we watched fires burning along the river
dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/10/y...

Prologue – Non sumet nullus pro responso July 2023 Outside close friends, we haven’t spoken much about our withdrawal from the 2023 Yukon 1000. At the end of a strong day one, we thought we were pretty well placed based on our mental…

This is the first in a series of articles I'm releasing about the 2024 Yukon 1000 canoe/kayak race

dustandash.travel.blog/2025/04/10/p...

Digging through our stack of camping gear and came across the Biolite stove. As it burns twigs or leaf litter, even kangaroo poo, it creates electricity which drives a blower which increases the burn efficiency.

Surplus electricity could charge a device back then. Now not allowed in Nat Parks

1% would be the number of employees an organisation might expect to churn under normal operating conditions?

Has the stable genius just promised 8 months of severance to people who were leaving anyway?

Escaping the global insanity by picking wild blackberries.

#peace

Paddling in Tasmania.

Huon River.

#paddlechurch
#canoe
#kayak
#kayaking
#seakayaking
#cotdbp
#churchofthedoublebladedpaddle
#yukon1000

Try my paddling related feed...
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Just use one of the above tags or #paddlechurch

Probably 2 days a week at that price...

A notorious Australian filed a suit after having a case against him dismissed because the victim was unable to face the retrial.
In the funding against him the judge noted "having escaped the lions den, Mr X inexplicably decided to go back for his hat"

Kayak Slalom. Mararoa Gorge New Zealand, 1987-ish

#paddlechurch
#canoe
#kayak
#kayaking
#kayakslalom
#oldkayaking
#cotdbp
#churchofthedoublebladedpaddle

They're clearly jealous

Watching the Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht fleet go past Cape Raoul on the Tasman Penninsula. I don't think the wind is doing any favours to the tired crews.

Maybe the final Saturday paddle for 2024, and we get near perfect conditions on the Huon River in Tasmania's South.

#canoe
#kayak
#kayaking
#seakayaking
#cotdbp
#churchofthedoublebladedpaddle
#tasmania

The gators are more psychological than a real threat.
The hallucinations are iMax quality. :-)

I'm not sure it's feasible to break a record any more if the river levels are low.
Low water means shallows, cuts that are dry, less current, and longer routes.
It does mean more camp sites.
Unfortunately, you can't know what the river will be like when you enter 9 months before the race.

Understand. After pulling out in 2023 when we were in the front 2 boats, we went back in 2024 with a very conservative "be certain to finish" plan. 7days 11 hours and we spent an extra 12 hours on land.
2025, we're going back for one last run to see how fast we can be.
River levels play a big part

The Loire sounds interesting.

We've mostly raced in Australia. Hawkesbury Classic 111km, River land marathon 200km, Murray Marathon 404km.
Then did the Texas Water Safari in 2019 and the YRQ a few weeks later.
The Texas Water Safari is still the toughest race we've done. Heat, portages, alligators, 44 hours without sleep.

I think that the 1000 is talked up as being impossible.
An experienced paddler should have no trouble finishing.
The Race Director is careful about which entries he accepts, but paddling experience seems to be lower on the list than multi-day unsupported navigation and off grid skills.

Entered 2020, cancelled for Covid.
Entered 2023, withdrew after 700km a medical problem.
Finished 2024
Going back 2025 to go a little faster.

#paddlechurch
#canoe
#kayak
#kayaking
#seakayaking
#cotdbp
#churchofthedoublebladedpaddle

#paddlechurch
#canoe
#kayak
#kayaking
#seakayaking
#cotdbp
#churchofthedoublebladedpaddle

Nice. I've paddled the Yukon from Whitehorse to Dawson twice and through to Dalton once.
Never had enough time to explore the other great rivers

Which river?

The further and more often you portage, the closer you get to solitude.