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Videos: Woman paddles the entire Yukon River solo

Glenn MacGrady

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Kristin Gates, now 28, paddled the entire Yukon River to the Bering Sea after portaging (part of her gear) over the Chilkoot Trail from Skagway, Alaska, in 2014, a trip of 2,000 miles.

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There are 15 video episodes. Episode 3 has two parts. I'll link the first episode below.

Kristin has an amazing record for solo hiking, including being the first woman to solo hike the 1000 miles of the Brooks Range in Alaska. HERE is her website.

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I'm not sure her trip qualifies for this site since she used a Folbot and apparently didn't carry an axe, gun or maybe even a bushcraft survival knife.

Things I noticed: She called her trip a float at the beginning, and remained amazing upbeat in the video segments she published. There's not a lot of video detail on her camping techniques, though I noticed she has the exact same titanium spork I do. Her paddling technique is poor -- all arm motion with a very low angle paddle that doesn't even bury her blades completely. She used a WindPaddle sail at times.

I've watched a lot of videos of the Yukon River including the multi-episode adventures of Kristin and BeaV. It's definitely not my cup of paddling tea, and I'm glad I never spent the time or money to paddle it. It's certainly scenic in the upper half, but gigantic open waters with lots and lots of wind and never-ending Edgar Allen Poe weather are my bêtes noires.

 
The North attracts some really strong women. I met some from many different countries going over the Chilkoot Trail.
 
I give Kristen tremendous credit for her accomplishment. Still, I don't think her videos captured much of the feel of paddling the Yukon and what it offers the soul. Not to the extent that BeaV was able to do in his video clips. There are sections that I anticipated would definitely show up in her videos, but when they didn't show I was left wanting. I know from my own experience with trying to archive a thousand photos that there is no substitute for actually being there.

I've paddled the Yukon four times, but not ever farther than Yukon Camp at the Dalton Highway Bridge. I want to go all the way to the sea, and maybe I will next time or the time after that. Beyond the bridge there is no more road access so you need to figure out what you are going to do with your boat after you reach the Bering Sea. Fold it up, or strap it to a bushplane pontoon, or give it away. BeaV did have a unique solution that the rest of us would not consider.

... I've watched a lot of videos of the Yukon River including the multi-episode adventures of Kristin and BeaV. It's definitely not my cup of paddling tea, and I'm glad I never spent the time or money to paddle it. It's certainly scenic in the upper half, but gigantic open waters with lots and lots of wind and never-ending Edgar Allen Poe weather are my bêtes noires.
Videos simply can't show you the range of sights and paddling experiences that are to be had on that complex river. There is much to be learned about strong converging, diverging, and helicoidal currents, and reading what to do when approaching "boiling" water. Choose to be on the wrong side of a branching current a half mile before it splits around an island or shoal, or take a slightly wrong line around a broad tight bend, and you won't choose which way you will go, the river will determine that for you - easily adding extra unwanted miles to your path. I love it. There really is a "Spell of the Yukon" that, once there, it "beckons you and beckons you..." to go back to it again. I haven't had enough of it yet and am making plans to soon return once more.
 
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They were interesting to watch yet not interesting at the same time. Didn't seem to really give you the feel for being there but I couldn't help but like her and it was enjoyable to hear her commentary on the trip. I would have liked to have heard more of that rather than the soundtrack.

The boat, and paddling technique in particular, might not have been up to snuff but the fact remains that she did it and we haven't. Nice to see someone just go out and do something without going overkill. She made it seem more like a pleasant trip than something to be conquered.

Alan
 
Well I have done a bit of the Yukon and agree that it grabs you. I just did five hundred miles ending at Dawson City. And not alone though I would like to return and go from Dawson to at least Circle. And would consider solo based on my previous experience though that is unlikely to happen.

It IS a pleasant trip if the weather cooperates.

And my job in the boat was to pivot it to get the best camera shots.. The current in the upper river so strong that all you had to do was avoid gravel bars and basically pointing any direction would do.


She seemed to get lucky on Lake Laberge with the following wind.. Thats where I expect good paddling technique would have made fighting wind easier. Sure she would have gotten somewhere no matter what.But the wind gods smiled.

I don't think of the Yukon as anything to be conquered.. Just visited.. I think that without stirring the pot too much there is a fundamental difference between the way guys and gals look on a trip. Neither is right nor wrong,, just different.

Folding boats are really the easiest to use in that neck of the woods, as shuttles of hard shell boats are inconvenient and often not possible at all.
 
I think that without stirring the pot too much there is a fundamental difference between the way guys and gals look on a trip. Neither is right nor wrong,, just different.

I'd agree with that and would be happy to trip more like a woman.

Alan
 
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