ALL KRUGER CANOE OWNERS:This is a letter of invitation inviting you to participate with me in a very rare opportunity. June 30 this year I will be celebrating my 80th birthday, a special milestone in anyone's life and I would like to celebrate it by doing something very different. It is my dream, to take my honey, Jenny, on a long, slow, relaxed, leisurely journey of discovery going the full length of the fabled Yukon River. This will take us from the town of Carcross in Canada to the Bering Sea, 2040 miles away, in 80 days, from June 10 to August 29, 2002 - an average of 25 miles per day. On most days, the current alone will take us more than that.
Back when you bought your canoes from me, many of you expressed a deep desire to do a long journey. Well, here is your chance! I have always wanted to do a wilderness rendezvous with you. So, here we are … that is one of the purposes of this event. I am cordially inviting any and all Kruger Canoe owners to join me. I hope you will want to go along. I would be delighted to share this unusual experience with you. But remember, this is not a guided tour. You will be on your own. Self contained. Following your own dreams, seeing and hearing the river through your own experiences, but sharing a rare experience together. We are a group of adventurers traveling this great wilderness river together each responsible for his own well-being. You will be expected to be self sufficient, able to take care of yourself
and make your own decisions. If you want to paddle ahead, lag behind, or enjoy a few solo days or nights, that is fine. You are the captain of your own ship.. However, we strongly encourage the 'buddy system' if you leave the group. Hopefully, we can paddle together as a fleet (at least part of the time), and share stories over a wilderness campfire and watch the northern lights together. The stories of this fabled river are as colorful as the people that live along the banks. Some of us plan to carry hand-held or marine radios for safety and contact. We hope to have at least one satellite phone for medical emergencies.
In the planning and preparation, we can all benefit by sharing ideas, information, and research. This is where our web site will be a great help. We will not be telling anyone how to run their own ship. But if you ask, I am sure that you can get a lot of advice. When I think of 20 to 30 independent canoes, putting together their plans and going 2,040 miles down the Yukon River, it gives me goose bumps! But it also makes me realize that for better efficiency, we need someone who knows what is going on group-wise. We need someone to act as an information center and/or coordinator. Stan Hanson, who was the captain of our winning Great Mississippi River Race team, has graciously agreed to be our coordinator. He will be the one to feed all our information, advice, or comments through. Consequently, he will have most of the answers. I have agreed to act as Group River Master. I will try to answer questions about any water activity, time and distance schedule, and get us all safely to the sea in a timely manner.
This letter will be going out to over 100 Kruger canoe owners. I have no idea what to expect in response -- except that 12 people have already committed to going, even before they got the invitation! And yes, Jenny is planning on going, too. She has already started packing. We will be using two Sea Winds catamaraned together most of the time. Jenny and I are going Luxury Class unlike my other trips on the Yukon.
This will probably be the only group letter you will receive. We will be posting further information on the web site (www.yukonriver.dyndns.org) graciously maintained by Mike Hall. If you have no computer, then phone us. If you want to be in on the shuttle at the start or finish, please let us know your commitment as soon as possible, and we will make those arrangements. There will be some group expenses other than shuttles that you may want to help out on - such as phone, computer, postal expenses, and canoe stickers. We estimate $50.00 per person would help cover it. (Send this money along with a word of commitment to Stan) Any money left over will be put toward your share of the shuttle costs.
I am in the process of putting together a time and distance schedule that I will get out to all who are going. We are trying to locate a specific rendezvous point in White Horse from which we can shuttle our canoes to Carcross, 46 miles by road, 70 miles by water. If the ice is not out on those lakes, the option would be to start on the river at the outlet of Marsh Lake, which is about 30 miles from Whitehorse. In 2 to 4 days, we should be paddling back into White Horse, maybe stop overnight, then proceed on.
Our tentative plans are to meet in Whitehorse on June 9 th , 1:00 pm at Rotary Peace Park , north side of the bridge where we will make our final plans and arrange our shuttle to the put-in at Carcross. From there we will paddle back to Whitehorse and stay the night then proceed on to the Bering Sea. If you can't join us for the entire distance we recommend paddling from Whitehorse to Dawson. That will take approximately 2 weeks and it is easy to make arrangements to get back to Whitehorse. The rest of us will continue to the sea. From there we will charter an aircraft that will fly all of us, our equipment and canoes back from Emmonak, AK to Whitehorse where our vehicles will be waiting for us. As you can imagine it takes a lot of planning and the first step is to get your commitment as soon as possible. This will allow us to make reservations and sign contracts. Please forward your name, address, phone number and email address to Stan (information is below) as soon as possible if you are interested and especially if you are ready to make the commitment. If you have any questions before you make your decision call either Stan or me.
Happy are those that dream dreams and have the courage to make them come true!!
Your Paddling Friend,
Verlen Kruger
(517)-323-2139
krugercanoes@aol.com
Trip Coordinator:
Stan Hanson
1302 DeSoto Drive
O'Fallon, IL 62269
1-618-632-7349
standana@charter.net