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Strong Headwinds and No Sleep: Welcome to the Yukon Flats
Jul 16, 2004 13: 45 EST
Colin Angus and Tim Harvey have paddled their canoe over 1600 km on the Yukon River and are now in Fairbanks preparing for the next leg of their journey.
The fires have abated and continuous daylight now illuminates a river that is not obscured by smoke. A mere 250 km after entering Alaska, the fast flowing Yukon River widened into what is known as the Yukon Flats. True to its name, the landscape flattened and the river transformed into a network of channels broken up by islands galore. The navigation became more challenging but it was the winds that proved to be a true test.
For five days, strong headwinds assaulted the overburdened and undersized canoe. Tim and Colin were forced to shore to wait out the fiercest weather. They briefly rested at one of the fish camps bordering the river, but the unchanging forecast drew them back into the storm. They could not afford to wait a week until the weather system passed. The constant 24 hour daily paddle took on new meaning as they were both forced to paddle the canoe to keep its nose pointed into the waves and stay on a forward course. After nearly sinking and 48 hours without sleep they reached Fairbanks.
In Fairbanks, they are preparing for the next part of their journey. The bikes are undergoing a transformation that will enable them to endure the hardships of Siberia and rowboat conversion is being finalized. This ocean crossing rowboat was an E-Bay purchased sailboat only a few months ago. After removing the mast, sealing the boat, installing a hatch, adding oars and many other adjustments, a rowboat worthy of crossing the Bering Sea emerged.
No sails, no engines - just raw human energy. From Vancouver to Alaska, across the Bering Sea and into Siberia, two BC adventurers (Colin Angus and Tim Harvey) and their Russian counterpart (Olya Artemeva) will row and bicycle.
Colin Angus
Colin Angus and pals traveled the 7,000 km length of the Amazon River in a raft - from the first trickles of melting snow in the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. In five months, they crossed a desert, climbed mountains, shot rapids and ducked bullets, and 119 days after setting out from Lima on Sept. 13, they navigated the entire length of the river.
Based in Vancouver, Colin has spent the last twelve years pursuing a life of adventure. Colin sailed across the Pacific Ocean (much of it solo) as a teenager, organized the self-powered expedition down the Amazon, and most recently completed a descent of the 5,500 km Yenisey River through Mongolia and Siberia.
Colin has authored two books for Random House and co-produced two documentaries for National Geographic, one of which garnered awards at the Banff and Telluride Festivals of Mountain Films.
Tim Harvey
Born and raised in BC, Tim has long enjoyed exploring the coastal wilderness by kayak and canoe. Tim spent seven months in Central America, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency to work as a photographer on biological inventories of threatened marine and wetland ecology.
Olya Artemeva
Olya is an outdoors enthusiast who will join the expedition for five months as it crosses Russia from the Bering Sea to Moscow. Olya's knowledge of local language and custom will make her an invaluable interpreter, as she was on Colin’s previous expedition down the Yenisey River. Olya, who has experience ice-climbing, diving and orienteering, is an active triathlete with a passion for jazz and religion.
Olya actively promotes adventure tourism around her home city of Irkutsk, known as the "heart of Siberia."
Image of Colin and Tim in canoe on the Yukon Flats courtesy of the team.
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