Yukon River Quest paddlers lucky to recover stolen gear
'Just an amazing response,' as team is swamped with offers to loan gear
A team of Alaskan paddlers almost had to quit the Yukon River Quest, before the race had even begun. Thieves broke into the team's truck the night before the race, stealing much of the paddlers' gear.
"The screens had been slit open, and a lot of our stuff had gone missing," said A.J. Conley of Team Alfred E Paddlers.
She says the thieves made off with "a lot of personal gear," including sleeping bags, food and a spray skirt that was custom-made for the team's voyageur canoe.
"Michael Yee out of Skagway designed it. A ton of work, 50 hours of work went into it, so basically you could do the race in the amount of time it took him to make the spray skirt," said Conley.
Within hours, RCMP found most of the stolen gear at a Whitehorse campground, and the local paddling community also ensured the team was fully equipped for the intense, 715 kilometer river race.
"It's pretty magical that our spray skirt just ended up in the bushes right where it was stolen from," added racer Cory Thole.
Team 'Alfred E' launched in the mass start at noon Wednesday. A total of 155 paddlers in 58 teams are now making their way to Dawson City.
Thole and his teammates expect to reach Dawson City by midnight Friday.
"It's going to be a bit more mellow than our morning, and the last couple of days," he said before hitting the water.