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Yukon "Pretend" Quest 

Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:24

Even though the 2020 Yukon River Quest has been cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual race on the Yukon River will take place this summer for paddlers worldwide who are unable to experience the "race to the midnight sun."

A virtual race has been developed over the past few weeks by Peter Coates who is president of the Yukon River Marathon Paddling Association and also the designer of the race tracking software used by the Yukon River Quest. 

"You get to paddle against other people while maintaining social distancing, and then some," Coates said in his race instructions. "You will be paddling against people who might be on the other side of the world."

Using GPS coordinates by registered teams paddling anywhere over a four-day period, and then applying them to the Yukon River race tracker, Coates will be able to track the teams based on their paddling times.

There are actually two races: a Yukon Pretend Quest from Whitehorse to Dawson City - 352 km, and a Yukon Pretend Half Quest from Whitehorse to Carmacks - 150 km, and teams will only have to paddle half of those usual distances which will be multiplied by 2 when applied to the Yukon River map.

Registration fees are $35 for the full race and $20 for the half race. For more details, check out their web site at yukonriverquest.ca
 

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