From left, Dave Dahl, 60, of Maple Grove and Doug Berg, 66, of Excelsior compete in a canoe race in the Des Plaines River in Illinois, just north of Chicago. Submitted photo.
By Matt Thomas
"Do you really want to do this?" That is the question posed in big and bold letters at the top of the Yukon 1000 Canoe and Kayak Race Web site.
Excelsior resident Doug Berg, who is 66 years old, has asked himself that question and the retired Minnetonka teacher's answer is a resounding "yes."
"As you get older you get crazier I guess," Berg said.
Berg and his 60-year-old paddling partner Dave Dahl plan to compete in a 1,000 mile canoe race on the Yukon River in Canada and Alaska starting on July 20.
It will be the longest race that the duo has participated in and it may take up to two weeks to complete, but Berg feels that they are ready for the massive challenge that lies ahead of them.
"We've done long events and we've done all right and we both have a strong background in camping and wilderness kind of living," Berg said. "So I guess we figured in those regards that we're probably as qualified as anybody to handle something like this."
Berg has been involved in competitive canoe racing since 1988, but his background in canoeing and the outdoors goes back much further.
Berg taught in the Minnetonka School District from 1965 to 1999. In 1970, along with Randy Nelson, Berg started the Minnetonka Mini School, which is an alternative education and dropout prevention program for high school students.
"My main contribution to the program was that I developed kind of an Outward Bound program," Berg said. "Most years I went out on backpack, canoe and bike trips for probably 50 to 60 days during a typical school year."
Berg's adventures though the Mini School helped to spark his interest in paddling and the rest is history.
Berg and Dahl have paddled in several long races over the past several years, although nothing near the 1,000 miles they will face on the Yukon.
They have participated in the Colorado River 100 near Austin, Texas three times. This past Memorial Day they raced in the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, which is a 70-mile race on the Susquehanna River in New York.
They have also competed in the AuSable River Canoe Marathon, which is a 120 mile race in Michigan.
The longest race that the pair has competed in was the 2007 Missouri River 340, which goes clear across the state of Missouri from Kansas City to St. Charles.
"Some of them we've placed pretty well and some of them we've just finished," Berg said. "In the Missouri River race we were third and in the General Clinton race this spring we got third in our class as well."
The Yukon 1000 will begin in the Yukon Territory of Canada in the city of Whitehorse and continue down river to the Alaska Pipeline Bridge on the Dalton Highway.
Unlike most canoe races where the clock is running non-stop whether you are in the boat or sleeping at a campground, the Yukon 1000 will make every team stop for six hours during the middle of the night. That leaves 18 hours a day for teams to make their way down the course.
"Our strategy for this is to try to be in the boat as much as we can, because the Yukon really moves along at about 4 or 5 miles per hour," Berg said. "But you figure that even if you're resting in the boat or eating in the boat that you're still moving where if you get out on shore for even a half an hour you've lost two or three miles to the boat ahead of you."
There are currently 13 teams registered to partake in the canoe race, with registration still open. Berg said that he expects a couple more teams to throw their hat in the ring before July 20.
There is one other team from Minnesota already registered for the race. Roland Ring-Jarvi of Anoka and Bob Carrigan of Shoreview are also planning on paddling in the Yukon 1000.
Berg said that the two teams know each other fairly well and have already made plans to travel from Minnesota to Whitehorse together. Once they get there and the race begins they might try to stick together for a few days for safety reasons.
"We paddle about the same speed as them so we're kind of thinking that since we're pretty even that we may try to hang together just for safety sake," Berg said. "If things go well we might even hang with them for most of the race."
Berg said that racers will encounter two major obstacles in the first two days of the event where safety could be an issue.
"Early in the race there's a lake called Lake Laberge that is 30 miles long and it's kind of tucked down in a valley and wind can really be a big factor," he said. "Probably on the second day is the only significant rapids in the race called Five Finger Rapids."
The rapids get their name due to four islands that divide the river into five channels of which only one is passable.
"If you hit the wrong one it can be disaster," Berg said. "Even the right one has standing waves that will break over your boat and so we have to be completely covered for that."
As you can imagine, not just anyone can hop into a canoe and be prepared to paddle for 1,000 miles.
Berg and Dahl have consistently trained for the event via solo and tandem training sessions.
Berg said that an average outing will have the two in the boat for three to four hours together.
They also regularly race on Thursday nights on the Minneapolis chain of lakes in a series of races sponsored by Hoigaards. The race starts at Lake Calhoun, goes up into Lake of the Isles and then Cedar Lake before turning around.
"It's about a seven-mile course, which takes about an hour," Berg said. "Everybody says it's the hardest hour of the week. It's a real hard, all-out one-hour sprint pretty much."
Recently Berg and Dahl went on their longest training paddle when they spent three days in the Mississippi River from the Twin Cities south to Winona. Berg said they spent six hours paddling the first day, 12 hours the second day, and another eight hours the third day.
"This is an event that's real hard to train for," Berg said. "You try to walk a line where you're training enough, but you're not training so much that you're beating yourself down."
Berg said that besides the other team from Minnesota that they don't know too much about their competition for this event and so trying to predict how they might fare is tough.
"The first goal is to finish and that's a big accomplishment in itself even if it takes two or two and a half weeks to do it," Berg said. "The second goal is to do as well as we can."
Reader Comments
Posted: Saturday, July 24, 2010
Article comment by:
Judith Barnes
Doug Berg is one of the finest human beings I have ever met. He has influenced so many young lives. When my son was in high school, Doug helped change his focus in life from undesirable goals to nature loving thinker. My son went on to get a college degree in physics and made the Physics National Honor Society. He is now VP of Software Development for JR Consulting and a a great success. Thank you Doug Berg and Mini School. What a fantastic program.
