The Soggy Beavers — Russell Henry, Graham Henry, Mackenzie Punter, Tanner Ockenden, Ryan Schissler and Niklaas Rampen — arriving in Ketchikan, Alaska, following a 1,200-kilometre trek in a six-person outrigger. Ockenden is from Kamloops.
Tanner Ockenden awoke as the Pacific Ocean slapped him in the face.
As the Kamloops native pulled himself from the floor of the six-person outrigger canoe, where he had gone to sleep less than two hours before, he and his team were surrounded by six-foot seas, the darkness of the sky at 1:30 a.m. matched only by the black swells of 10 C water hammering the boat.
It was only the beginning of what would be a harrowing few days of weather off the west coast of British Columbia.
It was only the beginning of the inaugural Race to Alaska.
“There was a few times, probably going through all of our heads, that we thought we were in over our heads, just because the weather we were getting. It was the craziest weather they’d got in the area in 40 years,” said Ockenden, a graduate of NorKam secondary and Thompson Rivers University’s adventure-guiding program.
“Big, high-powered sailboats were snapping masts, getting blown to shore. All these crazy things were happening and we were like ‘Wow, we’re in this dinky little canoe. How are we still here?’”
North America’s longest human and wind-powered race, Race to Alaska began on June 4, with teams hitting the water for the first of the 1,200-kilometre race’s two stages — a 65-kilometre qualifier in Port Townsend, Wash.
Boats then embarked on the main stage, running the nearly 1,150-kilometre stretch from Victoria to Ketchikan, Alaska, on June 7.
The race has no official course, with teams free to chart their own way in the unassisted trek along North America’s west coast, surviving only on the supplies in their boat and their drive to reach the finish line.
Ockenden and company were the seventh boat to arrive in Ketchikan, running ashore in the Alaskan locale on June 18 — 11 days, five hours and 24 minutes after departing.
Team Elsie Piddock — a three-man crew in a racing sailboat — landed on June 12, just five days after departing from the starting line in Victoria on June 7, and captured the race’s $10,000 prize.
Though they missed out on the money, along with the set of steak knives for second place, Ockenden’s group, Team Soggy Beavers, was elated just to finish the race.
At times, it seemed the weather might have their number.
The Soggy Beavers had the edge at the start, opening up a healthy lead in the first six hours as they paddled in calm seas away from Victoria.
But, Ockenden’s early-morning bath heralded the beginning of a change in weather.
Smooth waters were replaced by swells reaching as high as 10 feet and 35 km/h headwinds slowed the team’s pace to a metre for every three paddle strokes. At times, it felt to Ockenden like the boat wasn’t moving.
It would be nearly 70 hours before the Soggy Beavers again found some semblance of normal in both the weather and their schedules.
“At that point, we were all hallucinating,” Ockenden said. No one in the boat had been able to sleep in those first few days. Wet and chilled to the bone, they worked to keep the outrigger afloat.
“I was full-on seeing and hearing things, so was everybody else. And, that was the first three days, essentially,” he said.
Perhaps surprisingly (given what they went through), the Soggy Beavers fared better than most. A total of 24 teams had withdrawn from the race by yesterday.
Eleven teams had completed the race, while five more still continued to make their way north.
The weather would eventually turn for Ockenden and his crew as they passed through the Johnstone Strait and past the northern tip of Vancouver Island. And, as the weather improved, the Soggy Beavers were able to make up some ground, paddling through the nights and sleeping on beaches in the warmth of the sunlight, putting more than 160 kilometres behind them each day.
Back on track, they pulled into Ketchikan about a week later — the first human-powered boat to complete the trek — to a horde of screaming fans.
Ockenden said he’s not sure if the Soggy Beavers will participate in the Race to Alaska again, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more adventures on the horizon.
“We kind of got to the dock and it was this almost antsy feeling of ‘What’s next?’” he said. Already, he’s planning a sea-kayaking trip from the southernmost tip of Argentina to the northernmost tip of Alaska.
“Definitely, relaxation has been nice, but I’m not really one to like sitting still for very long,” he said.
TAKE A HIKE: The Soggy Beavers started a fundraising campaign for their trip to Alaska, hoping to collect $6,000 for the trek. The group has committed to donating half of every dollar raised to the Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation, which endeavours to engage at-risk youth through a combination of adventure-based learning, academics, therapy and community volunteer work.
To donate or to learn more, visit gofundme.com/l49oxg.
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