An oar-inspiring paddle down the Yukon: 'There were whole trees just bursting with fire'

This July, Kiwi adventure racers Nathan Fa'avae and Sophie Hart braved burning forests, wild moose and 'mum guilt' to win the Yukon 1000 - the world's longest canoe race.

The Tasman-based athletes talked to Saturday Morning's Susie Ferguson about their natural teamwork and balancing their family lives with outdoor adventures.

After winning many international races together in the multisport adventure racing foursome Team Avaya (formerly Seagate), Hart says she and Fa'avae have long had an easy teammate relationship.

"It has evolved and no doubt become stronger over time, but it doesn't actually feel like it's been a lot of hard work to get there."

As an ultra-endurance event in a double kayak, the Yukon 1000 race from Canada to the Arctic Circle couldn't have been more appealing, she said.

For a couple of Kiwis who love paddling, the Yukon 1000 was an opportunity to explore an incredible part of the world with 24-hour daylight, bears, moose and beavers, Fa'avae said.

While the whole Yukon River is not "stunningly scenic", with long stretches of just muddy banks and scraggly forest, the native Lodgepole pine forests were pretty.

Due to lightning strikes, natural forest fires are common along the river, and Fa'avae said one day he and Hart had to wear smoke masks for several hours as they kayaked.

"We were paddling past infernos where there were whole trees just bursting with fire. A super unique experience. The river's reasonably wide but it was a pretty strange feeling paddling into a wall of smoke."

Competitors in the Yukon 1000 are allowed to be on the water for 18 hours a day with a compulsory stop at 10.30pm for sleep, Fa'avae says.

Competitors were given strict instructions to ensure their campsite was safe from bears and moose.

"They're telling you to wash your kayak down, wash your life jackets down, make sure there's no food anywhere. Never eat by your tent. So if the bears do come in and smell your food they won't ransack your kayak or your gear and leave you stranded on the river bank."

On the first night of the race, Fa'avae said he and Hart diligently washed everything down. But setting up camp on their third night, the pair were too tired to care about some moose prints in the mud.

"I was like 'Ah, they look old. That's all right. Yeah, we'll be sweet,' so we started unpacking the kayak. Then I saw some more prints which were really fresh and I was like, 'We'll be right.' There was absolutely no way I was getting back in the kayak to paddle further downstream.

"We set up camp and then sure enough in the middle of our sleep, got woken up by this really, really strange noise."

A mother moose stomping around the tent with two young was the source of the sound, Hart said, and the giant deer family soon shot off.

Nathan, who last year announced his retirement from multisport adventure racing, said he would possibly do the Yukon 1000 again. Almost 30 years in the game of endurance races have provided him with an interesting and dynamic lifestyle that's been jam-packed with adventures.

"It's essentially just given me that direction and pathway and focus. For me, it's just been a wonderful life."

Raising a family at the same time hadn't been too much of a challenge, thanks to his wife Jodie working as their kids' primary caregiver.

"There are periods during the year where I'm away and obviously I can't help with the kids at all, but most of the time you're actually around. I could build my training around what the kids' needs were or what support Jodie needed."

Hart, who works two days a week as GP, said that before becoming a mother she trained whenever she wanted to.

"I wouldn't miss anything. There's no way I would miss a session. Whereas now you kind of read the room like, is there something that needs to give here? Now sometimes it is more important to be at home and to skip that session. And that's okay too."

Now Hart and her "incredibly supportive husband" Nick have young kids, she needs to be more flexible.

"You're out training and you think, 'Oh my goodness, I should be at home' and you're at home and you think, 'Oh my goodness, I should be out training.'

"It's pretty hard to completely not have any mum guilt - I think you're always sort of a bit torn."

Hart, who has also stepped down from competitive adventure racing, said she will keep challenging herself and adventuring - next possibly at True West, a race organised by Fa'avae.

After recording with him the second-fastest time ever recorded on Yukon 1000, she hopes another massive paddling adventure will be in their future.

"We just need another kind of ultra-endurance kayak race on a wilderness river somewhere."

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