Northern Ontario siblings-in-law to take part in grueling 1,500-km canoe race

Two siblings-in-law from bluish Ontario are preparing to enactment successful a gruelling 1,500-kilometre canoe and kayak contention crossed the acold north.

The Yukon 1000 contention starts Thursday successful Whitehorse and finishes astatine the Dalton Highway successful Alaska.

Sean Lougheed, from Corbeil, and his sister-in-law Lauren Andersen, from Sudbury, person been paddling unneurotic for years.

Together, they made the shortlist to enactment successful the race.

Lougheed said that for past year's contention 6,000 teams applied for the race, and less than 30 made the cut.

He could lone conjecture arsenic to wherefore they qualified for the race, but Andersen said she suspects their years of acquisition astir apt played a factor.

"We person an extended resume of escapade trips specifically with paddling, but hiking and different escapade trips arsenic well," she said.

Andersen said she is simply a caregiver practitioner, which astir apt besides played a relation successful their occurrence qualifying for the race.

Because parts of the contention are truthful remote, she said competitors often request to trust connected each different successful lawsuit of a aesculapian emergency.

Lougheed said the contention organizers mandate six hours of remainder each day, truthful their program is to paddle for 18 hours a day.

Competitors are fixed 10 days to implicit the 1,527-kilometre circuit, but Lougheed said they anticipation to decorativeness successful less days than that.

"It's conscionable a singular accidental to consciousness beauteous tiny successful a canoe and a beauteous immense and expansive wilderness," helium added.

Andersen said determination is small fanfare astatine the decorativeness line.

"What happens erstwhile you win? It's benignant of the aforesaid happening that happens if you don't win," she said.

"The contention manager comes and shakes your hand. He hands you a medallion that has the Yukon 1000 insignia connected it. And past you conscionable benignant of meditate connected the experience."