Paddlers prepare for weeklong journey to Celebration

On May 29, a 39-foot canoe of Wrangell paddlers will start the week-long, 150-nautical-mile journey to Juneau for Celebration, the biennial Native culture festival.

This year marks the first time Wrangell will have its own canoe making the journey since 2014, signifying a return of enthusiasm for canoe culture in town.

Canoes from other communities will make the journey alongside Wrangell, including Juneau, Kasaan, Metlakatla and a veterans' canoe - all beginning here.

Up to seven other canoes are expected to arrive in Wrangell in the days leading up to May 29.

A community potluck will be held the evening of May 28 at the Nolan Center to welcome and send off the paddlers.

The journey itself will follow a more mainland-hugging route for the first time this year. Beginning in Wrangell, the voyagers will make stops to camp in Petersburg, Read Island, Hobart Bay, Tracy Arm, Taku Harbor and Dupont, just south of Juneau, before making a final landing downtown on June 4. Online GPS tracking will be available for those who want to follow the journey online.

Over the years the journey has started in different communities, but the starts have been making their way farther south, said Alicia Armstrong, of Aleut descent, who has participated in canoe journeys for over a decade. Having it begin in Wrangell is a huge deal, she said, and hopes that having so many canoes in town will make more people want to get out on the water. "There's nothing like being out on the water with a group of folks that you may or may not know," she said.

Armstrong has been a paddler, skipper and support boat crew. She said traveling to Juneau via Stephens Passage, on the east side of Admiralty Island, will be different: "Once you leave Petersburg, there are no more communities. You're out in the middle of the wilderness until you get to downtown Juneau." Traveling to Juneau via Chatham Strait (west side of Admiralty Island) is the route she has taken in the past, which allows paddlers the luxury of stopping at different communities along the way.

Each canoe will be accompanied by a support boat that will provide navigation, a place to store gear and food, and a place for paddlers to take respite in case of bad weather or dangerous waves.

The journey to Celebration began in 2006 with just one boat from Hoonah to Juneau, Armstrong said. Since then, more and more communities have joined the journey, thanks in part to One People Canoe Society (OPCS), a nonprofit started in 2004 to help bring canoe culture back to Southeast Alaska.

"It used to be you had to canoe in order to survive," said Ken Hoyt, one of the organizers for this year's journey. But as technology advanced, it was no longer a necessity and traditional dugout canoes began to disappear, so did the knowledge of canoeing.

But now, as the culture is making a return in Southeast, "we are learning that canoes are a "necessity for life to be meaningful, or to be worthwhile or to be beautiful. Those things are also necessities," said Hoyt.

Celebration and the canoe journey have always been separate, explained Armstrong. Celebration began in 1982 as a way to bring Native people together to showcase and preserve traditions and customs. As the unofficial kickoff to Celebration, OPCS saw the journey as a way to bring back and preserve canoe culture in the region, said Armstrong, remarking at how incredible it is to see how much canoeing in Southeast has grown over the past 20 years.

Paddling to Celebration is no small feat - paddlers will work for seven to 10 hours a day, exposed to all of the elements Southeast is known for. Hoyt, at a practice on May 4, encouraged paddlers to get in shape for the journey by running, hiking or hitting the gym. "Either train for the journey, or the journey will train you," he said.

"It's a lot of hard work - it's not enough sleep, you're not picking your own food or your mealtimes, it's strenuous labor and we're exposed to the elements," Hoyt explained, but he also shared how rewarding it is. "The bonds built amongst the members of the canoe and then across the canoes are powerful. It's because we went through something together. We endured and came out the other side."

"When you're out there, it's happy, it's spiritual. I can't explain it," Armstrong said. "You know, you don't have to be Native to enjoy this. OPCS encourages every ethnic background. When you're out there, you're in sync, you're looking around, and you're like, what is this new experience? This is amazing! We need to canoe more. We have had people cry."

The journey is a sober experience - there's no alcohol or any other drugs. It's about respecting each other, the land and the waterways, Armstrong said.

Reconnecting to nature and being out in the wilderness is part of what makes the journey so powerful, Hoyt added.

Both Hoyt and Armstrong shared how powerful it is to connect with people from other communities along the journey. "But it's not until after the canoe journey where it really starts to affect you because you reach out to one another. And then you find out a little bit more about their stories," Armstrong said.

"Every canoe you see on the water is not simply the people inside the canoe or the structure of the canoe itself, but all of the community effort behind it," Hoyt said. The journey requires enough paddlers to make the journey, but it also requires support crews and boats, fuel for the support boats, food, camping and paddling gear and radios and other safety equipment.

It also takes a communitywide effort to figure out the logistics - things like navigation, camping locations, safety precautions, meals and hosting other communities at the start of the journey all require a lot of planning.

If community members would like to donate money, there is a fundraising account at First Bank called "Wrangell Canoe Community." Support can also be offered in the form of gear and food. To donate gear contact Ken Hoyt at khoyt@searhc.org.