Early Saturday morning, three canoes, all built with guidance from master carver Wayne Price Ká jeis yutsi.aak, began their journey to Juneau. With rough seas predicted until Berners Bay, Price anticipates the crews will have to ride aboard the three support boats until the handmade vessels find calmer seas.

Price said this will be his seventh time making the journey to Juneau for the biennial Celebration since 2014 via canoe. This year, Price says that the crew contains a mix of new and experienced pullers.

“We’ve got three different size canoes. We’ve got three different size crews,” said 23-year-old Brandon Kaayúkw Gomez. Gomez lives in Juneau, where he interns for Price and has been learning how to carve dugouts.

Each canoe, or dugout, starts as an old-growth tree that is usually 475 years old and weighs 15,000 pounds, according to Price. It takes roughly six months to carve a dugout, which weighs 700 pounds. Each tree is different, “so every time you do one, you run into different things.” 

“Back when I first started out, there wasn’t nothing going on,” Price said about the consistent canoe trips from around Southeast to Juneau for Celebration. “With the help of a few others now we’ve got all this going on.”

Jibba, the dugout that Price completed before the canoe trip to Juneau in 2014 for Celebration, has roughly 1,500 nautical miles on it. This trip will be some of the first times on the water for the canoe Wavedancer, according to Price. He developed a new formula to make a dugout using strips of wood instead of carving a dugout out of one tree for the Wavedancer.

“In our future, when it’s getting harder to find the trees, they’ll be able to use my formula and make a strip canoe and still have that experience being in a dugout,” Price said. 

During their journey, Price said the crew will be drug and alcohol free.

“We support healthy lifestyles and healthy living and helping bring the side of the culture that was this close to being decimated because of colonization,” Price said. Price started his first dugout in early June 1982. He said his mentor, Archie Klaney from Klukwan, walked into the forest two weeks after Price started work on the dugout. Price has since built 18 canoes. He’s currently working on one of those.

“The transfer of knowledge is occurring and it’s going really well. I’m having a lot of fun,” Price said. Some of the paddlers on this journey helped Price build the dugouts they are using.

The third boat and crew came from Haines Junction. Their boat’s name, dan kinghar nàkudle, means “bringing people’s spirit back,” according to captain Khásha from Haines Junction. Khásha has made this journey two times and will be the captain on the boat for his third trip. This is the second journey that the canoe dan kinghar nàkudle will make down to Juneau after being finished in 2024 before the last Celebration. Ten crew members hail from Haines Junction and their support boat captain is from Whitehorse.

“I tell them the real work will come, but right now it’s everyone’s excited and just lovestruck with everything,” said Khásha, who has made this journey three times. 

The three support boats will carry the crew’s camping supplies. Each member has a smaller day dry bag with any essentials they need while paddling. 

“Besides my battery chargers that I brought, this isn’t too atypical from what they [ancestors] would have been doing,” Gomez said. He then pointed toward his paddle, “Oh, I’ve got my paddle,” that he had just finished up on the ferry from Juneau.

If crews get a northeast wind, they will be able to put their sail up and “just sail all the way,” Price said Friday. “That’s really living.”

“It’s like you’re in a solarium ride without the heat, but it’s really cozy … they don’t have prettier views than this,” Gomez said.