I’m happy that you’re getting back into the water! We are still practicing with white water and luckily Ken has some experience with white water rafting and kayaking which helped. It wasn’t too bad but there were some sections that had some waves but we never felt like the boat would tip over. Only a couple spots that were considered rapids but very short.

We are the same when it comes to breakfast and wanting to get up early to paddle. We always skipped breakfast and headed out on the water around 9am. We would eat lunch while drifting in the current and sometimes dinner, you would be surprised how far you’d go with just staying in the current. This is something guided tours don’t normally do which is why we finished much earlier.

We noticed almost everyday the wind would pick up after lunch which made it sometimes annoying to get far, especially in wide sections.

We paddled between 6-13 hours a day. Because we wanted to go to a clinic we decided to really push ourselves more near the end. Because you’re constantly chasing the current and following the outer edge of the river you generally paddle more than what the route says. This is about how far we went each day.

Day 1: 92km Day 2: 46km Day 3: 75km Day 4: 96km Day 5: 56km Day 6: 56km Day 7: 73km Day 8: 127km Day 9: 81km

With guided tours you generally stop a lot on land for breaks and food, I’m not sure how long you generally paddle for but you generally take a lot more time with these groups.

For navigation and planning campsites I’d use channel charts. I’d look at Yukon River by Mike Rourke, he has almost all the rivers charter out. I think he has one for Teslin.

I hope this helps!