Yukon Quest 2012 via Snowgo.
Here a collection of all the 2012 Quest Reports I posted on facebook. Its been super fun to follow on the Snowmachine and to be on the media side. I started writing only in Central, as I had no time to write in the first checkpoints, being a race judge for the Quest 300 at the same time.
From Central. Many mushers have left and hanging out in the so called back of the pack has ist own flair. There is a different feeling in the air. Not the exuberance of the front teams. People are talking about scratching, coming into the checkpoint very demoralized.... shell shocked from their experience of going down Eagle Summit. Than there is some cases of real heartbreak. Mushers and handlers walking around with tears in their eyes. Mike Ellis is sitting on next table, his arm in a sling, while his dogs are sitting in the dog truck. That for sure war not plan A. After putting a full year into training his team, while his wife Sue is holding the fort down at home and assisting in any way possible. Now.... one little wipe out, and a whole dream is in pieces. But the lifestyle is still intact. People like Sue and Mike, live and breathe their dogs. Ist not only the race which counts, they enjoy the lifestyle, the privilege of working with those beautiful dogs. The race is just the icing on the cake. Instead of dwelling on the mishap, Mike is already talking about taking his truck to Dawson, just to see friends, and still be part of this great event. On another table is Misha Peterson. 
Heartbroken, still missing one of her dogs, which has been seen up and down the trail between Mile 101 and Central. For any animal rights people crying now...., put it in perspective, house dogs turn loose to... its not a big deal and they will be reunited soon. But for Misha this means most likely to be out of the race. Another full year of training coming to a premature end. In this case, it´s hitting very close to home for me as Bonnie and Jim, who own the team are good friends of mine. It reminds me on my 1999 Quest attempt, where things were looking bleak in Central, and led me to ultimately scratch in Circle. Scratching is a very emotional thing. At the time I felt left out, left behing. All my friends where heading down the trail. Each checkpoint has a very distinct feel, once the mushers are gone. The high flying vibe is gone. It´s very quite all for sudden. People are busy with cleanup. But no more energetic dogs lunging and screaming to go. An than…. A few minutes later. Somebody coming in the checkpoint screaming: THEY GOT THE DOG. And not only did they get the dog, another Musher, Ed Abrahamson, a Quest 300 musher got the do. He came into the checkpoint with the dog, named Riot , in the team. BEST case scenario….., no outside assistance, no help! And Misha should be good to go and continue. With Doug Grilliot having arrived in Central, I can soon hop on the snogo toward Circle.
The lead teams are leaving soon. Time for some strategie talk. First off, all lead teams are looking GREAT. Those are some really strong looking times up front in the race. For now I am strictly looking at the numbers. I would give Team 1 to 5 a shot at still winning the race. I know that some of you will wonder, that I include Brent Sass in that group, as he is 5 hrs off the pace right now. Here the things I see going for him. He is going to leave with 14 dogs. That is a huge accomplishment to have 14 dogs and still be that high in the standing. But more than anything this will give Brent a lot of dogpower in the black hills. Knowing Brent, is actually is driving a 15 dog team, seeing him on the street here a few minutes ago, we joked, if he had packed an extra harness for himself. Jake Berkowitz is only 2.5 hrs off the pace. He is driving is driving a very young team, but there is a few dog in the team which have seen the Quest trail before with either me or Jon Little, like Solomon and Solo. Jake has proven that he can execute a well planned race before in the Copper Basin or this years Knik. Jake sure has a plan and it is going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
Well, I did survive the first snowmachine trip. About 20 km outside of Central, I realized that I had left my power cord for the laptop in the checkpoint. No choice but the drive back. Upon arrival at the checkpoint I walked back in and announced: “ I scratch “.That sure created a good laughter. Off I went again. Cheating. Instead of going over Medicine Lake and all of Birch Creek, I ran the machine up the Bridge on the highway and than dropped onto Birch Creek there. First stop was Karl Korkrines Cabin. Karl, did on June 8th, aged 77. He had lived there for 40 years and is buried out there. His spirit lives on and there is a new caretaker in the cabin, Charlie. Charlie also had his first musher visitor. Trent Herbst was in the process of melting snow for his team, when he came outside and offered hot water to speed up the process. Karls hospitality is living on. Charlie looked at me, “ hey what are you doing on a snowmachine??? “. Not sure about that myself. Chatting with Trent he was obviously having fun. Trent said he is looking to really keep his team together, as 9 of his 14 dogs are destined to run Iditarod with him. He wants to get to Whitehorse in 13 days. With this good weather, he might be quicker after all. Along Birch Creek I passed to more teams, mystery mushers to me…. Not having been around the Quest field that much. The first Quest 300 Team into Circle was Josh Cadzow, who actually beat me there. His team has a few little wrist injuries, but otherwise looks solid. Its quite here in Circle, with most of the front runners having left. Coming from official, most teams looked really well leaving, noticeably Brent Sass, Jake Berkowitz and Kristi Berington. But it still is a long way to go. And mushers like Lance and Sonny are never to be underestimated. Lot´s of experience there, and patience. Time will tell how it all plays out. One thing is for sure. The conditions are IDEAL. Nice firm trail. Perfect Temperatures around 0F no wind. Happy trails to all!!! 
As night time falls, my thoughts are have been about run schedules and times. The front runners are pulling into Slavens Cabin as we speak. Slavens is one of the greatest rest stops along the trail. Usually Slavens serves as a dog drop and mushers can also get straw there. Unfortunately that is not the case this year. Kyla Durham has just left Circle, with a huge bale of straw strapped to her sled. On the upside, with her leaving short before 6 pm. She is on a great runtime schedule, leaving at dusk into the night. She should be in Slavens before 2 a.m. The front runners on the other hand, which ran through the “ heat of the day” as us mushers refer to the afternoon sun now have to leave between 10 p.m and midnight. That makes for a very long nightshift, but is also against the natural inner clock of the dogs. I am always trying to avoid running during the wee hours of the night, but than again, that is often wishful thinking, and all it takes in one run to be a bit slower than planned, and next thing you are on the grave yard shift. Each team getting to Slavens is rewarded with some great hospitality. Great food, warm water for the dogs and real beds to sleep in. Its one of those places, where one can really feel the history of the place. Its like a step back in time. Jake Berkowitz so far has had the fastest runtime into Slavens,. Brent Sass is not much slower. Abbie West has been more than one hour slower on this leg than most of the others. Dogs cycle in their runs, usually a slow run is followed by a faster run. With the next run being not into a checkpoint, typically teams are resting around Mike Sager’s Trout Creek Cabin, it will be a bit harder to track the exact run times. One thing is for sure. With the full moon shining over the mighty Yukon, one can only envy those mushers out there, enjoying the ride.
Dawn is breaking over the Yukon River. We were treated to some spectacular northern lights displays last night, bands of green and purple dancing across the sky while volunteers and even mushers were sitting around the camp fire, discussing dogs, gods and the world. Its been a pleasant night here in Circle. We had reached out internet band width with the satellite system, thus no more updates. Not sure if you noted to intended pun above. Dog is God spelled backwards. This update is a bit more about the Quest 300 Mushers, all of which have arrived now. The last one to get here was Jimmy Lebling who came in at 7.09 a.m. Cindy Abbott had a great run and passed him along they, shortly past the Highwaybridge. With him not arriving soon after her, I waited for 1.5 hr than fired up the iron dog to go look for him. Much to my amazement my dog started at 30 below, without being plugged in. I had barely left town towards the airport and could see a headlight approaching through the scraggly spruce tree. GOOD. Last team in. Jimmy was in good spirits, his 9 dogs looking solid. Cindy the second last team arrived at 05.16 and she was visibly tired but also in good spirits. She has been running a team of 10 dogs since the start, a great accomplishment. Luan made quite a bit of time on Blake and Ed, with getting to the checkpoint about 2 hrs ahead of them at 2.08. All teams had some head on passes, as Josh, Rob and Ava were already traveling back towards the finish line at Central. It was a pleasure to help Rob Cooke leave. His team of 10 Sibes was looking as good as a dogteam can look. 
Barking and lunging at their lines, they were motivated to go back. Rob had a big smile on his face when he left the checkpoint. He is one of those cases, who seem to get the hang of it, noting himself that he is seeing the transformation in his dogs as to where they are getting trail and checkpoint savvy! Good job mate, keep it up!!! On the Quest 1000 side, unfortunately there is a second scratch to report with Jason Weitzel loading his dog to go home. Both scratches so far are for personal injury, with Mike hurting his shoulder and Jason battling back problems for a while. His team of 13 looked very nice. Circle is an intimidating spot along the trail. Not only are the dogs kind of “ hitting the wall “, the much talked about 300 mile barrier, the next stretch to Eagle is very long with 165 miles, yet one of the most beautiful stretches of the entire trail. I talked with Maren Bradley for a while, who was worried about her dogs not eating well in the checkpoints. Trying to calm her nerves I pointed out that this is typical for a rookie team, which yet has to find their groove on the trail. Its easy to say for me, who has seen that transformation many times, as for a rookie, it’s a huge step to pull that hook here in Circle, and to trust the fact, that their team will come together. A remember my 2004 race, leaving Circle and than wanting to snack my dogs half way to Slavens. I opened my sledbag to find, that I had forgotten to pack any snacks. None at all. My heart just sank. I knew if I were to turn around, I would most likely never leave Circle again. So forward we went, simply not turning back, bumming meat of fellow mushers and making it to Eagle just fine. Not only in the back of the pack mushers help each other, the front mushers do the same, there is a constant training of dogfood, booties and equipment going on. Have fun guys on the trail, I hope to catch up to some of you on the way to Eagle with my iron dog. Maybe spending the night in Slavens. So no updates for a while, till I hit the internet in the library in Eagle.
Eagle at last. Wow, what a 24 hrs it has been. I left Circle at 1.30 p.m. and finally made it to Eagle here at 2 p.m.. 250 miles later, which should have been 150 miles. All Quest 1000 Mushers had left Circle and the checkpoint was winding down. Of the Quest 300 Mushers only Jimmy Lebling was left to go out. Right when I got ready to hit the trail, I noticed on the tracker, that Maren Bradley had turned around. It took quite a bit of convincing in the morning, to get her to go out on the trail. She wanted to scratch and cited skinny dogs. Here dogs were just fine and she had 11 dogs left. But her head was not in the right frame of mind. But after all, different officials and veterinarians succeeded in talking Maren into giving it a shot and heading down the trail. On the trail, things still did not feel right to her and she turned around. Its hard to fill out a scratch form, the final step in a whole years of preparation coming to an end. Thinking this was my last “ call of duty “ there, I fired up the Iron dog and turned the nose south, Yukon bound. It was a beautiful ride. Some challenging riding through a slough all dammed up by beavers. I had to lift the machine around tight corners. Short after the beaver sloughs I came upon Michael Telpin resting on the trail. Mike Reitz and Dan were talking to him and I joined the group in some beautiful afternoon sun. Everything seemed fine, communicating with Telpin is difficult, as he speaks no English. He has some really neat looking dogs, they seem tough as nails. His harnesses are homemade. His clothing is fur. A true step back in time. I would love to spend somem time in his home country to learn his way of life.
A few miles down the trail I came upon Nikolai Ettyne, also camped on the trail. We had a short talk, and he was fine too, I snapped a few more pictures and head on down the trail. Passing Marcelle, Misha and Brian I finally made it to Slavens around 4.30 p.m.. Much faster time with the iron dog than with my trusty old gang. Right when I was about to leave again, wanting to avoid running much at night, the radio crackled up and Eagle Dispatch asked if I was in Slavens. Affirmative… Next thing I was told not to leave and await further instructions. Word was, that one of the 2 Russians had activated the emergency button on his tracker, and I were to go back to check on them. BACK? I had going back, but no choice here and Scott from the Park Service joined me. I was glad to have some company, as this was going to be a very long trip. Ultimately all the way back to Circle. Tell tails along the trail started telling the story, that Nikolay had turend around several times, eventually ditching his dogfood and running back to Circle. We caught up to him about 20 minutes after he made it back there. This was a cold run…. It was much colder in Circle than in Slavens. 2 of his 9 dogs needed to be dropped. That left him with 7 dogs, and 750 miles to go. I personally hate scratching, and in the morning tried hard to talk Maren Bradley out of it. But in this case, it seemed better that Nikolay would not continue. 
After also calling Russ Bybee the owner of the dogteam, Nikolay made the hard, but ultimately best decision for the dogs to not continue. 2 Scratched in one day. Not nice. Betty came back to the checkpoint, fried up some burgers. Many phone calls later all was arrange for Nikolay to be picked up in Circle, as everybody had long ago left. Luckily some of the Quest 300 guys were still in Central. Well, time to turn the iron dog south again, back to Slavens. A 3rd time going through those damn beaver sloughs was getting very frustrating. I was sure glad to make it back to Slavens in one piece at 2.a.m. Quite the day. All teams but Micheal Telpin had left. A few hours of sleep,, time to feed the iron dog some 91 grade and load back up. Thanks for the park service crew for their hospitality and great food. Well fueled our next destination was Eagle. On the upside, of this long trip, my snowmachine skills are improving, I am not falling off the trail as often anymore and see my speedometer at 50 mph every once in a while. First team passed was Telpin, than Marcelle Fressineau camped out, next were Brian and Misha. Misha was glad she could warm up her hands on the snowmachine muffler. Both Brians and Mishas teams looked good. Further down the trail I stopped in at a few cabins along the way, finally meeting up with Photographer Harry Kern, as we had originally planned to travel together. So I can only tell you the stories from the back of the pack , as I have hardly seen anybody else. If I want to see any of the other mushers, I should continue tonight to 40 Mile Cabin, some 100 Miles away. Not sure about that one yet…., first time to have some food with my buddy Wayne Hall!!!!
Quick update from 40 Mile. I mean how amazing is that ???? Internet all the way out here. Good thing I did pack the laptop after all. Last night Haywire Harry and I teamed up to go over American summit, which can be real windblown with a lot of sidehill. It was windblown allright, pretty much gravel only up top. But next to no sidehilling, which was very nice. Last year there were monster snowdrifts in this stretch. There was a beautiful winter moon out and Harry and I had just stopped and decided to go separate ways again. He likes to stop a lot to take pictures, I am kind of heavy on the throttle and already have been scolded once to “ run into the shot “ and thus ruining it. Than “ shit hit the fan “ and we got to a nasty glacier in the trail. Hill to the left, steep bank down to the right. In the first attempt I slid right back down. 650 lbs of snowmachine almost ran me over as I jumped off. Not much of a choice but to take a real run at it, and I made it over on my 2nd try. Well Harry pulls a monster load. Everything but the Kitchen sink, and oh yeah, a spare kitchen sink too. And he did not make it, and his toboggan went off the cliff edge, but was still within reach. 
Harry also has useful things besides the kitchen sinks in there, and with comealongs, icescrews, lots of rope we got the whole works back on the road. I am sure the mushers have some interesting stories to tell of that spot too. Musher wise it was uneventful last night. Kyla Durham was parked right below the 40 mile River bridge and about half way down the 40 mile I passed Dave Dalton with a very nice moving team. At Sandy’s and Earls’s I got welcomed at Midnight, hot chili waiting and a real couch to sleep on!!! And ole 14 year old Buster, ex sled dog right next to it. Now having breakfast with cheesecake, we just watched Kyla Durham go buy. Earl makes it a fun game to go on the porch and yell the mushers name out, and wishing them good luck as they go by. It sure puzzles them, that he knows their name…. out here in the middle of nowhere. Kyla kept on going, most likely headed to Sebastian Jones’s cabin only 4 miles down the trail, right at the mouth of the 40, emptying into the mighty Yukon River. I will stop in there in a bit too, he always has some great moose stew waiting and its nice to catch up on the stories from the past year with him. Dawson City hopefully later tonight.
Dawson City. Sorry for not posting earlier, got here in the afternoon. It was nice to stop in and see Sebastian Jones at 40 Mile. Kyla Durham war parked there and tending to her dogs. She was in excellent spirits and seemed to have a lot of fun. She was dealing with a few minor dog issues, massaging away in the warm late morning sun. Her dogs seem to enjoy the break, as they were bedded down on the straw she had carried for 100 miles. Great dog care. 40 Mile is a nice place to stop. Sebastian filled me in on how his cabin good flooded in 3 feet of silty Yukon River water in the 2009 monster Ice Jam. Its crazy to now see the River some 20 feet below the cutbank, to even imagine, that the water level can rise this high.
Harry had arrived at 3 a.m. after doing some repairs to his toboggan. I was glad to see him there and that he had no further issues on the trail with his big load on the skidoo and skimmer. Dave Dalton had left a few hours prior and was headed to Dawson for a much needed 36 hr break. We briefly chatted when I passed him along the Yukon, about half way to Dawson. He told me that he had a hard time staying awake the previous night on the 40 Mile. I know the feeling. The 40 mile has steep canyon walls on both sides and meanders back and forth. It seems to go on forever. Sometimes the moon was ahead of us, other times right behind. The trail on the 40 mile was in excellent shape. Matter of fact I have to give a huge compliment for Mike, Dan and the 2 other trail breaker ( sorry forgot the names ) for putting in a great trail on the Alaska side this. Year. All the river crossings were very well marked and is the best trail I have seen on the AK side ever. After now first hand experiencing the trail by snowmachine, all I can say is heads up for their hard work. They put A LOT of energy into putting it in. Its been a huge learning experience to be on the “ other side “ of the race, from judging to trailsweep. There is a lot of things I had never really seen, nor properly appreciated as a musher. 
Tomorrow I will write a bit about my predictions of how the front of the race will shape up. I have not seen any of the front runners on the trail since Mile 101. With them leaving short after noon tomorrow, I try to snowmachine up to King Solomon Dome to see them pass by, and than head back to Dawson for another night.
The lead teams are leaving soon. Time for some strategy talk. First off, all lead teams are looking GREAT. Those are some really strong looking teams up front in the race. For now I am strictly looking at the numbers. I would give Team 1 to 5 a shot at still winning the race. I know that some of you will wonder, that I include Brent Sass in that group, as he is 5 hrs off the pace right now. Here the things I see going for him. He is going to leave with 14 dogs. That is a huge accomplishment to have 14 dogs and still be that high in the standing. But more than anything this will give Brent a lot of dog power in the black hills. Knowing Brent, is actually is driving a 15 dog team, seeing him on the street here a few minutes ago, we joked, if he had packed an extra harness for himself. Jake Berkowitz is only 2.5 hrs off the pace. He is driving a very young team, but there is a few dog in the team which have seen the Quest trail before with either me or Jon Little, like Solomon and Solo. Jake has proven that he can execute a well planned race before in the Copper Basin or this years Knik. Jake sure has a plan and it is going to be interesting to see how it plays out. His team is also a physically capable team, of most larger over 50 lbs dogs, which run as a very harmonic unit. The first 3 teams are only separated by an hour. Hugh has lots of experience, but is also driving a younger team this year. He has had the tendency to rather fall back in the second half of a race. In the past Iditarod, that was not the case and he actually gained a few places to finish a strong 5th in the end, passing a few mushers, including myself. Maybe he has after all learned to hold back a bit. Lance. Well not much needs to be said about him. I sure would not want him 40 minutes behind me. A master of the game, he will try to pull any possible trick out of the hat to get to Whitehorse first. Knowing Lance though, he will always stay within the means of his dogteam. Allen Moore is doing fantastic. I would give his team the highest rating in appearance at the half way point. Very alert dogs, look they have just come off an easy training run. He is running much smaller dogs than many of his fellow competitors. Different harnesses too. Allen is also ultra physically fit himself. He will work very hard to stay where he is at. Simply, we are all going to see a heck of a race unfold into Whitehorse. Today I will snowmachine up to King Solomons Dome to see the first teams come by, than spend another night in this beautiful Gold Rush town and than see what time I head down the trail tomorrow, or if I wait a bit longer and leave with the back of the pack again.
The first 3 teams are out. Allen Moore’s gang was focused and alert. One of the toughest part in a race, is leaving a busy town. Snowmachine trails everywhere. And Allen promptly got lost. One of the ranger was there to guide him back to the trail, I raced back to the checkpoint to grab more markers to mark that corner. Than followed Allen to snap a few more shots. Next up was Lance, his team did not look as smooth. But hell, its Lance, not much he can’t fix. Hugh Neff came 3rd, he also had some issues loosing the trail twice, racing back, get more markers. There is a lot of snowgo traffic here, markers get run over, the mail trail is not the trail out of town. Darcy and Alex Oleson were out there too, making more signs, guiding musher to the campground or out of town. Boy is there a lot of work done behind the scenses I have never realized before. Hugh’s team looked very well. All trotting nicely in harmony. He must be having a blast driving them. Well time to head back out to watch Jake Berkowitz leave town.
Dawson City, sure a high energy place in the last 36 hours. There is a steady stream of mushers heading back out on the trail. The day started off with the Mushers meeting at 9 a.m., where Mitch the head Canadian Ranger gave his trail briefing speech. He has a dry sense of humor.:” if we put any more trail markers on Coghlan Lake, we have to apply for a building permit “. It sounds like the trail will continue to be awesome, as it so far has been the whole way. The front runners are well under way. It typically takes 7.5 hrs to run to the Indian River bridge. The trackers are a bit misleading, as they shown route is old, up over the dome, now they go up the creek. Cuts out a few miles. When Lance left, he was carrying half a bale of straw. To use that straw, I would have assumed he plans to camp before Scroggy Creek half way. Now that he is quite a ways past Indian River, and thus the half way point, he might have changed his plan and ditched the straw. I sure have seen him do that before, like in 2009 Iditarod, when he did a monster run to the ghost town of Iditarod all the way from Takotna, over 100 miles. He passed me with a full bale of straw, just to ditch it and than post one of the fastest times into the checkpoint. If he runs straight again, as it appears Allen Moore is also doing, they both do a monster 100 mile run. 
The last team I saw leave was Brent Sass. All 14 dogs. Way to go. Brent has finished most of his previous Quests with 8 or even 6 dogs. It is obvious that he changed some things in his training program, to overcome that hurdle. Great to see. He was amped up ( isn’t he always ) and pumping his fist when he left the campground in Dawson City. Jake Berkowitz left prior to Brent. He sure has some long legged dogs. Jake and me chatted a bit, while riding my snowgo next to him, about who’s team looked how. Jake is fully in racemode. Great showing for his Rookie run in the Quest. Rookie is a bit misleading with him starting his third Iditarod in March. His first he finished with all 16 dogs, at the time running dogs out of Tasha and Ed Stielstras Kennel in Michigan. 
So far, no position changes have happened according to the trackers. Time will tell if all front 5 teams would run straight to Scroggie Creek. It would not surprise me one bit. There are also more incoming teams, as there have been all day. Shortly after Brents departure, local hero Brian Wilmshurst arrived to his hometown Dawson. He had quite the gathering of fans. I met him a few miles outside of town in the historic settlement of Moosehide. He snuck into the village so quickly and quietly that I did not get a good shot. Had to chase him down the trail, to get in a better position. While stopping on the trail before town for me to snap some pictures of him, Brian’s first question was: “ So Sebastian, what do I have to do to make up a few more places “. Awesome, his head is into the game,
Today was the first time I got the iron dog stuck. Thankfully Gerd was there to help me get out. Talking about which. It looks like I do a bit more armchair snowmachining as Gerd will come along all the way to Pelly. 210 miles, riding his little Bravo. That is nice, because traveling alone specially at the back of the pack I have a bit of an uneasy feeling, all it takes is one little thing to break, and I am walking. That won’t happen with dogs, I never worried if I would get there. There won’t be any internet between Dawson and Pelly, so no updates. Its funny how everything works out somehow. Gerd and I both found someone to drive our trucks to Pelly. That created an opportunity for Haywire Harry who will hitch a ride with his snowmachine in Gerds truck and trailer to Pelly and than drive his snogo against the flow back towards Dawson, to take pictures off all the mushers on the trail. We were joking about having a high speed collision of German squareheads somewhere down the trail. Gerd and I will bring up the rear again. Hell that might mean a 3rd night in Dawson, Oh twist my arm…. Misha Pederson arrived right behind Brian Wilmshurst. 
She has a very distinctive yellow headlight beam. Here dogs looked really nice and strong coming in. Somehow Misha is always grumpy with me and it is tough to get a picture with a smile out of her. I hope she enjoys this amazing journey. I can sense he huge sigh of relieve in Bonnie Foster, who is the owner of most of Misha’s dogs, as generally who makes it to Dawson is also very likely to finish the race. Right now there is 2 teams left to come in. Michael Telpin with is team of 9 Chukchi dogs and Marcelle Fressineau, they are both on their way to the 40 mile Cabin. I hope to find out a bit more about Michael Telpin, his story of how to get to the race and specially about his dogs. Those are some tough 9 dogs. The only time I have ever heard of someone running such a small string all the way was when John Schandelmeier started with 8, finished with 8 and came in 8th. 
Update from a long 210 Mile trip. I always try to not disturb the mushers too much on the trail,, meaning passing them by snogo. So Gerd and me tried to time out departure to have a clear go. We drive 50 miles to the Indian River bridge, without seeing a soul. King Solomon dome showed its gentle side. No wind, hardly any sidehills and it was smooth sailing. I felt sorry for Gerd on his little Yamaha bravo, he was bouncing around like a pinball, trying to keep up with me. But Gerd and I have traveled in the bush together quite a bit, so I knew he would neither wine, nor need any help. Each time I stopped, he pulled up a few minutes behind a big grin on his face. 60 year young is all I can say. Dave was very chatty, looked well rested and we talked runtimes and schedules. Earlier in the winter he had called, asking for advice on runschedules. Well…. After all he did was Dave has done for quite a few years. Run a well balanced mid of the pack race, without pushing the envelope. When I passed him back on the 40 mile river, he made it to Sebastian Jone’s cabin at 4 a.m.. If he would have played his chess game a bit more aggressive, he would only have stayed an hour or so and left a t 5 a.m., which would have gotten him into Dawson at Noon. PERFECT, that way he could have left at midnight and run all the way to Scroggy to get there at 1 a.m. That would have been an aggressive schedule, netting him a few more places. Instead he choose to say in 40 mile till 10.30, than got to Dawson 17.23, but unfortunately that also means leaving at 5.23 and thus having to shut down the dogs in the head to of the day at Indian River, after only 55 miles. I do not mean this critical at all, just showing, the difference, why someone is in the middle of the pack, and while Allen, Hugh, Lance are up front…. 
Dave is a great musher and seems very content with his runs. That is what matters most. His dogs looked fantastic, great weight and obviously having fun. The trip over Eureaka was equally pleasant as King Solomon and we kept meandering though mining camps. A few years back, those camps had hardly any active equipment sitting in it. Now. Different story. Huge trucks, loaders, Trommels, Sluiceboxes and big camps. Cold at 1700 an ounce makes it possible. The last 10 miles before hitting the Stewart River are on a winding trapline trail, that is where we met up with Abby West. In Scroggy, Joar Leifseth Ulsom was just getting ready to go and Kristi Berington was feeding her dogs. We chatted dogs a bit, Kristi’s gang ate very well. This remote dogdrop got a mega monster update in January 2010 with a new mushers cabin build by William Kleedehen, his son Tim and some friends. The materials were made possible through a Yukon CDF grand, and Gerd from Alpine Aviation flew the stuff in. They did a great job. Cabins like that exist along the Iditarod Trail, and its obvious that William took good note of how they were build. Jessica and Mike Simon have been long time volunteers out here and had everything top notch organized. Unfortunately, while trying to keep up with the mushers, which is not as easy as I thought, we could only stay 45 minutes. For you northern fans out there. Jessica has written a fantastic thriller, from Ice to Ashes, which plays in this north country of the Yukon and Alaska. http://www.amazon.ca/Ice-Ashes-Jessica-Simon/dp/1897126476
Joar had left about half an hour out of Scroggy ahead of us. The trail is super narrow and windy upon leaving. We hardly travel any faster than a dogteam here. So it took a while to catch up and pass him. While passing, I got my monster Scnadic stuck. Gerd seized the moment, zipped past me and left me in the dust. Joar thankfully had some patience till I got the machine back on track. And boy I could tell Gerd was on a mission, trying to stay ahead of me. His old twostoke single cylinder left a cloud of black smoke for me to ride in. The trail is way to narrow to pass. There is quite a few glaciers, where I had hoped to zip past him, but no luck. Time flew like this and we were having our own 2 iron dog race. Racing at 25 miles an hour… and finally around Valhalla Summit I was able to pull past Gerd again as we caught up to Sonny Lindner. That had me surprised, as I thought he would be further ahead. “ Where the hell are we? “ he asked me. I told him how many miles we had traveled since Scroggy and left. We continued for about 1 hr before having a quick late evening snack. There was a spot next to the trial where 3 teams camped right behind each other. That could only have been, Allen, Lance and Hugh. One heck of a race is going on between those 3. They do not leat each other out of eyesight. In no time we could see a headlight approach from behind. 
Better get up and go quickly before Sonny catches up to us. About 15 miles down the trail we came yet upon another musher, this time the energizer Bunny Brent Sass. Brent had left with 14 dogs in Scroggy, but I only counted 13 in his team, which meant he was carrying a dog. This is a long and hilly run to pack a dog. I could feel for Brent, as I had done the same back in 2006 and loaded Coon for 70 miles into Pelly. 2006 was a special year for the Quest, as it finished in Dawson City. A lack of snow prevented us from going all the way to Whitehorse. On the upside, we were able to enjoy the great hospitality of Stepping Stone twice. Before Gerd and I arrived in Stepping stone we met one more team, Jake Berkowitz. Jake was not a happy camper. He complained about how long this run took. His team looked strong though and I assured him it was a bit more than 20 miles to Stepping Stone. Hopefully that lifted his spirits. Stepping Stone at least. We parked behind the Cabin and were invited for dinner. There is a real menue here. Different Soups, Lasagna, Burritos, Cookies. What would I like? Uhm how about a bit of each? Man that what a great dinner. And best off we could sleep in the back room with a roof over our head. Not that is was needed, as it was barely below freezing outside. Zack who is following the race by Airplane told us it was 40F when he landed in the afternoon. No wonder we call Whitehorse the Banana Belt here in the Yukon. And there is still close to 280 miles to go from Stepping Stone to Whitehorse.
Brandnew! That is how I felt when I finally woke up in Stepping Stone. Mushers had come and gone all night. While stepping outside in the middle of the night, I had a brief chat with Jake Berkowitz. He was going to rest short, only about 3 hrs, playing his chess game wisely and planning to skip Pelly and run to McCabe before the heat of the day. Now that I am in Carmacks, and look on the tracker, that where it shows him. Good move. Speed you loose at this point in the game in the team, you will never get back. While we were having breakfast, an awesome omelet with fresh thyme and other green stuff , Joar came in. He was not going to stop long, just long enough for breakfast, to take on some water in his cooler to wetsnack the dogs and than head out again. This is the longest I have stayed at this wonderful spot ever. Lately in racing, me mainly going north and stopping in Pelly, I skipped Stepping Stone, in order to break up the 210 mile run to Dawson in three equal 70 mile runs. The Iron dog is not that bad after all. I am running a Scandik 4 stoke superwide, and much to my surprise this machine gets a tremendous gas mileage. I can run the whole 200 miles between the checkpoints of Pelly on Dawson on one tank, that is about 20 miles to the gallon. Gerd on his little Bravo does not even get half the mileage. I am for sure now converted to 4 stoke. 
Feeding the iron dog is much easier than feeding a 12 dog team. It is amazing to see how much energy these dogs go through. When talking to Trent Herbst in Dawson, he commented on how different the Quest if from the Iditarod in that respect, as the distance between the checkpoints make it much more important that the dogs eat while on the run. He was very glad it was a warm race, as some of his dogs were getting thin. Trent is running a good race, holding his dogs back, to make sure he has a team left for his Iditarod run next month. He is one of a few new people, attempting the ultimate double, same is Kristi Berington, who is running a team of Paul Gebhard. Kristi had all of her dogfood packed in Salmon bags, which makes it look mighty tasty. The run back to Pelly on the , go figure, Pelly River, was mostly smooth, little stretches of jumble ice here and there. We passed Joar and Sonny before the Pelly Checkpoint. It is easy to stop on the river to snap a few shots, as I can pass them after that without much disturbance. Getting to Pelly, the front runners had left long ago, so it was time to switch back to my truck which made it miraculously here all the way from Central. Yesterday I saw it parked on the Bonanza Creek raod while sipping by, wondering how it had gotten there, never mind what it was doing there. Damn, sometimes my spelling is so bad, that spell check does not even give me any suggestions, like with this miraculously thing. Thanks Bill and ? to drive it safely all around. Finding a snowbank I loaded the machine and hit the Klondike Highway to Carmacks. I could not get on the internet in Pelly, as the public internet in the checkpoint did not work and I felt not like arguing with whoever was in charge there, that I am part of the media team, which denied me access to the password. Not over my dead body will I ever wear a damn badge. Square head all right… .
I am sure amazed how hard it is to simply keep up with dogteams on a snowmachine. They are covering amazing distances. Not only running, but pulling their mushers along. And they happily do so, always wagging their tails and a smile on their face. By now Allen and Hugh have both have arrived in Carmacks, Hugh in first place, only separated by mere minutes. They both looked good, so did their teams. Hugh is sitting in the hallway and telling stories about the trail and of course his philosophies. He once again managed to net himself a penalty, this time by loosing his axe. So he better make up 30 minutes somehow. By now I would say it is safe to say that this race is between those 2 mushers. Lance has fallen back a bit. Jake is resting in McCabe. Unless that is…., Jake decides to run all the way to Braeburn from McCabe, that would mix things up a bit. Happy trails till next time. 
The 2012 Yukon Quest is strung out over a very long distance. While Allen and Hugh arrived around 8.30 a.m. this morning in Braeburn after a long 12 hour run through the Chain of Lakes, the last teams are leaving Dawson City being Marcelle Fressineau and Michael Telpin, who can not leave before later tonight. That also means all of the places in between are still seeing traffic. In this post I am going to write a bit about Stepping Stone, which is definitely one of the places along the trail, which mushers look very much forward to, as it is known for great hospitality. Stepping Stone is owned jointly by Carol Croning and Jim Tretcher, which took over this famous place in 1997, or 1999, time does not seem to matter here. Carol and Jim have the help of Bruce Mackintosh, Marian Anabell, John Walch and Grant Abbott.. And boy do they have it dialed in, having a tight sleep and work rotation, communicating by radio with each other. Upon arrival of a musher they ask the musher if they stay or go. Depending on the answer, they offer Burritos to go, or they lead the team into a parking area, quickly radio up to the main cabin where one of the volunteers starts the turkey cooker to make hot water. And they mean hot!, The water pots are kept on a wood stove at all times, which in most places along the trail would be utter luxury, but here they think that is not good enough and heat it up even more. So feeding dogs is relatively easy in Stepping Stone. When the musher walks up to the Cabin, they are greeted by a menu on a whiteboard. And quite the elaborate menu that is. Now bear in mind, that Stepping Stone is not on the road system, it is located on the south shore of the Pelly River near its confluence with the mighty Yukon and everything has to be brought in by snowmachine. Historic Fort Selkirk is just a short snow machine ride away. In the back room, which is normally functioning as a workshop and where Gerd and I happened to spend our night, are shelves full of provisioning, cooler upon cooler are stacked up with pre cooked meals, soups and cakes. 
I bet you anything, that these people put as much preparation into getting Stepping Stone to be this great place it is, as most of the mushers put into preparing the food drop for their team. There is a separate room for mushers to sleep in with real beds. Not too cold, not too hot, just right. Their attention to the detail is stunning. Walking around Stepping Stone, there is an array of old, very old and some modern cabins, a stone oven, beautiful sauna too. Down on the riverbank Zack’s plane is parked ready to continue it’s journey along the Quest trail. Picture perfect, this is what the Yukon Quest is all about. Yes Stepping Stone is a detour for each musher, about 4 miles one way from Pelly Farms, but hell, a detour well worth it and mandatory as you have to follow the marked trail, and in this stretch there is not only trail markers, there is also signs calling for hot water, lasagna, warm beds, of course also a good bye sign wishing each musher good luck. Why do people, and these are by far not the only ones, along the trail open their homes to the Yukon Quest, their remote Cabins, workshops or farms? 
While Jim was fixing one of the propane lights, I asked him that question: “ Its just a fabulous experience to have the mushers come through and see them. I get to meet people from Germany, France, Norway. It’s always a real pickemeup being here. We get a week of good visiting, seeing our friends “ This answer seems to be the same for most of the people involved. It’s about the people, the land, the dogs, the friendships, the whole package! It’s a celebration of northern lifestyle, like an extended family. This family now reaches further through the internet and of course facebook, which opens this event to a much broader audience. This 2012 Yukon Quest has been blessed with gentle weather, almost too warm, which makes it difficult to run in the daytime. Allen and Hugh are now on a perfect schedule, having their dogs rest though the heat of the day and leaving 45 minutes apart from each other this later afternoon, Allen first out at 16.23 and Hugh next at 17.05. Last night in Carmacks I asked him, how many of these 9 dogs are the same of those 8 which chased me down in Iditarod last year?, as they looked very familiar to me. “ All 8 was his answer, grinning from ear to ear”. The race ain’t over yet my friends, and I am sure I will be taking my snowgo to the trail, no matter what time, when they pass near my place on the old Dawson Trail around 1 a.m. 
Well, the first 4 mushers have arrived into Whitehorse on a beautiful morning. And boy was it a tight race. 26 seconds. How crazy is that, over 1000 Miles. While waiting on the trail last night there sure was a difference in appearance of Allen´s and Hugh´s Team, which was much more focused and appeared like a tight unit. Snowmachining back home I really wondered how that would pan out. I have to admit, that the thought of sleeping in my own bed won over hopping back in the truck to see the finish first hand. Of course, now some sleep later, I am mad at myself for not driving in. What a great photo finish that must have been. Bonnie and her son Randy arrived late last night too, right before we were bound to head on the trail. Maggot and Nemo were happily laying on the couch and arriving at the trail I realized that I had forgotten the hot dogs on the kitchen counter. So much for them. As usual Maggot and Nemo just reluctantly going back to their dog houses in the yard. A crowed was gathering for fan favorite Lance Mackey who pulled in 3rd place with a very nice looking dogteam. During the question period, in which he twice hinted that he rather would go to his truck to feed his dogs, Lance made it clear, that he intends to come back for the 2013 race, a true addict. He also seemed to have some real wet feet, from overflow a few miles before town. Next up was Jake Berkowitz in his bright orange parka. Jake pointed out that all of the last races, the knik, Copper Basin, him and Lance always finished right behind each other. Jake earned the rookie of the year honor for his 4th place effort in the 2012 Yukon Quest. While his main leader Pixie took a ride in the sled for the last 30 miles, it was very nice to see good old Solomon in the team. I was lucky enough to drive Solomon in the 2010 season, where he still belonged to Jon Little, another Quest favorite, who finished as high as 3rd place in 2009. Jakes fiancé Robin was waiting with a huge “ doggie greeting card “ from him at the finish line. She went quickly to hug the dogs upon arrival. The race is far from over, there is still 15 teams out, strung out a long distance from just past Indian River Bridge in the Black Hills for our Russian Musher Michael Telpin, to Brent Sass, who has passed Dog Grave Lake on the Old Dawson Trail and should arrive here in Whitehorse 6 p.m.ish. So there is for sure a few more stories to come! 
These here are some stories I collected in Braeburn a few days ago, while we were waiting for Allen and Hugh to take off and Jake Berkowitz arrived with his team. Jake has worked for me on the Juneau iceflield in the past, some of his dogs I still know and others I had to ask Robin of who they were. He came in with Pixie and Leno in lead. Further in the back of the team there was some squabbling going on, after Jake had put down the straw. I asked Robin, who are those two? “Duster and Hopper, they are like me and Jake, sometimes we love each other and run in harmony, sometimes we want to bite each others heads off, but overall we are a good team. “ Well that good team eventually led to a strong 4th place finish and Rookie of the year honors. “ Surprisingly Jake has been very chipper everywhere, “ Robin commented, and I could not resist to reply: „ well you have not seen him everywhere. “ Mushers mental ups and downs are huge, often very directly linked to the state of tiredness they are in. When I met up with Jake on the run from Scroggy to Stepping Stone, he was not a happy camper, complaining about the trail being soft and slow, where as the trail was actually hard and some of the best going I have seen on that stretch. But Jake has had next to no rest since Dawson, he was make good runtimes, his dogs looked good, but in his very tired state of mind, time took on a different meaning and this run seemed slow to him. At the finish line, where he of course was very chipper again, Jake commented on how hard the Quest is run, and how little rest mushers take along the way, specially on the second half of the race. On the Iditarod it is a bit more tempting to run from Checkpoint to Checkpoint as they are much closer together, here on the Quest many rests are taken away from civilization and with creature comforts not looming, those rest are often very short, anywhere from the 1.5hr to 3 hour range. Just long enough to rest though the main heat of the day for example. Jake also commented how well the trail was marked on the Yukon side, and joked: If they ( the Canadian Rangers ) would have marked going down Eagle summit, it would have been one giant X mark and continued to tell a story how Brent Sass actually went over one of those huge tripods up there with his team: “ He went up the one side, and thought…. This is bad “. The race trail was sure well marked on both sides of the border this year. 
Braeburn is known for very good food and huge portions and Jake was looking forward to a burger. While in Braeburn I also had the chance to catch up with Josh Horst, from Horst Expediting., who is responsible for the race logistics, being the Race Manager. Josh has started Horst Expediting 5 years ago and he thinks working on the Quest also has its advantages for his own business, with working with new and different people, making new connections in areas like Eagle and Circle, where he normally does not do much business. He almost had the same 1000 Mile stare as the mushers. Josh´s ability to multitask is very apparent. Having been around the Quest for a few years, I have first hand witnessed races, where organization was lacking in checkpoints, fuel not there, confusion about hot water, straw and so on. This year, things worked like clockwork. Josh has assembled a great team of people. He also cited the help of Alex and Darcy Olesen, who are have been around the Quest from childhood on, with their late father Leo Olesen being one of the races founders. “ They care about the race , so when they see a problem, they do not let it slide, they look for a solution, because they care about it. “ Having the 2 of them is like having 5 people. Assistant Race Manager is Alex Brook. He also has help from volunteers, Gene from Australia, who has done jobs like changing batteries on all of the trackers in checkpoints of Circle and Carmacks. Most people always want to work with the dogs. Its easy to find volunteers for that. But there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. Organizing all the vehicles and insurances of the drivers, is a very tedious and boring undertaking. Michael Hupp, a long time volunteer happily took on that challenge, which Josh described as one of the crappiest jobs on the whole race. 
More than half of the mushers have by now made it to Whitehorse. The festivities are far from being over. This whole week there is a “ Questfest “ going on, with events like “ How to train Sled dog puppies “ and a presentation featuring Frank Turner and 30 years of mushing. Lots and lots visitors are in town and last night we all were treated to some beautiful northern lights displays, while waiting for Brent Sass to arrive. He promptly burned his overboots. That was quite the sight seeing him arrive under the finish line banner in his insoles and the boots strapped to the top of his sled, flames licking out. Its always a lot of fun to see a musher coming in, hearing their stories and seeing the huge smiles of accomplishments. The dream of running a 1000 Miles, is no longer a dream, its been made into reality. A years worth of hard work has paid off. Time to celebrate. The finish line is right next to 1st Ave and the Whitepass Building, housing the Yukon Quest office. For all of you Quest Fans going for coffee, check out the art show of Kelsey Elliason in the BAKED Café, right across the street on Main Street. His grand opening is tomorrow on Friday February 17th and the show is called “ Frozen “, featuring his paintings from this beautiful north country, polar bears, Quest mushers and much more. More of his work here: www.facebook.com/OuthouseGallerySab
