The other side
After watching the first part of the race from the back of the pack, I’m heading off to see it from the front.
Rod and I are getting ready to drive over to Yukon to pick up the food and gear in our drop bags that the Quest shipped over for the second half of the race. That way we’ll at least recoup a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff and our dog food bill will drop to almost nothing for the remainder of the season.
How much does it cost to run the Quest? We don’t know. We’ve never added it up because the total would terrify us. We have terrific dogs and they eat very well and we are on a first-name basis with half the veterinarians in town. However, our roof leaks, our truck has over 200,000 miles on it and we’re burning wood this winter because we couldn’t afford to fill the tank with heating fuel.
I’m looking forward to getting back to the trail, even as a spectator. I missed going to Central, which is my favorite checkpoint on this side of the race. I’ve been there almost every year as a handler or just as a spectator and I’ve always enjoyed the atmosphere in what is now the Steese Roadhouse. It’s a little diner and bar at the intersection of the Steese Highway and the spur road to Circle Hot Springs. When the race passes through, the place is packed, loud and smoky and the hospitality is wonderful. You can sit in a corner and hear three or four mushers talking about the trail and their dogs. We always planned for a night at the hot springs, but the hotel has been closed for a couple of years now. I still haven’t seen the ghost there.
Time to hit the road. We should get to Dawson about the time the front-runners do.