Double back
It’s weird looking at the race standings and seeing two groups of mushers in the same checkpoint, but heading in opposite directions–especially when the front-runners are probably at least a day ahead of their trailmates. And speaking of front-runners, Hans Gatt’s team doesn’t seem to have left its get-up-and-go between Eagle and Dawson.
The top three mushers are on their mandatory eight-hour layover in Stewart River, en route to the finish line in Dawson, while those closer to the back of the pack are still facing another 300 miles of trail. It must be hard on the morale of those further back.
That brings to mind another important part of being a Yukon Quest handler: keeping your musher’s morale up. Something always goes wrong for handlers–the truck breaks down, the pipes at the house froze, the cat you thought was male is about to have kittens, the U.S. vice president shoots a hunting partner. Whatever it is (depending on your politics for the latter), the handler shouldn’t tell the musher.
As far as the musher is concerned, everything is OK. He or she has enough to worry about just staying healthy, keeping the dogs healthy and moving down the trail. The handler can deal with it. It’s part of the job. The rest of the world can just wait until after the race.
And a reminder, the race isn’t over when the first musher crosses the finish line. The 2006 Yukon Quest isn’t complete until every musher has crossed that line.