We got out of Mile 101 just in time Sunday night. We decided to head back to town and worry about picking up Rod’s gear in Central and Circle later. Twelvemile Summit was already drifting over at 8:30 p.m. and we could barely see the road markers. Eagle Summit must have been a nightmare.
We […]
I woke up at 10:30 Sunday morning after a two-hour nap and checked the weather for the Steese Highway. It was terrible and supposed to get worse. Rod figured he’d get into the checkpoint between 1 and 2 p.m., so I hurriedly fed the dogs that were left in the yard, repacked the truck […]
FRANKLY: After running every Yukon Quest in the race’s history, winning once and setting the all-time course record, Yukon musher Frank Turner is on the sidelines for this one while his son, Saul, runs it.
The view from the “other side” is very different. During the handler’s meeting, Frank asked whether he could drive to […]
Angel Creek Lodge on Mile Chena Hot Springs Road is the first checkpoint on the Quest. It’s about 100 trail miles from the starting line. Beside the Quest, several other races in the area go through or end at Angel Creek. Owners Annette and Steve have been very generous to dog mushers over the years. […]
After months of preparation and watching our credit card balances soar into the stratosphere, Rod is finally on the trail.
After years of entering sled dog races, we’ve got our pre-race timing pretty much figured out. Rod fed the dogs a meaty broth about 7 a.m., we started loading them in the truck at 8:15 […]
At the Start Banquet on Thursday before the race, organizers sprang a new fundraising strategy on the unsuspecting mushers. When it was time to draw starting positions, organizers announced that they were holding a Calcutta. In essence, they wanted the audience, made up mostly of friends and families of the mushers, to bid on the […]
In her biography on the Yukon Quest Web site, Wasilla veteran Kelley Griffin listed “game-show contestant” as her occupation. Kelley was sitting at my table during the Start Banquet, so I asked her about it.
It’s true.
Last fall, Kelley appeared on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” She flew to New York, at her own expense […]
Whoo hoo! I got a new rake!
While this may seem like a weird thing to get excited about, it’s the first time I’ve ever gotten anything, besides little abuse and a smattering of gratitude for being a handler on a sled dog race. Even more so, because I can recall trying to clean up a […]
We’re running the Quest again.
Although Rod and 14 of our dogs will actually be running the 1,000 mile trail from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, I say “we” because I am going on the trail as his handler. In the Quest, more than any other mid- or long-distance sled dog race, the handler plays an important […]