Peace Rider at Central, AK 2/8/13 -2/13/13

Dear Friends,

Just to let you know I have not quite finished a piece on a past life experience form my last long distance bike ride. 

That was interrupted by a few days spent as a volunteer for the Yukon Quest sled dog race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks.  In even years it begins in Fairbanks.  If you catch this blog in time and Google Yukon Quest.com and click on tracker you can follow the last of the mushers headed into Fairbanks.  At this point it's nearly over except for the person whose last and secures the Red Lantern award.  But even so just finishing is a worthy effort regardless of finishing order.  This is the toughest sled dog race of any out there, a thousand miles through the wilderness of the Yukon Territory and Alaska. 

This year it was a bit shortened because of impossible trail conditions over American Summit on the way to Eagle, AK. 

After 40 years living in Fairbanks I thought it would be a gas to volunteer and get up close and personal with the mushers and the dogs which I did.  We were especially lucky to have temperatures no colder than about 10 below zero F.  Each musher is required to carry certain mandatory equipment and at each station these items are checked for being in his or her possession.   Since mushers can arrive at any hour we had our check station in operation round the clock.  In the process we got to experience some of the sleep deprivation that is a part of long distance racing.  But it was also pretty cushy with a warming fire in a wood stoked burn barrel plus bales of straw to sit on.  The latter was a diminishing pile. Each mushers got one bale of straw for his dogs to lie on.  The musher got a free steak dinner at Mike's Central restaurant plus a warm place to sleep and a bed next door in the "red barn." 

Some musher's dogs were still eager to keep going after they stopped and would bark and hit the end of their harnesses not ready to stop.  This was a real treat to witness and a statement about the care these dogs receive all along the way. 

All the dogs are checked by volunteer race vets after they are checked in.  Dogs not fit to continue for a variety of reasons are dropped and collected by the musher's handlers.  After that the musher tends to his dogs, removes dog booties, spreads straw for each dog to lie on, then heats water on an alcohol cooker to reconstitute the musher's dog food. This is prepared in advance and hauled to each drop point ahead of race time.  Rules do not allow the handler to assist the musher at this point but he or she does have the "privilege" of cleaning up the straw and any other messes after the musher departs. 

After all the chores are taken care of there is not much time left for the to rest, one to four hours seemed about the norm.  Hallucinating due to sleep deprivation is not uncommon.

This was only the second year Trackers have been used.  Basically it's a small GPS unit securely fastened to each sled that allows continuous position location for each musher.  It's a safety feature and also allows fans an opportunity to follow in real time the location of their favorite racer. 

So a wonderful opportunity to meet folks from all over.  I met a vet from Australia, a woman vet from Madrid, and another form Alberta, CA.

An early AM departure from Central for Fairbanks on the 13th got us over Eagle Summit at first light with calm winds.  This was a relief.  We had to be led over by a snow plow on the 8th when the winds were howling and whiteout conditions prevailed.  The road closed overnight afterward. 

Going down the over side we spotted one wolf running up a hillside and then three more that scattered from a caribou kill on the road as we approached.  It may have been a hit by a car,  there was no way to tell at a distance.  My friends lamented not having a gun with them but I was just as happy to see them depart unharmed. 

Saturday is the mushers banquet in Fairbanks.

Don - Peace Rider