Yukon Quest 2009!

Wow, it's been a LOOONG day! After volunteering for both the Quest and Quest 300, sled bag checking, handling, security, I'm wiped!! Oh and thanks to Michelle Phillips for driving her team the fastest to the start chute (and almost the farthest away) of all drivers. Us dog slaves tried desperately to hang onto the gangline while running and sprinting and tripping in 14 layers of clothes and huge boots while running on soft, rutted snow. Good fun!!! Oh yeah, that was great fun, seeing if your feet can keep up after handling 20-some teams to the start line already. For the record, I did not wipe out! But it was damned close as we neared the starting chute.

First thing this morning:

It was -75 out. Ok, maybe not.


So it looked like it was about -50 at 9:00am, but it was only about -30C. Then the sun came out and it was quite nice. Although everyone who was standing around was frozen. I don't know if it got much warmer than -20C. Keeping up with the dog teams was my plan to keep warm! It worked, I felt like stripping by team #25.



Everyone's gearing up.

Simi and Laura pretend to be cold. Or delirious. No, they really were delerious.


I think this is at Jerry Joinson's team - what a nice guy!

Jon Little's harness/gangline system that I totally want to use. One line, less hassles!

I met Jon way far back in 1999 when I traveled up to Alaska, looking for a kennel to handle for. He had only done one Iditarod then, but had big dreams and was fully obsessed with racing. He has a pretty small kennel of 20-something dogs and now, a family of four! I haven't seen him since then, but it was great to catch up again. What a great guy!


Josh Cadzow, Gwitch'in Nation represent!!


Some beautiful dogs were on the trail today - these guys don't look too wound up yet.

I took some video at the place we affectionately called "The bottleneck":






Lotsa lines


Guess who's truck that is? Two points for you!


The Jamaican musher, Newton and his own personal camera crew, who really seemed to be annoying and getting in his face a *little* too much.


Newton heads out on the trail! Probably quite relieved to get away from the madness that is the Yukon Quest start.


Ah, I have no idea who this is, it's all a blur now...


Um, Sebastian... needs no explanation really. He looks really stressed eh?


Martin's handlers, looking totally calm before the start. They must have done this before.


The Countdown!!!!

The Quest 300:

Karen and Mark Ramstead in the Quest 300, how cool is that dog truck?!?!

Here's a wee video, just after their group howl, too bad I missed that!



Bootying 'em up. They seemed like a pretty calm lot of dogs for the most part. The veteran teams really stand out!


Ok, these guys of theirs were a wee bit excited...


Good ol' Gerry, my old neighbour/cabin builder. Good luck Gerry!


Susie in her first Quest 300, running a team out of hers and Hans Gatt's kennel.


Had to get a shot of Carter, Jack and Harris' brother!! He is the spitting image of Jack, except darker. Same big square heads! He was running lead in the 300 in a team out of Frank Turners kennel - with Thomas ?.


This was one beautiful big dog on Bill Cotter's team.


Our buddy from the Junction - Martin Jahr. Go Martin!!!!


Leading the last team up to the chute. This might have actually been the 1,000 miler... yep! Just checked, Normand Casavant.

I'm tired and a wee bit weak from all that running today... so it's off to bed for me. Good luck to all mushers!! Also to the somewhat under-represented people the race couldn't go on without - the handlers!!! :)