Yukon Quest 2018 Recap

The 2018 Yukon Quest was a monumental learning experience for myself and my dog team. The goal of this race was to show the core of my team for years to come the trail and give them a positive experience on their first 1000 mile race. Fourteen athletes; Fuse, Juice, Yam, La Jefa, Squirt, Pearl, Jam, Vedder, Silk, Brodie, Bugs, Kimbo, Woody, and Bonsai satrted the race with me. Eight of those fourteen; Fuse, Yam, Juice, Squirt, Kimbo, Woody, Bugs, and Pearl finsihed in Whitehorse just over 12 days later. None of the dogs I dropped had major injuries, most were actually dropped for picking up viruses or minor bugs along the trail. By the time we arrived home the entire team was 100% healthy.

I went into the race with a pretty detailed race plan, but not fully knowing what to expect on my first 1000 mile race. I sent out enough food and supplies in my drop bags to break up and shorten my planned runs if needed. The forecast for the first week of the race was sunny skies with daytime highs of 5 above farenheit and night time lows of -15, a very moderate and manageable temperature range for myself and the dogs. So even though my feet were cold and I was chilled on the first run enroute to the check point of Two Rivers I figured I had just grown accustomed to the warmer temperatures we typically experience at our home in the hills above Fairbanks and the temperature couldn’t be below -20. Upon reaching Two Rivers I heard that it had been -30 and colder on sections of the trail I had just covered, which made me feel like less of a wimp, but temperatures were on the rise and it would be 0 by the morning. We left Two Rivers and climbed Rosebud Summit with no incident or difficulties to reach the checkpoint of mile marker 101 on the Steese Highway. The team and I served our mandatory 4 hour rest there and after a thorough check up on the dogs from the vet team we headed back down the trail and promptly tackled the iconic Eagle Summit. The backside of Eagle Summit is quite steep and gave us a quick adrenaline shot before dropping onto trails lower in elevation that wind through the valley floor. I opted to blow through the checkpoint of Central and camp a short ways out on Birch Creek to break the distance from 101 to Circle into two 50 to 55 mile runs. Once we entered onto Birch Creek I knew the temperature wasn’t rising but was actually plummeting, and I realized despite the weather forecasters best attempts they were dead wrong about the impending heat wave of 0 degree days that they had forecasted. We rested for six hours in some of the coldest temperatures I had felt in years. upon reaching Circle the next morning I heard reports of -45 to -55 degree temps from Birch Creek the night before.

In Circle after that long cold run in, a lot of mushers started finding minor athletic injuries in their dogs, myself included. I had six dogs who needed heated wrist wraps and thorough massages while we stayed in Circle, where I opted to drop Vedder. Vedder had started the race with irritated toe nail beds, and weighing in at 67 pounds, the impact on the hard cold trail had further aggravated them and he wasn’t in the best spirits. He was still working hard but I knew it wouldn’t be a good call to take him onto an even harder packed trail down the Yukon River for the next 160 miles to Eagle. On the Yukon River I experienced the sense of remoteness that Robert Service tried to convey about the Yukon in his writings, it was -50 with howling head winds (estimated to be around -85 and lower with wind chill) under a moonlit but clear sky. The team and I were navigating windswept jumble ice on the Yukon river and the wind was so bitter cold that I could only look up intermittently to give the dogs gee and haw commands (right and left) to keep from colliding into giant frozen plates of ice. My heart swoll with pride watching my young leaders Fuse and Yam listen to my every command to guide us through that stretch. Shortly afterwards we reached Slavens Cabin, this is a National Park Service owned cabin and was manned by volunteers from the National Parks department, including our good friend Luther Buhrs sister Emily Buhr who cooked multiple cheeseburgers for me after the dogs had eaten a nice warm meal. After this run I knew I couldn’t stick to my original run and rest plan, in these conditions with a young team I would have to start resting more to keep their attitudes high. So we took a nice 6 hour rest here and then headed down the trail towards Eagle, Alaska 100 miles away with a quick stop into Mike Sager’s cabin on Trout Creek, which he generously opens to mushers during the race to rest and dry out in. We reached Eagle about a full day after leaving Slavens cabin to a brisk -40 morning, but both the dogs and I were in good spirits. We spent 8 hours in Eagle resting and catching up with Scarlett Hall who runs the Eagle check point, Scarlett is the mother of our good friend and mentor Matt Hall. In Eagle I opted to drop La Jefa and Bonsai; Bonsai for a gut bug he picked up on the trail and La Jefa for her general attitude. She was not happy about the extended -50 nights and -40 days.

Leaving Eagle we hopped onto the Taylor Highway and climbed American Summit, a gradual and long climb on the roadway that the dogs loved. The team was screaming to go at the summit, and we were also experiencing some slightly warmer temps of -25 or so. Shortly after the summit we camped and the temperatures again dropped to -40 or so. After a quick four hour rest we departed again and entered onto the 40 Mile River, which connects back into the Yukon River again, which would eventually take us to the halfway point of Dawson City for our 36 hour mandatory rest. The 40 Mile was cold, really cold. We were running on it through the early morning hours under a bright sunny blue sky, only the temperature was -55 to -60. Most of the canyon the river has carved was covered in shade from the opposite canyon wall. At one point the sun hit the river, and even though the temperature increase wasn’t significant in the sun, we stopped and spent about 5 minutes just basking in the sunlight. Despite these temperatures this section of trail was one of my favorite because of its striking beauty. The day was clear and we were chasing a small herd of about a dozen caribou down the canyon for quite some time. Front runners in the race reported seeing thousands of caribou through this section. We eventually (my frozen feet swear it was never ending) reached the Clinton Creek Hospitality Stop, home to Yukoners Earl and Sandy who go above and beyond opening their doors to race participants. After resting about six hours here we headed back onto the Yukon River and towards Dawson City. We had an uneventful run to Dawson and were received by my handlers; my dad Keith and friend Aaron who had set up a luxurious camp for the dogs and had a hotel room reserved for me to sleep in. For 36 hours we rested and recouped here.

Leaving Dawson we climbed King Solomon’s Dome and then traversed the rolling Black Hills of the Yukon for nearly 200 miles before being dropped onto the Pelly River where we stopped at Stepping Stone; yet another hospitality stop that goes above and beyond to greet, feed, and warm up mushers from the trail. On the run from Dawson to Stepping Stone I stopped at Scroggie dog drop where I dropped Silk with a minor shoulder injury after carrying her in my sled for nearly 60 miles. From Stepping Stone we headed to Pelly Crossing and then onto Carmacks and the final checkpont of Braeburn. This stretch is a lot of never ending rolling hills before crossing a series of frozen lakes to take the trail to Braeburn. Honestly, I have repressed a lot of this stretch from my memory because the hills just went on and on and on. The dogs did great though through this challenging stretch and I’m tremendously thankful to have dogs with such great work ethic, not a single dog had a slack tug line the entire race. I dropped Jam in Carmacks after a lengthy fight with a virus he picked up in Dawson, he was still pulling hard and I’m sure would have pulled me all the way to Whitehorse but I didn’t want to spoil or sour his attitude for future years. He was one of my very best dogs for the 850 miles travelled on the quest trail. The final run from Braeburn to Whitehorse the dogs looked incredible the entire way, although it was a long haul across that marge on Lake Labarge. We travelled on the infamous Lake Labarge for 35 miles in whiteout snow with a quick 45 minute rest to give the dogs a proper lunch and boost all of our spirits before continuing on to the finish line.

We finished in fine form in 11th place with a team screaming to go for more. Fuse was the MVD (Most Valuable Dog) after leading about 900 miles of the trail and never looking back, he is only two years old. Three year old Yam was a close second primarily because of her eagerness to leave rest spots and head back down the trail. This is an exceptionally valuable trait in 1000 mile leaders. All of the dogs had notable performances but those two leaders as well as yearling Bugs Bunny and two year old Squirt in the team were exceptional all stars. Bugs and Squirt are perhaps the hardest working and happiest dogs I’ve ever seen, they have very tough heads too and were never down and out about the weather during the race which in turn kept my spirits high.

I owe a lot of thank yous for the success we had on our first 1000 mile race. Thank you to Alaska Icefield Expeditions for helping to support my kennel since it’s inception. Thank you to Sven Haltmann and his aurora viewing business Arctic Winter Adventures for helping support the team and loaning me three rockstar athletes to help fill the team out. Thank you to all of my dog sponsors. Thank you to my handlers Aaron Young and Keith Dyche for all of the work and expense you put in to make this race happen. Thank you to my fellow mushers for voting for me for the sportsmanship award. Thank you to Mandy Austin for all of your help prepping drop bags and human food for me during the race and watching my puppies while I was gone. Thank you to Brianna Mackay for hosting us in Whitehorse! Thank you to Ryne Olson for loaning me an extra dog box for my truck last minute. Thank you to Jeff and KattiJo Deeter for watching my dogs that stayed home during the race and loaning me your arctic oven for Dawson. Thank you to Jared Miller and tashina Esparza for helping cut and bag meat snacks, and I’m sure I’m missing a bunch more but thank you to everyone who helped get us to the start and finish line of the Quest! We’ll be back in 2020 with a more complete and more competitive team.