Yukon Quest, discussion

This is a forum for general discussion of dogsled racing, with a special focus on Alaska, and is open to all. It is expected that this area will see the most activity during the months leading up to, and during the annual Iditarod sled dog race. Pictures from races can be posted here. Hosting is provided by the Bering Strait School District (BSSD), and the area is open all year. Care to be one of our volunteer moderators? Contact us!

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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby Delichte1960 » Sun Feb 11, 2018 7:36 am

One trick, I like to use, to see where the trail is. I press the "P" button, on the Live tracker. It put a red dot, where ever a tracker pings a location. After a number of mushers have passed, you have a bright red line.

When you do this, You can see the new reroute, on top of King Soloman's Dome.
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby txbennett » Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:00 am

Allen has switched to 5-hour rests followed with 10-hour runs -- two in a row.

Is he preparing the SP Kennel team for an Aliy strategy in the Iditarod?

I am just curious with nothing else to consider at the moment.

;) ;)
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby fladogfan » Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:17 am

Delichte1960 wrote:One trick, I like to use, to see where the trail is. I press the "P" button, on the Live tracker. It put a red dot, where ever a tracker pings a location. After a number of mushers have passed, you have a bright red line.

When you do this, You can see the new reroute, on top of King Soloman's Dome.


That's cool, thanks. Every year I learn something new about the tracker, just hope to remember it next year ;)
I found the 'button' to click to get the map to be whole screen this morning :roll:
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby fladogfan » Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:29 am

All my children have four feet and fur.
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby fladogfan » Sun Feb 11, 2018 3:45 pm

Found this on SPKennel's site, it was posted by one of their commenters. Article is from newsminer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New McCabe Creek site rises phoenix-like for Yukon Quest after fire

Joshua Armstrong / jarmstrong@newsminer.com Feb 15, 2010 (0)



McCABE CREEK, Yukon — A few days after his woodshop, garage and generator room burned down, Jerry Kruse received a positive omen.

A neighbor found an ax that was thought to be lost in the blaze.

“See,” Kruse thought. “They’re coming back already.”

On Sunday, the Yukon quest International Sled Dog Race came back to Kruse’s farm at McCabe Creek. The woodshop is gone, but the open arms are the same.

A quick cut through the Kruses’ land about 30 miles south of Pelly Crossing has always been an opportunity for some coffee, cinnamon rolls and pleasant company for Yukon Quest mushers.

But things were different Sunday as the race reached the farm off the Klondike Highway. Where once stood the building that provided shelter to Quest contenders for more than 15 years, there is a concrete foundation.

The Yukon Quest banner instead flew over a nearly finished garage attached to Kruse’s nearby house, inviting mushers inside.

On Feb. 22, two days after the last musher passed through the farm on the way to Fairbanks last year, the woodshop caught fire and was destroyed along with the garage and generator shack attached to it.

Kruse estimated the damage to be around $100,000 and he lost some invaluable items — tools from his father, who died several years before.

But he also felt relief that the six people in the shed at the time, runners in the Yukon Arctic Ultra and a documentary film crew escaped uninjured.

An outpouring of support came almost immediately. A list of those who donated a piece of the $20,220 to rebuild is pinned to a wall inside the garage.

Hugh Neff — who took second place in 2009’s Quest — donated $5,000, and $580 more came from the Yukon Quest organization and someone listed as “a musher that stopped by.”

Friends, family, mushers and neighbors also gave their time to rebuild the structures by milling lumber, pouring concrete and cleaning up debris.

The foundation for a new shed has been laid and a generator shack is a door and a window away from completion.

Work will resume in spring, a season that Kruse feels begins when Quest racers arrive on his property.

The tradition began during the Yukon Quest’s inaugural run in 1984. Back then, Kruse owned the Midway Lodge across the highway.

On the day the family returned from a winter-long trip to run a trap line, Kruse was told that the Midway Lodge would be a stop on the trail, and it needed to be ready in 60 minutes.

“At 10, they called and said they’ll be there in an hour,” he recalled.

Kathy and the girls immediately fired up the ovens to make bread and cookies, and the family took in more than 30 people that week.

They hosted the dog drop at the lodge until Jerry sold it in 1992. The family then opened the doors of its woodshed on the farm — where they have fields of oats and raise horses, chickens, turkeys, pigs in the summer, the occasional flock of pheasants and a few goats.

On Sunday, mushers headed down the farm’s half-mile driveway, taking a quick right turn away from the old woodshed area and between snow-covered playground structures — signs of a house once full of children.

Kruse and his wife, Kathy, have raised two boys and eight girls while living at the riverside community. They’re almost done with the paperwork to adopt a ninth girl.

Many of those children — all are grown now — come back every year to help run the dog drop, such as Jari Kruse, who was a young girl when the inaugural Quest mushers stopped by in 1984. Now a Whitehorse resident, Jari had 14 dozen cinnamon rolls baked, plastic-wrapped and ready for mushers to grab on the fly.

While checking Internet updates on the Quest and scrolling through photos of the inferno that took their shed, Jari said she loves to hear mushers talk among each other and always looked forward to visits from Pecos Humphries and Sonny Lindner when she was young.

Jerry can’t say why he opens his home every year, even at the worst of times. Journalists ask him this every year, and he still doesn’t have a clear answer.

“It’s the age to retire,” he said. “I don’t know what to do, but it can’t get any better than this.”

Contact staff writer Joshua Armstrong at 459-7523.
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby elsietee » Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:42 pm

This is too bad. But understandable - it's got to be daunting to set off on a 210 mile run with no support on trail you've never been on, and you're not sure about your dogs:

Sunday, February 11, 2018

This afternoon, rookie musher Severin Cathry (bib #20) from Andermatt, Switzerland scratched from the race in Dawson City, Yukon.

Cathry said he made the decision due to his team not possessing the stamina and endurance needed to continue, which he attributed to the poor training conditions earlier this season.
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby mira » Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:06 am

Bummer.. but not really surprising.

Anyhow, Allen has left Carmacks, Matt is in Carmacks. Laura has passed Paige who is resting on trail 20 miles before Carmcacks. She's been resting for 1.5 hour, Laura just passed. Vebjørn and Ed is in McCabe.

Tim Pappas is having Pelly Crossing for himselg, and then we have a group of mushers (Luc, Alex, Bernhard, Claudia) with 20 miles to go to Stepping Stone.

As for now, it looks like the race is for third place.

Looking at the weather forecast, a weather change seems to be coming during the next 12 overs, with a possible temperature raise of 20 degrees Fahrenheit. But no heavy precipitation or strong winds.
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby mira » Mon Feb 12, 2018 1:46 am

I really recommend the twitter feed from News-Miner,https://twitter.com/fdnmquest. They are doing a great job. They posted an interview with Hugh:

http://www.newsminer.com/mushing/yukon_quest/brokenhearted-neff-reflects-on-shortened-quest/article_2031d9ca-0f16-11e8-a6c9-8fcb0ce35b91.html

“I figured I would have a demanding run on this trail,” Neff said. “But obviously this year — and I’ve done 18 Quests — this was the most demanding Quest I’ve seen as far as weather conditions. It’s not the cold alone. It’s the cold mixed with the wind.”

and in the end of the article:
Neff said he still plans to run the Iditarod next month with the same dogs, including 10-year-old George Costanza, a two-time Golden Harness Award winner; 5-year-olds Lester and Calypso, and 2-year-olds Lebowski and Bowlowski. He still has a deep love for the Quest and what it stands for.

“For a lot of us, the Quest is much bigger than some race,” he said. “That’s why a lot of the top professional mushers don’t get it. They don’t get how amazing the Quest is because it looks so rough. It is rough, but it’s also such a beautiful experience.”

He said he hopes the experience never changes. If it does, he knows it’ll be time to find a different trail.

“It’s the true Gold Rush era,” Neff said. “Hopefully, this race never has a lot of money. I don’t want it to ever be corporate, because it should always be about local, everyday mushers getting together and having fun on the trail.”
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby Moose » Mon Feb 12, 2018 6:18 am

Tough, tough race. Lots of ups and downs--and I'm not talking about the summits. Thanks for keeping me in the info loop.
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Re: Yukon Quest, discussion

Postby fladogfan » Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:15 pm

All my children have four feet and fur.
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