Yukon Quest Snippets and Links

[Moose]

Michelle has passed Hans and is now a couple of miles ahead of him. It looks like Brent will be the first into Dawson. He's 2.7 miles out. Michelle is 4 miles behind Brent.

Great find, Elsie. You amaze me!

[Eggs]

YQFB is streaming all the arrivals into Dawson.
Archived so far:
Brent: https://www.facebook.com/YukonQuest/vid ... 543624266/
Michelle: https://www.facebook.com/YukonQuest/vid ... 622593298/
Hans: https://www.facebook.com/YukonQuest/vid ... 486456598/
Allen: https://www.facebook.com/YukonQuest/vid ... 647307675/

[Moose]

Eggs! Thanks for the vids! And, man, I love seeing Michelle and Paige in the top five into Dawson!

[fladogfan]

http://www.newsminer.com/mushing/rookies-face-trouble-funny-times-in-yukon-quest-debuts/article_422deda4-2926-11e9-aa11-27fc5c4c2d50.html?utm_medium=social
Nice article on some rookies

Nice to learn what delayed Lisbet at the start and that it wasn't sick dogs.

[elsietee]

Brent's dogs looked strong and alert, and his wheel dogs were lunging to go as they were leaving the chute. Looking back at his tracker, he snuck in a 3 hour rest there on the back side of King Solomon's Dome (where I thought Michelle would stop to camp... except she stopped up on top). He had Jeep in single lead - a dog he got from Joee Redington (Joee passed away last summer, I think. Joee and his wife Pam seem to be Brent's home from home). Jeep was bred for sprint racing, but Joee thought he'd be good at mid-distance races. Looks like Joee was right.

Michelle's dogs looked very peppy, rolling in the snow when they arrived.

Hans' were all business. He had one dog in the bag (sore shoulder). He said his team "climbs very well", so the Dome wasn't a problem (Paige mentioned that the hills were steep - although the Dome itself is a grade road, so designed for motorized vehicles, so not steep at all, just long). He also rested at the bottom of the Dome (Brent said he expected ten teams to pass him when he was camped, but it was only Hans that passed - and he then stopped a quarter mile past Brent, as though "he was waiting for me".)

It's so interesting to see the difference in demeanor between dogs run without necklines (Michelle's, who were flopping about all over the place, being able to stretch and wriggle) and with necklines (Hans', who stayed very regimented and "ready to go" while they checked him in - still "on the clock", so to speak). I understand why you'd prefer one over the other, and obviously it'll depend on the team and their temperament (and, I guess, the temperament of the musher too), but the non-neckline dogs look like they have a bit more leeway to do what they need to do (which isn't always what the musher wants them to do ).

Allen's looked good - very waggy with their favorite handlers there to greet them, but he said they didn't have as much pep as he'd like - he thought that first run from the start to Braeburn knocked their socks off. Said they weren't running as well as last year. "Trail was fantastic - couldn't ask for a better trail."

Paige's team looked great - she has a loud cheerleader in the team (who kept up a continuous "let's go-let's go-let's go-let's go" the entire time they were checking her in), paired up with a lunge-jumper (they were both too busy shouting and lunging to eat their snacks) and they clearly weren't ready to be done with their run. She said she wanted to run the first half the the race so "the dogs would look like that". She said the Dome is the easiest part of the trail - the rest of which was brutal. "I was supposed to be here earlier, but I kept forgetting my alarm clock".

Denis' looked a little on the lean side (but to be fair, they weren't wearing jackets like the other teams, so hard to compare). He was carrying a dog in his sled and he/she snuck out when he was giving the other dogs snacks to take part. His handler was a bit alarmed by this "Denis? This dog isn't attached?". She wandered around the team for a bit, snarfing up scraps before he retrieved her (a tiny, light dog) and popped her back in the sled to leave.

Matt seemed very low key, as expected.

And Ryne's dogs weren't even wearing jackets, so it must be warming up. She said it was a lot warmer up on the Dome - so maybe that's why Michelle stopped there during the night. Ryne described a patch of overflow "yay big" - motioning something about 4 ft x 4 ft. - she said the dogs went around it, but she fell in it.

[elsietee]

http://www.newsminer.com/mushing/rookies-face-trouble-funny-times-in-yukon-quest-debuts/article_422deda4-2926-11e9-aa11-27fc5c4c2d50.html?utm_medium=social
Nice article on some rookies

That is a nice article. It's great to hear about good people.

[fladogfan]

elsie, is there any way to see the flow chart of the back of the pack teams? I can see the first 20 teams.

[flowerpower]

Nice article about Rob and his Sibs: https://www.yukon-news.com/sports/video-rob-cooke-prepares-to-run-an-experienced-team-in-his-sixth-yukon-quest/?fbclid=IwAR1UI9756KGe9QtFPbei8GCJfg0I84tljs-3FF1bCU9a4-kWyByRJ35jobo

[fladogfan]

Flowerpower, that is a very nice article and we even get a video of Rob talking his dogs are beautiful.

[Mushkraut]

Nice article about Rob and his Sibs: https://www.yukon-news.com/sports/video-rob-cooke-prepares-to-run-an-experienced-team-in-his-sixth-yukon-quest/?fbclid=IwAR1UI9756KGe9QtFPbei8GCJfg0I84tljs-3FF1bCU9a4-kWyByRJ35jobo

Please be aware that when you lift a link off Facebook, the link will be contaminated with a personalized Facebook tracking ID which is snooping on everyone also not on FB.
You can spot the tracking part by the fbclid part.

In this case, the actual link is https://www.yukon-news.com/sports/video-rob-cooke-prepares-to-run-an-experienced-team-in-his-sixth-yukon-quest/.