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January 25, 2015 by

Once we completed and tied up all the “drop bags” we took them all into Fairbanks where the hardworking Yukon Quest volunteers helped Spencer unload them, laid them out checkpoint by checkpoint then tied colour coded tags on them to help quickly identify them.

At the same time the team over in Whitehorse were doing exactly the same thing!


Loading; the Quest volunteers sort them into checkpoint piles

They then start the job of transporting the bags to each checkpoint. The logistics involved with this is huge, they must get the right bags to the right checkpoint ready for the mushers to arrive. With 26 mushers in the YQ1000 and 25 in the YQ300, each with anywhere from six bags (for the YQ300) to perhaps 45-50 you can do the math!

Thank you to all the volunteers in Fairbanks and Whitehorse! Thanks also to Tami, Mykena and Madison for helping tie and load them all at the kennel.

Here’s a link to the Fairbanks Newsminer story about the Drop Bags.

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8 Responses

  • This is incredibly hard work! Not only the lifting and dropping the bags at Fairbanks, but also transporting them to each and every checkpoint!!! Man, my respect for the volunteers has increased 1,000 fold! And that includes you, Spencer!!! The more I've heard and seen you on the SPK videos, the more I think of you as an 'elite musher' in the making!!!
    Who's your team volunteers in Whitehorse??? Or are they assisting the mushers from the Canadian side??? However it is, you volunteers have my admiration and my prayers!!!
    It takes a village…..
    Aliy and Allen, you two are such a human inspiration for me!!! And of course 'there's always the dogs' !!!

  • It's amazing what happens behind the scenes in these races! Without these folks coordinating it all we wouldn't have a race at all….you folks ROCK….all the way from the mushers on the trail to us armchair mushers thousands of miles away! THANK YOU!!

  • What an incredible job-putting everything together for the YQ. The race volunteers do an awesome job. Better to have more than enough than not enough. Now getting the Iditarod drop bags ready. Go SPK.

  • Whilst awaiting a possible 3-food "blizzard" back here in CT, with the official advice "shelter in place" it occurs to me that AK might want to share some snow…

    Glad to send it out special delivery to SP Kennel!!!

    Best,

    Margaret

  • So far only 8 inches and no "blizzard" – NYC area "spared" the worst.

    But I'm still game to send you the 8 inches that fell during the night!

    –Margaret

  • There is soooo much work involved in running one of these races that it kind of boggles the mind. I wish I was there right now to help as a volunteer–even if it was 68 at my house in NM today!!I'd brave the cold to be a part of it. Hoping and praying for next year. God bless the volunteers!! And great runs for SPK in the Quest. I'm rooting for y'all.

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