YQ: Lead Up and Coverage

It’s less than a week before teams take off from Whitehorse so the kennel is in full swing with final preparations.

Last Saturday the crew took all the drop bags for both races to Summit Logistics where the logistics team will transport them to the checkpoints ready for the teams to arrive. Thanks to the volunteers who helped with the bags, you made it quick and easy for us!

On Friday Dr Rouge from North Pole Vets came out to the kennel to perform the vet checks on 16 dogs.

As a veteran racer Allen has the choice of getting the exams done privately or at the YQ organised event. As Dr Rouge knows our dogs and lives locally she came out to us. The vet check is a thorough exam to ensure dogs that start the race are in tip-top condition and it was at that point Allen had to narrow his selection down to 16 dogs – a difficult choice.

Each dogs’ vaccination records are confirmed and a physical exam is carried out according to strict guidelines. All the paperwork was then submitted to the race vet team for their records and to transfer to the vet books the mushers carry with them.

Today the dogs took their final long run then they will taper off a little through the week so they are ready to rock and roll come Saturday.

The humans are busy packing the trucks with Dawson camp supplies and checkpoint gear and making logistics plans for the unusual first part of the race. There are lots of lists hanging around on the kitchen table… team lists, race plan for YQ1000, race plan for YQ300, accommodation, Dawson packing list, truck list, personal gear lists…

Coverage Guide

We will be covering the Quest a little differently this year. While we will still bring you unashamed SP Kennel-centric coverage it will be much like the Copper Basin where I (Moira) will not be so close to the action for the Black Team for the first part of the race as I am handling for the Red Team in the YQ300. Karolyn will be on deck sending pics and updates when possible.

A reminder that this race goes through Yukon and Alaskan wilderness. We can’t guarantee internet access at the checkpoints – even through the race logistics and comms teams go to great lengths to set up access. At times you might have more information than us as we travel from checkpoint to checkpoint and if you haven’t heard from us in a while we are either travelling or some poor harassed communications volunteer is frantically trying to get the signal back up.

Obviously, the best place to get SPK concentrated stuff is here on the blog. You might follow our Facebook and Instagram also. We will update as much as we can, as often as we can.

The Yukon Quest website is THE place to go for information about the race including race map, rules and history.

Other quick links that are worth pinning to your browser are:

• Yukon Quest Leaderboard for checkpoint times
• GPS Trackers – essential for everyone! Thanks to the Quest and Trackleaders for making these free (link not up yet but check the home page closer to the time).
• Yukon Quest Facebook Page – race updates including any route changes. You’ll also find the amazing images from the visual content team there.

Other musher/kennel websites and Facebook pages will give you excellent info about their teams. Some will discuss strategy, others have amazing visuals and all will give another perspective on the race, other than mine. Always worth a look!