SPK Dog Log

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

It’s always thrilling to see two dog teams come into a checkpoint at the same time. This afternoon we saw Allen and our athletes appear loping along the in-trail followed hot on his heels by Ed Hopkins and his team. Both dog teams looked great and had been leapfrogging each other on the tracker all morning.

You could tell it was cold on the river as all the dogs had frosty beards and steam rising when they stopped. Izzy looked particularly fetching with a white ice-beard.

We employed a great team effort to get the team parked in Carmacks: they need to do a hard 90 degree HAW to get in beside the gymnasium then a U-turn to be facing the correct direction to exit. Thanks to the volunteers who helped our team manoeuvre into place, it looked so effortless.

Allen set to his checkpoint routine, snacking to dogs on their frozen salmon, beef and turkey skins, removing booties and bedding them down in fresh straw. The vet team moved in right away to give
everyone a thorough inspection and speak with Allen about any issues he might be having and to give advice.

The team looked quite content after their snack and straw, with some settling quickly. A few others (I’m looking at you Champ and Rodney) took only just a little bit longer as they had to look around for a while and figure out what was going on. They are all sleeping now dreaming of the trail to come.

Allen is also sleeping, he has had very little rest since Friday night! He’s upstairs in a quiet “musher only” area and will get a wake-up call from the volunteers in enough time to gather his outer layers that are hanging to dry, get outside and give the dog their meal and pack his sled.

We asked him a little about the trail as he ate his chilli (there was a vegetarian option and a meat option, when asked he replied with a rather emphatic “Meat!”). He said the trail was great, they’d been told it was the best ever so it was living up to that. There was a little jumble ice on the river making it a bit bumpy in the last section but it was a fast, good trail. The dogs were doing a great job, especially the youngsters and he is trying to keep them a little slower to ensure they don’t jar or strain anything on the fast trail.

Once the team leaves at 6.27pm (at the earliest) Mark and I will clean up the straw and his campspot then get on the road up to McCabe Creek dog drop. This is the only ‘remote’ dog drop/ hospitality that handlers can go into so we’ll go in and take a look.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and the Red Team are in Carmacks, as I write this they have just arrived and are having a small meal. They will have a sleep and get another just before they leave. Aliy must do six hours here plus her time differential so she will get a chance to sleep, something that has been scarce since Friday.

She is really pleased with the team and they bounced in looking happy. She has Woody and Chena in lead and said she is moving leaders around to give everyone an opportunity.

Thanks to Carmen, Emily and their volunteer team for the organization and help in Carmacks.

Sorry, can’t upload pics right now as the internet is under huge load. Next internet is at Pelly Crossing so I may get a chance to share them with you then.

The Black Team handler crew are in Carmacks now and we’ve managed to get some sleep on the gymnasium floor. It’s cold here, when we pulled in around 3am it was -25 degrees F – great mushing weather but “brrrrrrr” for handlers.

Our drive last night was accompanied by a bright, bright moon and swirling green auroras. It was gorgeous!

Wendy is also on her way here.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen and the Black Team are making their way to Carmacks checkpoint now. Last night they camped along the trail for around three hours, 60 miles from the start line, and went through Braeburn checkpoint, stopping briefly to pick up supplies and straw. They stopped again around 60 miles from Carmacks for four hours.

The team came into Braeburn loping energetically and all were lunging and yelling for the 5-10 mins it took Allen to load his sled with new supplies. Allen said they were all doing great and he was really happy at their enthusiasm. We didn’t really get much opportunity to speak as he was getting his supplies and I was standing on he brake on his sled. As far as I could tell he hadn’t changed the line-up from the start line with Kodiak and Commando still in lead.

Standing room only in Braeburn Lodge; obligatory cinnamon bun picture

You’ll see mushers stopping their teams to camp between checkpoints during this race as the checkpoints can be up to 200 miles apart. It is one of the reasons this race is term known as the toughest sled dog race in the world, because no matter the weather, camping outside of checkpoints is the norm.

Both Allen and Aliy are very happy to camp and sometimes prefer a quiet campspot to the hustle-bustle of a checkpoint. There are a number of mandatory checkpoint stops for the teams to ensure enough time for vet checks to be carried out.

From the race rules: “In addition to Dawson City [a 36 hour mandatory stop], for each team there will be a mandatory four (4) hour stop at either Braeburn or Carmacks, driver’s choice. The starting time differential is added to the layover time at the chosen checkpoint. There will be a mandatory four (4) hour stop at Eagle and a mandatory eight (8) hour stop at Two Rivers. During each mandatory stop, every team will be evaluated by a YQI veterinarian.”

As Allen went through Braeburn he will need to spend at least four hours, 39 minutes here in Carmacks to tick off both his mandatory rest and the time differential (the time added to racers to even out the staggered start times).

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and her team are also on their way to Carmacks, as I write this they are crossing Coglan Lake and are around about 60 miles from the checkpoint. During the night they camped around 50 miles from the start – half way to Braeburn. She stopped them 3.5 hours in Braeburn before hitting the trail again. Wendy reported that Aliy was really pleased with her run, the dogs are happy and wagging and she is right on her expected schedule.

In the Yukon Quest 300 there is a mandatory stop for six hours in Carmacks checkpoint. It’s possible both teams will be here at the same time.

Edit: thanks to Holly and her fantastic crew of volunteers for a well run checkpoint.

Allen led out with Kodiak and Commando, in swing was Junior and Dutch followed by Izzy and Mismo, Spark and Amber, Nomex and Rodney, Daisy and Champ, with Chipper and Felix in wheel.

“We race the Yukon Quest because it truly tests our skills as survivalists, racers, athletes and most of all, dog people. Sure, it is a competition and we hope to win. But true success will be determined by what happens in those 1,000 miles. There are many, many footsteps and even more paw prints that it will touch the ground before reaching the finish line. There are many stories that go along with the paw prints but many of them will be swallowed up by the trail. A ‘normal’ day on the Yukon Quest is anything but normal.

Then it is 3 – 2 – 1 – GO!”

Aliy led out with Violet and Tinder, Chena and Woody in swing followed by Scooter and Schmoe, Iron and Driver, Outlaw and Hotshot with Ginger and Ernie in wheel.

Wendy was wearing a GoPro for the first 1.5 miles so I will edit that up and get it to you as soon as I can.

Aliy and her 12 team mates are on the trail towards Braeburn. Here are a few pictures from this afternoon.

On the trail!

Aliy with Violet and Tinder, Woody gets his skates on

Wendy and Outlaw discuss today’s events; the all important GPS tracker

Thanks to all the volunteers and the logistics teams for helping get both teams to the start line. We appreciate your help!

The Black Team is on the trail!

As always, the start line logistics were very well organised. It’s no easy thing to get 21 dog teams to the start line! Wendy was riding the tag sled with Allen’s “Quest Guest” Ruth Bathea and they travelled 1.5 miles of the trail before being “cut loose” from Allen to continue down the road. Ruth came all the way from Virginia for the race and is a kennel supporter and fan of Sanka! Thanks Ruth, we hope you enjoyed your ride.

Allen and Ruth; Thanks Moose Creek Lodge

In case you haven’t found it yet – here is the link (click the red link) to the trackers to watch the little bouncing dogs down the trail.

Quest fundraiser booties; start chute

New this year on the Yukon Quest website is an “Armchair Mushers” column by Kristin Knight Pace and Andrew Pace. Both are Yukon Quest veterans but are sitting this one out so instead, they will bring you great insight into what is going through the mushers’ minds and what lies ahead in the trail.

Also, you can send a message to Allen via the Quest website’s “Messages for Mushers“. We’ll make sure Allen gets to read them all.

I have some hastily edited video from the start line I will post as soon as I can upload… watch this space.

Allen will take the following 14 athletes with him on the Yukon Quest 1000 later this morning:

Kodiak, Dutch, Junior, Mismo, Izzy, Felix, Chipper, Champ, Commando, Amber, Nomex, Spark, Rodney and Daisy.

Amber and Nomex, two of the seven YQ1000 rookies

Izzy is the only dog on the team that ran Whitehorse to Fairbanks in 2015. Allen said that could be either a good thing or a bad thing climbing Eagle Summit and Rosebud! He has seven Yukon Quest 1000 rookies and two of them, Rodney and Daisy, have not run 1000 miles before.

Aliy says: The Yukon Quest team is more than a team, it is a family. All fourteen dogs are the pups of the three SPK Kennel All-Star 10 year old siblings: Nacho, Chica and Quito. So even though they are no longer racing – Nacho and Quito are at the kennel and Chica is in Anchorage – their presence on this race will be overwhelming.

Watch a few of our SPK videos featuring the Secrets, the Fire Litter, the Latinos and the Golf Litter as puppies. Or this past Fall 2016, I took some video of these litters as well. (You can find them in the archive section down the left hand side of the blog. Perhaps something to do when you are waiting for the tracker to update?)

For more information about the athletes, check out the race roster page.

THE RED TEAM

Aliy has 12 team mates going 300 miles with her:

Driver, Violet, Chena, Ernie, Ginger, Hotshot, Scooter, Iron, Outlaw, Tinder, Schmoe and Woody.

Ernie and Ginger make the squad

The Red Team has four from the Fire litter, three from the Golf litter, two from the “S” litter, two from the “Five” litter and one of the “Outlaws”.

Ernie, Ginger, Hotshot, Tinder and Woody are YQ300 rookies and technically so is Schmoe but he has raced the 1000 mile version four times so he’s seen these trails before.

For more information about the athletes, check out the race roster page.

It’s always a difficult decision to pick who will and won’t be on the team. Sometimes it is easy: if someone is sore or tired from training or another race we will not pick them to give them the best chance to be ready for the next race. Allen had 16 dogs on his roster right up until last night with numbers 14, 15 and 16 bracketed. Each had great reasons to be picked and each provided some element of uncertainty.

As far as Aliy’s team is concerned, it was even harder. There are a number of dogs back at the kennel that could do 300 miles and are proven over that distance but we already know will be important for one of the Iditarod teams so are being rested for that. This gives other younger dogs the chance to prove themselves in this race. We always pick the “in-form” players for the top team but also keep the long term in mind when choosing, which is why you will see some youngsters in the Red Team instead of more established faces. Aliy and Allen really wanted to see what some of those youngsters were made of.

Thanks Chris and Ruth who are caring for and continuing to train those left at home.

It was all about the Yukon Quest 300 today.

Aliy and her 12 YQ300 team mates will head off wearing bib 6 on Saturday afternoon. They will leave the chute at 3.15pm.

Note: YQ bibs start at 51

This morning we took the athletes to their vet checks where they underwent the same examination as the 1000 mile dogs did this time last week.

Ginger is examined by Dr Greta M. Krafsur; Woody is ready for his exam with Dr Alan Taylor

I asked Dr Taylor what he looks for in the exam in this short video.

Many thanks to the vet team who are all volunteering their time for the race. We appreciate the care and attention you pay to our team.

Congrats to Michelle who is a fan of DAISY.

Daisy has taken on an overachiever role since she was ‘cut’ from Iditarod 2016. It’s almost like she wants to prove that she’s got super talent and isn’t gonna back down until we acknowledge that fact. She has been running in lead often and has great focus and drive. She is very exciting to watch.

Michelle wins this stunning Yukon Quest poster signed by Allen and Aliy, plus a photo print portrait of Daisy along with a few other kennel goodies. We hope you enjoy your packet Michelle!

We will be doing another Yukon Quest Dog Fan Club draw next Friday, February 10th. Everyone who has joined by then and hasn’t already won will be in the draw to win!

Click the button below for more information about how to join:

Click this button to take you directly to the Dog Fan Page.