Eagle, AK - The top three Yukon Quest teams arrived in Eagle in the wee hours of Monday morning, well ahead of schedule. It was clear as they relayed their tales that teams are starting to strategize as they near the half-way mark in this year’s race.
Brent Sass was pretty excited about his run between Slaven’s Roadhouse Dog Drop and Eagle.
“It was just like they got better and better! My biceps hurt from holding the bar up 80 miles into a run!
The Eureka musher relayed his story to a group gathered in Eagle’s old school. Sass says he knew he would have to make a move to increase his lead over Hugh Neff and Allen Moore. “Because I don’t have the speed that those guys have, so this was the right move for my dog team. For me, this was the right move,” he nodded.
But Sass planned to run the 105 miles in more or less a straight shot, but he didn’t want to give away his plan. He let Neff and Moore go ahead and rode his brake for nearly 50 miles to a hospitality stop known as Trout Creek. That’s when he switched off his head lamp. When he passed the cabin, he got off his sled and led his team through the fork in the trail. It’s another 40 miles to the Eagle checkpoint. “And then I went quite a ways and then I dropped my straw so they’ll get to go by that too. So they’ll know for sure that I went all the way.”
Allen Moore left Slaven’s behind Brent Sass, but caught him on the way to Trout Creek, so Moore says he knew Sass would have to make a move. “When something doesn’t go right, like he knew that I was faster than him, well he has to do something different or it’s going to keep going the same,” says Moore.
As teams head for the Canadian border, Hugh Neff gives a warning. “Brent’s got what? Three hours on us? I know that’s nothing," says Neff. "It’s great for him and it’s impressive what he’s doing with these long runs, but Dawson’s where the action’s going to heat up.”
The first musher into Dawson claims four ounces of placer gold, but the top three mushers say that’s not what they’re racing for.