Competition is heating up at the front of the Yukon Quest Alaska 750 as race leaders head toward the Yukon River Bridge, where mushers are required to take a 24 hour layover. Defending Quest champion Jeff Deeter caught up with Josi Shelley on the approach to the prior checkpoint at Stevens Village earlier this morning.
Meanwhile, Jonah Bacon remains in 3rd place with the father-son duo of Jason and Patrick Mackey rounding out the 5-musher field.
Following recent snow and wind, Quest organizers posted last night that trail breakers had been deployed to reestablish wind-blown sections of the route. KUAC and Alaska Desk reporter Shelby Herbert has more on the race from farther back on the trail in Ft. Yukon.
The Fort Yukon checkpoint has a few extra guests tonight. Three dropped dogs snuggle up in a warm corner, rousing only to beg the vets and I for a treat, or a scratch behind the ear. Sharon Hartshorn, a Yukon Quest veterinarian who splits her time between Soldotna and New Mexico, is looking after them. She says she’s seen quite a few sled dogs dealing with upset stomachs on the trail this year, but that’s not uncommon.
“There's all these dogs, and they're all in the same place. They're on really rich food, and that can upset their stomach and throw off their gut flora. If they were just house pets and they skipped a few meals, it's not that big a deal. But these dogs are putting out so much energy, they're using up so many calories, they can't not eat and drink. So, then, we really monitor them.”
Jason Mackey and his son, Patrick Mackey, pulled into the Fort Yukon checkpoint at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night. They’re bringing up the rear, but Patrick says that’s alright. Their goal is to finish, and season some of their dogs to compete in the Iditarod in a few weeks.
“We're just having fun. I got a bunch of yearling dogs mixed with his veterans, and we're just trying to get as many as we can at the finish line.”
The Mackeys spent 16 hours at that checkpoint — that’s twice the mandatory rest period. Jason says it was sorely needed. He’s still recovering from the descent from the Rosebud summit, where his team almost veered off a cliff. He says it made him consider reaching for his emergency beacon for the first time in recent memory.
“I couldn't see the markers. There was no snow. My brake was broke, my drag was broke, so I was doing it all with the tore-up sled. I mean, it's not mushing, you just hang on and hope for the best.”
Then he did another thing he almost never does while he’s out racing. He called his wife.
“I don't call home. Once I leave the starting line, it's not an option. It's like, dude, we signed up for this — I have something to worry about in front of me. I'm old school that way. But I just wanted to let her know today that, hey, it's all right. We're fine.”
Patrick says, despite the danger tied to mushing over steep peaks, across frozen rivers, and through hundreds of miles of remote wilderness, he’ll always feel safe by his dad’s side.
“He’s like the sweetest dad ever. If it's 50 below, and we've been going a while, he'll stop me like, ‘You alright? You good? You warm?’ You know, I'm 34 years old. He don't have to do that.”
The Mackey's say their dogs haven’t been spared the stomach trouble, and that they’ll take it easy on them. Still, they’re not planning to stop at the next checkpoint in Beaver. To keep pace, they’ll take shorter camping breaks on the trail and stop at the next checkpoint, Stevens Village.
As the Mackeys head that way from the Fort Yukon checkpoint, locals gather on the shore of the Yukon River to watch them mush south, until they look like twin columns of ants on the frozen expanse.
(Shelby Herbert)
