Rough trail conditions and stormy weather have prompted officials to alter the Yukon Quest Alaska 750 race trail to bypass the village of Tanana. The truncated route connects Rampart directly to Manley.
Meanwhile, the Quest field is down to 4 mushers following the scratch of defending Quest champ Jeff Deeter, who dropped out yesterday at the Yukon River Bridge checkpoint.
The Fairbanks musher says a shortage of trail markers on the river contributed to the decision, but that his team has also struggled with a stomach bug. Deeter who was down to 9 dogs, says some of them are part of his team for next month’s Iditarod.
“I feel like we can call it now and have had a positive experience, but if we go another 300 miles to the finish, the team will be kind of at their bottom. They will finish, but I don’t think they’ll go on to Iditarod, so that doesn’t make sense for this season.”
Deeter added that forecast wind and snow also played a role in the decision.
The Quest’s route and distance in Alaska have varied since the international thousand miler was last held in 2020, and organizers have been vocal this past year about stabilizing the race and sticking to this year’s 750-mile format.
Deeter says, despite some of the challenges navigating the Yukon River, he wants to run the trail again.
“Marking has been the thing that, of course, has come up – and will continue to come up. There’s just not been markers. But that's a pretty – in terms of logistical challenges – that’s one of the easiest things to solve in the future.”
Deeter notes that the communities that hosted new checkpoints along the river were very welcoming to mushers.
Deeter’s scratch bumps fellow Fairbanks musher Jonah Bacon up to second place, KUAC’s Patrick Gilchrist caught up with Bacon yesterday during his 24 hour layover at the Yukon River Bridge checkpoint.
Bacon and a dozen dogs made it to the bridge at Milepost 56 of the Dalton Highway early Friday morning. A white blister still extends from the musher’s frostbitten big toe, a relic of the intense cold earlier in the race. But he says it’s healing up OK.
“It’s gotten better every day since. It’s no longer painful or sore or anything.”
Bacon’s arrival at 6 a.m. started the clock on his full-day mandatory layover. Inside the lodge, he anticipated the checkpoint’s comforts, which were only a hallway away. Not much compared to the miles he and his team have traveled.
“Gonna eat like a ton, couple thousand calories, couple burritos, some soup, some sandwiches, some cake. Then I’m gonna take a shower, and then put on new clothes, and go to bed.”
And he did just that. Later on, in the afternoon, he sits down in the common area to watch the Olympics – a replay of moguls. Peacock, the streaming platform, should show the Yukon Quest, Bacon says.
“Yeah, so much better than the Olympics. Dog mushing should be in the Olympics.”
Outside in the dog yard, his team hadn’t been catching up on the latest from Italy, but they did get some special accommodations according to Bacon team handler Eric Straley.
“It’s kind of old-school Yukon Quest.”
The race rules allow mushers or their handlers to set up an open-ended tent for the dogs at the 24-hour rest stop, and Bacon’s team curls up on straw around the interior perimeter of the gazebo-shaped structure. Straley says the tent is reminiscent of lengthy layovers in Dawson City during the bygone 1,000-mile race between Alaska and Canada.
“I think they would be just as happy to sit outside, but they like it. We’ve got more straw here than we normally do, and we’re allotted a few more bales, so we put it down thick, and they snuggle in, and they pass out.”
The only musher ahead of Bacon is Quest front runner Josi Shelley who’s maintaining a big lead.
Behind Bacon are father and son Jason and Patrick Mackey, who are still pulling up the rear of the race about a day off Bacon’s pace. (Patrick Gilchrist)
