27 mushers will fill out the rosters of the three races, with eight starting the longest race.
“Huh, Number one.”
Race officials drew Jason Mackey’s name to start the 550 mile course that will start in Fairbanks, this Saturday at 11:00 a.m., head toward Two Rivers, then Circle on the Yukon River, then to Eagle and finishing with a 170-mile run to Tok.
Dozens of race fans and mushing enthusiasts turned out to the Pioneer Park Civic Center Thursday, to meet this year’s Yukon Quest Alaska competitors, snag a few signatures on their race posters, and witness the bib draw.
Behind Mackey will be Lauro Eklund, Keaton Loebrich, Patrick Mackey, Jeff Deeter, Jonah Bacon, Josi Shelley and Joey Sabin, who is trying the 550-mile course for the first time.
“I've done a couple of 300 miles and I'm trying to step it up a little bit. So, I'm just going to go out there and have fun and try to make it to Tok.”
Sabin says he has a new sled this year.
“Oh, I got a nice brand new sit down sled, so it'll be nice and cozy. Um, but yeah, no, it's uh, yeah, pretty nice. Well, a new to me sled.”
It came to him from Josi Shelley, who used it in the Iditarod last year.
This is Deeter’s first time running the Quest. He says he’s added a trick he learned from a mushing legend to deal with the slopes of Rosebud and Eagle summits.
“I did um make sure that my chains for my sled were rigged up. So I actually have a emergency brake basically I can drop chains while I'm on the move, and it's a trick I learned from Aly Zirkle years ago who's run the Quest and won the Quest. She was telling me about Eagle Summit, how nice it is to control the speed of the team.
Keaton Loebrich is also experimenting with different equipment on his sled.
“Last year, we had, we had a tail drag, we had a trash can on the back for straw. Uh, And had like 700 miles of training, testing that out last year before the race. And no issues whatsoever. And then ran the race last year, coming into Two Rivers, the first 40 miles that broke. So, reevaluated that.”
Behind the 550 field, comes the five mushers racing the middle-distance, 200-mile course. They will pull out of the chute Saturday morning right after the 550-milers. First will be Emma Lewis, then Joe Weber, Ashley Franklin, Jody Potts-Joseph and JJ Levy.
There’s a lot to look for in this year’s race. With the 550 route drawing plenty of attention, as is the warm weather that’s stifled or complicated other races. But one thing people definitely won’t miss is the bright pink donned by Quest 200 musher Ashley Franklin.
“The new motto for the new year is to have fun. So I have some little ideas, like having a neon pink parka. This is mine. Yes. Pink is my favorite color, and I just feel like, And mushing, you know, it's like grimy, and like, you know, miserable, and ugh. And I'm like, no! We can like, look cute and have fun and be cool.”
The mushers will begin their Quest journeys in three-minute increments on Saturday, taking off one after the other. The 550 mushers start off the festivities, followed by the 200 racers. The 80-mile fun runners wont’ hit the trail until 3:00 p.m.
