So you would like to run dogs....

I happened to be in Fairbanks at about 3:00 pm on Thursday and learned that a musher was due in within the hour.  It is always fun to see them cross the finish line so I hung around.  Often it is only the dramatic stories that get told, but here is a rather humorous one.

Here Luc Tweddell, a rookie born in Quebec, is arriving on the Chena River to claim 14th place in the Yukon Quest -- as you can see, he is coming straight in.

For no apparent reason, about 200 yards from the finish line his dogs head off to the left toward downtown Fairbanks.

He is frantically shouting a droite!, a droite! (he is French-Canadian) but his dogs are looking unsure.

 
Pretty soon they are in a total muddle and here he is trying to turn them back towards the finish line.  He is moving very slowly and looks tired -- how would you feel after 1,000 miles on the trail?

Chaos and confusion...

... continue for a time

Finally, his lead dog gets the message and heads in the right direction.

... and here you see one happy musher.

However, some of his dogs look like less than happy campers

What's going on here...

Well, I'm sure glad this is over...

Here they are headed back to their dog truck

There are clearly still some issues

 ... but there they go.  All's well that ends well.

The finish line...

Those of you with no interest in the 2009 Yukon Quest can skip this post

 (the moose at the end is for Dennis).

Lance Mackey (center) was on hand to welcome the first 3 teams to finish.  He did not run the Quest this year but, for those of you who do not follow long-distance mushing, he won it the last 4 years in a row.  He won both the Quest and Iditarod back-to-back the last 2 years -- the only musher to have ever done this.  Both are races of over 1,000 miles with 10 days to 2 weeks between them. 

The real heros of the Quest are the dogs

Anticipating the finish

The guy in the orange vest (center front) is doing the same job I was assigned.  There were two large speakers and our job was to keep the crowd from knocking them over or tripping over the cords, and to moderate the volume if signaled.  Not very exciting, but hey, you have to start somewhere...  Your feet get very cold standing around on the Chena River for hours -- even with toe warmers.

Mackey being interviewed just before the first team came in.  Hans Gatt is standing next to him (with the fur ruff).  Gatt scratched half way through the race to save his dogs for Iditarod.

Lance is being asked here how he feels about being a spectator at this Quest.  

You may be able to guess his answer.  In the end, the first 3 teams to finish beat his record time by 3+ hours -- the trail conditions were very good for the most part this year.

I know, another photo of Lance Mackey....

These gorgeous guys from Hugh Neff's team have just run 1,000+ miles in just under 10 days.  They are incredible athletes.

Two more... they don't even really look tired

Compare the physique of this dog with the sprinters below.  You can see the difference. 

On the off chance anyone is interested in the various upsets on the Quest trail this year I refer you to the website www.yukonquest.com.  There are also several good articles in the Fairbanks News Miner www.newsminer.com.  Every morning I would wake up to surprising developments -- particularly among the front-runners.

Spice and Revlon -- two members of a 10-dog sprint team

On Sunday I was assigned to Spice to keep her from chewing the tug-line at the ADMA race start.  I also learned to harness and unharness dogs.  The more exposure I have to these animals the more I admire and respect them.

I drove by this moose on Willow Run one morning.  I also saw a Bull last week but was not in a position to take a photo.

There are a fair number of activities coming up at the end of the Quest.  Friday night is a "meet the mushers" event and the banquet is Saturday night.  To top it off Hobo Jim is performing at Ivory Jack's (just a few miles from the cabin) on Thursday night.  I know, apart from Amanda few will grasp the significance of this.  

And then it is on to the Iditarod....

Life in Alaska

Random stuff that would never happen in Florida....

The biggest news is that my neighbor, Ann, is driving down to Anchorage for the start of Iditarod -- and I am going with her!  I have been officially accepted as a volunteer and am registered to attend the Dog Handler Certification Course at 12:30 pm on March 6.  I will be a handler both at the ceremonial start and the re-start in Willow.  I am really excited!  

While I am on the subject, I am hoping to see Lance Mackey at the finish of the Yukon Quest in a week or so as well.  Although he isn't running this year, his brother is, and Lance will be at the finish when he comes in.  

A Goldstream Valley land/skyscape

It turns out that the Goldstream Valley is about the best place I could have ended up as it has a very high density of mushers.  I have already connected with 3 (2 sprint and 1 long-distance).  Once the two big long-distance races are over I will plan to spend some time at their kennels learning the ropes.  Goldstream even gets a mention in Racing the White Silence: On the Trail of the Yukon Quest by Adam Killick which I just finished.  A good book for anyone interested in the Yukon Quest (not the Yukon Gold, CLF -- that is a potato).

The Alaska Range from the Institute of Arctic Health Research at UAF

Dog handling for the ADMA races has been a good experience for the upcoming Iditarod.  Sled-holding is not easy, especially with some 18-20 dogs.  I went down a couple of times and the Race Marshall said pointedly "That has never happened to a dog handler before."  Yeah, right!

I know for most of you all of these sled-dog racing pictures look the same -- but every dog and musher is different.  You can just be glad I don't post them ALL.

This photo will take some explanation.  At the races on Sunday this woman came up to me and asked "Is that your dog?"  I looked around, didn't see any dogs, and said I don't have a dog.  She smiled and said "No, I mean your hat."  Well then I really laughed.  The hat is in fact made from dog hair.  There is a musher/weaver who gathers up all of the hair her dogs shed twice a year and makes hats. They look very much as if they were made of musk ox hair.   I bought this one at the Yukon Quest Shop.  It is very warm and soft, but as the snow melts my hair begins to acquire a faint wet-dog smell.  Oh well, I still like it a lot.  I told the woman that no one outside of Fairbanks would have a clue what we were talking about.

Two moose just before sunrise (8:30 am)

A little before 8:30am I got a text message from Ann that read "Moose on Snow Hook right now".  It is about a mile and a half from my cabin to Snow Hook but I got in the car and drove off without even warming it up (it was slightly above 0).  When I got there they had moved off the road but I was able to get these photos -- again they are not very clear mainly because it was still pretty dark and they had moved away from the road.  

Moose by abandoned car

Ann was once chased by a moose and took refuge on top of this abandoned car.  I often join her for a four-mile round trip walk up this road when she takes her dogs, Duke and Chicken Little out.  She does this walk twice a day.  It is great exercise.

A few more interesting observations:  1) Laundry detergent freezes if you leave it in your car; 2) Toe-warmers are essential protection when out in the cold; and 3) there are more dogs (by far) than children up here.  I think Adam Killick estimated 10,000 dogs in and around Fairbanks.  In fact, when Ann came in last evening and saw my new vacuum cleaner her comment was "Well, now that you have a car and a vacuum cleaner it is about time to go to the shelter."  Oh yes, I bought a car -- used 2009 Subaru Forester.  Subarus are like gold up here. 

That's it for now.  I will post again when the Yukon Quest is finished.

Dogs, dogs, dogs...

I can't resist a beautiful sunrise

The following photos include examples of three characteristic sled dog races.  The Yukon Quest is a long distance race.  The photos immediately below are from the start of the Junior Yukon Quest that took place on February 7th.   The race is for teens between the ages of 14 and 17 and is only 135 miles (as opposed to 1,000+ for the real thing).  

Following the Quest are photos from races at Dog Musher's Hall on Sunday February 8th. These are sponsored by the Alaska Dog Mushers Association (ADMA) and include skijoring and sprint races of 7.9 to 15 miles with varying numbers of dogs.  The cultures of the sprint and long distance racers are quite different -- they don't overlap much.  For one thing you need different types of dogs.  The sprinters can go 20 miles/hour or more while long distance dogs average around 10 mph.

  

The start is on the Chena River at Cushman (main street Fairbanks)

Young musher waiting for it all to begin

I fell in love with Norman.  He is named after Norman Vaughn, a famous Alaskan musher.  He and his team mates are freight dogs -- bigger and slower than most sled dogs, but very powerful on hills.

Getting lined up before the start

You can't believe the pandemonium just before they take off.  A photo could never capture it. Notice how the dog in the center looks crazed?  They are all like that and the noise level is unbelievable.

A team heading for the start of the race

They are held back by snow machines

Norman and Marty at the start.  

They are "wheel" dogs (dogs right in front of the sled).

I am now an official volunteer.  

I was able to help bring the teams up to the start.

A skijorer taking off at the start of one of the ADMA races

Dogs

...and more dogs

Two competitors among  the 10-dog teams

This is a big part of what I came for

Coming in for the finish

It is impossible to capture the excitement

Fairbanks is the world capital of dog mushing.  There are lots more races coming up (every weekend at least for sprinters).  On Saturday I also went to observe the vet check for the Yukon Quest which starts February 14th in Whitehorse.  While there I met the mother of one of the women mushers who is running this year.  She is absolutely mystified (and should I say horrified) as to why her daughter got into this.  She told me with strong emotion "She used to go to the mall with me in Colorado and buy designer jeans!  I don't know how this happened."  In any case, she invited me to sit with them at the Yukon Quest mushers banquet and I am looking forward to it.

That's it for now.  Believe it or not I have to work on a malaria lecture for a class tomorrow at UAF.