Yukon Quest Food Drop

21 January 2012
6:43 PM

Sunrise at	10:11 AM	in direction	140°	Southeast
Sunset at	3:54 PM	in direction	220°	Southwest

Duration of day: 5 hours, 42 minutes (6 minutes, 15 seconds longer than yesterday)

As the distance of a dog sled race increases, planning for food and other necessities also increases.  We have two 1000-mile races in Alaska, the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod.  People who live outside Alaska and aren't dog mushers have often heard of the Iditarod, but few in the same group have heard of the Yukon Quest.  I volunteered, as I did last year, at the drop location for the race.

Folks debate which race is the harder of the two; I think they are both dang hard.  There are some important differences between the two. 

• The Yukon Quest race course crosses the Canadian border, making it a joint effort of Alaskans and Canadians in the Yukon Territory.  On alternate years it is run from Fairbanks, AK to White Horse, YT, as it is this year.  Next year the running will start in Canada and end in the U.S.
• Athough the two races are roughly the same distance, the Yukon Quest has just nine checkpoints (places where the mushers and teams are officially recorded in/out, undergo vet checks on all of their dogs, replenish supplies, and can get medical attention.  There are residents and shelter cabins that offer hospitality to the mushers along the way, but they may not offer care to the team.
• The Yukon Quest has a 36 hour mandatory layover in Dawson City.  During that time, handlers may attend to the dogs.  When racing the Iditarod, no one but the musher tends to their team but themselves, unless the dog is withdrawn (or dropped) from the race.
• While both races can be compounded by severe weather conditions, the Yukon Quest is run in early February when temperatures are, on average, colder than the March temperatures posted during the Iditarod. 

It is not unusual for as many as 40% of mushers who start the race to scratch without finishing.

Each race has challenges making both demanding and at times, very difficult.   One of the challenges in both races is correctly assessing how much food and other supplies to "drop" at the checkpoints.  Being under-supplied, especially in terms of food, booties, and coats for dogs, is one of the contributing factors to mushers scratching from the race.  They don't have enough fuel for their dogs to run well and healthfully.

Today mushers either dropped food at White Horse or Fairbanks, depending on which was most convenient to them.  The dropped bags will be transported to checkpoints.  Finishing this task normally provides a sense of relief for mushers, as collecting everything and delivering it is very time intensive.  If you want to know more about drops from the musher's point of view, check out the video on SP Kennel's blog for January 19, of this year or "Anatomy of Drop Bags - a photo dissection of what goes into planning for 1000 miles". 

The weather was relatively warm today and the drop process was well organized.  We had two tables with all the supplies needed to process drop bags.  Two races were being served in this way, the YQ1000 and YQ300.  Mushers running the longer race were required to provide paper work indicating how many bags they counted and what was in the contents of each bag.  As the musher drove up, we asked for their paper work.  Then volunteers assisted the musher by moving bags out of their truck or trailer into a preliminary staging area.  Each bag had three pieces of information, the musher's name, the destination checkpoint, and an indication of its count: 1 out of 3, 2 out of 3, and so on.  While some helped stage the bags, others wrapped colored tags around the top, each color associated with a checkpoint. 

Volunteers staging Trent Herbst drop bags destined for Braeburn checkpoint

Those of us assigned to the bookkeeping end of things, then counted the bags for ourselves, writing down what we found.  Sometimes a musher would list more bags on the inventory than what was accounted for on the bag label.  Other times we found a bag sorted into a different pile.  On occasion, they changed plans and had not had time to relabel and change the inventory.  When all was agreed upon between the musher and our staff count, the bags were moved to pallets designated for each checkpoint.  Bags were piled onto a pallet 6 or seven bags high and then wrapped in shipping cellophane.

Partially wrapped pallet with completed pallets behind.

Another volunteer used a forklift to lift the pallets into shipping containers.  I don't know the transporation plans for all of these bags, but I do know all but one of the destinations can be shipped via truck to the checkpoint.  Eagle, AK is inaccessible to motorists in winter.  Traffic into and out of Eagle is solely by plane, snow machine, or dog sled.  Drop backs to Eagle will be flown.

While watching an SP Kennel video of drop bag contents this year, I noticed what appeared to be blue plastic rolled into a circle.  Allen Moore, who is running the Yukon Quest confirmed the plastic was runners.  He said there were many colors for runners.  I asked, "Why blue?".  He said he'd experimented and found this was the most suitable for conditions most likely to be found along those stretches of the Yukon Quest route.  Color coding was used in much the same way that wax colors indicate which wax to use on skis for different snow conditions.

SP Kennel is one of the kennels that keeps smaller dogs in the breeding mix.  They have a variety of dogs for weight and height, but none of them reach 75 pounds.  One of his smaller dogs, a mighty warrior princess named Malibu, weighs no more than 35 pounds.  He noted that these little ones were actually better on climbing with a load than larger dogs.  He told me to compare a Sherpa to a football player.  Load both up and see who climbs the mountain more easily and quickly.  I countered with the fact that football players were not trained to climb, while Sherpas were born into it.  He said in this case, training had nothing to do with it.  Larger people had to also carry their own weight in addition to the weight of a pack. 

He got me on that one.  I was thinking he would mention balance, but I don't know if that is a factor.  I know that in climbing one tends to lean into the mountain.  Is that harder for larger members of a species?  Allen said the small dog's advantage in climbing was offset in other conditions.  He observed that on more flat surfaces, the larger dog had the advantage of a longer stride. 

Folks, you will read more on the topic of dog sled races!  The Kuskokwim 300 is running right now.  Three young men from mushing families are currently in the top 5, which is exciting (Kuskokwim 300). Next weekend is the Don Bowers Memorial 200/300 Sled Dog Race in south Central Alaska and the Tustumena 200 on the Kenai Peninsula.  The following weekend is the Yukon Quest, followed one month later by the Iditarod.   Dog sled racing is the state sport and for those of us who love to follow it, this is a great time of year.