This year I was in Fairbanks to witness the start of the Yukon Quest. The 24 teams of dogs and mushers organized on the banks of the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks. Here comes the first team!
The handlers need to hold the dogs back until their start time. The teams set out at 3 minute intervals.
The teams start off with 14 dogs. Sometimes dogs can be dropped from a team due to injury or illness, but a team must have 8 dogs to finish the race.
They have 1000 miles to cover from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, in the Yukon territory of Canada.
The first musher to make it into Dawson city and finish the race will get 4 ounces of gold! The trail follows some historic routes used during the gold rush.
This year you can follow the race on Twitter or Facebook. The teams are also carrying SPOT personal tracking transmitters. Although they can give the teams position, it is easy to forget to turn them on when a musher has 14 dogs to take care of! There are twice daily up-dates on the radio. I am happy to say that my boyfriend could care less about the Super bowl, but follows the Yukon Quest closely!
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