Yukon Quest '07

It was hard to believe, during the 13-hour drive from Fairbanks to Whitehorse, that Brent Sass and the rest of the field running the 2007 Yukon Quest would be taking a less direct route back to Fairbanks, and pulled by a team of sled dogs. We stopped several times during the drive to drop dogs out of their boxes, feed them, and let them run around. We also stopped in Tok to chat with friend and pilot Zach Knaebel, who would be flying the length of the route.

Somewhere inside Canada, we bumped into Mark Backes, the trail-breaker that Mark Sass had ridden with two years ago. Backes and his riding partner, “Rattles,” were swapping out a flat trailer tire, and on top of the trailer were the two machines that were slated to break the length of the Quest trail, a couple days ahead of the dog teams. Mark Sass enquired about the 4-stroke Yamaha, and Backes replied “It’s running, but that’s about it.” This was sarcasm from a long-time Polaris-rider, but it reminded me of being stranded in my car during the Eagle Summit storm last year: On some level, dogs remain the most reliable form of transportation around. We finally made Whitehorse around midnight, with Mark alert behind the wheel for the entire drive.

At this latitude, all epics have celestial prefaces, accompaniments, and resolutions. With a slight breeze in the air, the night before departing to Whitehorse was no exception.	Dropping the dogs.
Giving the dogs some exercise.	SuperDog!