Yukon Quest '07

A crowd of friends and family assembled at the finish line in Fairbanks to watch Brent and the team complete the epic journey they began 12 days and 1,000 miles earlier in Whitehorse, Canada. To Brent’s surprise, the dogs had no problem passing by their familiar dog yard at the Chena Hot Springs checkpoint. Madonna pushed right on through, and they ran the final 100 miles of trail with only short rests.

Richie Beattie, from Two Rivers, also had to pass his home dog yard along the last section of trail. Richie’s team passed their turn-off to home with little coaxing, but they promptly sat down several miles later, upon reaching the North Pole checkpoint, only 33 miles from the finish line. When Brent arrived in North Pole and found Richie’s team stalled, Brent spent a half-hour trying to get Richie’s leaders to follow his team. It was no use, so Richie rested his dogs, and Brent finished 15th in the race, only 4 minutes behind Kelley Griffin. The assistance to Richie cost Brent 14th place, as he would’ve beaten Griffin with the extra half-hour, but that was of no concern to Brent. Richie eventually roused his dogs and crossed the finish line in 16th place. The front page of the Fairbanks newspaper ran a photo of Brent posing with one of the pints of Ben & Jerry’s “Half-Baked” ice cream that he stashed in every drop.

We apologize that the Wild and Free site has been down the last couple days. With more and more people checking on Brent’s progress, we exceeded the allocated bandwidth, and the site was temporarily disabled. Danny Dominick, a loyal Fairbanks friend, claimed personal responsibility for 3,794 refreshes on the day the site was crippled, and probably he is not alone. Well, the bandwidth has been increased to accommodate the traffic, so refresh to your delight. Greg Petitto is the computer wizard keeping Wild and Free alive, and he has done a tremendous job displaying the provided content in a simple and aesthetic format. Zack, the pilot, kept us airborne during even the coldest days by heating the engine for hours before dawn with an MSR stove. He put that bird down in some incredibly tight spots (Eagle Summit, for example), and timed our aerial passes to position us properly for the photos.

Brent appreciates all the support people have shown. He knew way back at Braeburn, when Silver incurred the shoulder injury, that it would be a long race. Little did he know that the -30°F temperatures that night would be considered a warm spell in the second half of the race. Nor did he know that Melville would suddenly collapse after 700 miles of trail, due to a piece of fabric he had ingested. Fifty below on the Yukon Quest is lonely and inhospitable, but Brent and the team endured, knowing that a lot of people out there wanted to see them cross the finish line. Brent claimed that he “was never cold the entire race.” Thanks for following!

Brent and the team at the finish line on the Chena River, downtown Fairbanks.

Brent and his handler/father, Mark Sass.

posted by Greg  # 10:56 PM