The Yukon Quest Start

    To begin with, I wasn't sure if I'd actually be able to go to the start because Aaron and Scott were so busy getting ready to leave on Monday (the Quest started on Saturday, Feb 4th). I was really glad when I learned I could ride in with Al, a neighbor from down the road, and his fiance Mary, who came up to see the start as well. Al ran the Iditarod back in the 1980's and Mary is a homeschool mom who has a lot of similar interests as my mom (and myself...) - history/philosophy, a Christian, raises dairy goats, into natural health, lives on solar, etc - so we had a good time talking.

    We thought we might have trouble getting in to see the teams, because of a new rule about keeping public out of the holding/staging area, but Mary's neighbor is Jake Berkowitz and we got through...

    I met Jake and his fiance, Robyn and then, saw that Lance Mackey's truck was parked beside them...of course, I resolved to meet this amazing and accomplished musher. It so happens that Mary is a good friend of Lance's mom and she introduced me. I can now say I got to shake Lance Mackey's hand! (For non-mushers, Lance has won the Iditarod four consecutive times, twice in the same year after winning the Yukon Quest - which he has also won four times.)

    I did get some pictures, but not as many as I'd have liked because it was -10 on the river (where the race starts) and I tried to keep my phone warm and take pictures with gloves on...so, I just got pictures of a few of the teams I knew or had an interest in.

    After the official start, Al drove to a spot about 15 miles into the race where we got to see the teams settled down and in action as they went by. I forgot to take pictures here, much to my dismay, but it was cool to see the teams so close!

Looking down at the start line in downtown Fairbanks on the Chena River.

A view from the back of the start line.

A Russian Musher (he used a different harness set up and his dogs looked more like greenland dogs) - the last to leave the start line.

A view of the start line from the trail. Abbie West is in the chute.

 Abbie West, leaving the starting chute. The dogs on her team are from Jay Cadzow and are related to Scott's six puppies!

 Abbie West's team.

 Hugh Neff going to the starting line. I met Hugh two or three years ago at the Race to the Sky Symposium where he was a guest speaker.

 Hugh Neff

 Jake Berkowitz has a really nice, uniform team.

 The black "leggings" on Jake Berkowitz' dogs are "chicken-feet" protectors - the dogs sometimes lose the hair on their pasterns which exposes the skin to frostbite.

 Lance Mackey's leaders.

 Lance Mackey's wheel dogs.

 Lance Mackey at the starting line.

 Sonny Lindner - an older musher who has won the Quest in the past.

Sonny Lindner's nice team - all coated and ready to go!