YQ moving along!

The leaders are well out of Dawson now and Allen was first into Pelly Crossing, the next checkpoint.The Black Team seems to be going great guns! There is still a good bit of race to be run but it is looking pretty good for the Black Team. The SPK crew does a great job of posting updates and inside info on their blog, even when the internet is a bit spotty out in the wilderness s it is in Yukon Territory!  It is a real treat to see videos and still shots of the dogs and read about their quirks and character.

It's a little warm for the dogs with daytime temps around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. That means they tend to get a bit overheated. Allen told an interviewer he would prefer last years -50 if he had to choose. That is a bit hard on the mushers but the dogs generally handle it pretty well.

So far there have been only two racers scratch out, I think both are rookies. Your first 1000 miler can be a bit of a rude awakening! Even completing several mid-length races, 250-500 miles, doesn't quite prepare one for the challenge of an eight or ten day trek. The Quest is especially hard because you are out on your own many miles between checkpoints, which are not exactly urban centers! The Iditarod at least has more of them so you seldom go 100 miles between them. On the YQ, that is the rule:100-200 mile runs where the musher has to pack feed, straw for the dogs' beds etc and plan to camp once or twice on the trail. At times racers are traveling fairly close but sometimes they are spread out with substantial distances between them.

By the way, Paige Drobney and Cody Strathe are traveling together and doing well. I expect they will finish in the middle of the 21 racers still running A couple racing that way is something of a novelty. If they finish both the YQ and the Iditarod, that will be a first.

So Happy Valentine's Day to all of you and another good rce day to the YQ mushers!