Gerry Willomitzer's
Blackjack Racing Kennel
April 3, 2005
Yukon Quest Pt. 3 - Dawson to Circle
READER please note: This is a first hand acount of my 2005 Yukon Quest. I've done it while my memories were still fresh. I could have gone more into detail, but barely had enough time to put down what you see. There was no editing or proof reading. This text is as raw as the race itself.
My dogs are very familiar with this section of trail because we've run the Percy De Wolfe Jr. and Percy race a few times (see the race history section on this site). The trail follows the Yukon exclusively and in recent years has avoided any bush trails. Halfway down to Fortymile it started snowing and the trail became obscured. Jon was less than an hour ahead of me, and Hugh a bit ahead of him.They seemed to be not too far ahead because I could see tracks, and it started snowing quite a bit. I was glad not to have left Dawson any later, the later you leave the longer you have to run through fresh snow. In fact, I posted the fastest time from Dawson to Fortymile.
In Fortymile the usual routine awaited. Shelley Brown and
Sebastian Jones were there, to give a warm welcome to the mushers. Sebastian had flattened
a few campspots for teams. He had melted ice to water in a black old fuel drum that hangs
on a tripod over a smoky fire. This fire also doubles as garbage disposal for mushers.
Inside the one-room cabin is the opportunity to dry clothes, sit around the table and
enjoy some of Shelley home-cooking and some "bush talk". The cabin was built as
general store for the mining community of Fortymile in the 1890s, and I think it is the
oldest inhabitated building in the Yukon. Fortymile had several saloons, and opera house,
and at one point 4.000 residents. But in 1896 gold was discovered near Dawson and
Fortymile became a ghost town.
Hugh and Jon were already parked when I arrived. It was fairly warm, maybe minus 10
degrees, and still snowing thick flakes. William arrived a good hour behind me. As the run
from Dawson was on soft trail I was not too eager to push on early. I rather wanted the
dogs to rest well. Inside the cabin seats were coming in high demand after Lance and Dave
arrived. I crawled in my sleeping bag and slept for almost 3 hours solid on the floor.
Eventually Jon started getting nervous about leaving because the longer we waited the more
time William, Lance and Dave would make on us. Not that it was too significant, but we did
have an advantage and were trading it here for rest. It is always hard to say what is
better: Take the time advantage and continue with less rest, or rest longer and run with
fresher dogs. Eventually Jon and I got ready and he left 3 minutes ahead of me. Lance and
Hugh were getting ready as well. I was in second position, and finally started getting
used to it: the reality was we were all in the same boat, except for the guy upfront who
was breaking trail. He had to work a bit harder. But even if two hours separated the teams
it would not mean anything at this point. The condition of the individual teams was much
more significant.
Travelling up the Fortymile River we went through a few inches of fresh snow. But it had stopped snowing and the sun came out. I had Jon in sight, and Lance got a look at me every once in a while from behind. Jon, Lance, Hugh, and Dave ran to the 40 Mile bridge to camp there (taking one break between 40 Mile and Eagle) , while William and I split the run in three (=two breaks). I stopped in the Fortymile Canyon in the same river bend as last year. By the time William arrived I had taken care of my team and a fire going. He was cursing because he had a miserable run and a couple of injured dogs to deal with. I gave him one of my shoulder jackets and he began massaging his dogs, while my attempts to fall asleep were at times interrupted by Northern-German swear words. But at this stage of the race I was able to fall asleep even to a "fishhead" (William comes from Celle, Germany, which for me as a Bavarian is near the coast) swearing. Sebastian (another Northern German fishhead) came by eventually, and I pulled the hook about 1/2 hour later. It took him two hours to the Taylor Highway bridge across the Fortymile from here, while I did this stretch in 1 1/2 hours (I saw him cross the bridge as I approached). Now that is significant.
Jon, Dave and Hugh were parked at the cabin right at the bridge while Dave and Sebastian pulled over a quarter mile up the road at another cabin. I passed them all and was in lead again. Last year we were crawling down this strech of road in the heat, now it was one in the morning and the dogs did quite well. The trail was softer than I wanted it to be though, I guess it always is. The highway winds in and out, just like the river had done, and climbs steadily towards American Summit. If I would stop at 3 AM I could get going at by 7, and get over the mountain by 9 before sunrise. Perfect timing.
I stopped just short of Liberty where the real climb up the mountain starts. William arrived 1 1/2 hours behind me, still not in the greatest mood. I liked camping out more than last year, I guess because of the company I had, but also because it's simpler than stopping in a checkpoint. Everything you need is right in the sled, no unnecessary walking around. Everything happens right around the team and sled. No race officials, media, handlers. No distractions. The dogs seem to rest a bit better as well. Jon and Lance passed me around 6 AM (When Jon went by I was a bit off to the side taking a crap, I don't think he saw me).
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| Not only close at the finish line: Lance Mackey and William Kleedehn napping in Fortymile | Crossing the international border on the Fortymile River | Crossing American Summit before sunrise |
I left my campspot and William at 6:50 AM in the dark. After 2 miles we came by the old community of Liberty where the climb up American Summit starts. While the climb takes about two hours it is not too steep as it is right on the highway. In the summer they haul elderly people over this "hill" in motorcoaches. The odd tourists takes his car on the road, like I had done a dozen years ago. Actually I camped right near the summit one night. I had never heard about the Yukon Quest at that time. Right now is was foggy, a rare situation during the Quest. A slight breeze was blowing and I first took my parka shell off, then the foam liner. My hat got wet from my sweat, as I was trying to keep up with the dogs, running, then standing on one runner and "pumping", then running again.
On top of the summit I stopped for a quick photo, put my parka back on and we started "sailing" a few miles above treeline. Woody's place, a liquor store located just outside of the Eagle town limits, was surrounded by roof-high snow drifts. Eagle is a "dry" town, and Woody's is strategically located just outside the dry zone, which puts him right on top of the windblown mountain. Oh well...
On the downhill side the road was hard-packed and it was tempting to go down too fast. Especially when the dogs are tired speed can be a "joint killer". So I took it easy, just like Jon, Lance and Hugh must have done. The marks their brakes had left in the hard surface were obvious signs. A glacier had crawled across the road, and again the dogs chose the downhill side. I almost fell down the embankment, but we got across without hesitation. Sometimes it pays off to have legs as long as a moose.
In Eagle all village dogs were greeting our arrival and the whole valley echoed of barking canines. We came right down the "main drag" Amundsen Avenue, named after arctic explorer Roald Amundsen, the first man on the south pole. He was also the first to discover the northwest passage, and in 1906 skied 1300 miles from Barrow Alaska to Eagle, to send a telegram to the King of Norway, simply stating that he "made it". Compared to his 3-year-journey we were on a Sunday afternoon stroll.
The Eagle checkpoint is located at and in the old school house, a one room building with a unique indoor-outhouse, which for some reason seems always colder than any outdoor outhouse I've ever used. In a back room is an assortment of the softest beds ever made that can cause back problems even in a snake. For mushers this is luxury.
As I only ran 3:50 hours from the last camp to here I decided to not waste any time and leave after 4 hours. I dropped Joseph who had lost a bit of weight and wasn't pulling too hard. He seemed to be in good spirits otherwise, and now was in for a plane ride from here to Circle where Thomas Tetz (handling for William) would take care of him. I did not meet Leslie and my truck again until Central as it had blown the starter and burnt a bunch of related switches and wires in Dawson, and was delayed that way. The last three trucks I owned all caught on fire at one point, but I managed to save them all.
I left at 2PM, and I could test who was willing to cut rest and follow. The "other 4" ran about 6 to 6 1/2 hours into Eagle, but arrived just a 1/2 hour ahead of me, so they had to cut a bit cut rest or stay put. Lance left Eagle at 2:45, Hugh and Jon shortly after that. William did not leave until 5 PM refusing to cut rest.
Again I was in lead, and the run turned into misery. I must have packed my sled wrong, because I kept falling off the trail and crashing into trees on the bush trail. It was quite ridiculous. At one point the trail went one way, while the markers led over to the bush the other direction. I was in a foul mood and the dogs noticed it. We had no speed and the other guys made up some time to Trout Creek. There Mike Seger greeted me in my Bavarian dialect which instantly lifted my spirit. We talked in Bavarian while I took care of the dogs, and after 1/2 hour or so Lance arrived. An hour later the "whole gang" enjoyed moose stew prepared by Mike's girlfriend and then everybody stretched out on the hard wood floor upstairs. There is no better sleep on the entire Quest than in Trout Creek.
While were all sitting in the Trout Creek cabin I thought "there will be one or two guys in this group who will eventually have a problem. Just stick with the group, because you have a fairly speedy team". Sure enough it was myself only a few hours later with a big problem, and then Jon Little on Eagle Summit. That's what determined the top 4.
I left Trout Creek about 1 hour behind Lance and Hugh, together with Jon. Around 6 AM we passed the mouth of the Nation River, and then driffted off to the wrong side of the river. The snow was hard-packed, there were very few markers left standing, and the trail was hard to see. Jon and I followed Lances and Hughs tracks, and after about 1/2 hour realised we/they had lost the trail. The jumble ice just got rougher and rougher. Jon and I stopped, looked at my maps, decided the trail must be on the other side on the river (how convenient!), decided against doubling back, because we could see Lance's and Hugh's headlamps crossing the river just a little ways downstream. We kept following, and after about another 1/2 hour of jumble ice you could not walk through, or drive a skidoo through at times, or drive anything else thorugh, we had our 12 dog teams back on the other side on the trail. So far so good, we were 1/2 hour behind the leaders, right where we wanted to be.
During the 2004 summer I occasionally pulled out my maps to look at the Quest trail. I always liked the areas around Biederman's Bluff, and Kathul Mountain: big river bends framed by steep Mountain sides. Almost mystical and haunted when I came by in 2004 in a dark moonless night. That time I knew the mountains were there only because of the map I carried, and I could only make them out when I turned my headlamp off and got my eyes used to the complete darkness.
In 2005 we got to Kathul Mountain just as the sun was climbing above the mountains behind us. Right at Kathul Mountain the trail climbed up on the bench and I stopped to take a picture of the sunrise and the river. Jon was 100 yards ahead. The trail led across a 1 foot by 4 foot crevasse back down onto the river, I rode over the hole back down and my left runner was loose. It broke right behind the L-Barckett that holds the brake. (I was driving an easy rider sled, so there is no back stanchion).
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| The big river bend at Kathul Mountain. One minute after I took this photo my runner broke. | no comment | Kandik cabin, with my and Jon's team resting |
I did not stop, kept going because the trail was excellent at this point, and we were going to stop at Kandik 1 1/2 hours ahead. My thoughts drifted off from figuring out how Lance and Hugh would run compared to my schedule, and how that would get all of us to Circle and when, to how I would deal with this problem now. In Kandike Jon and I pulled up, took care of the dogs, and had a meal in the cabin with host Don Woodriff. Jon gave me a piece of aluminum to spice the runner, Don gave me 4 bolts, but no drill was available. Jon proceeded to bed. I went outside and figured it would be best to join the runner right underneath the brake brackett. As it was broken at the end of the brackett I had to cut about 1.5 inches of runner off, and the only thing available was my leatherman. So for about an hour I had my leatherman screeching over the hardened aluminum runner, while Jon countered the noise I made with his snoring inside the cabin. Man, did I ever wish I could get some sleep too. I bolted the broken piece of runner on the brackett, and it looked pretty good. We left Kandik around 3ish, and the repair held up for about 100 yards. Ah well, I was hoping to beef it up in Slavens anyway, hoping they had a cordless drill there. The runner was just held in place by the plastic underneath. Jon was ahead, and I had to stop about ten times because the trail had gotten softer and the runner kept sliding off the plastic. Each time I put down the snowhook, walked back (something you usually never do, but Jon was just ahead, so he could have stopped my team in case it would have pulled the hook without me) picked up the runner, and slid it back on the plastic.
In Slavens there was no drill, so I haywired the runner to the plastic, to stop it from sliding off. This took about 15 minutes, so I was that much behind Jon. Mackey and Neff came out, bootied and followed us. William and Dave watched my repair attempt from upstairs of the roadhouse, and knew I was "wounded".
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Jeckell catches a ride in the sled between Smith's and Dill's cabin. |
I kept on trucking in 2nd position, and stopped two hours later at Smith's cabin, to look for tools. I hooked the team down and went inside, but there was no handdrill or anything. I figured it would be another 2 hours to Dill's cabin on the fast trail we had at Smiths, but the trail turned soft, one of my two year olds figured we should have stayed at Smiths and stopped pulling, and before I knew it I was in for an 8 1/2 hour run, marching through soft snow with a dog in the sled. Jon h
ad tried to reach Dill's as well, but stopped and camped in the wind and snowfall on the river. My quest for a hand-drill made me go all the way to Dill's, were I did not find a drill, but got 4 hours of sleep and gave my dogs 8. Dill's is a really nice place and photos from the 70s and 80s show a few people here trapping and hunting. It was snowing while I was there. I left at 6:45 AM and reached Circle at 9:20.I was still on schedule, location-wise, but a few hours behind now. My plan called for going through Circle to Cochrans cabin, but I stopped in Circle because I finally got a drill there. Race manager Wendel Carey got me the drill after I consulted with race officials what I could do without receiving a penalty. I did not want the new sled Catherine P offered me because an 8 hour penality would have been involved and I did not want to fall behind my rivals from the Yukon: Sebastian, Frank, Peter, and Ed. I drained two batteries of the drill and managed to improve my haywire system, but did not get the 4 holes into the runner which would have been needed to properly splice it. Did I mention the aluminum was hardened aircraft grade? I dropped Jeckell, while Cassius was barking and ready to go. I had spent 1 hour in Circle, time that did not really benefit the dogs or the runner.
To be continued in the next newsletter...