Gerry Willomitzer's
Blackjack Racing Kennel
May, 2007
Yukon Quest race report
Hi all,
instead of a lengthy report on the Quest enjoy the photos and captions below. This is a website made directly by the musher, no other writers or webmasters are involved (only a "webmusher"), so it is down to the basics, but that's what gives you the idea. There's nothing fancy about running dogs.
Hans Gatt and William Kleedehn all smiles and breaking camp a couple hours before Carmacks on day 2 of the 2007 Yukon Quest. We would not see temperatures that warm anymore for the remaining 850 miles.
On the trail just before Carmacks, going along the Yukon River on a high bank. A month later we were on the same river, just about 1500 miles downstream, heading towards Nome in the Iditarod. There the river must be about a mile wide, here it is a couple hundred meters at the most. The dimensions of the North are mind-boggling, and especially by dogteam one gets a true feeling of the vastness of this land.
William Kleedehn enjoys delicious moose ribs prepared by long-time Quest volunteer Sebastian Jones in the old General Store of the abandoned goldrush town of Fortymile, situated at the confluence of Yukon and Fortymile River. This cabin is, to my knowledge the oldest inhabitated structure in the Yukon, and must have been built before 1896 (when Fortymile was abandoned). Outside the temperatures dropped below minus 40 degrees C. We brought plenty of straw from Dawson, so the dogs were resting well.
This and the next two photos were taken at a stop at the upper end of Fortymile canyon, about 50 miles from Eagle, at the bridge of the Taylor highway over the Fortymile. Think about this if you ever drive the highway to Eagle on a hot, smoky summer day. The canyon is famous for being a cold spot, and 40 below seemed normal (and must have been the high of the day). Too bad I forgot the insoles of my mukluks in Fortymile. Wayne Hall of Eagle deserves a huge pad on the back for setting up this wall tent for the Quest mushers. Thanks Wayne! Look Wayne up at google and go for a dog ride with him! In this photo Hans Gatt is feeding his dogs.
Trying to nap in the wall tent at the Fortymile bridge. Hans has some ice on his back (foreground). I left my pyjamas at home, knowing I would not take off my "Michelin Man jacket" for a while. We had the stove roaring, nobody knows how "warm" it got in the tent, but anything over 40 below seemed great.
William Kleedehn's secret to stay warm: "Sausage tea"! Anything goes in those temperatures as long as it is hot!
Most of the times it was too cold to take pictures, hence the huge jump to the finish: Race Marshall Mike McGowan is relieved to welcome Rookie of the Year Aaron Burmeister at the finish line in downtown Fairbanks. Aaron was one of six mushers to run both the 2007 Yukon Quest and Iditarod. The others were: Sebastian Schnuelle, Hans Gatt, Hugh Neff, "over-achiever" Lance Mackey and myself. We all finished both races, with many of the same dogs, a strong testimony to what sleddogs can do, even under the most extreme conditions. The admiration mushers have for their dogs can hardly be expressed with words. I won't even try...