Gerry Willomitzer's
Blackjack Racing Kennel
April 10, 2008
32nd annual Percy de Wolfe Memorial Mail Race
Anyone who is interested in running this race in the future go to www.thepercy.com . You are also welcome to contact me for information. From now on the race will be held on the 4th weekend of March, so that Iditarod mushers can participate.
Just before entering "Dodge City" we dropped the dogs on a balmy
spring day. The weather promised to make for a nice race.
At 9 AM we lined up in historic downtown to get ready for the start.
The valley of the Yukon near Dawson is spectacular with rock bluffs and
high banks. I like this stretch of river the most, the scenery always
changes.
After 50 miles we reached the abandoned ghost town of Fortymile, where
Sebastian Jones has greeted Quest and Percy mushers for years (decades?)
with a smile. Sebastian's clipboard holds the time sheets from all Quests
and Percy races since the early days of mankind!
While I don't mind running on the river at all (my team actually really
likes it) we did enjoy the nice break the Postmaster overland trail
provided us with. The five mile log trail cuts of the first river bend
downstream from Fortymile.
At "Dozend Islands" the wind exposed sandbars, ice, and gravel
and made for some interesting but not too challenging dog mushing. Notice
the dust storm.
Near the US-Canada border the trail was really firm and fast. Here it is
important not to let the dogs go too fast as they do get tired at the
end of the 10 hour run and can pull muscles.
On the way back I passed through Fortymile
again at about 8:30 AM.
After the race we spent a couple of days in Dawson visiting with old time
friends (from 1995 until 97 I spent my summers here). There were dog
trucks all over town.
A couple of Yukon archives photos showing Percy deWolfe in the early 20th
century. He used a horse-drawn sled in the spring when the snow and ice
became too slushy to run dog teams on.
Read more about Percy deWolfe here: http://www.thepercy.com/history.html