The Yukon River from Circle City
“It is clear and cold, and there is no wind. When daylight comes we can see a long ways off. And it is very quiet. We can hear no sound but the beat of our hearts, and in the silence that is a very loud sound.” -Jack London, The Sundog Trail (Harper’s Monthly, December, 1905)
As the fans on the Yukon Quest Facebook page await the arrival of the first teams into Eagle, LJ Yanney asks about the jumble ice on the Yukon River:
“Could somebody talk a little bit about the jumble ice? Earlier there was a comment that one of the mushers had stuck around to take on the jumble in daylight. What are the hazards and how do various teams handle them?”
Within ten minutes another fan, John P Larson Johnson, advises:
“…just picture icebergs all cramming together and breaking and sharp edges everywhere! with little snow is very hazardous conditions.”
And a short time later comes the reply from the Yukon Quest writer:
“It is tricky to navigate. The trailbreakers provide a good trail through the best of it for the dogs, but a heavily loaded sled is hard to maneuver over all the twists and turns and uneven ground, especially because you typically have little braking ability. Various strategies include taking tug lines off dogs to decrease power and to have a … See Moresingle wheel dog so they have flexibility to move out of the way of the uneven corners. Mushers also need to hop off and run the sled around corners to avoid getting toppled.”
Facebook is proving to be one of the most useful and versatile tools for following this year’s race, and the race updates go on there night and day:
Jen just left with 14 dogs in harness and a smile on her face. Her dogs were pretty quiet at first, but as soon as she took her leader hook off the front, they started getting excited and barking to go. She said she was having her two small female leaders Wasabi and Bijou take her through the jumble ice.
For info to go from Slaven’s to us, it must be relayed through hand held National Park Service Radios to one, lone,very dedicated volunteer at the NPS office in Eagle. She then relays the info to YQ race headquarters. The system has room for technical issues, but it is the best we can do at this remote location on NPS property.
…it looks like Zach and Hugh were camped at Trout Creek cabin, a common stopover for mushers on the way to Eagle. It is about 40 miles into Eagle from there.
In addition to the ongoing discussions, questions and answers, the Yukon Quest Facebook page regularly posts updates as the mushers come in and go out of the checkpoints. There are many other ways to follow this year’s Yukon Quest, including Twitter, which provides short updates on who’s at which checkpoint and what’s being said along the way; live tracking, for the 23 mushers who are equipped with SPOT GPS tracking units; and race updates on the Yukon Quest web site. A good rundown of the options is given at the Yukon Quest site.
Excellent race updates and trail reports are available at the Yukon Quest web site, as well as the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, KUAC radio and Alaska Dispatch’s Team & Trail.
Tags: Alaska Dispatch, Circle City, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Helen Hegener, Jack London, KUAC, live tracking, Northern Light Media, Slaven's Roadhouse, Team and Trail, The Sundog Trail, Yukon Quest, Yukon Quest on Facebook, Yukon Quest Twitter, Yukon River
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