The town of Eagle, on the Alaska side of the border with Canada, was a waypoint on the international Yukon Quest trail for decades. But it hasn’t been part of the route since the pandemic cancelled the race in 2021. Race officials tried to put Eagle back on the map in 2023, but poor weather dashed their efforts.
But this year, Eagle will be a checkpoint again. After finishing one of the most grueling stretches of the trail, mushers will rest at the town’s old schoolhouse before continuing on to the finish line in Tok.
Christy Robbins is the Yukon Quest checkpoint coordinator for Eagle. She’s also the principal at the local school. On Feb. 3, a handful of PE students gathered outside the empty checkpoint shelter while she walked them through how to greet the mushers. They listened attentively, pink clipboards clutched in their gloved hands.
“When the musher goes in, you should already have called in their time to the race headquarters,” Robbins told them. “All the race information is hanging on the wall. You should’ve already done that. And when the musher comes in, point to the menu and say, ‘This is what we have to eat, what would you like?’”
Suddenly, Eagle Community School teacher Meg Helmer comes tearing down the lane on a sled pulled by her three dogs: Tetlin, Selene and Esther. The students have to chase the sled before Helmer can get her dogs to slow down.
“They’re not as disciplined as real sled dogs!” Helmer said, laughing.
The students leash the dogs and ask Helmer a series of questions, documenting her answers on their clipboards. It’s practice for the real thing.
About a hundred people live in Eagle during the winter. Half of them are working to support the race, but these high school students will be the first to welcome the mushers.
When competitors in the 550-mile race reach Eagle, the students will make sure they have all their appropriate gear, show them where to take their mandatory eight-hour breaks, and wake them up when it’s time to hit the trail again. They’ll also cook for them, as well as all the other people following the Quest — veterinarians, race officials, and the press.
Freshman Flora McDougall can barely contain her excitement.
“It's gonna be fun, but they're gonna be in and out,” she said. “Like, come up the river, stop, eight hours, out again — you know? But it's gonna be fun watching the mushers come in. I'm gonna try to just do my best to make sure they have everything they need and stuff.”
Later that night, in the school kitchen, spaghetti foamed in giant pots, and mountains of ground beef simmered in marinara. Students and faculty scurried around, cooking for a big community dinner.
Sophomore Genevieve “Vivi” Muldoon was in the middle of the fray, slathering bread rolls with butter. She said this isn’t her first time working on the Yukon Quest chow line.
“Mama would always make brownies for the Quest, and we would have set out signs,” Muldoon said. “It would say, like: ‘Brownies, one mile!” or, ‘Did someone say ‘brownies?!’” she said. “We would set them on this tote on the river, and in the tote there would be these bags with all of the mushers' names on them.”
The Muldoon family isn’t doing the brownie caches this time — they’ve moved too far away from the trail. Instead, they left a few totes of brownies inside the checkpoint.
Meanwhile, Lance Kozma has been filtering the checkpoint’s source of potable water to make it taste better.
“It's weird, it tastes like a flat LaCroix,” said Kozma. “Sometimes I'll brush my teeth with that water, but I don't drink it straight.”
Kozma said humans aren’t the only ones who can tell the difference.
“The dogs won't drink that water,” he said. “It just tastes too bad for them. So their taste buds agree with most people here.”
Later that evening, locals and strangers sit side-by-side, loading up on carbs — and lots and lots of cheese. A few people break out a guitar, a fiddle, a ukulele, lifting their voices into the cold night one more time before the real work begins.
Jeff Deeter was the first musher to arrive in Eagle, on Tuesday at 6:55 p.m. McDougall, the freshman volunteer, called his time into the Yukon Quest headquarters. Deeter was the first Quest musher to stop in Eagle in four years.
Five more mushers had come into Eagle by mid-morning on Wednesday. Everyone is required to rest for eight hours in Eagle before getting back on the trail.
