Josi Shelley and her 10-dog team hold a commanding lead as they near the finish of the Yukon Quest 750. Shelley has taken her 8-hour mandatory rest in Nenana and should reach the finish line at Pike’s Landing in Fairbanks some time today.
The three other mushers still in the race — Jonah Bacon and the father-son duo of Jason and Patrick Mackey — are expected to finish over the next couple of days.
Communities along the trail have enthusiastically welcomed mushers this year. When Shelley reached Rampart on Friday night, hardly anyone was more hyped than the kids.
Rampart grade school students are volunteering at the village’s checkpoint and even writing articles about the race for their school newspaper, the Mid-Yukon Current. A pack of kids stood outside the checkpoint to watch Shelley’s headlamp bobbing up and down as she drove her dogs across the Yukon River.
Shelley pulled up, beaming. As vets checked out the dogs, she let a few kids climb onto the back of her sled. Despite the bitter cold and tough trail conditions throughout the race, she said her 10 dogs were in great shape.
“My team is super strong,” she said. “What they're eating right now is like what I would plan to feed 14 dogs earlier in the race. They're chugging away.”
Shelley said she’s been especially pleased to see her younger dogs learning from the older ones.
“My younger leader, Eagle, did a lot of learning with Ferdinand on the run between Beaver and Stevens Village,” Shelley said. “She's also starting to think and do stuff on her own — even if she's not in the lead, being in swing. So, that was pretty exciting to see on this run, too.”
She said that’s the type of thing that’ll help her team as they ramp up to compete in the Iditarod in early March.
Slow going
It's been slow going for Quest mushers due to multiple rounds of snow in recent days. Race organizers reported Sunday that more than a foot of snow had fallen in Nenana, and that trail breakers had been dispatched to reset and pack the race route.
On Saturday, second-place musher Jonah Bacon had to lead his team through 8 miles of snowdrifts on his way into Rampart – on frostbitten toes.
“Everything had blown over, so everything looked just like straight snow,” Bacon said. “At times, I could tell we were on the trail, but the dogs couldn't see where the trail was supposed to be. And even when they were on the trail, they were, like, swimming through like a foot of snow.”
Trail veterinarian Emily Henry watched Bacon plodding along on the live tracker for the better part of the afternoon before sending a race judge out to check on him.
“Jonah did not ask for help,” Henry said. “We just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
But the race judge’s snowmachine bogged down on the trail and then began sinking. The judge radioed to the checkpoint that he was knee-deep in overflow and could hear ice cracking below.
Local resident Ben Newman guided both Bacon’s team and the race judge to safety. Henry, the race vet, said it was a moment everyone could learn from.
“Maybe being more prepared with having a set emergency plan,” Henry said. “I do think we have some areas for growth for next year, as well as just utilizing local resources to make sure we're putting trails in places that are going to be safe for mushers.”
She thanked everyone in Rampart who helped out — from Newman to all of the people who fed and cared for the race entourage.
Taking nothing for granted
In Rampart, Shelley said she couldn’t treat what was left of the race as a victory lap, despite her big lead. She said she planned to move at a comfortable pace to avoid race-ending mishaps, but she sees it all as more training time her team can bank.
“Every race is an opportunity — not just to see how your team stacks up with other teams and conditions and things, but also to see what you can ask of your team,” she said.
And Shelley said she’s not taking anything for granted.
“It's a dog race,” she said. “You never know, until you get to that finish line, what could happen.”
