Yukon Quest Pooper Scoop

SCROGGIE CREEK SPECIAL EDITION - While Twister racers enjoyed the sun on Valentine's Day, league regular Jocelyn LeBlanc was between Dawson City and Scroggie Creek in her rookie run of the Yukon Quest 1000-mile international sled dog race.

She'd scrambled to get to the start in Fairbanks. "If she makes it to Dawson, she'll get home," said Pierre Duc, who helped build the plywood palace at Scroggie Creek. By the time Jocelyn arrived, it was a certainty. Here she pulls in from the banks of the Stewart River.

Part of what puts the front runners up front is their efficiency at each stop. The faster the dogs are snacked and sleeping, the more rest they get and the sooner the musher can take a load off, too. Jocelyn was by far the smoothest musher in the dog yard, up there with leaders Hans Gatt, Lance Mackey and Hugh Neff. "I learned from Sebastian," she said referring to former Quest champ Sebastian Schnuelle who's been clocked at two minutes to bed his team at Braeburn.

During her eight hour rest at Scroggie, Jocelyn spoke about race qualifiers. She recognized when she was at the 300 mile point, but there was so much to do on the trail, she didn't have time to reflect. "It's a huge leap from three hundred miles to a thousand," she said. "Nothing prepares you."
Below, vet Gary Kuchinka follows up on Jocelyn's dog care while she tends the team.


Jocelyn arrived ninety minutes ahead of Terry Williams, a Fairbanks rookie she'd travelled with through the Black Hills. About the potential battle for the red lantern, she said, "I'm not slowing down just to get the red lantern." Rather, "I just hope my friends are there at the end."



Although one Quest is enough for Jocelyn, if she did bootie up for another start, it would be with 10 dogs rather than 14. "That was just crazy, all those booties." She found the extra work didn't result in extra speed.
The Quest is a learning experience for every rookie, and the lesson Jocelyn learned by Scroggie was that with a bit of work in harness, she could have kept two dogs she'd dropped in Dawson.



Instead these two, below, led the smallest string out of Scroggie Creek. Her seven stalwarts pulled over half the total distance.





Here's the team in the last minute of daylight on the Takhini. Twister regulars Gaeten Pierrard and Mike Simon wave from the sidelines.
Four hours later Jocelyn crossed the finish line to the welcome she'd hoped for from fans and friends.










On the way, Jocelyn changed her mind about the red lantern. Richard Gordon of Gwichin Council bestowed the honour awarded to the last musher out on the trail. "I'll never put fuel in this," Jocelyn said. She also took home the Challenge of the North for the spirit she showed throughout the 26th Yukon Quest.













posted by Jessica Simon, yukonwriter@lycos.com
photos and video Jessica and Mike Simon

January Pooper Scoop

Jim Hajash and Lee Kirkpatrick's entire dog yard took a run on the first 8-Mile Copper Haul of the new year.
Here, Jim takes a corner with four puppies on a training run. Although skittish in head-on passes, when the right wheel, Smith, tied it up in a snowbank, the string stayed taut to be untangled before the final loop.

Tony Radford hitched six Drag-n-Flies to the Risdon Rig he purchased from Dave and Heather Desmarais. Along with testing the agility and flex of the cambered steering rig, right, Tony took it on a crash test with Jeff Diment in the blind corner at the electric fence. Not exactly bombproof, Tony's red racer did earn him a speedy first place start to the new year.

Moderate temperatures, firm base, soft light and snowfall gave Laura Lucas with Jonathan's Grizzly Snowpigs perfect conditions for dog sports. "I groom this trail all the time for the Twister, but hadn't realised how much fun it was on a dog sled, even with only 4 dogs in a 6 dog race."


SPOT test and the Yukon Quest:

Wendy Morrison recruited Twisters Laura Lucas, Claudia Wickert, Jim Hajash, Tony Radford, Cythnia Corriveau and Gunter Glaser to test SPOT tracking devices for the Yukon Quest. As a new sponsor to the 1000-mile sled dog race, SPOT has supplied tracking devices to all mushers who want them. Twisters also tested carrying pouches supplied by SPOT.

"We were brainstorming about how to mount these to sleds and came up with this idea," Morrison said. "We'd like you to test them before we send them down a thousand miles of trail," she told Twisters.

SPOTs tend to work better if mounted so they are unobstructed to the sky, rather than tucked in a jacket. Twisters mounted the palm-sized satellite trackers to the inside stantion, crossbar under the bow, and on the brush bow. All units displayed perfect tracking functions. Help signals will be monitored by the Race Marshall and Yukon Quest staff. The units are optional this year, Morrison said, but they allow the Quest to monitor mushers' progress on the trail in case of emergency.

Mike and Jessica Simon will be trailside, keeping water liquid for Jocelyn LeBlanc, Hans Gatt, Gerry Willometzer and all the other Quest mushers who pull into Scroggie Creek checkpoint. We won't be at the next CHT meet, though. So if you need to volunteer for the CHT, we'll need the help in February. Good luck to all the mushers out there and happy trails.

5 km Kids:
Erin Spicer demonstrates the techniques that have earned her the top spot in the kids league.



And here, Jesse Dougherty zips through the trees to a first place meet finish.



5-km Pets:
This month's pet league seems to have benefitted from the resolve of pet owners across town to spend more time with their dogs. Below Sandro competes in the 5 k canicross:

League darling, Tiramisu, took second this month, after a sit-down strike on last weekend's Carbon Hill Race. Today, "she was really perky at the start and into the final loop, but coming back, it was more of a walk," Pippa Lawson said.

In this clip league newcomers Honzo Balar and Cynthia Friedrich glide into the bushes.

Thanks to Race Day sponsor Oscar's Electric for boosting the purse, and all our prize sponsors: Yukon Agriculture Association, First Mate Dog Food, Yukon Grain Farm, Icy Waters, Yukon Brewing, Yukon Honda, Drury's Elk Farm, and Grizzly Pigs Farm.

Next month, meet on Valentine's Day at 10 a.m. for more Twister fun at Icy Waters km 4, Fish Lake Road. Volunteers encouraged.

posted by Jessica Simon yukonwriter@lycos.com
photos and footage by Mike Simon

December Pooper Scoop

Chocolate Claim Race Day
8-Mile Twister
This month's Twister on a trail of glazed snow was fast and slick. Mike Simon said teams sent up plenty of spray banking around his corner. Watch Crispin Studer's team, below, pounding down the trail.

In a nifty spin, Tony Radford's team wrapped around Marianne Gregoire's legs and pulled her off her feet. "Sorry to the volunteer I accidentally took out," he said upon collecting his first place winnings.

Being bowled over by dogs is nothing, according to a volunteer from the Australian Dog Trainers Association. A dryland driver herself, she's seen kangaroos leap out of nowhere to jump a team in gang.

In the videoclip below Grant Simpson demonstrates a Lesson from the Trail: Tell the dog driver in human language what they need to do (left, right, straight ahead) and let them translate into dog (gee, haw, on-by) for the team. Then hope the team reacts before they flatten you.

On the home stretch, left, Dave Johnson's team passes Jeff Diment on his debut Twister. Willkommen ins Club, Jeff!

The Copper Haul coyotes were spotted trailside by Mike and Jessica Simon. A race so thrilling even the wildlife come out to watch.

5-k Kids
Erin Spicer was the only entrant in the Kids' Race, and flew down the trail until she landed on her side. Here, she keeps her gangline taut and rights her sled.
5-k Pets
Pet dogs pull all kinds of equipment down the trail. Here's Tiramisu having far more fun skijoring with Pippa Lawson than Asha's having bikejoring with the serious-looking competition, Jonathan Lucas.

Thank you to all our sponsors

Chocolate Claim
Yukon Brewing
Yukon Agriculture Assoc.
Icy Waters Ltd.
Midnight Sun Alpacas
Drury's Elk Farm
Yukon Grain Farm
First Mate Dog Food
Yukon Honda

for letting us have so much fun.
The next Twister meets on at January 24, 2010 at 10 a.m. at Icy Waters, km. 4 Fish Lake Road. Note the date change.

This coming Sunday, December 13, mushers can Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer in a totally legal race 2200' up Mt. Mac for a nice fresh t-shirt and down for a with a handful of cards. Prizes include airfare vouchers from Air North, and cash donated by Air North, Yukon Brewing and Hot Hounds Dryland Racing for the best poker hand. For those hardworking pack dogs, the First Mate Dog Food Extreme Freight Pull starts at 11:30 a.m.

On the same weekend, the Yukon Quest is organizing a work bee at McCabe Creek, the unique checkpoint shared by the Yukon Quest and Arctic Ultra. The original building was lost to fire in February and the Kruse family are hard at work to make the replacement shop ready for this year's Quest. Anyone with skills on the tools is invited to contact Wendy Morrison at the Quest office at 667-4411 or questadmin@polarcom.com for details.

See you next week or next year! Merry Christmas and Happy Trails from the Copper Haul Twister.

photos, film and words by Jessica Simon
yukonwriter@lycos.com

Pooper Scoop

Michelle Phillips cruising round the corners

12-Mile Copper Haul

A look at the official times of this month's Copper Haul doesn't tell the story volunteers saw at the back of the trail. Terraforming has turned the gravel pits into gravel pyramids that pinch the turnaround loop into a figure eight, a corner of which has a knarly drop with a left leaning camber in a right hand turn - Jonathan's drop-kick corner.

Third place finisher Darrell Sheepway broke trail for everyone in the first race of the season, without falling in the Killer Korner, wobbly though it was. Drew Spicer won fourth place in time but first in style; team and driver in perfect harmony. And then came Jonathan Lucas, who won $80 for falling all over the trail and tangling up the mid-pack mushers behind him. Even Lee Kirkpatrick's attempt at misdirection couldn't keep him from first place.

Victim of the tangle, Yukon News sports musher Ian Stewart would have finished five minutes ahead of news writer Genesee Keevil, if he didn't have to wait for the ruedel of teams to clear. Only Marine Gastard found advantage when her team scooted past the knot to chase the first free team.

Kirstie Falkevitch won the Lucky 13 bag of FirstMate feed, and Alexie Ducastle won the red lantern, for which we now have a palm-sized red lantern award.

above: Genesee Keevil's wheel dog smiles for the camera

below: Linda Lewis enjoys a ski on a sunny morning

Kids 5 km Twister
Although Keegan Hopkins and Jeff Diment's teams sprinted around the five k in good form, Erin Spicer took first, with a team that stormed the barricade in the final loop. Fourth place finisher Haley McCloud wins toughest racer for her tumble on the trail.

top: Haley McCloud nears the final bend

bottom: Keegan Hopkins takes a turn

Pet Dog 5 km

Asha won $25, for dragging Jonathan's bruised butt around the course in under 20 minutes. Jonathan won the red lantern for falling 100 yards from the finish line, giving Asha a chance to flop down for a snow bath. Somebody please give them competition next month.

posted by Jessica Simon

Growler 1-Mile 1-Sled Dog

Bikejorers Irie and Wendy Morrison. Timers Gene Ennis and Mel Bedard at the Start Line. Go Team!


Dino and Jocelyn

Thanks for the pictures Stefan!