Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Wednesday Evening

My easiest prediction regarding the Yukon Quest thus far was that from this morning, when I predicted that Brent Sass would cross the finish line in fourth place.  Of course it was pretty easy to predict, as he was the only one on the trail from the Two Rivers checkpoint at the time.  Sure enough, "Wild and Free" Brent Sass crossed the line in the snow at 6:14, about an hour after I posted.

Kelley Griffen cam into the finish at 2:14 this afternoon.

My friend Allen Moore has just crossed the finish line and his official time is posted at 6:44 pm.  A sixth place finish during one's rookie year is no small feat, and he finished with 10 dogs on the gangline.  A Facebook post says that Allen's dogs saw their truck and tried to bolt for it, but Aliy was there to lead them the last little bit to the official finish. 

Jodi Bailey left the Mile 101 Checkpoint, headed for Two Rivers at 5:30 this evening.  Mike Ellis and Dave Dalton are still resting their teams there.  The Quest posted some excellent video of Dalton climbing up Eagle Summit and coming into the checkpoint.  As the video shows, the weather up there is GREATLY improved over the brutal conditions faced by the front runners.




In the back of the pack, Johannes Rygh was withdrawn by race officials, though I've seen no official statement as to why.  The remaining back of the pack mushers are all out of Circle City and en route to the Central checkpoint.

Quest officials have released the results of the necropsy conducted on Geronimo, Hugh Neff's dog who died during the ordeal on Eagle Summit.  The necropsy revealed no trauma or abuse. The results show that Geronimo had an aspiration of stomach contents go into his lungs, the official terminology being Aspiration Asphyxia."  Aspiration asphyxia has been the cause of other dog deaths in years past and though it isn't particularly common, it is certainly no unheard of. 

Quest officials have just posted a YouTube video of Mike Ellis' team of Siberian Huskies coming into the Mile 101 checkpoint.  They look just as fresh as when they left the finish line.  It's awesome to watch.






My Day

My day wasn't so exciting as that of the Quest mushers.  After I posted this morning's report I fed, scooped after and loved-up on my dogs before dashing into town for grocery shopping.  Back home, I cooked up a bunch of chicken breasts so I can make quick meals later in the week (I'm still on a very strict weight loss diet).  It was still bitterly cold, but I put on all that stuff and let some of the dogs free run while I did some mid-day clean-up out in the kennel.  All of the dogs got some nice one-on-one time, performing their favorite behaviors for tasty Yummy Chummy treats.  Heck, I even got a nice little mid-day nap today.  
The weather forecast is for warming conditions, and I'm ready for warmer.  I plan to celebrate by running dogs tomorrow.  Since the video recorder I've been using hasn't been working so well lately I purchased a replacement for it that has some nice bells and whistles.  If I can figure out how to make everything work I may have some fun Stardancer video to share tomorrow evening.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! those Siberian huskies go look great - and happy!! You would never guess how long they have been on the trail!

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  2. Just so you know how delayed things can be... this morning (Thursday) We got to see the Winner of the Yukon Quest, cross the finish line, On our local news station. Must be a slow news day.

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