Josh Cadzow won the Yukon Quest 300 yesterday, earning a big smile. Josh's intent was to watch some young dogs in a racing environment to determine which might be added to his Iditarod team next month. He reported that he achieved that goal, and of course he earned a little prize money in the process. Congratulations, Josh.
Yukon Quest this Morning:
As I write (6:30 am) the Top-10 Yukon Quest mushers are well on their way out of Eagle Checkpoint and en route for the Canadian border and Dawson. Leaving the checkpoint, the Top 10 included;
1
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Lance Mackey (16)
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02/07/12
14:08 |
02/07/12
18:35 |
13 / 12 / 2
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2
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Hugh Neff (6)
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02/07/12
14:09 |
02/07/12
18:37 |
13 / 12 / 2
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3
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Allen Moore (1)
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02/07/12
14:40 |
02/07/12
18:45 |
13 / 13 / 1
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4
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Brent Sass (10)
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02/07/12
14:50 |
02/07/12
19:44 |
14 / 14 / 0
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5
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Jake Berkowitz (13)
|
02/07/12
16:35 |
02/07/12
22:02 |
13 / 12 / 2
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||
6
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Sonny Lindner (3)
|
02/07/12
17:23 |
02/07/12
23:55 |
13 / 12 / 2
|
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7
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Kristy Berington (2)
|
02/07/12
19:20 |
02/08/12
2:22 |
14 / 12 / 2
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8
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Abbie West (21)
|
02/07/12
17:00 |
02/08/12
2:37 |
12 / 10 / 4
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9
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Joar Leifseth Ulsom (17)
|
02/07/12
21:18 |
02/08/12
3:03 |
12 / 9 / 5
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10
|
David Dalton (4)
|
02/07/12
21:30 |
02/08/12
3:33 |
14 / 9 / 5
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According to the live tracker it appears that Allen Moore is chasing Lance Mackey across the border, but it's difficult to tell as the racers tracking units are not synchronized. Lance's last position was recorded an hour or so ago, and Allen's about half an hour ago. Either way, the two leading mushers are running close together. I suspect both men have their eye on the gold prize awarded to the first Quest musher into Dawson. Brent Sass appears to be about 20 miles behind the leaders in third place running with Jake Berkowitz about six miles ahead of Sonny Lindner. Abbie West is shown about 13 miles behind Sonny in 6th place.
Abbie had dropped one dog in Central, another in Circle City and has dropped 2 in Eagle, so she's a bit light on dog power compared to those running ahead of her. 10 dogs is still plenty, but it's also still a long way to Whitehorse so she may be running a bit more conservatively for a while.
There is a wild card in this mess, as Hugh Neff's tracker still shows him in Eagle, but the leader board shows he left Eagle only minutes behind Lance Mackey. I'd bet money that Hugh is running somewhere close to Lance and Allen.
Stardancer News:
Yesterday I took the dogs that didn't go on Sunday over the same route, also giving Cassie (Cassiopeia) another turn at lead. During hook-up and just moments before launch the snap to Cassie's tug line came loose. She pulled Just's collar over his head and took off down the trail, only to turn around as though saying "Hey, aren't you guys coming along too?". As I'd already released my snub-line, this required me to re-tie the highwayman's hitch I use in order to catch the miscreant and get her back with her team.
When snubbing my dog team to a tree or post I usually use a highwayman's hitch. I feel the greatest advantage to the highwayman's hitch is that one doesn't have to let go of the working end of the line when releasing the knot, so there is less risk of the working end spinning around the post like a whip. I've found that with slippery and stretchy nylon rope, it takes a couple of hitches to provide security and ensure the knot will release properly.
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| The basic highwayman's hitch |
Here's how my version of the highwayman's hitch is tied in a "real world" situation.
The remainder of our run was pretty unremarkable. It was just a nice, steady run through the woods on a very nice day - and a great deal of fun.
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