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| Frank's team leaving the start line
chute in the 2003 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. |
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Pelly Crossing to Dawson City
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Overview: Pelly Crossing to Dawson
City |
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The section of trail from Pelly Crossing to Dawson City, running
about 220 miles, is the longest unsupported section of trail
between checkpoints, notably without any road access. Depending
on which source you use, the distances can add up to as little
as 206 miles or as much as 232 miles. In any case, this stretch
is very, very long, so mushers leave the Pelly Crossing checkpoint
with well-laden sleds.
The trail follows the Pelly River for awhile, to Stepping
Stone, then moves onto an old mining road, the Scroggie Creek
Road, crossing overland to the Stewart River. From there,
the trail winds and climbs through the Black Hills, over King
Solomon Dome, before descending into the Klondike River valley.
At the end of this long run, mushers will take a mandatory
36-hour layover in the relative comfort of the campground
in Dawson City. The first team to arrive in Dawson City wins
4 ounces of gold. |
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Pelly Crossing to Stepping Stone |
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The trail out of Pelly Crossing usually runs on the river much
of the way to Stepping Stone. Some years trailbreakers can not
put the trail in on the river – another indicator of unseasonable
weather in the Yukon. When the trail can not go on the river,
teams will drive approximately 36 miles along the Farm Road
to Stepping Stone. The Farm Road is a true "back road"
that runs from the community of Pelly Crossing along the Pelly
River to the Pelly Farm, the oldest operating farm in the territory.
The difficulty of driving dog teams along any road is the
quality of the trail surface. Any trail packed on a road will
always be harder than trails on the river or through the bush,
since equipment and vehicles pack down the snow; and the hard
trail can cause problems for feet and wrists. As a result,
36 miles on a road is harder on the team than 36 miles on
a bush or river trail.
Stepping Stone is just four miles past the Pelly Farm. Several
families settled here years ago, so there are two or three
buildings. Every year, volunteers drive in on snow machines
to help out the people who live at Stepping Stone, providing
hospitality to the mushers and their dogs.
While the cabins are very remote, with no hydro, phone or
running water, the services offered there often rival those
provided at a regular checkpoint, with good food on the table
and hot water at the ready. Most mushers will want to rest
well here, since they face a tough 70 miles before they reach
the next comfortable resting place. |
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Scroggie Creek Road |
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Once past Stepping Stone, the trail follows the Scroggie Creek
Road all the way to the Stewart River. Until recently, heavy
equipment used to go into the road in early February, before
the race, and scrape away the snow right down to the ground
– the result was an extremely rough, dirt and gravel road.
Taking a team and sled (with plastic runners) along the Scroggie
Creek road was very hard on the dogs, the sleds and the mushers
– just imagine jogging in socks along a gravel packed
road and you will get a sense of what the dogs have to deal
with!
Crews no longer "open" the road, so the conditions
are not as severe. However, it is still a difficult stretch.
Part of the difficulty is psychological, as the road is not
very interesting for the dogs – and it’s long!
The road rises gradually until it reaches the Valhalla summit,
about thirty-two miles out from Stepping Stone. Valhalla is
a long steady climb – not as difficult as some of the
other summits, but certainly tiring.
From Valhalla, teams follow the same wide trail into the
Scroggie Creek camp. This whole 70-mile stretch is one of
the least interesting for the dogs, and mushers often refer
to it as "a really long seventy."
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Dog Drop at Scroggie Creek / Stewart
River |
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At Scroggie Creek, race organizers set up an official dog drop
– and it is literally in the middle of nowhere. Volunteers
build a large camp, with sleeping tents and shelters for the
dogs, along with shelters for vets and officials. The volunteers
prepare meals and host the mushers at this remote site.
They will have a Global Star satellite phone, so we should
get some updates from Scroggie Creek. Incidentally, in 1998,
front teams took 20 to 24 hours to travel from Pelly Crossing
to the Scroggie Creek / Stewart River Dog Drop.
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Stewart River to Granville |
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When teams leave Scroggie Creek, they will drive down the Stewart
River for about six miles, before heading off onto an old bush
trail. The trail travels through many old placer operations
and mining claims, and there is often glaciation and overflow
in this area.
About 25 miles after teams leave the Stewart
River, or about 31 miles past Scroggie Creek, the trail starts
into the Black Hills. The Black Hills are notorious for switchbacks
and narrow, winding trails, requiring a lot of work by the
dogs and their mushers. There are about 8 long switchbacks,
over an 8-mile section of trail, that take teams up into the
hills. Once past the switchbacks, the trail is still very
windy in much of this area; the trail also climbs up and down
a lot in these hills. In some sections, there are fairly tight
turns on the tree-lined trail, causing occasional damage to
sleds and mushers, and posing a risk of shoulder injury for
the canine athletes. For a while, teams travel along the top
ridges, where they have a grand view of the entire Black Hills
area.
Once mushers get through the worst of the winding, up-and-down
Black Hills section, they have only about 12 miles to go before
they reach Granville, an abandoned Gold Rush era city. |
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Granville |
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Granville was once a bustling town with several thousand inhabitants,
and you can still see some of the buildings, including the old
Post Office. In some years, a volunteer will drive a snow machine
out to Granville, to host mushers at a cabin there. Usually,
however, the abandoned town simply provides a bit of shelter
for mushers, before their final push into Dawson City. Mushers
often jockey for position around this point in the race, with
front-running teams all working to stay in close proximity to
the leaders. Some mushers use this resting spot to out-maneuver
their competition, by resting secretively, or cutting short
a rest while others sleep. |
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Granville to Dawson |
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Leaving Granville, teams being a long, steady, straight climb
up Kind Solomon Dome. The trail up and over the dome runs about
23 miles, with one switchback on the hillside. After the dome,
the trail begins to drop in the Klondike valley. This 20-mile
stretch of trail leads into the Bonanza Creek valley and road.
Teams travel on the road for the final few miles, until a few
feet from the Klondike Highway, just outside of Dawson. There
they turn and run parallel to the highway, for a few hundred
yards, before dropping down onto the Klondike River. They then
follow the River around the town.
Unfortunately it is difficult to see the teams along here,
as the view of the river is blocked by the dyke built to protect
Dawson from recurring flooding of the Klondike River. They
run below the dyke, around to a ramp leading up to the street
in front of the Visitor Reception Centre, transformed into
a Quest Checkpoint for the occasion. All teams must check
in at the checkpoint before they proceed to the campground,
on the far side of the river, for their mandatory 36-hour
layover. |
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