Map

The first 100 miles of the Yukon Quest trail is a challenging stretch – not physically, but mentally! While this is especially true for rookies, it also applies to veterans. Mushers must pace their teams carefully at the start, and get the dogs into "race rhythm," all the while trying to follow whatever Run & Rest schedule they have planned for their team. For a novice Quest racer, sometimes there is a real temptation to start too quickly, especially if their team looks great and seems to be keeping up to the veterans. However, that "keeping up" may be an illusion.

Veteran mushers know their dogs performance levels, have a good sense of the trail, and – most importantly – they know the nature of this tough thousand-mile race. A veteran Quest musher wants to be sure to have a lot of "reserve" in their team, particularly for the last 200 miles of the race. While they may try to stay near the front of the pack, they will not push hard. What looks like "racing" or "pushing hard" to a novice viewer, may well turn out to be just a "nudge" or a strategic maneuver to keep the leaders in sight.

As a result, the effort to keep up with the front-runners in the early stages of the race can be very costly in the long run for some mushers. Their dogs may get overtired or stressed, and they will have to slow down a great deal to stay in the race. Every few years, a musher (usually a rookie) bolts out of the starting gate and sets a furious pace for the first 200 miles, only to slow down to a walk for the rest of the race, or even to scratch before the finish. Most mushers, however, realize that they must stick to their own schedule and resist the temptation to follow or race another team. Frank often points out that mushers do not lose to another team, they defeat themselves.

Given the need for mushers to pace their teams and move strategically for the first 200 miles, it is often very interesting to follow the progress of all the mushers through the first two or three checkpoints, and then compare those results with how they finish the race.

As mentioned earlier, the first one hundred miles of the Yukon Quest trail is not too challenging physically. From the starting line, teams head out on the Chena River, through the North Pole area, to the Chena Lakes Recreation area. From there they take a bush trail to the Chena Hotsprings Road, emerging from the bush near Valley Center.

For a short distance the trail runs along side the highway, in the ditches, before going back into the bush. A little more than half-way between the Chena Lakes Recreation area and Angel Creek, teams cross the highway. The trail then winds through the forest, crossing the Chena River several times, until it reaches Angel Creek.

The teams are all staged from the parking lot of the Borough office building. Mushers get their dogs harnessed and "bootied", be, up a steep embankment a few hundred meters from the actual starting chute. The teams have to negotiate that steep ramp down to the river for the start. Team handlers, together with race handlers, struggle to hold back each of the fresh, strong, 14-dog teams ? it often takes a dozen people in addition to a snow-machine that acts as a giant anchor. More than one musher has tipped their sled on the way down that ramp!

The dogs in all the teams bark and strain at their harnesses, a great cacophony of canine athletes eager to get going. Once a team starts out of the chute, however, those dogs fall silent, instantly concentrating on the trail ahead, and they soon settle into an even marathon trotting pace. They virtually ignore the hundreds of fans who gather along the river to watch the teams take off.

Map

Some spectators even ride out on snow machines, to see how all the teams are doing. Indeed, there are many snowmachine tracks on this part of the river, which can be confusing if the trail is not marked well. As the teams travel farther out from the city centre, they find the banks of the Cheena lined with poplar and birch, and the setting is quite beautiful. As they travel this section of trail in the early afternoon, mushers welcome any shade there is from the treed river banks, especially if temperatures are warm (above -10 Celsius).

One good viewing spot in North Pole is the Nordale Bridge. Teams run along the Cheena River right under this bridge, and fans can park nearby and stand on the bridge or walk down to the river bank to watch the teams pass. From the start line to the Nordale Bridge is only about 15 miles, so the teams take only a couple of hours to reach this point. Consequently most handlers and team supporters do not get a chance to see their mushers here – by the time they get things tidied up at the dog truck, and negotiate their way out of the dog lot, it will be too late. But many other race fans do see the teams at this vantage point.

The trail is usually quite flat through this area, depending on how well the river froze up. Sometimes teams encounter eager race fans a bit too close to the trail, or – worse – race fans who bring their pet dog down to "see" the Quest dogs. This can be a recipe for disaster at worst, and considerable confusion at best. Mushers may also encounter some overflow on the Cheena, depending on recent weather conditions. Sometimes there is even open water on this stretch of trail.

Probably the greatest risk on this section of trail comes from the moose who often use skidoo or sled trails to travel through the bush. Moose can be very dangerous for a dog team. The dogs may try to chase a moose, which would be alright if the moose ran away (preferably in the direction the musher wants to go anyway). However, they do not always cooperate: sometimes a moose will charge a team – and they can inflict a great deal of damage with their hooves. The flailing hooves strategy is an excellent one when moose have to defend themselves against wolves, but it is a musher's nightmare. And even the most experienced of mushers can have such an encounter: Susan Butcher, Iditarod champion, had several dogs killed in such an incident one year.

Map

Once the teams leave the river, they cut through the bush, over to Two Rivers.

This part of the trail is about 20 miles and most of the front teams will be running it in the late afternoon, reaching Valley Center Store (in Two Rivers) in the early evening. In the summer, the store is a just a corner store on the side of the road (see picture to the right). When the Quest comes through, it becomes a hub of activity, with hot water at a premium.

Map

From Valley Center, the trail runs parallel to the Cheena Hotsprings Road for several miles, along the ditch. The trail then heads off onto a bush trail again. Because the trail is quite narrow in the forested areas, teams cannot pass on this stretch. After a few miles, there is a major road crossing. Race volunteers staff this crossing until all the teams have been through, to make sure they cross the heavily travelled road safely. For a detailed map, click the thumbnail map on the right.

The road crossing is about 25 trail miles out of Angel Creek. The trail into Angel Creek winds through the forest, crossing the Chena River several times. Along this stretch of trail, teams often encounter overflow. Otherwise, it is a moderately easy part of the whole race. Many teams will camp for the first time – that is, they will take their first significant rest break – on the trail between Two Rivers and Angel Creek.

Most of the teams will not run 80 miles straight so early in the race. Instead, many will run about six hours – 50 miles or so – and then rest their team. In fact, many will take their rest close to the Valley Centre store, which makes that area good for fans who want to see the teams both running and resting.

Map

Depending on the varying Run & Rest schedules, most teams will reach Angel Creek between midnight and 9:00am. There is a 2-hour mandatory layover at Angel Creek; this layover is designed to allow Race Veterinarians to have a good look at the team, after their first day of serious mushing. However, most mushers will rest their teams for longer than the mandatory two hours. The challenge is to fit this mandatory layover into whatever Run & Rest schedule they have for the whole race. It can be really interesting to watch and see how different mushers approach the first section of trail and the first checkpoint.

Since the checkpoint at Angel Creek is the first official checkpoint, Race officials and veterinarians will check all the teams. And because Angel Creek is so close to the start line – about 100 miles – many teams will arrive there within a few hours and the checkpoint will be very crowded. Teams will be "parked" quite close together along the edge of the creek, close to the Angel Creek Lodge. In the picture below, Frank's team is the only one in that area, in 2005 when the race finished in Fairbanks. When the race starts in Fairbanks, there would be 6 to 8 teams in the area visible in this picture.

Having so many teams, parked so close together, is not ideal for resting a team. Some mushers will elect to remain there only briefly to avoid the crowd. However, at official checkpoints, mushers have straw they can use for their teams, and most like to settle their dogs into some straw for a good rest. It is a tough choice to make!