Melinda

The Quest has long had the best vet team in the sport.

2/ But ... where's Keaton? He should have been into Central within 4 hours of leaving 101. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

I'm hoping to get run/rest schedules posted tomorrow. (Glad to see that they're not running checkpoint-to-checkpoint!)

1/ As we're closing out the second day of the Yukon Quest it's pretty clear that Josi Shelley is serious about competing here. Deeter is running well and Jonah is running on a disciplined schedule that's likely to pay off later in the race.

wow! kipnuk is voting to relocate their village

alaska doesn’t have reservations, but the native village of kipnuk is a federally recognized tribe

could you imagine your tribe having to vote on relocating to a safer area because of climate change? dozens of alaskan tribes have/will have to soon

Runtimes over Eagle Summit and into Central have been on par with previous years. Under 3 hours is extremely rare; fastest runtime around 3:10 is common. Josi made it in 3:12 and is the fastest so far

In the Yukon Quest, several teams have made it into Central and others are either en route or leaving for it shortly. From there it's the interminable run on the very cold Birch Creek; temps in Central are forecast for -40 tonight and it's always a lot colder on the creek.

YouTube video by Kennett MakaiwiKuamu Eualani Videos from the Yukon Quest 2016

Old barfcam footage of the descent off the north side of Eagle Summit starts around 4:50

In the Yukon Quest, looks like a couple of rough runs into 101, but Josi has been traveling smoothly and is now at the base of Eagle Summit. The north face is very very very steep, and heading off the summit in this direction is often described as the most terrifying 15 seconds in dog mushing

The launch window opens at 10pm local time (GMT-9)

YouTube video by Poker Flat Research Range GNEISS and BADASS night one

In funner news, Poker Flat is preparing to launch 3 rockets tonight and have a live stream. Once they decide to go, it's pretty quick!

Also in the Yukon Quest, we're some some widely varying numbers about distances. I'm tending to trust the Trackleaders distances, since they're basing those on the trail. We know a lot about the trail as far as Circle but then they move into new territory.

2/ It's notorious for being windblown and exposed, and we do have some wind tonight in the area. On the other side of the summit are creeks notorious for overflow, then Mile 101 checkpoint. They have the option of taking a mandatory 4 at 101 or Central.

1/ In the Yukon Quest, teams are starting to come off their rest and head for Rosebud Summit, one of the tougher spots on the trail. The climb starts around mile 83. They're mostly camped a hair over 30 miles from it, so they'll be hitting it around midnight.

2/and the job was to get there in good shape. Mushers may be taking the same approach to the Yukon River bridge mandatory 24.

1/ For what it's worth, the three fastest runtimes into Two Rivers in the Yukon Quest were Josi Shelley, Keaton Loebrich, and Jeff Deeter, with a spread of 9 minutes. The conventional wisdom on the old Quest was that the race really began in Dawson,

In the Yukon Quest, most teams are running through the Two Rivers checkpoint. There's a spot a bit past the road crossing where folks like to camp, and it will be interesting to see who stops there.

Yeah, I really, really loved that race. But I follow the sport more generally, and I'm curious about the new format. Honestly, that much river running looks awful to me and I hate that they'll be flying out dropped dogs, but it's cool that they're going through the river villages. We'll see?

LOL.... i wanted to hear JD getting booed at the Olympics and when i searched for it on YouTube i got this

Screenshot of the Yukon Quest 750 trackers, showing several instances of two breadcrumbs with the same bib number

That, I think, answers that. Jonah had both trackers update at the same time in the Yukon Quest, and it's showing them side-by-side. Additionally, if you go to the individual tracker maps neither shows both the blue and white dots. So, the tracker updates aren't being spliced.

Looks like 750-mile teams in the Yukon Quest are each carrying two trackers but the tracks haven't been spliced yet (or they have, but one of the individual trackers is still on the map)

Looking at distances in this year's Yukon Quest, it looks like teams could run checkpoint to checkpoint - the longest distance between them is about 85 miles. This is another change to the character of the race, as there used to be a 200-mile run from Pelly to Dawson.

2/ 4 hours at either Central or Circle, 24 at the Yukon River bridge, and 8 hour rests in two of the Yukon villages. But, I could very easily be wrong about that. I'm happy to see that they've got timesheets up, though - I've really missed those the past few years

1/ Well, unfortunately the Yukon Quest Alaska rules haven't been moved to the new website, the old website really is gone, and trying to get to the old site through archive.org sends the browser into an Incapsula redirect loop. My recollection about mandatory rest in the race is

I remember going to watch my grandad and uncle curling when I was very young, and I grew up thinking that curling was a bunch of older guys standing around on the ice and drinking beer. I was pleased but a little surprised to learn that that was an Olympic sport, as that was something I could do.

Yeah, I think that's exactly why to enter. I'm not a fan of the people who just want to see the country, have an adventure, etc. - you can do those things without entering the race. I really love these folks who do it year after year and keep getting better.

Chip Berlet (1949-2026) When neo-fascists began to be followed and recorded, it was Chip that was the one who made the first moves. He gave us the blueprint that antifascist researchers go by today. Thank you, Chip, we will take it from here.

Chip Berlet (1949-2026)

When neo-fascists began to be followed and recorded, it was Chip that was the one who made the first moves. He gave us the blueprint that antifascist researchers go by today. Thank you, Chip, we will take it from here.

That's so beautiful! We're still about 2.5 months away from our water being wet and I'm really looking forward to it. Absolutely gorgeous!

One thing I haven't seen mentioned much is that a significant stretch of this year's race is being run through places handlers can't drive to. A thing I've always really liked about the Quest is that dropped dogs are handed over to handlers pretty much immediately, and this will be a change

(If I were a guessing person I'd guess that three teams are going to fall off the back pretty quickly, and that it would take something going wrong for Deeter not to win this year. But, things do go wrong sometimes). Expecting good stuff from Josi and Jonah, though.

BTW, KUAC (the local NPR station) has always done twice daily Quest updates and it sounds like they'll be doing daily ones this year. Their coverage has been excellent in the past, mostly because the local media people understand the sport and know the mushers.