Jean McDermott: Yukon Quest Dog Race

YUKON QUEST 2004

This is a musher coming in to the North Pole checkpoint on Feb. 14. This file is about one megabyte, so if you are on dial-up, well, good luck! It's a Quicktime movie. There is a plug-in for both flavors of computer, go get it here:

On February 14, 2004, I went along with a friend who works for a local TV stations to shoot some video of the Yukon Quest Dogsled Race. We spent a good portion of the day chasing the race around.

The race begins on the Chena River, right in downtown Fairbanks. Then it runs 1000 miles all the way to White Horse, Yukon Territory in Canada. The mushers have to camp out, unlike the Iditarod, where there are accomodations along the way. Although the Iditarod is the most famous, the Yukon Quest is the toughest dogsled race in the world.

This year (2005) the race started in White Horse. Every year it alternates starting towns, so that every other year it's Fairbanks that kicks it off, and same for White Horse. White Horse is a nice town, although the fact that every single public trash bin is a bear-proof bin freaked me out a little bit. Was I going to be attacked by a garbage-hungry bear in the middle of town? If you went by the trash bins, you'd think so!

The dogs wear little booties to keep snow from getting packed between their toes and then turning into ice and hurting them. These dogs are very well-treated and anyone mistreating a dog is disqualified from the race. And they just love to run.

You can get lots more information by going to the Yukon Quest site.

		YUKON QUEST 2004 This is a musher coming in to the North Pole checkpoint on Feb. 14. This file is about one megabyte, so if you are on dial-up, well, good luck! It's a Quicktime movie. There is a plug-in for both flavors of computer, go get it here:
		On February 14, 2004, I went along with a friend who works for a local TV stations to shoot some video of the Yukon Quest Dogsled Race. We spent a good portion of the day chasing the race around.
		The race begins on the Chena River, right in downtown Fairbanks. Then it runs 1000 miles all the way to White Horse, Yukon Territory in Canada. The mushers have to camp out, unlike the Iditarod, where there are accomodations along the way. Although the Iditarod is the most famous, the Yukon Quest is the toughest dogsled race in the world. This year (2005) the race started in White Horse. Every year it alternates starting towns, so that every other year it's Fairbanks that kicks it off, and same for White Horse. White Horse is a nice town, although the fact that every single public trash bin is a bear-proof bin freaked me out a little bit. Was I going to be attacked by a garbage-hungry bear in the middle of town? If you went by the trash bins, you'd think so! The dogs wear little booties to keep snow from getting packed between their toes and then turning into ice and hurting them. These dogs are very well-treated and anyone mistreating a dog is disqualified from the race. And they just love to run. You can get lots more information by going to the Yukon Quest site.