The YQ 300 is under way

The race started on time, 6PM CST [3PM AKST] but only 8 of the 9 teams are apparently racing:

1. Luan Marques (51)
2. Josh Cadzow (52)
3. Jimmy Lebling (53)
4. Rob Cooke (54)
5. Ava Lindner (55)
6. Cindy Abbot (56)
7. Blake Matray (57)
8. Ed Abrahamson (58)

I’ll have to wait to see if they say what happened to Peg Harpham (59).

Unlike the 14 dogs on the YQ 1000, there are 12 dogs on the 300 teams. This is an additional measure to ensure that the two groups don’t interfere with each other.

The lead team musher, Luan Marques, is a Brazilian pet shop owner. Rob Cooke moved from the UK to Canada to race Siberian Huskies. Ava Linder is the daughter of Sonny Linder, the winner of the first Quest before she was born. Blake Matray is easing back into the sport after failing to finish the 2009 Iditarod.

The YQ 300 is a qualifier for both the Quest and the Iditarod, but I would have found another race. The section of the trail from Fairbanks to Circle is a nasty piece of work, even in the ‘good’ direction.

You have to make the double summit climb up Rosebud and then Eagle, and then you descend into the ‘deep freeze’. Between Central and Circle there is about 30 miles of trail on Birch Creek which is the coldest section of the entire trail. Veterans expect that section to be at least 15° colder than Central, without a wind.

That section will be even colder this year because Carl Cochrane, who provided a stop at his cabin on Birch Creek since the start of the Quest, died in June at 77. No one knows if the caretaker who lives there now will welcome visitors.