Yukon Quest Wrap Up

They held the banquet on Saturday night and handed out the awards, most of which were known.

New this year is the presentation of custom-made knives to the first three finishers. Like some of the other awards, they are really useful to mushers.

Allen Moore was the big money winner, taking not only the share for first place, but the four ounces of gold nuggets for being the first team into Dawson that finished the race. The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation gave him a hand-made beaver hat, and Northwestel donated $1000 in his name to the charity of his choice, the Yukon Special Olympics.

Allen’s lead dog, Quito, received a custom-made golden harness and steak for her efforts.

Matt Hall was the second biggest winner, with custom knives for both his third place finish and a special version for being rookie of the year. He also took home a stained glass panel of the Quest’s Sitting Dog for the Challenge of the North Award, and $1000 in veterinary services for the Vet’s Choice Award.

Brian Wilmshurst was the last musher to cross finish line, but he won the Sportsman Award and took home a pair of hand-crafted gauntlets.

Since Brian wasn’t 8 hours behind Jerry Joiner, Jerry got the Red Lantern. Jerry joked that he had a couple of used sleds that he would sell cheap.

Since the race distributes the prize money to the first 15 teams, everyone who finished got a bit of cash back.

Eighteen teams started, but only eleven made it to the finish. It started in a heatwave and ended in the frozen food section.

Three team withdrew by hitting the assistance button on the GPS locator – Tony Angelo, a rookie, couldn’t make progress, which was probably the result of the trail being blown over and disappearing as reported by the teams in front of him. Cody Strathe had two of his eight dogs get injured on the trail to Braeburn, leaving him with no way of making progress in the hills. Brent Sass went to sleep, fell off his sled, and received a concussion when his head hit the ice on the lake he was crossing. Good decisions for the teams in all three cases.

Four people scratched – Jean-Denis Britten felt his team was having a kennel cough relapse. Mike Ellis and Normand Casavant both scratched before the end of road because their teams weren’t ‘right’, probably as a result of the warm weather. Dave Dalton scratched after the death of his dog, Bashful. It was determined that Bashful died of ‘general intestinal bleeding’ with no trauma detected. The puppy may have swallowed something like an ice chunk that caused the bleeding.