Well, I hardly got any pictures during the 48 hours I was handling for Ava in the Yukon Quest 300 race. While she was coming and going, I was busy helping her, and while she was at the checkpoints, she was either too far away for pictures or it was too dark. So, these first few pictures are from the YQ facebook page from previous years. But it gives you a general idea of what the big day looked like in Fairbanks.
This is Sonny a few years ago. The furry, white leader is Pete, who still leads for him today!
Great shots of happy dogs!!! Absolutely love it!!!
The first night on the trail, the mushers raced under an almost full moon and dancing northern lights between the Two Rivers checkpoint and the 101 (milepost on the Steese Hwy.) checkpoint.
The rest are pictures I took with our little point and shoot camera. This is at the 101 checkpoint. The building above is the officials cabin. There were also two cabins for the mushers to sleep in and one cabin with volunteers cooking up hot meals and offering hot drinks.
As the sun is getting ready to rise, Sonny is booting up his dogs. They are the second team back in the photo above. He got in sometime in the middle of the night and Ava arrived about 9am. He left just minutes after she arrived and she left about 2pm.
It was a pretty overcast day on Sunday in the White Mountains, but there was no wind (apparently pretty amazing) and the temps were a bit above zero (which is not ideal for the dogs). Just to the left of the officials building is where all the teams are parked to rest and the trail continues on straight ahead towards Eagle Summit.
At the Central checkpoint now. The supply bags that were so carefully planned and packed are all lined up waiting on their musher.
The vet team and other volunteers waiting on teams to arrive.
Beautiful sunset colors in the background.
The first dog sitting up is Kona, another one of Sonny's leaders.
Sonny has had a little nap and is getting his team booted up again.
They are almost ready to go. They all have their booties on but they don't get too excited until he comes by and hooks up their tug lines. Then they go crazy!