LAST MINUTE PREPARATIONS
For most mushers, preparing to run the Quest is a year-long process, and that is usually after the musher has already raised, purchased and trained their dog team and has all of the basic equipment in place. One would think that with a full year to plan and get things ready, the possibility of last minute “glitches” or crises would be pretty rare….but the reality is that the balancing act involved in coordinating hundreds of pounds of dog food that has to remain frozen, at least 14 raring-to-go sled dogs, travel over long distances, the need to maintain the dog team in peak condition and finding the money to make all of this happen can be a stressful experience and sometimes things do come down to the wire. Most mushers and their handlers will vouch for the sleepless nights leading up to the anticipated “big day” at the start line. Names and identifying information have been left out of this article for obvious reasons.
Stories about dog truck break-downs are legendary. Often the truck is the last thing to receive the required TLC when a musher is juggling all of the dog care chores on a tight budget. Haywire is the name of the game and sometimes things just come to a grinding stop. One musher once arrived at the Quest starting line in Whitehorse with his whole dog team [and his wife] in a Ford Bronco, with the loaded sled on the roof rack. His dog truck had packed it in. His dogs had to be incredibly well trained or maybe exhausted in order to pull that one off.
In the early days of the Quest, the required mandatory equipment included a compass. One musher at the start line realized that he didn’t have such a thing but solved the problem in a very expedient manner. With a fist full of quarters he went into one of the stores along the Whitehorse Main street and proceeded to plug his coins into the small prize machine located in the entrance way until finally a small plastic container containing a toy compass was dispensed. He then proudly dangled the compass from his sled’s handlebar so that it would be in plain view when the judges came to ensure that he had all of the required mandatory gear.
There is nothing like shiny new equipment at the start of an epic race like the Quest. Many mushers will ensure that their dogs have new [or at least clean] matching harnesses and a new set of ganglines and in some cases even a brand new sled. It is always a good idea to try out any new equipment before you are actually dependent on it in the crunch, just to ensure that everything is working well and to make any last minute adjustments. One musher literally stayed up all night before the start of the Quest putting the finishing touches on his new sled. This was when the race started on Whitehorse’s Main street, taking a sharp left-hand turn onto 1st Avenue before crossing the railway tracks and then dropping down onto the river. The sled looked great in the starting chute, the team got a good start, the adrenalin was pumping, the crowd cheered and everything was a blur until the team was finally down onto the river, the musher was able to breathe easier….it was now just him and the dogs and the hiss of the runners on the snow. Then he felt an odd movement beneath his feet and realized that both wooden runners had delaminated…he had used the wrong glue to hold the thin wooden strips together…his sled was falling apart. His only solution was to reach into the repair kit that all mushers carry and to fasten adjustable hose clamps the length of both runners. Needless to say this was less than ideal and eventually this musher scratched.
One musher was feeling increasingly overwhelmed in the starting area as the start time drew nearer, they didn’t have a pre-race checklist and everything was essentially in a state of chaos. There was gear scattered on the snow beside the sled and it was actually complete strangers who were helping this musher pack the sled…really just throwing things into the sled bag without a plan. Finally, as the start time was imminent, the sled bag was zipped up and it looked like the team was ready to make its way to the start chute. “Just a minute” the musher gasped, “I need someone to get my truck to Dawson City”, she fumbled for her truck keys and held them up. A complete stranger from the crowd said “I’ll do it, what colour is it and where is it parked”. With that the musher gave him the keys and took off for the start chute…..but that’s not the end of the story.
THE SLEDS OF THE YUKON QUEST
There is a noticeable uniformity among the sleds used by today’s Quest mushers. While you will still find some wood in their construction, there is a good chance that they will contain lots of aluminum, UHMW plastic, stainless steel and carbon fibre components. Virtually all of them will consist of two runners that incorporate a quick-change plastic running surface, there will be a plastic bed approximately 8 inches off the ground, the main structural integrity will come from two or three uprights or stanchions including a handlebar, angled in such a way as to ensure as much flexibility as possible, thus the name “easy rider” that is given to these sleds, and all will use a sled bag made from bomb-proof cordura fabric in which to carry all of the needed gear. The plastic bed will also incorporate a curved brush bow at the front of the sled and a very durable aluminum/stainless steel brake will be fastened to the back. Gone are the days of the rigid, bone jarring monster sleds, today’s sleds measure 6 - 7 feet in length and are usually 20 inches wide. Some mushers will add some kind of seat to the back of the sled, either a hinged bicycle seat that will fold down when required or a seat that is either incorporated into extra-long runners or a separate trailing or “pup” sled. These additions have given rise to the name tail dragger sleds. Today’s sled designs have been influenced by the sleds from the past.
In the early days of the Quest, mushers really didn’t know what type of sled to use, they had to choose between a recently-developed hybrid sled design known as the toboggan or Tim White Sled that incorporated some of the new “high-tech” components, or a more traditional all-wood, hand tied sled. Historically, dog mushers who used their dogs for trapping, freighting and long-distance travel used a long, wooden, hand-tied, basket sled commonly known as a freight sled. As the Alaskan Natives used sled dogs more extensively, they began to adapt their sleds, drawing on some of the ideas they saw in sledges used in Siberia. It would appear that from the outset the Native sleds incorporated what is known as the basket sled design, utilizing two runners, uprights or stanchions and cross pieces which formed the base or basket of the sled. In order to carry larger loads the Native sleds were made longer. In order to carry heavier loads, rather than making their sleds from heavier materials like the Siberian sledges, the Alaskan Natives abandoned their use of wooden and ivory pegs to fasten the sleds together and adapted the Russian method of lashing or tying their sleds together to allow for an increase in their flexibility, which meant that they could bear the stress of heavier loads without fear of breaking. The wooden and ivory pegs might have their place in the construction of kayaks and canoes and hunting equipment, but they didn’t work with dog sleds.
While wooden toboggans imported from the Mackenzie River region were seen, the sled of choice used during the Klondike Gold Rush was the factory made mass produced Yukon Sled sold by the Alaska Commercial Company in the hundreds. This sled was essentially a platform on runners, 18 inches wide and 7 feet long, designed to be pulled by dogs, humans, horses and even oxen. It was the transport truck of the Gold Rush. Innovative freighters modified these Yukon Sleds by adding a primitive handlebar at the back, poles along the sides, even a curved bow on the front, some even incorporated articulating runners or “bobs“..…while they were great for freighting all of the goods that miners needed on the creeks, these sleds were heavy and cumbersome.
For tasks that required speed such as delivering express mail or passengers, the freighters realized that the lighter, flexible Native Alaskan basket sled was the answer and in some ways, its development was parallel to that of the Yukon freight sled. The evolution of the handlebar at the back of the basket sled in order to increase the driver’s ability to manoeuvre the sled, the use of side rails in order to keep the load in place in the sled [in the basket] and the addition of the brush bow at the front of the sled in order to glance off of obstacles, were later developments. Similarly, with the introduction of sled dog racing in Alaska in the early 20th century, the runners were extended at the back of the sled so that the dog driver could stand on the runners. This in turn necessitated the use of commands and trained lead dogs, up to this point, the dog musher ran beside the sled or in front of the dog team.
TWO PERSONAL QUESTS
Every musher that makes his or her way to the Quest start line is on a personal quest, often their motivation is much more than just a desire to participate in or to win a dog race or to have a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Twenty nine teams started the 2009 Quest, and for two of the mushers, their journey over the Quest trail was an opportunity to recognize and honour members of their family who had blazed the trail before them.
Tom and Sam Hourie were brothers, the sons of Métis Hudson’s Bay Company trader Peter Hourie. The Hourie brothers had lived full lives even before they were part of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. Tom had been a scout for General Middleton, and was present in 1885 when Louis Riel surrendered at Batoche, ending the Riel Rebellion. With the Gold Rush, the Hourie boys were part of another great adventure that was to leave its mark on a whole country. The Hourie brothers did find gold, Sam moved on to travel the world while Tom ran the claim. Tom also freighted with sled dogs on the Klondike creeks, even carrying the mail, before dying as a young man in Dawson City in 1908. Amidst his travels Sam was able to raise a family despite the fact that his wife died prematurely as a young woman. Sam’s son married and raised a large family, he lived to be in his 80’s. His daughter Elizabeth in turn has two sons, and it was one of these boys, Warren Palfrey who was traveling the Quest trail in part to recognize the memory of his great uncle and great grandfather. As his team made it to the start chute, a large blue and white flag featuring the Metis infinity symbol was draped over the sled bag and Warren wore a sash, a ceinture flechée wrapped around his waist, in recognition of his own Métis roots.
Josh Cadzow was the third member of the Cadzow family to participate in the Yukon Quest, Clifton and Jay had participated before him. The Cadzow name is deeply rooted in the territory around Fort Yukon Alaska, going back well before 1848 when the Hudson’s Bay Company established a trading post at the spot where the Porcupine River flows into the Yukon River. The “Bay” knew that their trading post was not on British soil and were forced to move it in 1867, the year that the U.S. purchased Alaska from the Russian American Trading Company. The new post, which was located upstream on the Porcupine River just over the Canadian border was called Rampart House. It follows that the Gwich’in people of Fort Yukon are closely related to the Gwich’in people of Old Crow Yukon as well as the “Peel River” Gwich’in of Telit Zheh [Fort MacPherson N.W.T.] and Tsiigehtchic [Arctic Red River N.W.T.]. All of these people in turn are of the same linguistic group as the Han or Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation people who are resident in the Dawson City/Moosehide region of the Yukon.
It was with these deep connections to the geographic, aboriginal and cultural history of northern Alaska, Yukon and the Klondike that Josh Cadzow, with members of his close family gathered around him and his team, slowly made their way to the starting chute of the 2009 Quest. This wasn’t a breathless blur or a mad dash to the start, it was a proud statement from a proud people who were very much aware that this race was just the next chapter in a story that has been unfolding for generations.
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