February 23, 2009

• How Quickly a Musher’s Race Can Go Sour

  

  William Kleedehn has been looking like a winner for most of the Yukon Quest.  In Central, he was in second position, just 5 minutes behind Hugh Neff.  Technically, he was really almost 2 hours ahead of Neff, because Neff has been assessed a two-hour penalty.  He’ll have to sit out those two hours at Two Rivers, the last checkpoint before the finish, because he left the trail and ran for some distance down a road.

  Kleedehn lost his lead in the race after his main lead dog went into heat.  He had a tough decision over whether to keep her in the team or drop her and cross a mountain pass with only eight dogs.  The guy has a wooden leg, and can use all the dogs he can get up there in the high country.  Maybe taking the amorous bitch was a wrong decision, and maybe it worked out better than the alternative would have.  We will never know.

  This morning, the first mushers into Mile 101 Dog Drop reported that Kleedehn’s team had stopped on the trail.  I guess they had more important matters on their minds than running.  Some of his competitors had tried to help him get the dogs started, but they didn’t go until they were ready to go.  Neff, Little, Schnuelle, and Sass passed through Mile 101 before Kleedehn.

  William Kleedehn left his troublesome bitch at Mile 101, departing in fifth position, the farthest back he has been since Carmacks, more than a week ago.  He was almost four hours behind Jon Little.

  There is only one more checkpoint, at Two Rivers, before the finish.  Tonight, the championship will be decided.
  

  • 10:42 pm
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