At 1:35 PM today, Hans Gatt won the 2010 Yukon Quest, setting a new record for fastest finish: 9 days, 26 minutes, 23 hours faster than the 2009 record set by Sebastian Schneulle.
Lance Mackey took second place, arriving in Whitehorse at 2:38 PM, an hour and forty minutes ahead of Hugh Neff in third place. The times set by each of the top three teams easily beat the previous record.
It is still a close race for first place, among Lance Mackey, Hugh Neff, and Hans Gatt. This was posted on Facebook about half past 4 this morning: “Lance and Hugh arrived in Carmacks basically together. A third headlamp can now be seen on the river. This is a race!”
About a quarter after eight, this update was posted: “Hugh has been sticking with Lance like his shadow over the past few days. He has trained his dogs to be great chasers, so even though Lance may be having faster run times, he just can’t shake him. Hans had the fastest run time from Pelly to Carmacks and is now only 5 minutes behind Lance and Hugh.“
In previous years, I gathered my sled dog race updates from radio and several web sources. This year, my Quest news is coming almost entirely from the FB official page. I’m hoping I can find something roughly equivalent to this for Iditarod, but will probably have to monitor several different Facebook sources to get as much info as is coming from this page.
Today
Because I took these 2 shots from different angles, it is impossible to determine, but today I could see that the sun rose at a point on the horizon a bit north of where it rose yesterday. Sun angles and day length have been changing faster every day since the solstice.
yesterday, 2/12/10: sunrise 8:54 A.M. sunset 5:35 P.M. for 8 hours, 41 minutes of daylight
today, 2/13/10: sunrise 8:51 A.M. sunset 5:38 P.M. for 8 hours, 47 minutes of daylight.
Yukon Quest Update:
Gerry Willomitzer turned back after leaving Dawson, and scratched because of problems with his sled runners.
For up-to-the-minute reports from the trail: http://www.facebook.com/YukonQuest?ref=nf
I got out of the house today, got the car out of the driveway for the first time since October.
The night that Kermit sprung a leak, and Doug dumped all the hot water into a snow bucket, he observed that the water then felt about right for a bath. I suggested he bathe. I got my bath this morning after he told me he had finished shoveling the driveway during the night. I’ve got clean hair, clean clothes, and if I can manage it by bedtime, I’ll have clean sheets, too. It feels great and it is all too rare for both of us to be clean at the same time, around here without indoor plumbing or running water.
The Kid had plugged in Blur’s engine heater when he finished shoveling, but the battery was low after sitting in the cold for months, so I needed to unplug the engine heater to plug in the battery charger before I could get the car started. Then I needed to shift into 4 wheel drive to get out of the driveway. Other than that, the trip was without any vehicle issues. I love that old car.
Our first stop was the hardware store, looking for a replacement for Kermit. My patch didn’t last through the first night. They had a stock pot that was too small to be useful, and a 21 quart canner that was too big to fit on top of the wood stove, so it’s going to be up to Greyfox to find something for us in Wasilla.
We bought some groceries, stuff like bread, milk and yogurt, to get us through until Greyfox’s planned trip up with supplies later this month. After that, we headed back down the valley to the spring. Doug filled 5 water jugs, a very small load, less than half of what we’d have in a full load. We can keep melting snow for washing up purposes, and keep the spring water for drinking.
A couple of weeks ago, I had asked Doug if I could offer him any incentive that would get the driveway shoveled faster. He suggested renting a video. I’m not sure it really sped up the shoveling. It snowed again a couple of times before he got it all done, and he had a broad, heavy berm to shovel again each time.
We rented WALL-E and the miniseries, The Lost Room. We both enjoyed WALL-E, and The Lost Room is even better. My attention has been divided as Doug has been watching it, so after he goes to sleep (he has been up at least 30 hours now), I’ll watch it again. Then, tomorrow when he gets up, we will return the videos. I don’t like committing myself to go out two days in a row because sometimes, with M.E., I just can’t function that well the day after this much activity. One way or another, we will manage.
Last night, Zack Steer held a substantial lead on Hugh Neff, and Lance Mackey was back in 8th position saying something about preferring to be chasing others rather than having them chase him.
Early this afternoon, veteran Quest champion Hans Gatt was first into the Eagle checkpoint with Zack Steer 5 minutes behind. Next came Hugh Neff with Lance Mackey 2 minutes behind him. All four leaders entered Eagle within 20 minutes.
After a rest, they will be off in a race-within-the-race, for Dawson and GOLD.
This year, my best source for updates is the Quest’s Official Facebook Page. Some of you will be relieved not to see as many dog racing entries from me as in previous years. The rest of you, the interested few, can get the latest news at that link.
As Doug was getting ready to go to sleep this morning, I solicited a situation report from him. He had washed dishes during the night, and I asked him about the water supply. When I asked if he had refilled the snow buckets, he said, “most of them.” The conversation drifted onto other subjects until I brought it back around for a summation.
I said, “So, I’ve got two full snow buckets.” He said, “One.” I said, “You said you filled, “most” of them. He said, “That’s right: I emptied six, and filled four.” I said, “We don’t have six snow buckets. We only have three. One is not most of three.” It went back and forth like that for a while.
That was hours ago. I still haven’t filled the two empty snow buckets. I was sitting on the bed using my nebulizer in preparation for going out to do it, when I noticed water dripping down the front of the wood stove. I investigated and found that it was leaking from Kermit, the big green enameled pot that serves us as a water heater.
It was less than half full, so I dumped the warm water in with the snow in the one full bucket, melting and shrinking its contents. When I upended Kermit and cleaned his bottom, a bit of it crumbled away, leaving a hole just big enough to stick the tip of my little finger into. I rounded up a strip of thin copper sheet, a container of heatproof furnace cement, and some tools, and patched Kermit’s leaky bottom.
I have been resting for a while, but I still have a few more hours of daylight. I need to get up from here, suit up, and go out to fill all 3 snow buckets (after I refill Kermit with the contents of the full one) and pick up the wood chips around the chopping block before they’re buried in snow.
Life is good. No, life is great, wonderful, sweet, marvelous and ever interesting.
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