Carmacks

Here's two super Quest dogs. They're outstanding....

Ok, no... those are my guys, George n' Gracie this afternoon! What a beautiful day!!!

Carmacks - since the teams decided to arrive AFTER dark, these pictures didn't turn out so great....

But! It was worth it, because the atmosphere surrounding this checkpoint was amazing!! Neighbors (and Gerry groupies - haha!) Darren & Lara and I whipped up to Carmacks. We made a brief stop in Braeburn around 5 or so (because you HAVE to stop in Braeburn for a giganto cinammon bun, or giganto ham sandwich), and saw Bourassa still there. He was apparently attempting to leave, not in any bit of a rush though. Can't see him going on in this, as Darren noted, he's already 8 hours behind the next musher. It's only the first checkpoint! Word is, he's on a bit of a camping trip... not a race. Dropped four dogs too. We'll see.

So we chowed down on some salmon chowder (mmm....gooood...), bannock and cookies! Then after a couple hours of sitting around, we felt a buzz. Something was up. All 3 of us decided to go out, and alas! Thirty seconds after we went out, Dalton zooms up! Impeccable timing. There was a bit of a gap, so we decided to head down the trail, under the bridge and onto the river. We were out there a while, practicing video taping the psuedo-dogteam DH & Lara on my camera when we saw 2 lights off in the distance! Couldn't see a friggin' thing, and I started taping. Got some footage of the 2 headlamps heading towards us and we realized as he was right at us, it was Gerry!!! We exploded with excitement, and I'm sure Gerry was wondering who the hell these freaks were on the river in the dark screeching his name out. Well, he sure didn't stop to chat. William whipped by a couple minutes later. No pics from this excitement as a big flash in the dogs (and mushers) face would not be appreciated.

Jon Little came by not long after, asking us if 2 teams were up ahead. Here he is getting his stuff organized from his bags to head out on the trail chasing those other two


His team was fired up and bouncing around raring to go. The checkpoint was crazy and dog parking area super small, so it may have been good strategy for some teams to blow right through. Here's a bit of the checkpoint chaos with headlamps everywhere, judges, officials and vets were running all over the place trying to keep up!


More to follow... it's almost 3am....