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Scent of gold has Yukon Quest racers rolling toward DawsonA pack of five Alaska mushers dueled down the Yukon River as the sun set Wednesday night, aiming to reach Dawson first and claim four ounces of placer gold in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Allen Moore of Two Rivers led four-time champion Lance Mackey of Fairbanks and Hugh Neff of Tok at the front of the pack. Like many of the stretches in the 1,000-mile race between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, the 150-mile run from Eagle to the midway stop in Dawson is grueling. Cracks in river ice and jumbles pose hazards. While today’s gold prices make the metal enticing, veterans with mettle aren’t so anxious that they’re willing to sacrifice a winner’s paycheck for midrace riches. “I love gold, but I would rather have the big chunk of gold at the end for winning this race,” Mackey told the Fairbanks News-Miner. “So we’ll see what happens. I don’t want to sound greedy, but I want ‘em both. Simple as that.” Mackey has reaped a fair share of winner’s paychecks over the last half-dozen years and is far wealthier man than he was when he scraped by living in a tent on the Kenai Peninsula years ago. “I won gold in 2005,” he told the Alaska Public Radio Network, “and I still haven’t done anything with it.” Under comparatively warm and clear conditions, mushers have basked in a full moon in recent nights. “It’s been so bright out at night,” Neff told the News-Miner. “You know how they say don’t look at the sun? Well, you can’t look at the moon too long because it starts to hurt your eyes.” Once the mushers arrive in Dawson, they’ll have 36 hours to rest and recharge -- or gamble any gold they have away in the town’s casinos. “I’m definitely not racing for the gold,” Mackey insisted. “I’m racing to be in striking position.” At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Moore was leading the pack, according to GPS trackers. A noted middle-distance racer, Moore shares a kennel with his wife Aliy Zirkle, who in 2000 became the first woman to win the Quest. Moore is a three-time champion of the Copper Basin 300 race, but he’s never finished in the upper tier in either the Iditarod or Yukon Quest. “If you run them too hard and get a dog hurt in the process, it’s not worth it,” he told APRN. After all, about half of the 1,000-mile race remains after the Dawson rest. Sonny Lindner, a 62-year-old who’s been racing the Quest since the inaugural running in 1984, which he won, knows that it’s way to early to get excited. “Yeah, that’s next week,” he told APRN. Contact Mike Campbell at mcampbell@alaskadispatch.com |
