Mushers drop off food for the Quest as start date looms

Chicken, fat, kibble, sausage and ice cream.

Chicken, fat, kibble, sausage and ice cream.

Pounds upon pounds of these foods and more were on the list of items 11 Yukon Quest and Quest 300 sled-dog race mushers loaded into a truck in Whitehorse on Saturday to be delivered to each of the checkpoints between Fairbanks and Whitehorse.

Mushers closest to the Yukon’s capital dropped off their bags of food and supplies at the White Pass and Yukon Route depot on Saturday.

Competitors closer to Fairbanks were having their bags dropped off at a food drop at Summit Logistics there.

With the 1,600-kilometre Yukon Quest and the 483-kilometre Quest 300 set to start in Fairbanks on Feb. 9, the food drop is one of the first major events to prepare for the race.

That’s followed by a vet check in both cities next Saturday, the Meet the Mushers event in Fairbanks on Feb. 6 and the start banquet on Feb. 7 before competitors leave the start line for Whitehorse or, in the case of the Quest 300, Circle City, Alaska.

From noon until 4 p.m. Saturday, mushers came and went, driving in with truckloads full of bags for each checkpoint. Many had spent the previous week cutting and preparing the good for the trail.

“Lots of fat,” New Hampshire musher and Quest rookie Mike Ellis said of the food he’s packed for his team of 14.

With the high number of calories the dogs burn on the trail, it’s important the animals are fed a lot of fat throughout the long-distance race.

While Ellis worked on preparing lamb, chicken skin, kibble, fat mixes and more meat for the dogs, his wife, Sue, got meals ready for the musher, cooking delicacies like shrimp scampi, chicken and rice and other goods for the trail.

The couple spent the last month or so getting things ready for the food drop, they said after an assembly line of volunteers helped the couple move their bags from their own truck to the freight truck at the depot.

With the food now on its way, the musher said, he is anxious to hit the trail.

“I’m totally ready.”

Inside, rookie Quest 300 musher Jocelyn Leblanc’s bags of goodies were the usual meat, fish and kibble for the team, along with snacks for herself.

Not finding herself terribly hungry on many trail runs, Leblanc packed some favourite goodies for herself. They included pepperoni sticks, jujubes, granola bars and chocolate-covered coffee beans.

Veteran Kyla Boivin also said she finds she doesn’t get overly hungry out on the trail. However, when she heard what rookie Didier Moggia packed for himself, she joked with him she’d be coming to see him along the trail.

Moggia found room to pack ice cream sandwiches for himself, along with other favourite foods.

“It’s always frozen,” he said of food on the trail, noting packing for the Quest means bringing “every little thing you like” to make sure you work on the trail.

Inside the bags for his dogs is lots of meat, including fish oil, horse meat and tripe, along with the usual kibble and chicken.

While Boivin might be approaching Moggia for ice cream, she and her dogs could also be sharing a few meals.

Packed among the chocolate, dried fruit and other goods she’s brought for herself and the horse, beef, kibble and other fatty foods for the dogs is a garlicky breakfast sausage both she and her team enjoys.

“You end up eating it too,” she said with a laugh of the breakfast meat for the team. “It’s my dirty little secret.”

Boivin hasn’t changed much about the food she’s packed for the race.

After ordering a lot of the meat for the dogs a few weeks ago, she’s spent the past week preparing it for the bags, spending six or seven hours many days getting it ready.

Like Boivin, Michelle Phillips said she too has kept the same high-calorie diet - including lamb, beef and other goodies - for her team, noting the diet has worked well on previous Quests.

Phillips started getting things in place in November for her food and supplies to be ready for Saturday, she said.

Another veteran, Paul Geoffrion, has a “Chinese buffet” en route for his team with horse, lamb, fat, chicken among some of the items for the team.

As mushers made their way through the food drop, many also came into the train depot for a cup of coffee, cake and krocket - a deep-fried Dutch snack being offered for a $3-donation to the Quest.

Inside the building, the final early bird draw on the Quest’s annual raffle was held, with David Cain’s name being drawn for the $5,000-prize.