Dogsled.com: Mushing news, Iditarod, Yukon Quest, sled dog events

Updated: Feb 17/07; 21:30 - Sixteen of the 22 remaining teams in the race have reached Eagle Checkpoint. Peter Ledwidge and Russ Bybee were the latest two teams to check-in just after 8pm Saturday.

Read more at the Quest official web site 

The first several dog teams have arrived in Eagle, Alaska after their 150 mile trek from Dawson City, Yukon. Lance Mackey led the pack into Eagle early Friday afternoon, rested for just over 6 hours and departed the checkpoint about 10 minutes before the next team arrived. Gerry Willomitzer, William Kleedehn and Hans Gatt pulled in within 10 minutes of each other shortly after 8pm and bedded their teams down in the straw.

Sebastian Schnuelle and Hugh Neff arrived an hour apart and over an hour after the three previous mushers had made their way into Eagle Checkpoint. All mushers described overflow conditions along the way and told of pools of water on the river ice.

KUAC Public broadcasting reports (mp3)

Teams run for the border, and 2 race veterans reflect on yesterday's withdrawal of John Hessert.

None of the trailing mushers spoke of planning on catching Mackey, instead they were clearly focused on taking care of their own teams and running on their own schedules to avoid chasing the faster team out front and pushing too fast at the wrong time. When asked if it was now a race for second, Willomitzer noted that there were 400 trail miles left before seeing the Finish Line in Fairbanks and that anything can happen in a sled dog race, so all the mushers need to concentrate on their own dogs and their own team's abilities.

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