Amber Wilson

Driving to Chena Hot Springs twice in less than 24 hours was not fun. My car wasn’t happy starting at 35-below; I had to let it run for an hour before leaving my house.

Chena Hot Springs is plush compared to the other checkpoints. The hotel has water, sleeping rooms, and an area to spread out the tired dogs. It’s close to Fairbanks and the end of the race so the mushers and dogs are tired and just want to cross the finish line.

This checkpoint is different than many of the others because of the location. Many of the checkpoints are in small villages and the whole town comes out to meet the incoming mushers.

At the hot springs, tourists walked around not knowing that an international sled dog race was headed their way. One tourist we talked to at the resort was from California said he planned his trip to Fairbanks and didn’t know anything about the Yukon Quest until he got here.

The race attracts many international staff who help organize and handle dogs during the race. Within an hour I had talked to handlers from three different countries. Seeing how quickly they adapt to the area, and deal with stresses of the race is admirable to say the least.

I was stressed when trying to take photos in the sub-zero temperatures with my digital camera. The three batteries I had with me kept dying because of the cold. I had to recycle them often and keep them warm with my body heat by putting them between my long underwear and thick Carhartts. While my batteries kept warm under the layers, my lips and face felt stiff and frozen as I asked handlers questions in the 30-below weather. I went inside to warm up for about 10 minutes and a dog team left without me knowing it. It was a catch-22 situation; I knew I had to keep myself warm, but also get photos of the race.

The resort was disorganized when it came to finding race officials and checkpoint staff to figure out when mushers were leaving. No one working at the resort we asked knew much about the race so it was a challenge to find the dog lot and mushers to interview.

Overall it was a fun experience. Watching the interaction between the mushers, handlers and dogs definitely makes me appreciate the sport in a new way.