Volunteers get set to break trail for the Yukon Quest
Roughly 1,600 kilometers of trails must be groomed for the annual sled dog race
CBC News
Posted: Dec 30, 2012 9:59 AM CST
Last Updated: Dec 30, 2012 9:58 AM CST
Volunteers are preparing to break trail for the running of the 2013 Yukon Quest International sled dog race between Whitehorse, Yukon and Fairbanks, Alaska.
One of the most difficult and time-consuming jobs will be placing roughly 10,000, four-foot-high trail markers along the 1,600-kilometer course. About 5,000 of them will be placed on the Canadian side of the trail. Inmates at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre have spent the past six weeks constructing the wooden posts.
Race Manager Alex Oleson says they won't know what conditions are like along the route until they get people on the trails and down the Yukon River.
But he says they are preparing for anything.
"You just have to assume that it is going to go to hell and get ready for that and if it doesn't than you're OK," he said.
Twenty-six teams are registered for the 30th running of the Quest. This year's field includes four Yukoners and one musher from Yellowknife.
The race starts in Whitehorse on Feb. 2, 2013.
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