Greetings from Dawson City!!

Our trip from Denali went well ~ we stopped in Whitehorse for the night on Tuesday and arrived in Dawson City with time to spare for Wednesday evenings Musher Meeting. Ellen got signed up at the meeting, making her the third Husky Homestead Team in the Percy de Wolfe Race – no turning back after that!

We were ready to go pretty early this morning and headed to our assigned parking spot on Third Avenue to drop and feed the dogs. Jeff, Ellen and Dave each went through their sleds and were double checked by race officials who wanted to make sure that they had their mandatory gear on board.\. We were quite surprised to find out at the musher meeting that the mushers would all carry a GPS. Go figure! Just when you thought you were done being pinned down to the computer…. You can track the crew online via the Percy website at www.thepercy.com or click here for a direct link to the GPS tracker.

Jeff took off with bib #3, Miss Ellen had bib #5, and Dave wrapped up the Shake n’ Bake team with bib #13.

The crew will be running 9 dog teams – here’s a breakdown:
Jeff’s team: Dublin, Dollar, Shannon, Klarney, Ross, Bronte, Solomon, Maverick and Viper. (All of these dogs finished the Iditarod with Jeff.)
Ellen’s team: Deets, Call, Kronkite, Teddy, Berkeley, Opel, Snoopy, Charger and Cadet.
Dave’s team: Titan, Sussex, UConn, Panda, Alamo, Charles, Beetle, Skeeter and Colonel.

As I write this, Ellen’s GPS is not working and still shows her back at the start. It may show up later as the GPS units have to be reset by personnel at a point along the trail, but the plan was for her to travel in close proximity to Dave.

The weather was cloudy this morning and the temperatures were quite mild. The sun has just come out here in Dawson (it’s gorgeous!), but when I walked over to the Yukon River earlier this morning I could barely see to the first bend in the river. Just lots & lots of white…

I took a few photos to share with you!

Ellen takes time out of getting ready to model some of her Cabela’s gear.

Giving a little cuddle to Kronkite while putting some booties on him.

King Street in Dawson – home to the start of the Percy deWolfe Memorial Mail Race.

Two year old all-star Opel stopped playing long enough for Jeff to get her bootied.

Dave gets his team ready in the dog trailer.

Jeff making sure that his video camera is ready to roll! Look for some videos after we return home.

Father and Daughter take a moment to model their “Tasty Byte” and “Icy Waters” sponsor bibs. Ellen was hoping that her bib was not a precursor to something she may encounter on the Yukon…

A race offical has a few last words for Jeff before he heads out at the start.

Dave and Ellen offering up a little bit of “Shake n’ Bake” action before they head out onto the trail.

Posing at the start…. 🙂

Dave and team get ready to hit the trail.

The crew expected that they would finish up some time tomorrow afternoon. I plan on being at the finish to watch them come in and take a few more pictures. We’ll see what tomorrow evening holds, but I’ll see if I can’t get a second blog posted before we leave Dawson on Sunday morning.

In the mean time – don’t forget to check the Percy deWolfe website for race updates!!

Happy Trails,
Carrie