麻豆社区

The stacks of recycled feed bags, crammed full of dog food, rose as tall as a man.

Hundreds of bags 鈥� chock full of moose strips, chicken, beef, and beaver 鈥� were piled onto pallets in a warehouse in Whitehorse's industrial area Saturday afternoon.

Each bag bore the name of the musher and the checkpoint to where it was headed.

The scene was that of the annual Yukon Quest food drop 鈥� one of the most important events on a musher's pre-race schedule.

Mushers and their handlers mingled together while waiting for their opportunity to unload their pickup trucks and trailers on a brisk afternoon that saw temperatures dip below -20 C.

Whitehorse musher Normand Casavant spent the last two weeks preparing his 25 bags for the food drop. His dogs' main course throughout the Quest will be moose scraps.

"Plus for sure, I'm adding some chicken, chicken fat, beef, fish, kibble 鈥� a big mix.鈥�

Casavant said his pre-race preparation was going perfectly, save for a moment of panic on Saturday.

"I was completely ready until this morning, until they asked me, 鈥榃here is your sheet of paper? Where is your inventory form?' And I said what are you talking about? I completely forgot to fill it out,鈥� he said.

YQ300 musher Tamra Reynolds, 2012 Quest champion Hugh Neff's former handler, was attending her first food drop for her own dog team. She dropped off 12 bags, four for each YQ300 checkpoint.

The Annie Lake musher said most of the process is simply cutting up meat and assembling equipment.

"I'm used to putting together 1,000 mile races, so 300 doesn't seem like very much at all,鈥� she told the Star.

Her dogs will feed on beef, chicken and fish. She said the majority of her meat comes by truck via Quebec.

"This is already the actual start of the race,鈥� said Yukon Quest board president Joose van der Putten of the food drop.

"The mushers have been preparing their food for some weeks now, they have been preparing the dogs, and this is the point where it starts.

"If they don't have it ready now, they're going to have problems in the rest of the race.鈥�

Three truck companies will combine to distribute the bags to the appropriate checkpoints, explained assistant race manager Alex Brook.

"These companies all need to co-ordinate their efforts to make sure all the stuff gets to where it's got to be,鈥� he said.

Brook estimated the number of bags involved to be in the hundreds.

"I was going to say almost thousands,鈥� he chuckled. "It will feel like thousands by the time we're done.鈥�

"It's a big job for the musher to make sure he's got everything he's going to need, because if he misses something, there's no going to the store to pick it up on the trail,鈥� Brook said. "So there's a big onus on them to get it all right. They've got to double check their list to make sure they've got everything they're going to need when they're out on the trail.鈥�

Dog food isn't the only material packed into the bags. Sled equipment and extra dog booties are also shipped, as are 400 bales of straw.

Two food drops occur simultaneously 鈥� one in Whitehorse, and the other in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Mushers can choose which of the two drops they wish to attend. About 20 were expected to visit the Whitehorse drop Saturday.

The dogs are scheduled to undergo veterinary checks next weekend.