Husky News

Next-door neighbors Lance Mackey and Ken Anderson of Fairbanks will pull out of the final checkpoint at Braeburn early this afternoon, beginning their final push to the finish line of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race 100 miles away.

A winner is expected in Whitehorse, Yukon, well before dawn Wednesday.

Mackey will leave Braeburn about 19 minutes before Anderson is allowed to depart.

Both mushers thought that Mackey, who is seeking his fourth consecutive Yukon Quest title, was in the driver’s seat.

I’m not willing to give it away,” Mackey told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Carmacks, Yukon. “I’m going to fight to the very end. If he’s going to win this, he’s damn sure going to earn it.”

Anderson agreed that Mackey, who still has 12 dogs in harness, is in control.

“He has bad luck now and then, but he’s not otherwise going to do something stupid,” Anderson said. “He’s definitely in the driver’s seat.”

A mistake by Mackey gave Anderson an opportunity during the last couple of days.

Mackey missed a turn on King Solomon’s Dome near Dawson City on Saturday morning, a blunder that cost him three to four hours.

“I’m kickin’ myself in the butt all day,” Mackey said in Carmacks. “I would have been here three hours ago, basically. … Four hours is a lot in a race like this, where there’s minimal room for error, and I made a huge one.”

Mackey explained what happened while stopping for a few minutes at the Pelly Crossing checkpoint to grab cached supplies.

“It was my own fault. (I was) running without a headlamp,” he said. “I was enjoying the full-lit moon and went right past the trail markers.”

Mackey was forced to cut some rest to reel Anderson back in with a 10-hour run. After they leapfrogged a couple of times, Mackey’s speedy dogs erased a one-hour deficit and he was content to follow Anderson’s pace on the final stretch to Carmacks.

“It’s always easier to follow a scent, and my thought is: I’m still playing catch-up from lost time out of Dawson,” Mackey said. “So it’s easier for me to trail (him) and kind of save a little of those reserves.”

And now he’s ahead going into the stretch run to Whitehorse, after a mandatory eight-hour break at Braeburn.

The winner gets $35,000 and the runner-up $25,000.

“Ken’s been mixin’ it up and keepin’ it interesting and keepin’ me on my toes,” Mackey said. “It’s fun. It really is fun.”

Source: Anchorage Daily News