DAWSON CITY, Yukon — Dog teams aren’t alone in running the Yukon Quest trail this winter.
The 1,000-mile trail between Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon, and Fairbanks gets packed down
each year for the sled dog race and marked with wooded stakes topped with reflective tape.
The existence of the long cross-country route attracts runners, bikers, skiers and snowmachiners
in addition to Quest teams.
Fairbanks cyclist Jeff Oatley biked the Yukon Quest trail from Fairbanks to Whitehorse last year and
holds the record time for the Iditarod Trail Invitational, the 1,000-mile race that follows the course of the Iditarod.
This year he’s trying to link the two trails for a 2,000-mile trip from Skagway to Whitehorse to Fairbanks to Nome.
Oatley ended up exceeding his 60-mile goal on the day before he came to Dawson, riding 98 miles in one long day in
order to arrive in Dawson and skip a night of camping at 30 below
There’s no annual distance sled dog race from Fairbanks to Nome, but Oatley has worked out an itinerary of local
trails that will connect him with the Iditarod trail in the Lower Yukon River.