The 2009 Junior Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race will take place in Fairbanks on Saturday, Feb 7th.
The Junior Yukon Quest is held in early February for youth ages 14-17. The trail takes the drivers and their dog teams down the Yukon Quest trail to Twin Bears for a mandatory 8 hour rest and then returns along the same trail to North Pole. Here the drivers have a mandatory 4 hour rest which requires the drivers to practice and display their camping skills for the race judges. After this 4 hour rest the teams proceed to the finish line in Fairbanks.
The Junior Yukon Quest is intended to mimic a mid distance race in the span of 135 miles, giving the junior mushers experience in as many of the elements of a longer race as possible. Towards this end the junior mushers are required to carry much of the same mandatory equipment as mushers in the Yukon Quest and the YQ300, they will have a food drop at Twin Bears and the second mandatory layover is intended to force the drivers to set up camp in the middle of the run. Instead of a simple out and back trail, this adds one more element requiring the mushers to calculate the food and supplies required to set up camp along the trail, interrupt the rhythm of the team, get them fed and bedded down for a bit of rest and then rally the team once again for the final run into the finish line.
2009 Documents:2009 JrYQ Rules2009 JrYQ Entry FormFor more info about the Junior Yukon Quest, contact the Fairbanks office at 907-452-7954 or email yukonquest@mosquitonet.com.
