Three Pack
Jodi Bailey smiles after finishing her race
The “three-pack” has finished the Yukon Quest. The three teams worked together to finish the race, which is not unheard of for a race that incorporates the Code of the North and a feeling of camaraderie among mushers.
Halfway through the race, Jodi Bailey left Dawson almost four hours ahead of Mike Ellis and Dave Dalton. But out on the Yukon River, the weather took a turn, and so did Bailey, and a few hours later, she found herself back at the Dawson dog camp just in time to catch Ellis and Dalton checking out.
The group of three mushers decided to head for the Alaskan border together and they have been running their teams more or less together ever since. Despite traveling with two other teams, Mike Ellis says he never lost sight of the finish line.
For rookie Jodi Bailey, deciding when to race was based on a combination of weather and dog care.
Dave Dalton has run the Quest 21 times. He may be the only musher that didn’t seem to think this year’s race was plagued by bad weather.
But Mike Ellis says he knew it was going to be bad when he watched trail markers blow past him in the wind.
Just because they were behind the leaders doesn’t mean Bailey, Ellis and Dalton didn’t also face a difficult trail in the second half of the race. Ellis says the trail was challenging, but hearing about what was happening to some of his fellow mushers at the front of the pack was even worse.
Jodi Bailey's dogs look for snacks after finishing the race
Jodi Bailey says traveling in a group with two veterans was lucky, but she was still surprised by the parts of the race that she found most difficult.
All three mushers said that they had great teams running in this year’s race. Bailey couldn’t pick just one or two. Dave Dalton has been training puppies behind two nine year old leaders for the past two years. He named almost every dog on his team as a superstar. But Mike Ellis said there was one dog in particular on his team that deserves a steak after finishing the race.
Although a veteran to the Yukon Quest, Ellis says he is undecided about running it again next year. Dave Dalton says he thinks his team of puppies is finally ready to be competitive in next year’s run. Jodi Bailey will go on to run the 2011 Iditarod in March.
