Video: Yukon Quest’s Dog Sled Race of a Thousand Miles Begins with the First, “Mush!”

The 31st annual Yukon Quest dog sled race started Saturday morning in Fairbanks, Alaska, and thousands from around the world came out to witness it. Eighteen teams, primarily from the United States and Canada, are competing in the race that takes mushers on about a thousand mile journey between Fairbanks and Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

According to the official Yukon Quest website, where you can track the sled teams’ progress in real time, the trail follows historic Gold Rush and mail delivery dog sled routes from the turn of the 20th Century.

The teams are made up of 6 to 14 dogs.

Every year the start and finish locations alternate, so each community gets the opportunity to experience both. This year, due to the unseasonable warm weather (a mystery, I’m sure, to those in the Lower 48), both the start in Fairbanks and the finish in the Yukon Territory had to be modified. In Fairbanks, rather than starting on the normally frozen solid Chena River, earth-movers brought in tons of snow Friday night for the teams to launch down 2nd Avenue Saturday. In Canada, the race will not end with the sled drivers mushing up the frozen Yukon River into Whitehorse, but rather in Takhini Hot Springs, located about 18 miles north of town.

Because of the change to the finish and others along the course, the usual thousand mile journey will be closer to 900 miles, and the winner will likely be pulling into Takhini Hot Springs by next Sunday, or so. The record time set last year, also on a shortened course, was 8 days, 18 hours, 39 minutes.