Musher nears end of 1,000-mile race

After more than 10 days on the trail, Olney musher Katie Davis is 23rd out of 25 mushers in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest sled dog race.

Davis reached the Carmacks checkpoint at 12:24 a.m. Wednesday.

After one more checkpoint, she and her dog team will head for the finish at Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory.

The race started Feb. 6 in Fairbanks, Alaska, and was won on Monday, Feb. 15, by Hans Gatt, a Yukon Quest veteran from Whitehorse.

Davis has finished the 1,000-mile Iditarod race and is in her first Yukon Quest race.

She recently encountered the challenges of “overflow” water and ice on the trail, according to a blog update from her support crew.

“It is where water comes over the ice and may be deep or may be shallow but sometimes it is standing water,” says the update at www.eveningstarkennel.blogspot.com.

“Bear in mind that they are traveling in the dark. They do have very bright headlamps that shine ahead, but the team is on a line stretching more than 30 feet ahead of them.”

Davis was successful in coaxing her team to move through overflow encounters. Even though there are rigors and obstacles on the trail, there also are benefits.

“Katie reports that the Northern Lights were so impressive last night that she felt like a tourist!” the blog says. “She had her eyes to the sky — one of the rewards for being on the trail in the middle of the night going over the river and through the bush!”