For our first season in the Yukon, Greg and Ilana have been participating in the Yukon Brewing Copper Haul League sponsored by Jon & Debbie’s Skywolf K9 Adventures Dogsled Tours. The 10 mile race happens at the Copper Haul trail starting at Fish Lake road.
Greg has been taking the strong team of six (Siren, Jack, Geri, Chaos, Yukon, & Timber) and Ilana has been taking the not-as-strong team of five (Allie, Axel, Ted, Moose, & Kraken). Keeping consistent with our 15+ year of red lanterns, the StinkyPups have placed last and second to last at this local race (go Stinkers!).
The race included a handicap scoring system with points. To be entered in the final chance to win a trophy and cash, mushers needed to attend all four monthly races and get the most points. Greg was all set to win the trophy/cash, as he was in last place; but due to a scheduling conflict with a local marathon on March 13, 2021, Greg skipped the mushing event and opted to run the marathon [temps ranged from -3F/-14.4C to 7F/-13.8C]. Ilana took the strongest team– we’ll sort of (we can’t run Geri/Allie & Axel on the same team because the girls don’t get along) and ran with Allie & Axel (lead), Jack & Chaos (point), Timber & Yukon (wheel). We ran our best time of the season, 58m 43s and ended up being the League champions for the season !
Greg had a great time running in the cold temps completed 26.4miles in around 5.5 hours. There was a lot of soft snow.
As I write this on March 21, 2021 there is still snow on the ground and it’s even snowing a little bit. This Stinker is thankful for a long winter season!
![Ilana with trophy and fish at the last Copper Haul League race March 13, 2021](https://stinkypup.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ilana-red-lantern-copper-league-2021-225x300.png)
![Greg at the start of the March 2021 marathon](https://stinkypup.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/gregmarathon2021-300x146.jpg)