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Photo by Sam Harrel

Cor Guimond has three cabins on the Yukon River and knows the frozen waterway as well as anyone. But Wednesday night, he had a hard time finding Eagle.

Guimond, an old-time trapper, showed up at the Eagle Public School with boots and pants caked in ice despite a trail from Trout Creek that had others praising its quality.

Guimond lost the main trail — his dogs left it to follow a snowmachiner’s distant headlight — and ended up going through jumble ice, deep snow and finally overflow that he hadn’t anticipated. The ordeal turned what should have been a pleasant two-hour jaunt on the final 17 miles to Eagle into a four-hour misadventure.

“My dogs quit on me and then I had to drag them on the old trail and it turned into overflow,” Guimond said after changing into dry clothes at the checkpoint while his sopping gear dried over a wood stove. “So I’m wet from head to toe and it didn’t do any good for the dogs’ heads.”

Part of the problem was the brighter of Guimond’s two headlamps wasn’t working so he didn’t immediately realize that the dogs had gone astray.

“I screwed up twice just because of a lousy headlamp,” Guimond said. “That’s my fault, nobody else’s.”

The unflappable 57-year old from Dawson City was no worse for the wear, though.

“Oh well, I’m still having fun,” Guimond said.

Estey reaches Eagle

Julie Estey was flown to Eagle with her dogs and dismantled sled on Thursday and hoped to reach Dawson City on Friday.

Estey became the first musher ever to scratch at the remote Slaven’s Roadhouse on Wednesday after suffering a debilitating knee injury heading through jumble ice just 10 miles after leaving Circle.

“I just laid there screaming,” Estey said about likely tearing her MCL. “At that point, I thought my race was over. I went through a mourning process. It was a tough moment.”

Estey, however, still had more 40 miles of trail to cover — including additional jumble ice.

“The dogs saved me. We eked our way through there,” Estey said, adding that her survival instinct kicked in, as well as her adrenaline.

The pain was so great, though, that Estey almost deployed the emergency beacon she was carrying.

“I was so close to sending out a rescue signal,” she said.

Being forced to scratch — even though the dog team was doing well — was the hardest decision she’s ever faced.

“I’m coming to terms with it now,” Estey said. “I had the adventure of a lifetime, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”