FAIRBANKS — Usually, the opening chute of a sled dog race isn’t a quarter-mile long.

But that’s about how far the rows of onlookers stretched as fans lined up to watch the start of the 27th Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race on the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks.

Temperatures in the teens created inviting conditions for thousands of spectators to make their way down to the frozen Chena. Others packed the overlooking Cushman Street bridge sidewalks and the footbridge to the east.

Two Rivers musher Abbie West led the first dog team through the pair of human fences Saturday morning.

Standing on her runners as the announcer counted down her departure, West bobbed and wore an anxious grin before her dogs launched her upriver.

Three minutes later, Zack Steer was the antithesis of West — the picture of calm as he waited to pose for a photo with his lead dogs, walked to his sled after he was cleared to leave, kissed his wife goodbye and mushed off with a thumbs-up for the crowd and no hat on his head.

Steer was already feeling some positive vibes before he arrived downtown. On the way from Goldstream Valley that morning, he towed a stranded car out of a ditch near Ballaine Road.

Bart de Marie, the 14th to leave, had an unexpected chore of his own. One of his dogs slipped its collar off the night before, and de Marie had to dig through snow with a headlamp on until he found it.

That added drama to a landmark morning for de Marie. The Quest is the Belgian’s first 1,000-mile race with his own dogs since he founded his kennel in Saskatchewan.

“As soon as we loaded (the dogs) up in the truck, then you know: It’s coming! It’s coming!” he said.

Fairbanks rookie Terry Williams was one of the first to arrive at the race start and admitted he was a bit nervous.

Fellow rookie Katie Davis said she was antsy to get on the trail after arriving from Montana three weeks ago.

Several folks in the packed crowd said they’d been awaiting this day for a while, too.

“It’s exciting to have this kind of thing in Fairbanks,” said spectator Mirjam Weber, a grad student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “There’s not a lot of events like this here.”

While the crowd cheered local favorites such as Brent Sass and Lance Mackey, the Swiss-born Weber let out a lonely shout for Pierre-Antoine Heritier’s home country of Switzerland.

Fox musher Ken Anderson was encouraged by a forest of signs near the footbridge. They were made by Farthest North Girl Scout Troop 216. Anderson had helped them earn their dog mushing badges.

Steer was the first into the Two Rivers checkpoint at Twin Bears Campground, about 45 trail miles away, and Sass leads the race after blowing through the checkpoint at 3:54 p.m.

Eight others decided not to stop at Two Rivers, and all 24 have departed the checkpoint. Mushers will have to traverse Rosebud Summit (with an altitude of 3,640 feet) in the 82 miles before the next checkpoint — a two-hour mandatory layover at Mile 101.