Tim just rolled in from working the whole night at the Braeburn check stop for the Yukon Quest. He was kept quite busy most of the night delivering food and straw to all the teams, as well as helping teams get in and out of the checkstop. There were 28 teams for the Yukon Quest and another 17 teams for the Yukon 300 (a Quest/Iditarod qualifying race that runs behind the Quest for 300 miles).
Mushers spend their first hour into a checkpoint feeding and caring for their dogs. Put down straw for each dog, Snack with fish right away, get water boiling for stew, check every dogs feet and joints (knees, shoulders etc.), give massages and lots of love and then feed stew and get them settled in for their rest.
Braeburn is a mandatory 2 hour stop for the Quest mushers and 6 hour stop for the Yukon 300 mushers. Most Quest mushers spent 5-6 hours there as they run 5 "on" (i.e. out running) and then 5 "off" (i.e. 5 hours rest in either a check stop or camped out on the side of the trail) cycles.
The bags on the blue sled are 50 lb food bags for teams (one bag per team that they have individually packed) and are mostly filled with frozen meat or fish. The fish gets given to the dogs frozen as a snack right away and the meat is turned into a stew like substance over a small camp stove to keep the dogs nurished and warm.
Mushers spend their first hour into a checkpoint feeding and caring for their dogs. Put down straw for each dog, Snack with fish right away, get water boiling for stew, check every dogs feet and joints (knees, shoulders etc.), give massages and lots of love and then feed stew and get them settled in for their rest.