Yukon Quest Notebook

CENTRAL — In the Yukon Quest 300-mile race, Sven Haltman took a 53-minute lead into Central, the second-to-last checkpoint.

Haltman is a Fairbanks resident who recently moved near the Elliott Highway. He is training for the Iditarod.

The only other musher to reach Central is Mangus Kaltenborn, who arrived at 4:12 p.m. Sunday.

After a mandatory six-hour layover in Central, the mushers will head to Circle and turn around to finish back in Central.

This is February?

The blistering cold of the Alaska Interior has yet to play a part in this year’s Quest.

High temperatures were once again in the teens, though some stiff breezes countered the warmth in certain areas. It was zero degrees Fahrenheit at the Central airport — the nearest National Weather Service reading in the mushers’ area.

According to the NWS, the temperature in the finish-line city of Whitehorse, Yukon, rose to 37 degrees at 3 p.m. AST Sunday. But warm weather and an unstable river may not be a threat, as the midpoint of Dawson City, Yukon, reached a chilly high of 8 degrees Sunday.

On the road again

Hugh Neff couldn’t help but find this funny.

One year ago, he had been penalized for taking the Steese Highway outside of Central, and now the trail markers were leading him on the same road, legally this time.

The two-hour penalty contributed to his runner up finish — four minutes behind winner Sebastian Schnuelle.

“I definitely had some deja vu coming down the road here, coming into town,” he said. “It was pretty funny. I was singing ‘On The Road Again’ by Willie Nelson.”

The trail ahead

As mushers travel from Central to Circle, the next checkpoint, they travel along Birch Creek, one of the coldest spots on the trail.

For spectators, an excellent viewing spot is the Steese Highway bridge over Birch Creek.