Flanders veterinarian to finally finish Yukon Quest

Nobody had to talk Lori Walker into volunteering with Yukon Quest, a 1,000-mile dogsled race from Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory to Fairbanks, Alaska. She’s been preparing herself since the 1980s.

A mobile veterinarian with Flanders-based VETdispatch, Walker first heard about the event when she was a kid from her own vet, Jean Buist of Sparta. Buist’s son, Pete, was on the board of directors when Yukon Quest launched in 1984 and convinced his mom to fly up and participate.

Jean Buist quickly became “a fixture” at the Yukon Quest, volunteering annually for decades. Walker flew to Fairbanks on Saturday to start final preparations for this year’s race, which begins this Saturday in Whitehorse. There are 26 sled-dog teams and mushers, and 12 veterinarians from around the world.

“Our slogan is, ‘It takes 1,000 people to go 1,000 miles,’ and the vets are part of that thousand,” said Marti Steury, the executive director of Yukon Quest, and one of the event’s original organizers.

Walker raised almost $1,500 to cover the cost of the trip and her gear, which included a sleeping bag rated to minus 40 degrees and boots that can handle minus 60. Though Walker has only experienced temperatures around minus 20, her biggest concern is sleep deprivation.

“When a team pulls in, I have to get up and get out there in the cold and take care of these dogs, whether I just fell asleep or not,” said Walker, a Sparta resident who also owns an alpaca farm in Lafayette. “I’m very excited to get into it and find out. Most people who do this do it year after year, so there must be something good about it. There must be a draw if they keep going back.”

The vets were scheduled to take a 12-hour bus ride today from Fairbanks to the start in Whitehorse, where they will receive gear and a vehicle, then be teamed up into pairs – a veteran vet with a rookie like Walker.

The dogs – mostly 40-pound Alaskan huskies, a mix between a Siberian and shorter-haired runners like greyhounds – travel 100 miles per day on average and will get a full physical at checkpoints along the way. The vets will look for dehydration and nutrition problems, strains and breaks, since, Walker said, “the dogs are so hyped up, they have to be encouraged to eat and drink.”

It should take 10 to 14 days for the teams to complete the course.

“It’s not like a brisk afternoon in New Jersey,” said Pete Buist, a forester and wildland firefighter based in Fairbanks, who still returns to Vernon in the winter. “It was all her idea. I had to talk my mom into it. I didn’t have to talk Lori into it. … It’ll be a new experience, but she’s ready.”

Staff Writer Jane Havsy: 973-428-6682; jhavsy@dailyrecord.com; www.dailyrecord.com/writerjane/