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We’re running with the huskies for today’s Geo Quiz: The Yukon Quest is under way. 25 mushers and their sled dogs left Whitehorse in Canada’s Yukon Territory on Sunday. They’re headed northwest to Fairbanks, Alaska – 1,000 miles away, as the dogs run.

The race retraces snowy routes that were used well before the age of snowmobiles during the Gold Rush. “Well I’m here at the halfway mark for the Yukon Quest and we have had our top ten mushers arrive in the early hours of the morning and we have 100 people hanging out at the checkpoint waiting for our mushers to come in its very exciting here, ” says Wendy Morrison, one of the race organizers.

So where is that halfway point between White Horse and Fairbanks?

Well, the answer is a northern city that was once a bustling mix of mining supply shops, camps and saloons during the Klondike Gold Rush. As the mushers drive their sleds into the checkpoint, they come in along the Yukon River.

“Often we’ll see headlights coming along the river and towards the checkoint in it’s a real sense of anticipation people can’t wait to see the team to see the dogs and we’ve been up into the wee hours of the morning watching each team come in”.

Now you might still be spreading out your maps to locate this old gold town. But we’re going to cut to the chase. The answer is Dawson, or Dawson City, the halfway point of the race. Mushers have come from as far away as Australia, France and Norway to compete.

When a musher arrives in Dawson, Morrison says the team has to take a break. “As soon as the official part of the checkin is done, he goes and greets all of his dogs and gives them a big pat, and thanks them for a great run, and then gets back on his sled and heads over to the campground where he’ll bed down his dogs, they’re here a for a 36-hour mandatory layover, so its a really good opportunity for the dogs and the musher to get a really good rest”.

It’s a much deserved rest to be sure. The sled dogs have been running more than 200 miles since the last check point. And a chilly rest. The temperature in Dawson this morning was down around minus 22 F and windy. Mushers and dogs still have another 500 miles to go before they reach Fairbanks. Next stop. Eagle, Alaska.