Eye on the Trail: Sass is First to the Yukon

Posted by in Iditarod
Date: March 11, 2022 11:48 am

Brent Sass Rests Between Nicolai and McGrath (Photo by Insider)

Veteran Iditarod musher Brent Sass (bib #27), of Eureka, Alaska, is the first to arrive at the Ruby checkpoint at 5:57 a.m. today with 13 dogs in harness.

In doing so, Sass claims The Lakefront Anchorage First Musher to the Yukon Award. The award consists of a five-course gourmet meal prepared by The Lakefront Anchorage executive chef Mark Castillo.

The menu consists of an appetizer of pan-seared blackened shrimp served with mango chutney and cucumber. To warm up the musher from the trail, a reindeer minestrone soup with crostini bread follows the starter. Next is an iceberg wedge lettuce salad served with bacon, apple, blue cheese crumbles and dried cranberries. The entrée is an 8 oz. seared beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon with sides of asparagus, baby carrots, fingerling potatoes and a red wine mushroom sauce. Dessert is a trio cheesecake bar with strawberry sauce.

Billy Honea Enjoys the First Musher to the Yukon Meal Presented by the Lakefront to Brent Sass (Photo by Insider)

Brent declined the meal so that he could stay on his schedule.  Instead, the Lakefront Chef prepared the meal for local legend, Billy Honea.  Nate Titus joined Billy for the exquisite meal served in the Ruby community Building.  Billy, the son of Don Honea has been involved with mushing all his life.  The senior Honea has completed 4 Iditarod runs and finished in the top 10 three times.  Billy has never run Iditarod but he certainly has been instrumental in running the Ruby checkpoint.  He’s served as the checker for nearly half the life of the race and has helped in numerous other ways, all necessary for a smoothly run checkpoint.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all to hear that Billy was at the checkpoint to welcome the first musher to the Yukon – even at 5:57 AM. 

This is a first for Sass.  He has earned the Half-way Award three years running but this is the first time he’s been the first musher to reach the Yukon River. Sass will receive an “After Dinner Mint” of $3,500 in one-dollar bills along with a bottle of Dom Pérignon.