DAWSON CITY — Six mushers, including one Yukoner, had already lit out from Dawson and hit the Yukon Quest trail as of noon today. Quest veteran Brent Sass was more than 180 kilometres west of the Klondike checkpoint — where mushers take a mandatory 24-hour stopover — and well into Alaska. He made his exit Wednesday afternoon.

More than 50 kilometres behind him rode recent Quest champion Allen Moore.

The now-57-year-old veteran was still in second place at Dawson in 2013 and 2014 before going on to win both races.

Hugh Neff, two dogs down and struggling in the cold with a stubborn team, took off at around midnight.

Behind him were Joar Leifseth Ulsom, Ray Redington Jr. and Ed Hopkins.

However, it was announced this morning that Redington, who was down to eight dogs, has scratched from the race.

Hopkins, a Tagish-area musher, averted catastrophe this morning when RCMP opened their shed before working hours to give him access to his sled, locked inside.

His team’s trailer had been locked up on RCMP grounds at the Mounties’ open invitation to mushers.

But the police clearly stated that participants who use that service will not have access to their equipment between midnight and 10 a.m., when the officers are off duty.

At 5 a.m., a handler burst into the local visitor centre — the Quest HQ for the week — and requested a call to a local officer to rouse him early and free Hopkins’ sleigh. He was due to leave shortly after 10 a.m.

All worked out in the end, with the shed opened by a slightly sleepy Mountie at around 8:30 a.m.

Things did not work out so well for Rolland Trowbridge.

The rookie from Nome, Alaska, “got in over his head,” according to one Canadian Ranger who came to his aid after Trowbridge activated his transponder for assistance at 5:15 p.m. yesterday.

Though his dogs “were healthy,” according to race officials, they refused to go any further. The team had 70 kilometres left to drive before hitting Dawson.

Trowbridge’s two lead dogs were in heat, along with a third, partly accounting for the team’s resistance, said race marshal Doug Grilliot.

“He’s fine, the dogs are fine,” Grilliot said late Wednesday night.

Rangers gathered supplies and rushed to the isolated area — roughly halfway between Dawson City and the Scroggie Creek rest point — to deliver straw, dog food, “people food” and a complete resupply kit by 9:30 p.m.

Trowbridge, 43, was escorted to a nearby cabin south of King Solomon’s Dome until Rangers could snowmobile him out.

The plan was to deliver about a dozen kennels on “skidders” so the dog team could be transported to the nearest extraction point.

Brian Wilmshurst, a Quest veteran and Dawson hometown hero of sorts, saw the snowmachines heading out to rescue Trowbridge on the trail.

“That was a bummer,” Wilmshurst said.

He also spotted Trowbridge himself camped out in “a bad spot” and became concerned. Later, Dave Dalton pulled up at Wilmshurst’s campsite under a bridge south of Dawson and told him the rookie was having trouble.

“The dogs just wouldn’t go,” Wilmshurst added.

He and last-place musher Magnus Kaltenborn also loaned dog food to Lance Mackey at one point, whose supplies were depleted from extended rests on the dogs’ behalf.

“It was so cold and I ran out of food and I ended up staying in Scroggie….”

The generous mushers “saved my ass, or I’d probably be riding the bus about now,” he said.

Mackey, a four-time Quest champion, drifted into Dawson after 4 a.m. today.

“This is the smallest reception I’ve ever got,” he said, heavy-eyed.

Mackey, 44, said the hardest part of the trek for his young team was “getting them to go again after I’d stopped.”

Bringing up the back end of the mushing pack, Mackey said he would eat, nap, “and make a decision from there” on whether to continue on through the second half of the race.

So far, six mushers have scratched from the 1,600-kilometre marathon, which launched last Saturday in Whitehorse: Redington, Jeff King, Matt Hall, Scott Smith, Tamra Reynolds and Tony Angelo.

Trowbridge is out too, but whether he is “withdrawn” or “disqualified” — a more technical discharge — remains to be determined by Grilliot.