Horse, beef, turkey, chicken, salmon and kibble.

That’s what Ed Hopkins’ huskies will be dining on along the Yukon Quest trail next month.

“Nothing high tech,” Hopkins said of his sled dog team’s diet. “Each bag has three-and-a-half pounds of beef, and then I’ll have another bag with 14 snacks – fish or chicken fat or something like that.”

In total, the food bags took about two weeks to prepare, said the veteran musher from Tagish.

“God, it seemed like it was an all-year deal,” he chuckled. “It only took me five hours to put it all together, but there is a lot of steps before like bagging your food and cutting up your meat.”

Every year, the Yukon Quest food drop happens simultaneously in Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska, signalling the start of the 1,600-kilometre sled dog race.

Eight Yukon Quest mushers were expected to drop off supply bags at the Kluane Freight Lines warehouse in the Yukon capital, as well as 12 Yukon Quest 300 mushers, said race official Holly Smith.

Musher Rob Cooke said while the dogs’ diet is paramount, he too will be eating better on the trail this year.

With the help of mushing friend Krys March, Cooke will be dining on his share of soups and other munchies.

“Two years ago, I lost a hell of a lot of weight on the race,” he said. “The dogs were fine, but I need to make sure I eat a lot this year, and it’s important to have stuff you will eat when you’re really tired.”

Cooke said he began preparing his dogs’ booties in September – including powdering them to keep his huskies’ paws dry.

Cooke cut his meat three weeks ago, but didn’t remove it from the trailer due to the warm temperatures in Carcross.

“We didn’t want to separate it because we’re off grid and have no freezers,” he explained. “We were at the mercy of the weather. It’s been a fairly long process and yesterday was pretty intense.”

The bags of food were packed into a refrigerated trailer, bound for Pelly Crossing and Dawson City this week alongside hundreds of straw bales.

Food dropped off in Fairbanks will be shipped to their Yukon destinations, while a separate trailer with the local mushers’ supplies will head north prior to the race start Feb. 7 in Whitehorse.