PELLY CROSSING It was 'devastating' to have to drop almost half her dog team, says Yukon Quest musher Kelley Griffin.

The Wasilla, Alaska resident had eight dogs left on Wednesday. She started the race with 14.

A musher must have at least six dogs to be permitted to cross the Fairbanks finish line.

Muscle tissue was breaking down on one dog, Bowing. That can lead to athlete's heart syndrome, where a dog just drops dead after its heart stops.

'That makes me a little nervous, so he went back to the truck,' said Griffin.

That dog's brother, MacDonald, was just exhausted, she said.

'He wasn't having any fun,' Griffin said about her decision to drop him.

A third dog, Couger, developed tendinitis in his pectoral muscles.

His sister, Rainbow, was afflicted with a sore shoulder, as was another dog, Spice.

Rainbow quitting was a big shock for the 45-year-old musher, as the female dog has finished the Quest as many times as Griffin has three.

'It's emotionally devastating. Rainbow!' Griffin cried about the loss.

'Some of this trail is kind of punchy,' she added.

Punchy trails often lead to shoulder injuries. As teams went over the trail before Griffin, they chewed it all up with their tromping.

'You're not stopping as effectively, so you're running over your own dogs,' Griffin said about the punctured trail.

The only nice stretch of trail she's encountered was going into the first checkpoint back in Braeburn. The Quest began in Whitehorse last Sunday afternoon.

Another dropped dog, Bogar, was just sore all over.

'There's so many (dogs dropped) I just can't remember,' said a tired Griffin, who was just about to take a nap in the Pelly checkpoint.

'My eyes feel like they are glowing red,' she said about her exhaustive state.

Griffin was secretive about how she planned to handle the next stretch of trail to Dawson. She's worried about getting to the end of the race in Fairbanks.

'I've had small teams before. It's just a matter of everybody staying solid,' said Griffin. 'I can't worry about it. It would drive me nuts. I just have to work with what I have.'

Griffin has run the Quest every year since 2002.

Her highest ranking in the race was 11th, which she placed last year, even though every one of her dogs developed kennel cough, or tracheobronchitis.

'That was literally every moment wondering if I was going to have to scratch,' she said.

Griffin was the first musher out of the start chute this year. She counted herself as one of the top 12 mushers to finish the race.

She believes she still can meet that goal, 'but I'm really interested to see what these guys are doing this year. It's wild.'

Griffin said the rookie mushers in the year's race, which have been pulling off some very fast runs out on the trail, are coming to the Quest with a lot of other experience.

'They could, actually, if they keep their wits about them, pull something like this off,' Griffin said. 'They're not just going out there and being rabbits in a flash in the pan.'

She said the rookies are bringing in some new ideas about how the Quest should be run.

Griffin is one of four mushers who plans to run both Alaska's Iditarod and the Quest. It was a neighbor who talked her into running both.

'He makes things sound so reasonable.'

Griffin will be a rookie in the Iditarod. She has eight members of her Iditarod team waiting at home, and will pick another six from her Quest team to go along with her.

Griffin will be starting the Iditarod with 14 dogs, even though she is permitted 16.

While on the Quest, the Alaskan musher is carrying the ashes of her friend, David Armstrong, because he always wanted to run the race.

She will take him in spirit to the Quest finish line, before scattering his ashes along the Yukon River.

Griffin might carry some of Armstrong's ashes on the Iditarod too.

'He called that a race for mushers who wore tutus,' Griffin said. 'He thought it was for wimps, so I think he needs to go on the Iditarod just for saying that.'

From Pelly Crossing, it takes mushers roughly 48 hours to make their way to Dawson City, depending on the dogs' performance and weather and trail conditions.

The trail follows the Pelly River and eventually leads to cabins at Stepping Stone, where teams may stop for a hot meal.

Before Dawson, mushers will also come across the Scroggie Creek dog drop, an abandoned mining camp 100 kilometres away from Dawson.

Dawson is the halfway point in the race, and mushers must make a mandatory 36-hour layover. The break enables racers and their dogs to get much-needed sleep.