Musher's Tales: Sheep Mountain 150 Part 3

Jamaican musher Newton Marshall's blogger Susie Rogan had an interesting update and perspective on the Sheep Mountain 150:

It was like Sundance Film Festival of dog racing with mushers such as Jeff King (4 time Iditarod winner), Ken Anderson, Sebastian Schnuelle, Gerry Willomietzer, DeeDee Jonrowe (second place Iditarod), Aily Zirkle (1st place Yukon Quest), and Hans of course (3 times first place Yukon Quest and champion of many other races), etc. etc. Many were running this as a first race of the season, being careful and checking out their dogs under race conditions. The race could have been a lot more competitive if these people were giving it all they had, but they were preserving their teams for bigger races later in the season.

Also a great note about Newton's race effort:

Newton also could definately have gone a lot faster but instead ran a perfect race and finished with all his dogs in great shape. The race vet approached me and said, "In case I don't get a chance to talk to Hans and Newton, would you pass on to them that Newton looked extremely good out there. Very professional. He had his check point routine down almost perfectly. You could tell he was having to think, but he didn't miss a thing."

Mush, Mon!

Musher's Tales: Sheep Mountain 150 Part 2

Continuing the reports from Sheep Mountain mushers, Colleen (Cole) Robertia's blog has a lengthy entry detailing her adventures on the trail, including losing her brake and getting off the trail, then getting badly bitten by an entangled dog from another team:

Cole finished 13th out of the 50 mushers that started the event, which exceeded our own expectations given the talented field. Our goal was to place between 10 and 20th position, and we had expected to come in around 18th, so 13th place was a great feeling of accomplishment. Overall, the weather and course were pretty favorable. The highs were around minus 5 most of the time, and the mercury dipped to near minus 20 during the night leg of the race, which is almost perfect for the dogs to run in. In addition the full moon was out, so the night leg was well lit, and there must have been some sort of meteor shower that night too, because there were a million shooting stars.

Sebastian Schnuelle's Blue Kennels had five teams entered in the race, and his blog has a handful of Sheep Mountain-related entries:

With Sebastian there is also Ray Edwards and Mark Sleightholme at the Startline of the Sheep Mountain. The Sheep Mountain is a race over 150 miles (240 km) passing awesome landscapes. A beautiful day for the start of the 4th annual Sheep Mountain 150. Sunshine and a light wind helped the record 47 mushers get on down the trail today. Temperatures loomed between 5 above and minus 20°F (-15 to -30°C), depending on where you were standing.

And Jeff King reported from his Husky Homestead near Denali Park:

Just got back from a weekend mushing my rookie run of the Sheep Mountain 150. Boy do Zack and Anjanette Steer know how to put on a dog race! Extremely well organized, great trail, awesome weather, full moon, shooting stars and hot babes table-dancing in the bar. What more could a musher want? Our second year star handler Dave DeCaro also ran a team of 2 year olds in their first ever race ~ and fun was had by all.

Sheep Mountain 150

Ken Anderson, photo by Helen Hegener

Initial reports from the Go Mush news team on the start of the Sheep Mountain 150 provided news, numerous photos and a race update scoreboard:

Mushers started rolling into Eureka Lodge, 50 miles, at 5 pm today, with Jessica Hendricks in first place, Sebastian Schnuelle second, and Allen Moore third. As of 8:54 pm all mushers arrived at Eureka for their first 5 hour layover. Trail breaker Stan Smith said "the trails are in great shape this year, we have a good amount of snow for the mushers, and we are out there working on them to be sure they are well marked and trouble free."

In an article titled "Hendricks leads Sheep Mountain 150 pack," with the subtitle "Schnuelle, Moore, Gatt and Little are right behind," the Anchorage Daily News staff noted:

The talented young Hendricks has finished as high as 15th in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Two years ago, she finished second at Sheep Mountain, just 21 minutes behind winner Lance Mackey.

Initial photos from the race start can be found at the Go Mush gallery, and discussion of the race is going on at the Go Mush forum.