It was such a lovely day today I drove up to Willow's Eagle Quest Lodge at Deshka Landing and took a few quick photos of a couple of the teams going through. Nothing fancy, no close-up shots here, and almost as many "interesting tree shots" as sled dog teams. But for what it's worth, here's the slideshow. (Note the link goes to the album; click the slideshow link for the show. You can control the time onscreen, or pause the photos.)
The Klondike 300, originally scheduled for January 17 but delayed by adverse weather conditions, starts at 10 am Saturday, February 7 at the Tug Bar, at the end of the Knik-Goose Bay Road, south of Wasilla, Alaska. The mushers currently entered are, in starting order: Carmen Perezchino, Abby West, Louise Bissonnett, Kristy Berington, Ray Redington Jr., Cym Smyth, Ryan Redington, Steve Geiger, Jessie Royer, Aaron Burmeister, Benedict Beisch, DeeDee Jonrowe, Jim Lanier, Emil Churchin, Lance Mackey, Nancy Yoshida, and Jan Steve. For complete information about the mushers and the race visit the race website.
The race has been delayed by weather conditions - see update at the Klondike 300 site.Wet, warm weather that's blanketed much of Alaska forced organizers of the world's richest middle-distance sled dog race to postpone today's scheduled start.
The 30th running of the $100,000 Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race, due to begin at 6:30 tonight, has been pushed back to 3 p.m. Saturday, with the shorter Bogus Creek 150 now due to start and hour later.
Some racers and organizers feared this week's warm-up would turn the race into a rerun of last year's "Kusko-swim" that turned the 300-mile trail from snow to water in 24 hours, pinning two mushers down 50 miles from the finish line and putting more than a dozen snowmachines underwater.
Alaska Airlines is to be commended for it's unbelievable work in accommodating dogs and people through the entire ordeal. Ticketing, reticketing, moving dogs, working so hard to get dog teams and mushers into Bethel. Our flight included Jeff King, John Baker, Mitch Seavey and dogs, Ken Anderson and his dogs and Martin and our team. The service provided makes Alaska Airlines one of the most unique in the business, remaining flexible and working hard to get people and dogs where they need to be safely. We can't thank all the Airline people associated with this flight enough. They worked overtime and went way beyond the regular duties to make this trip as managable as possible.
For his time on the trail he’ll take home 25% of the $18,000 purse, or $4,500, and his name will be added to the base of the handsome race trophy. Previous winners of the Copper Basin 300, billed as “the toughest 300 miles in Alaska,” are listed at the CB300 website.
Among the front runners who also left the Sourdough checkpoint in the running for first place position were Hans Gatt, Brent Sass, and Allen Moore, three time winner of the CB300.
Congratulations, Lance!
No one in sight behind him! Photos in a few minutes…
The field includes big-name mushers such as four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King of Denali Park, perennial top-10 Iditarod finishers DeeDee Jonrowe of Willow and Ken Anderson of Fox and three-time Quest champion Hans Gatt of Canada. Missing is two-time Iditarod champion and four-time Quest winner Lance Mackey -- the 2006 Sheep Mountain champion.Klott's article includes a listing of the mushers entered.
