Officials and volunteers are making final preparations in anticipation of the February 9th start of the 25th running of Yukon Quest international sled dog race.
Dan Bross, KUAC - Fairbanks
Archive for January, 2008
The finish line to the Iditarod is within walking distance to Nome Beltz High School, but this March, senior student Melissa Owens is hoping to get to the finish line by dogsled instead taking an 1100 mile detour. Melissa hopes to be the youngest musher to ever race and complete the legendary dogsled race. Iditarod rules require mushers to be at least 18 years of age to complete in the race. Melissa turns 18 less then 2 weeks before the start of the race on February 18.
Melissa has literally been involved in dogsledding her entire life. Her father first raced the Iditarod in 1987 and brought Melissa up to the stage with him when he drew his number. Melissa and her brother Michael raise and train their own dogs including some that can trace their lineage to her fathers teams in the ‘87 and ‘90 Iditarods. Melissa won the Junior Iditarod in 2005 as an ninth grader. This year she is concentrating on completing the 2 races required to qualify for the Iditarod. She recently completed the soggy Kuskokwim 300 and now has her sights set on the Don Bowers 300.
18 year old Rohn Buser plans to enter this years Iditarod race as well. Rohn finished his senior year at Wasilla High School a semester early last December so he could concentrate on training for his one shot at the Iditarod before he goes off to college.
Mushing is in Rohn’s blood as well. he is the son of 4-time Iditarod winner and course record holder Martin Buser. Rohn is another winner of the Junior Iditarod winning the race in 2007 as a 17 year old. Rohn helps his father with the dogs at the Happy Trails Kennels and has done fairly well in the middle distance races he has entered. He finished 4th in the 2007 Kuskokwim 300, 10th in the 2008 Cantwell Classic 200, and 5th in the 2008 Kuskokwim 300. Rohn has already qualified to run the Iditarod with his finishes in this years Kuskokwim and Cantwell races.
19 year old Jeff Deeter graduated from Wasilla High School last spring. He plans to go to college next fall, but he has one last item to check off his list before he enrolls - run the Iditarod race.
While Jeff can’t trace dogsled racing in his bloodlines, he became involved in the sport at a very young age when his family moved to the arctic village of Noorvik Alaska when he was seven. He began working at the kennel of Iditarod veteran Jeff Sihler at the age of 15. 2 years later Jeff ran the Jr Iditarod finishing 11th in the 2005 race. He ran it again in 2006 finishing 9th. Jeff has completed his qualification races for the Iditarod finishing 15th in the 2007 Knik 200 and 19th in the 2008 Copper Basin 300. He plans to go to college in the fall to study biology.
The field is set for the 25th running of the Yukon Quest. Race spokeswoman Amanda Leslie says 27 mushers will be departing Fairbanks next month on the race’s silver anniversary run.Leslie says 2 mushers have withdrawn from the Quest. Rookies Jeremy Matrishon of Whitehorse and Trent Herbst of Idaho pulled out citing not enough training and time constraints as the reasons. Leslie says the only other change is that Quest veteran Peter Ledwidge of Dawson is turning over his team to his wife Ann, citing back problems. It will be her rookie run.
The field consists of 9 mushers who live in Canada, and 18 from the U.S., including 3 who hail from the lower 48. A total of 11 rookies and 16 veterans are signed up. The veterans include 4 past winners: Sonny Lindner of Two Rivers, who won the first Yukon Quest back in 1984, 1995 winner Frank Turner of Whitehorse, 1987 champ Bill Cotter of Nenana, and 3-time defending Quest champion and reigning Iditarod champ, Lance Mackey of Fairbanks (Mackey moved to Fairbanks in 2007).
Things are shaping up on the organizational side of the race. Doug Grilliot, a Quest veteran and race judge, has been appointed race marshal. Grilliot replaces Joe May, of Talkeetna, who recently resigned from the position. Leslie says the Quest trail is looking good. Fairbanks has seen 2 snowstorms in the last week, and Leslie says snow conditions have also improved on the Canadian side.
Trail groomers are out packing down the thousand mile route. The race starts February 9 in Fairbanks and runs about 1,000 miles to Whitehorse.
Dan Bross, KUAC - Fairbanks
It’s getting close to Iditarod time, what with all the sled dog races already underway in Alaska. We’re starting to work on the site once again, prepping it for this year.
As you can probably tell, it’s not nearly ready yet. We’re going to revamp the photos and other content in the coming days, making it a better experience than last year and bringing back as much content from past years as possible.
So please bear with us as we go through some annual growing pains. Thanks!
Allen Moore won the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race this afternoon. He beat out front-runner Sigrid Ekran of Fairbanks, who took a wrong turn during the last leg of the race and came in fourth. Iditarod and Yukon Quest winner Lance Mackey of Fairbanks came in second and Willow’s Linwood Fiedler took third.
Dan Bross, KUAC - Fairbanks and Amy Bracken, KCHU - Valdez
Weather permitting, the 29th annual Kuskokwim 300 (K300) dog sled race will begin in Bethel, Alaska on Friday January 18th. The start of the race has been delayed four times in the past due to frigid temperatures. This race is regarded as a premier middle distance event and often used as an Iditarod tune-up for elite mushers. The $100,000 in prize money with $20,000 going to the first place finisher helps attract a strong field as well. This year’s field has plenty of Iditarod racing veterans including Jeff King, Paul Gebhardt, Mitch Seavey, Martin Buser, Ed Iten, Dee Dee Jonrowe, and Hugh Neff. Among the favorites to win is 4 time Iditarod and 8 time K300 winner, Jeff King. King finished last years K300 in second place in an epic duel with winner Martin Buser.
Also predicted to finish high is last year’s K300 winner and 4th place finisher, the father-son teams of Martin and Rohn Buser. Rohn will hope to use this as a qualifying run for a shot at the Iditarod this year as an 18 year old rookie, and certainly showed us in last year’s K300 as a 17 year old that he can run with the leaders. Another father-son duo entered in the race are Akiak mushers Mike Williams Sr and Mike Williams Jr. Once again, the race route passes Crow Village twice at the 133 mile mark on the out leg and at the 187 mile mark on the return leg. Last year, race leaders Martin Buser and Jeff King both elected to feed their teams on the Crow Village shore on the return leg shortly after they abruptly left the Aniak checkpoint. The course promises to be fast this year as some early season freeze and thaw cycles smoothed out the river ice and some recent snow fall added some cushion. As usual, the weather can easily become a factor.
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