Dog sled racing can trace its origin’s back to the Alaska gold rush era when dog sled teams played an important role in transporting freight and mail through the remote stretches of Alaska. Those mushers relied on a series of roadhouses between their village destinations. Word was sent ahead to the roadhouses that a musher and team were on the trail, and a kerosene lamp was lit and hung outside the roadhouse to serve as a signal that a team or teams were somewhere out on the trail. The lamp was not extinguished until the musher safely reached his destination. Beginning in 1986, the Iditarod honored that tradition by hanging a “Red Lantern,” on the burled arch in Nome. Each year the lantern is lit at the beginning of the race and remains lit while there are still teams on the trail. Once the last team crosses the line, that musher then extinguishes the lantern, signifying the official end of the race. Thus, the last musher in a race is called the “Red Lantern” musher.
The trail to an Iditarod finish in Nome has been anything but easy for 62 year old Deborah Bicknell of Auke Bay Alaska. Born in New Hampshire, her 50 years of dog sled racing experience began with a race when she was 11 and pulled by the family pet - a Saint Bernard. She later gained sprint race experience with New England and Lakes region sled dogs but had to put the sport on hold when she moved to southeast Alaska with her husband in 1981 given the lack of consistent snow cover in that region. After they purchased some land in the Yukon territory for maintaining and training dogs several years later, she was able to take up the sport again this time concentrating on distance racing, and by 2000 she finished the 1000 mile Yukon Quest winning the red lantern award for that race.
She would try the Yukon Quest again in 2002 and 2003 but ended up scratching both years. She decide to retire after that, but by 2006, she changed her mind setting her sights on the Iditarod after observing that year’s race by flying to each checkpoint. She ultimately decided to enter the 2007 Iditarod race, which turned out to be the adventure of her life.
After waiting out a storm at the Rainy Point checkpoint while the rest of the teams pushed on, she found very little in the way of trail markers when she returned to the trail. She incorrectly ended up on Ptarmigan Pass following tracks laid down by the Irondog snowmobile race held prior to the Iditarod. Searchers worried about her spotted her from air on that pass the next day. The substantial detour along with spending the night hunkered down in a makeshift camp drying out from gear soaked from overflow had her team checking into Rohn 1 and 1/2 days later and a full 12 hours after the last musher had left that checkpoint. That ordeal left her no choice but to scratch and a renewed commitment to retirement. However, her husband signed her up for the 2008 race and soon she decided he was right and prepared in earnest for the race.
Bicknell is the winner of this years Iditarod Red Lantern award but is already on record stating that this will indeed be her last race. “I’m retiring after this no matter what happens,” she said, adding that some friends and family don’t necessarily believe her. “They say they’ve all heard that before.”
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Iditarod finisher Ramey Smyth has known dog sled racing his entire life thanks to his mushing parents Bud Smyth and the late Lolly Medley. Lolly became the second woman to cross the Iditarod finish line in Nome coming in 29 minutes after Mary Shields in the second running of the race in 1974. In addition to mushing Lolly, who home-schooled Ramey and was also was also a gifted harness maker, convinced the Iditarod Trail Committee in 1979 to begin awarding a Lolly Medley Golden Harness award to be presented to the most outstanding lead dog in the race as voted on by the mushers themselves. The prize consists of a custom embroidered dog harness and some cash. In the early years of the award, Lolly created the harnesses herself.
Typically, the Golden Harness award is won by one of the lead dogs from the winning team, it would take a very special dog for 3rd place finisher Ramey Smyth to take home the award named after his mother. Ramey’s lead dog Babe is indeed very special. Canines have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years, and sled dogs are no different. As Babe approaches 11 years of age she was certainly considered a senior citizen of the race as sled dogs typically are in their prime between ages 3 and 7. This was Babe’s 9th Iditarod, 8 of which she was in the lead coming across the finish line in Nome.
At first when Ramey was presented the award, the emotion he was feeling left him speechless. After placing the special harness on his loyal companion and bringing her up to the stage with him he was able to return to the stage and thank everyone for the award. Undoubtedly, his mother would have been proud.
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Lance Mackey doesn’t have a sit down sled, but if he ever gets one, he might consider putting a swivel seat on it. After all he has been looking over his shoulder a lot lately. It happened last month he won the Yukon Quest 1000 mile sled dog race. “I think my heads on backwards. I’ve been looking over my shoulder for the last 100 miles.” Mackey stated referring to his slim lead over Ken Anderson in the latter stages of that race. With 77 miles left to the Iditarod finish, Mackey has to worry about 4 time Iditarod winner Jeff King catching up to him as he waits out his mandatory 8 hour layover at the White Mountain checkpoint.
King has been hounding Mackey since the race entered the Yukon River a bit past the half way point. He has admitted passing Mackey’s team on a few occasions while Mackey had pulled off to rest, but he has only entered one checkpoint in front of him at Unalakleet. King has been letting Mackey rest a bit longer at the checkpoints and then catching up to him with a faster paced team on the trail. That strategy failed him at the Elim checkpoint however as it was reported that Mackey successfully snuck out of that checkpoint without King knowing about it. Mackey was on the trail for 70 minutes before King woke up and was able to depart, and he was not able to make up much of that difference as the trail worked its way over the 1,000-foot Kwiktalik Mountain summit that mushers call “Little McKinley.” King arrived at the White mountain checkpoint 57 minutes after Mackey.
Both teams will be off their layover at White mountain later tonight with Mackey enjoying a 57 minute lead on the departure. While that lead is significant, King has not given up yet. He will likely drop 2 dogs leaving him with 14 compared to Mackey’s 11. King hopes that will translate into a faster pace as they still need to negotiate the pass over the Topkok Hills. Either way, Mackey will still be looking over his shoulder.
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The dog team of 18 year old Melissa Owens naturally picked up speed as they crested the Kaltag portage looking down into Unalakleet. “The lights looked like Nome and I think they knew were getting closer,” she said. The Bering Sea coast should look familiar to Owen’s team. She lives and trains in Nome within earshot of the Iditarod finish line. Perhaps this familiarity will help spur her team to the finish line quickly enough to earn her rookie of the year honors.
Owens turned 18 just 3 weeks ago making her the youngest female to ever to compete in the Iditarod - a race that requires its human competitors to be at least 18 years old. She has literally been involved in dogsledding her entire life. Her father first raced the Iditarod in 1987 and he brought the infant 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.
Owens left the Shaktoolik checkpoint with 200 miles till her hometown finish line as the highest placed rookie in 24th place overall. She gained that spot during a run of more then 100 miles from Nulato to Unalakleet. Perhaps sensing the home stretch her dogs picked up speed the whole way so she decided to just keep going through Kaltag, then past Tripod Flats, and Old Woman Cabin on into Unalakleet. Her closest competitor for Rookie of the Year honors is 48 year old William Kleedehn who left Shaktoolik more then 3 and 1/2 hours after Owens.
Funding for Owens journey to the famous burled arches of her home town was made easier when she became the recipient of the 2008 Seppala Heritage Grant. The grant founded by the Seppala Family comes with a $10,000 donation and a four-year commitment of $10,000 per year per recipient. Earlier this year, Owens picked up the Humanitarian Award at the Kuskokwim 300 race. The Humanitarian Award, which is chosen by the veterinary staff and presented to the musher who, in their opinion, takes the most outstanding care of their dog team based on their level of experience.
Owens is the only musher in this year’s race that lives and trains in Nome. Understandably, she greatly anticipates crossing under the finish line in front of her friends and family. “I’m curious to see how the crowd in Nome reacts to me coming in versus the winner, being the hometown musher—and a young one at that,” she said.
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The closest Iditarod finish ever was in 1979 when Dick Mackey outlasted Rick Swenson by 1 second. The 2008 race has Dick’s son Lance pitted against Jeff King in perhaps the tightest race for the lead since that legendary finish. With the teams working their way up the Bering Sea coast to the mandatory 8 hour layover at White Mountain, the leaders have arrived at checkpoints within 1/2 hour of each other since the Koyuk checkpoint on the Yukon River.
Mackey admits that his team is traveling slower then King’s team. In order to keep pace with King he has chosen to cut his rest periods shorter. King appears a bit tired in some videos at the checkpoints, but obviously he is alert enough to calculate his rest period length so that his faster paced team catches up to Mackey’s by the next checkpoint. Look for both teams to make a push all the way to White Mountain after there rest at Koyuk. Mackey knows he will have to leave the Koyuk checkpoint first to maintain his chances. A key point will be at the Elim checkpoint where a new mandatory vet check will require additional time for King’s 16 dog team. Both teams have GPS trackers, so race fans will certainly be watching closely if the race remains tight.
Meanwhile, an increasingly large pack of teams are now battling it out for the 3rd place finish assuming the gap to Mackey and King is too large to overcome at this point. Ken Anderson, Ramey Smyth, Martin Buser, Hans Gatt, Paul Gebhardt, Mitch Seavey, and Kjetil Backen all are in contention having departed the Shaktoolik checkpoint. Each will need to take at least one significant rest on the way into White Mountain.
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As the leaders of the Iditarod dogsled race depart Unalakleet and head up the Bering Sea coast, 2007 Iditarod winner Lance Mackey and 2006 Iditarod winner Jeff King have distanced themselves from the pack and continue to swap places at the front. Mackey left the Kaltag checkpoint for the 90 mile jaunt over the pass to the coast at Unalakleet first and King departed 4 hours later, however Mackey did not rest his team at Kaltag and King did. Mackey likey chose to rest along the trail, and by the time they reached Unalakleet King was out front by 30 minutes. Both teams were treated to some spectacular northern lights duing the early morning hours. Mackey chose to cut rest short at Unalakleet, and was on the trail in the lead again after 2 hours 45 minutes of rest. King chose to take 5 hours of rest spotting Mackey a 42 minute lead.
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There is a new rabbit to chase. Jeff King has pulled ahead of Lance Mackey during the first half of the run from Kaltag to Unalakleet. This 80+ mile leg will take mushers a dozen or so hours and there are many still hungry for the win — whether it be their 6th, 5th, 2nd, or 1st. One of the places that folks sometimes stop to break the run up is the Old Woman Cabin. This was a favorite of Susan Butcher and last year some of her ashes were left by her husband and daughter. The Kaltag-Unalakleet leg has it all: woods, steep hills, river crossings, open tundra. The last 10 miles of the trail near Unalakleet often becomes dodgy with markers and is sometimes difficult to follow if coastal winds cause the trail to drift over.
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With half the Yukon River leg complete and less then 400 miles left in the Iditarod, race leader Lance Mackey is 17 miles past the Nulato checkpoint according to the GPS unit he has on board his sled. The GPS for Jeff King shows his team 9 miles behind Mackey. 6 more teams are resting in Nulato including Mitch Seavey, Paul Gebhardt, Rick Swenson, Hans Gatt, Kjetil Backen, and John Baker.
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With the Iditarod sled dog race lead pack now negotiating the Yukon River section of the trail, an ageless group of mushers are demonstrating that they still have what it takes to keep up with the youngsters in the field. Race leader Lance Mackey at 36 years of age is the baby of the crowd. He is being hotly pursued by the team of 51 year old Jeff King. 52 year old Paul Gebhardt has worked himself back into 3rd place after having a disastrous run into the halfway point at Cripple. Rounding out the top 10 are 47 year old Mitch Seavey, the ageless 67 year old Jim Lanier, 54 year old Ed Iten, 55 year old Rick Swenson, 38 years young Kjetil Backen, 49 year old Hans Gatt, and 49 year old John Baker. The average age of the top 10 mushers at this point is 49.8 years old.
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What happened to Martin Buser’s GPS tracker? We know the practical joker gave it to one of the pilots to fly around while he was taking his 24hr in Cripple, but it appears he never returned it. It is understandable that he would want to ditch the 2 lbs of unnecessary excess baggage. But has Dee Dee Jonrowe picked up where he left off? She is now broadcasting a GPS position whereas she never did before.
Does Paul Gebhart have some rocket boosters on his sled? Early Iditarod.com records indicated he made the trip from Ruby to Galena in 3h6m averaging a speed of 16.77mph. Although this leg can be a fast one, the warm weather still is making the trail punchy. Iditarod.com later updated its records and corrected the out time for Gebhardt from Ruby. He snuck out at 20:25, not 00:47 at they previously reported. Although racers must sign in at checkpoints, they do not have to sign out. “Sneaking out of town” is still a strategy employed by the front runners when they can get away with it. Lance Mackey is still leading the race over 2nd place Jeff King, but it appears his speed is declining whereas as King’s is increasing. Both King and Iten still have 16 dogs on the team, whereas as Mitch Seavey is down to 11. However, as we continue on the trail, often teams look to lighten the load to make care of the dogs more manageable as the fatigue of the race takes hold.
Rohn Buser looks to be favored contender for ROTY. His dogs are continuing to run strong with a 10.43mph pace from Cripple to Ruby during the hot part of the day. Look for him to take his 8hr in Ruby like his father and post a fast run up the Yukon.
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