We are posting a "Dog a Day" to the Meet the Dogs area. Get acquainted with the potential racers as the days get closer to race start when we'll announce the final 16!!!
Alan Stevens and Tim Pappas completed the Northern Lights 300 Race and the Knik 200 Race during the past two weeks which equals 500 miles of trail. Alan is now officially qualified to participate in the 2015 Iditarod and Tim is only 300 miles shy of being able to take a team of young dogs in the 2016 Iditarod.
All dogs in active training have completed at least one race!!! Go dogs Go!
Our teams finished 2nd and 6th in this year’s Kusko 300. Rohn was passed by local Bethel musher, Pete Kaiser, during the last 5o miles of the race. Pete has been a contender in Iditarod and many mid distance races. He is a local hero in the Kuskokwim Delta and we congratulate him for his winning race plan. Pete, 28, is very humble and is a second generation musher. His dog team was coming home and put on quite a show for the locals. I’m sure the entire town of Bethel was there to greet him as they are most every year that he races. Bethel and the local villages pull out all the stops to create as good as possible trail and welcome all the mushers!!!!
Rohn kept his dog team at a steady pace the entire race. He trimmed down to the best nine for what he knew would be a tight finish. Martin maintained his entire team of 12 dogs for the entire race. All 24 dogs who went to Bethel will be contenders for the 16 spots on the Iditarod team. 80% of the dogs on Martin’s team had never really raced before.
Another race in the books. Looking forward to the Northern Lights 300 which starts and finishes at our Visitor Center this coming Friday. Our helpers, Alan and Tim will be participating but not really racing as many of the dogs in the team are fairly young. Conditions here are marginal, with no snow and icy trails ~ the new normal!
Welcome to the roller coaster of racing.
For my part, I spent the weekend here in Big Lake cooking for the food the boys will send out on Iditarod ~ 12 cups of rice with butter, 2 poppyseed cakes, 2 coca cola cakes, tenderloin roast, bogolgi, Johnny Mazette - packed and ready to go. Getting ready to cheer on Alaska’s pro football team, Seattle Seahawks! Watching the game on the big screen in the Visitor Center.
We are in the midst of another unusual winter in Alaska. Temperatures did not drop below zero until January and once again this year, there is very little snow. When Martin is not on the sled, he is on the snowmachine searching for and grooming new trails.
The current activity centers on final training runs for the Kusko 300 which begins next Friday, January 16 at 6:30 pm. Both Martin and Rohn will be racing, Rohn will be there to defend his title! Check out http://www.k300.org/wordpress/kuskokwim-300/ as the race draws near. Bethel has also had challenging weather and the river is covered with jumbled ice which will probably demand a reroute.
Alan, Tim, Rohn and Martin are excited about the dogs that are in training. The kennel has a deep bench, with many dogs able to lead in various situations. Stay tuned for updates on particular dogs.
As of December 1, we have winter. The training transition from 4-wheelers to sleds was met with glee by dogs and humans. Martin and the crew have put in many hours of grooming the trails to make them safe and smooth.
