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Alaska dog-mushing season kicks off with a triple bangThe Alaska sled dog racing scene got off to an exciting start this past weekend with three hotly contested and crowd-pleasing races, including the Sheep Mountain 150, which runs through the mountains and between lodges on the Glenn Highway west of Glennallen, the Alaska Excursions 120 in Big Lake, and the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Solstice 100 near Fairbanks. In the northern race, Chatanika musher Dan Kaduce, a Yukon Quest veteran and the 2010 Iditarod Rookie of the Year, crossed the finish line three minutes before midnight on Saturday, with his Iditarod and Quest veteran wife, Jodi Bailey, coming in only 16 minutes behind him to place second. Bailey was the first musher to reach the halfway point at Angel Creek Lodge, but with the start time differentials factored into the layover, Kaduce's team was first to leave, and he maintained his lead the entire way back. Jodi wrote about a part of their run to the finish line in her blog for their Dew Claw Kennel: "...A large section of ice near the bank of one of the river crossings had broken out (thanks Dan, he admitted he heard it crack as he mushed over it, and looked back to see the open water). Most of my team just leaped over it, as it was not wide. But it was deep, and two of my young dogs tried to run through it, only to find out how deep it was, and ended up soaking wet. In colder temps I would have been worried, and had to coat them after stopping to dry them off. But in these warm temps you could safely dry them off and let them run without coats." Finishing behind Kaduce and Bailey was Thomas Lesatz in third place, Sue Ellis fourth, and Jason Weitzel fifth. Complete race results and lots of great race photos can be found at the Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association page on Facebook. Near Wasilla, the Alaska Excursions 120 saw an exciting field of entries with mushers from as far away as England, Brazil and New Zealand. They and several Iditarod and Yukon Quest veterans competed for $10,000 in prize money. The first day's fastest finish belonged to Ryan Redington, co-founder of the event and grandson of Joe Redington Sr., founder of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The second day of racing saw Redington's team overtaken by the world champion sprint racer Blayne Streeper, whose Streeper Kennels is the only kennel in history to have won the World Triple Crown of mushing. Streeper Kennels was undefeated in 2010, and this weekend's run foretold another year of trailblazing race finishes. Five minutes behind Streeper was Will Kornmuller, then John Stewart, Ryan Redington and Cim Smyth. Complete results can be found at the race website. Race fans watching the Alaska Excursions 120 Facebook page were amused by a running commentary which included reports of Santa being on the trail ("...he may be DQ'd due to Prancer and Vixen not being on the official entry list...") and then disappearing ("Report is that reindeer and sleigh tracks just... vanished."), and one very unusual note about a musher being "shirtless, wearing only a bib... trying to confirm identity and... gender of said musher. Must be warm out." The Sheep Mountain 150 treated fans to a nail-biting finish between four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King and perennial crowd favorite Aliy Zirkle of Two Rivers, part of the powerhouse SP Kennels. Zirkle is an 11-time Iditarod veteran, received the Iditarod's "Humanitarian Award" for supreme care of her dog team in 2005 and again in 2011, and she is the only woman to win the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest. As these two champions were struggling to the finish in whiteout blizzard conditions, their fans were watching closely on multiple websites and the race's Facebook page. Aliy Zirkle shares what happened on her SP Kennel Dog Log:
Humm... looks like Craig's article got the electronic axe. Jeff King's father was my 5th grade teacher in North Fork, CA 1955. Go grey hair!!!! |
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