Single Page
Last leg to Nome: 'It's definitely a dog race!'WHITE MOUNTAIN -- This year’s Iditarod might not be a wise undertaking for Las Vegas odds makers. John Baker of Kotzebue has the lead, but right behind him is Ramey Smith, the very guy mushers have warned is the last guy in the race you want chasing you down. By Monday afternoon, only 51 minutes separated the two men. "It would be a hard decision who to bet on," said Mitch Seavey, who believes Smyth is close enough to remain a contender. Baker and Smyth are intensely committed to competing at the highest level possible, and each approaches driving dogs in service to that inner fire. Whatever distance may exist between them as they sojourn to Nome, this silent but ever-present trait will tether them, regardless of who wins, just as it has before pulled them back-to-back across the finish line. Both men are longtime Iditarod racers and both are running hard to seize a first-time win. And in some ways they share parallel lives. Baker is one of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race's few Native sons, and throughout his career has shown that rural Alaskans and Native Alaskans have the mettle to be top competitors. Smyth is the son of parents who both loved and ran the race. Mushing, he has said, is something he has been doing since birth. Both have only one living parent. Baker’s father died in a plane crash, Smyth’s mother died of cancer. And both men have family members in this year’s race. Baker’s is his cousin, Robert Nelson. Smyth’s is his brother, Cym. Baker took 22nd place on his rookie run in 1996. Ramey Smyth finished his rookie Iditarod in 21st place. Three times, in 1998, 2003 and 2010, he and Baker have crossed the finish line in succession -- in fifth and and sixth place, eighth and seventh place, and again fifth and sixth place, respectively. Both have come as close to victory as third place. This year, after more than a decade and a half of racing, one of them, barring an extraordinary turn of events, will become known as the musher who put a stop to Lance Mackey's winning streak, and the musher who finally came into his own. On the seventh day of Iditarod 39, warm, clear weather continued to grace their duel -- weather so good, in fact, that videographers for the Discovery Channel, in town to film an Iditaord-based episode of "Flying Wild Alaska," were said to be complaining about it. (Snow and blowing wind make better television, apparently.) On his way in from Elim, Baker blew through the village of Golovin and could be seen sitting down as his dogs pulled his sled across the sea ice. When asked how he was doing, Baker uttered only five words as he drove by: "Good," and "Could use some rest." Church bells rang a few minutes after 4 in the afternoon to both signal and welcome Baker's arrival into White Mountain, where a crowd of thrilled villagers had turned out to cheer him on. Children wore cheers pinned to their coats written on yellow paper hearts that read "Go mushers go!" and "We love our mushers!" Other children skidded along the trail on cross country skiis headed toward the incoming star, who had clearly touched a nerve in the community. "We think about him every year, he is always a favorite," said Dorothy Barr, who was among a family group carrying their own hand written sign: "Go John Baker, we're proud of you!" Yvette Barr, an 11-year-old with the same group, confessed, though, that last year her favorite musher had been Lance Mackey. Another 11-year-old, Mike Simon, could not be swayed to demote Mackey, his "all-time favorite" musher. Mackey was his favorite because "he won four times in a row," he said. "Baker is my second favorite," Simon said. But Baker has made turncoats out of former loyalists to past winners. "To see an Eskimo come here first, I'm very happy. I've got a new idol," said Robert Lincoln, a villager who had come to greet Baker with a sign that read: "Inupiaq go, Qimuqtit go, Go John 'playmaker' Baker". Qimuqtit is an Inupiat word for dogs, and Inupiaq refers to Baker's Alaska Native heritage. "He'll be a new idol for young people," Lincoln said as he watched Baker dress down his dog team for a nap. "He'll make a big difference in the whole state." |
