Setback: Butcher’s leukemia returns
KASILOF, Alaska — No sooner had the public learned that Susan Butcher was battling her body’s rejection of a recent bone marrow transplant than the news suddenly changed, but not necessarily for the better. She beat the marrow rejection, but doctors had to break the disheartening news that the transplant itself failed. The four-time Iditarod winner will need a second transplant if she is to beat leukemia.
Her husband, David Monson, has been keeping a Web diary, followed by thousands of race fans across the world. His July 29 entry must have been difficult to write. He said: “The news is very hard on us because it means that we have to go back and do everything we have done since December 5 over again, including having a 2nd transplant.”
If anyone had lingering doubts about the gravity of the situation, the doctors laid out two options, one of which was to give up, head home and enjoy the family until leukemia claims Butcher, Monson wrote. “When the doctors came in to tell us, they gave us two options: Go home to be with family or start over. We know the path ahead will not be easy and the dangers are great, but the first option is not an option for us. Susan has always been a fighter and if there is a chance that she could be with her girls to see them grow up, she will take it, and she did.”
The latest complication is Graft Versus Host Disease, which emerges in more than half of marrow transplant patients. The disease causes the donor cells to perceive Butcher’s own cells as invaders, causing the immune system to fight them. The condition is making Butcher’s body attack its own digestive system, resulting in symptoms that include abdominal pain.
He added that the family was grateful for support from all over. “I want you to know that to every one who has contacted us to volunteer your help, we are deeply grateful for your generosity and love. Even when I have not responded personally I am humbled by your outpouring of support. Susan and I know we can never repay you.”
King named ‘musher of year’
This year’s Iditarod champion, Jeff King, has been named musher of the year by one of sled dog racing’s oldest-running trade publications, “Team & Trail” magazine. The magazine cited several
reasons for honoring King in 2006, besides winning the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The magazine editors liked King’s strong, healthy dog team, his daring move midway through the race and the creativity and ingenuity that have been his hallmark over the years.
“Team & Trail” published its selection in late July, noting that this decisive victory in a hard-fought battle, chiefly with Doug Swingley, elevated King as one of the race’s few four-time champs. The three others with that claim are Martin Buser, Susan Butcher and Swingley. Rick Swenson maintains his spot as the Iditarod’s only five-time winner.
“It’s a very short list of some talented people,” the magazine quoted King saying in Nome after his finish. “I feel proud to be on the same list with them. One of us will hit No. 5 soon,” he predicted.
After the win, King praised his dogs, saying it was the best team he had ever driven. The team kept a fast pace and a cheerful attitude all the way, impressing everyone who saw the dogs along the trail. “Vets at the Cripple checkpoint were amazed by the dogs’ fast recovery time after an extremely long run. Past Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, who worked as a checker at Ruby, said King’s was easily the best team she saw leaving Ruby this year,” wrote Nancy Molburg of “Team & Trail.”
One of the big factors behind his win was a radical move that involved one of the toughest things a musher can do: pulling over and resting at Takotna while the other front-runners charged forward to Cripple. King took his 24-hour layover “early” by modern race standards (for winning teams), and the weather cooperated. King gambled that cold temperatures would set up the trail ahead of him after the other teams had gone over it. That happened, enabling the Denali Park musher to gobble up 90 miles of trail to Cripple in one bite, catapulting him into a four-hour lead.
Molburg also pointed out King’s constant reinvention of the tools of the trade: his tail-dragger sled, his take on shorter harnesses without necklines and shorter towlines and this year’s idea: the heated handlebar. “The powerful, well-trained team, King’s bold and imaginative race strategy, and his dog gear innovations all combined this year to produce a near perfect Iditarod run and a well deserved win,” Molburg concluded.
Mackey makes his move, to Fox
Lance Mackey had three wishes this year, and two of them have already been granted: a new Harley and, now, a new home.
The two-time Yukon Quest champion and top 10 Iditarod finisher sold his property in Kasilof this spring and spent the next few months living in a camper with his wife, Tonya, hoping they’d hit pay dirt with a dream location. Apparently, they did.
They’ve moved about 10 miles north of Fox, Alaska, which is about 20 miles north of Fairbanks, on the way to Minto. The 5-or-so acres is far enough from the city to give Mackey some elbow room but close enough that the throat-cancer survivor can still reach the emergency room, if need be.
He told the “Fairbanks Daily News-Miner” that the new location should give him a competitive advantage. The land, directly next door to top five Iditarod finisher Ken Anderson, has lots of hills, river bottoms, plenty of snow and all the cold temperatures he will need to train himself and his dogs to hopefully win the Quest and Iditarod in 2007.
Mackey, his wife, kids and dog team had been bottled up by development in the increasingly crowded Cohoe Loop neighborhood in Kasilof, and it was getting tougher to find trails. Besides, getting dog food down from Anchorage can be a chore. And the warm winters the past few years made training difficult in the costal Kenai Peninsula climate.
By the way, Mackey’s third wish is to win the Iditarod in 2007, wearing bib No. 13 - the same number his father, Dick, and brother, Rick, wore when they each won the race.
The new property near the top of a hill has a cabin, but no water or electricity. But everyone in that neighborhood is accustomed to that, including the three or four other mushers who live nearby.
“The nice part about it is it’s typically warmer in the dead of winter, compared to Two Rivers or down in the valleys, and we typically get snow a little sooner and it can stay later also,” said Mackey’s neighbor, Ken Anderson. It will be nice having a serious distance competitor living next door, Anderson noted. “I think the motto this year is going to be, ‘Beat thy neighbor,’ since he’s claiming he’s going to win this year. It’s been fun.”