KOYUK — Seven teams were all packed together in the space of about an hour as the world’s premier distance sled dog race nears the end of 1,000 miles of racing. Incredible. They poured up the street into this village in a stream, led by four-time champion Martin Buser at 8:44 p.m.
Close on Buser’s heels was Ramey Smyth, then Hans Gatt and Ken Anderson — all within just a few minutes of each other. A half hour later, Paul Gebhardt, Mitch Seavey and Kjetil Backen checked in at the same time.
“Yeah, it’s a wild race. Holy moly,” Gatt said as he grabbed supplies to feed his dogs.
Given the gap between Lance Mackey and Jeff King and these seven, you’ve got to assume they are fighting for third place. Who’s going to win this race within the race? Hans Gatt said Buser has the speed, but a look at the run times shows Gatt and Smyth matched Buser’s pace, and the last three teams to arrive ran almost as fast.
Buser had hoped a less aggressive schedule early in the race would allow him to chase down the early rabbits and win the Iditarod, but that didn’t materialize, he said while wolfing down a microwaved meal inside the community center here that serves as a checkpoint during the Iditarod. “It don’t look like those two front-runners are catchable. We gave them too much of a gap,” he said, catching himself. “Actually, we didn’t give them anything.” They seized the lead, Buser said, giving Mackey and King credit.
Teams ran into a persistent and cold headwind all the way here. “Good thing I had my little windshield, a built-in windshield, it worked pretty good,” Buser said. He ducked down on his seated sled to keep a streamlined profile. Every time he raised his head, he said it felt like he was slowing the team down.
The winds weren’t great for morale among the dogs. Ken Anderson, who still has 15 dogs, said every one of his dogs will run in lead, and he tried all of them today, but none wanted to drive as hard as they needed to keep the gangline strung out tight. Still, his run time, minus a two and a half hour campout, was just a half hour slower than Buser’s time of 7 hours and 8 minutes.
It’s taking quite a while to get over Norton Sound this year. It can often take six hours on a good day, but the race trail has been slow since teams left the starting line in Willow.
The most amazing dog team to come in among the top seven, as far as zest and attitude, belonged to Kjetil Backen of Team Norway. Backen backed off from hard core racing somewhere around Cripple and focused on keeping his less-experienced dogs to Nome happy and as a unit. He seems to be doing that. Those dogs leapt in their harnesses and barked like no other team to come through here this year. “That’s a nice team next year,” Backen said, before digging in to a big plate of lasagna.
But Backen’s leaders didn’t like the wide open space and headwinds, Gebhardt said. Backen, Gebhardt and Seavey traveled here together, with Gebhardt and Seavey doing most of the leading. Seavey is doing a phenomenal job with his nine-dog team, a team that’s been on the small side since Ruby, way back on the Yukon River. He’s racing. He’s pleased with athree-year-old lead dog named Payton. Gebhardt was using his main men, Bear and Houston, sometimes together, sometimes in single lead.
Ramey Smyth’s dogs looked strong and lively as he parked the team in the same spot vacated by Lance Mackey three hours earlier. He had one tan leader that was his main source of speed, but he worried that the dog might have strained one of his shoulders just as he and Buser got to the checkpoint. He massaged the shoulder heavily. Smyth had run straight from Unalakleet, blowing through Shaktoolik with a team of 10 dogs, a run of about 13 hours, and still his times were comparable with Buser’s.
Teams probably wouldn’t rest here long. They will launch into their final leg, a run through mixed terrain including one hill and along the shore of the Bering Sea to Elim, and then back to the shore and up a long hill called Little McKinley and back down to Golovin Bay, and then a straight shot on the sea ice to White Mountain. There, they take the mandatory eight-hour rest, before a 77-mile run through the steep, rounded Topkok Hills, through the Solomon blowhole, where winds can howl at gale force, and, finally, over the last hill of Cape Nome and to the finish line on Front Street.
More teams were due in soon, including Rick Swenson’s speedy outfit, and Ed Iten and John Baker of Kotzebue.
Buser’s movie selection
While Buser fed his team and bedded them down on straw outside the checkpoint, he joked that he had his iPod playing during the run and very nearly watched a movie on the long, flat, boring run from Shaktoolik. A movie? Later, Buser whipped the iPod out of a pocket and said, yes, it contains 30 full-feature movies, but, no, he hasn’t watched any. Some of the titles include “Be Cool,” “Blackhawk Down,” “Enemy at the Gates,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Insomnia,” and, appropriately, “Gone with the Wind.” What better title for a ride through strong headwinds?
Rohn, Buser’s youngest son, a rookie in this race, put 30 titles in the iPod for his father.
Parting shots
Lance Mackey shouted out, “Just like last year!” as he pulled his snowhook and his team trotted out of Koyuk. No doubt about it, Mackey may be frustrated by his team’s performance, but he’s in this to win.
King walked out of the community hall a few minutes later to pursue Mackey, and yelled back to some observers, “I’m nervous. This guy’s an animal!”
Tragedy for the Freking kennel
The twin Siberian husky teams of Blake and Jennifer Freking were parked on the Yukon River last night near its confluence with the Koyukuk River when a snowmobile with two passengers on board ran into Jennifer Freking’s dog team at 40 mph. The impact killed one of her dogs, named Loren, according to Iditarod officials. Another dog was injured and later flown out to a veterinary hospital for surgery. Race marshall Mark Nordman said the Iditarod was unsure if alcohol was involved in the accident, and was asking Alaska State Troopers to look into it.
“I talked to Jennifer a number of times overnight, and she’s pretty bummed out but she’s going to continue on,” Nordman said. “I’m really proud of her. They have their hearts in the right place.”
Jennifer Freking started the Iditarod with a hand that is still healing from a bad break suffered at the start of another race earlier this season.