Welcome to Bethel, home of the K300!

Race map

So we’ve been told that this race is a big deal.  I seriously had no idea.  The momentum starts a few weeks before, when people are asked to volunteer.  There are 2 people that are paid to run/organize the race and everyone else volunteers.  People mark the trails, make food at the checkpoints, sell merchandise, work at headquarters, and host mushers.  We hosted a musher, his dog handler, and his dogs, and I helped out at headquarters. 

Our musher was Jessie Holmes and the dog handler was Eric Nicolier.  Jessie lives in Nenana, Alaska and Eric lives in Fairbanks.  Eric is from Switzerland and said he moved to Alaska 20 years ago to be a dog musher.  He ran the Quest (a 1000 mile race) and now I think he prefers to bike.  After he left our house, he was headed to Texas to bike across the southwest.  But while he was here, he challenged Brad to a few games of chess.  I think they each won a game or two.

Jessie is originally from Alabama and not only mushes dogs, but also runs ultra marathons.  And he’s on the National Geographic Channel show “Life Below Zero”.  I haven’t watched an episode yet, but it’s on my list of things to do.  He has 40 dogs and won the Quest 300 last year.

So these guys showed up at our house.  And the dogs showed up too.  13 dogs came and 12 went out in the race.  Jumbo was the dog that stayed behind and he didn't like that too much. The night of the race, he broke out of his kennel 3 times and Alex finally put him in the back of the truck.  I don’t know if he was cold, or looking for his friends that ditched him.  During the race, 4 needed to be dropped along the way because they slowed down or wouldn’t follow commands, or something.  Now don’t worry, they weren’t just dropped along the trail; they were left at checkpoints and flown back to Bethel.  Jessie and Eric were easy to host because they really didn’t need anything, except butter and coffee.  I think low maintenance describes them quite well.

Coming back from a run in the tunra

The guys and dogs came several days before the race started and went out on a couple of day trips with the dogs.  The dogs slept outside in their kennels under the porch and they all seemed happy with their accommodations.  The excitement really started on Friday afternoon as the last minute preparations were made for the start of the race.  The momentum almost came to a dead stop when my truck wouldn’t start.  I had the musher and several dogs to transport to the river and the damn truck didn’t start.  After a few thumps on the dash, it was ready to go.  I think it was complaining about the cold. 

It snowed the day before the race.  Jumbo has a nature-made blanket

Race day preparation

Jumbo

A new musher??

The race began at 6:30 on Friday night.  The mushers go out 2 at a time and our guy had bib #1.  He took off like a bat out of hell and was in the lead up to about the halfway point.  (https://www.adn.com/sports/2017/01/21/jessie-holmes-leads-talented-pack-of-front-runners-towards-kusko-300-turnaround/) He had a GPS tracker, so as he was battling -35 degrees and fog, we were inside the house watching him move up the trail. A lot of the trackers periodically stopped working due to the cold.  I was at the headquarters at 4:00 on Saturday morning to help keep track of statistics.  One wife called me from the east coast wondering where her husband was because his tracker stopped moving.  He was safe at a check point.  The mushers had to stop for a minimum of 10 hours during the race with a 4-hour mandatory stop in Tuluksak on the return trip.

GPS tracker

 

Ice on the eyelashes

Monitoring Jessie's progress

I kept track of time in and time out at the check points

Brad wrote a letter to a musher (unfortunately, he didn't show up to race).

So what was amazing to me is how famous the mushers are.  I think it’s like people that get into Nascar or some other non mainstream sport.  The mushers that come here are very well known in the mushing world and are very good.  Some have won the Iditarod.  Some have won the Quest.  Some have been mushing for 40 years.  Jessie told us, and the other mushers reiterated the point, that the K300 is a grueling race.  They say that someone should run the Iditarod and then do the K300 because it’s harder.  I don’t know if it’s the terrain, the short mandatory rest, or what, but it’s tough.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny and very cold.  There was a 50 mile dash that day and we watched the start.  We also drove up river following the mushers.  We stopped at "No man's land" which is the spot at the end of the race when the mushers can pass each other and not follow the rules.  I believe when one musher passes another, the pass-ee needs to stop until the passer passes or wait one minute.  I also think the one passed needs to stop for a period of time.  In no man's land, there are no rules.

"mush, mush, mush!!!"

 Bethel has fireworks for the K300 too.  We were on the river to watch them go off this time.  They were supposed to be shot off right after the start of the race, but were delayed for a day.  I had heard it was because the person who inspects the fireworks was delayed due to weather (or it could have been the ash from the volcano that erupted on the Aleutian Islands) or the fireworks were delayed.  It didn't really matter because it would have been cold watching them either day.

We, being the great musher supporters, and with the encouragement from Eric, drove to Tuluksak to cheer Jessie on.  Now I must tell you that we left Bethel at 2:00 am to drive 50 miles up the river in the dark.  We could see trail markers for the race most of the way and we had GPS (which often times showed us driving on the tundra when we were clearly on the river), but it was unsettling.  We arrived at our destination at 4:00 am and I think Jessie was glad to see us.  He was down to 8 dogs, had hurt his ankle, and I think he was pretty much frozen to the core.  He said later that the cooked beaver and moose stomach he ate (gross!) helped to warm him up.  We stayed for a couple of hours and watched him take off at 6:11 am on his way back to Bethel.  We drove back home and slept for a few hours.

Tuluksak check point at 0400

The mushers arrive and leave at different times

That says "feels like -51"at 0600

Doggies trying to stay warm

Off for the last leg of the race

Jessie Holmes crossed the finish line in 5^th place at 12:52:19 on Sunday, 1 day, 17 hours, and 42 minutes after he started.  (The hometown hero Pete Kaiser won for the third year in a row.)  We were all there to watch him come in.  His dogs did really well, but I think they were happy to be done.  He got about 2 hours of sleep during that 1 day, 17 hours, and 42 minutes and dealt with wind, fog, and temperatures of -40.  I think Jessie looked like hell, and I hope he’s caught up on his sleep by now.

This was about 4 miles up the river--the home stretch

The reporter lady thrust a microphone in his face seconds after he arrived.

We attended the musher banquet on Monday, which was a little longer than expected.  There was a 150-mile race and a 50-mile dash on the same weekend and all mushers were able to speak. (We sat there for 4 hours!)  Many commented on the weather, and I don't care how often it was said, because it was COLD.

We really enjoyed being a part of the K300.  There are a lot of mushers in Bethel and the surrounding villages.  I have no desire to open my yard to sled dogs, but will be happy to host a musher again next year.  Of course, we’d give first dibs to Jessie and Eric, as long as they bring more wine.