6th Annual Kuskokwim Wrap-up; Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race

. . .. .. .. .. .. .. I'll see you in the next few months! The Cuscoquim 300 sled dog race is the biggest wintertime activity in the Bethel area. It may be only a week in length, but in that time people store enough adventure, enough

trail stories, enough memories to last a whole year. For dog mushers, it tests years of breeding and training. For the people along the Cuscoquim River, it is a chance to see the finest Alaskan dog racers. And for everyone, it is a reminder of times not too far past when a good team of dogs was the only reliable transportation available. The race began on January 23rd, but things really got underway two days before at the mushers meeting, where starting places were picked from a beaver hat and challenges and predictions were made. Here you have been part of the 300 since its inception, and the first year you were one of the first drivers to sign up for the race. How is this year any different, what kind of changes have you seen in the race since then? No real changes. Just a lot of fun. Come down to Bethel and go around and come back. You know, you couldn't say any more for there. I mean, you're supposed to say more. I'd like to thank my sponsors for still going. I see some changes like Blanco and some of the guys that can go a lot faster than I

did a lot farther than I, but I'm like, one a high starting position, a good one. I get a 28 or 27 this year, you know, I went 24 25 something like that 25 is the highest you can go. Number one is what it is, Trey Austin breaking trail. Do you think you will be cherry across the line? No. Not at my first time. I'd like to thank my parents join Lucy Demento for really helping out if it wasn't for them. I wouldn't be racing. And to the past Cusco 300, 300 mushrooms, I'd like to thank them for every year they have their food drop and give my dogs a little variety. Mr. Sanders, how many miles do you have on your talks this year? 20,000.

That's significant. Is that Bethel Miles? Well, a lot of it was, I can't whenever they ride around in the truck too. Yeah. 42 teams drew starting positions. Jerry Austin and Tim Sampson of Kipnook, pole number one and two, and would be first out of the shoot. Pre-race favorite Joe Garnier of Teller and dentist Ray Lang of Gnome pulled the last two. In the prediction department, most rookies just helped to finish. And in the big name-mushers, well, Joe Garnier, Linkah Wassley, Jerry Austin, Rick Mackie and Sue Furman were names heard quite often. The only prediction to be sure of was the trail. On that, everyone agreed. It was going to be tough traveling. Former K-300 champion, Myron Aksman gave his assessment of the trail just before race time. I got out and checked the trail yesterday myself and I would have to rate the conditions we've got this year, the poorest we've had in six run-ins of the casket with 300. In Bethel, we have a very slight snow covering on the ice. That snow covering does nothing more than give a little footing to the dogs.

It certainly doesn't cushion the trail at all, and it's primarily ice trail with a slight snow covering. However, upriver, from Mackie I got up, which is about 30 miles above Bethel, the slight snow covering disappears, and we have glare ice conditions. Now, those conditions are not only hard for the dog to run on, but they're slippery for the dog to run on and treacherous for sleds that follow behind. So, I'm told that trail condition is the same for Mackie. I have all the way to any act. They turn around point on the gussquim 300. It looks like these are the bottom of the stuff of conditions as you can find for a sled dog, right? We have two teams in the shoot. It looks like we're just about ready to roll. Here's the countdown. Five seconds to the start of the gussquim 300. And they're off. They're off. Give us a break of stock over the starting line 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, and the whole state watched 41 teams leave the starting line in Bethel headed towards

Antioch on the Cusquim River. Some are pushing early, trying to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the PAC. The jackarements they were called were, were, were, Guy Blankenship, Blanco WASSALEY and Gus Johnson. If any kind of bad weather were to creep in, any small edge, could be magnified to become a major advantage. Others including Rick Mackie, Su Ferman, De John Rowe and Charlie Vidka set their own their own pace, scheduling more rest stops. They were never first into checkpoints,

but were never far behind either. Pre-race favorite Joe Garnie passed all but two teams, blank and ship and Johnson by the time he pulled into Tulip's sack, the second checkpoint. By that point, Garnie was already experiencing dog problems from the ice-covered trail. Nathan Underwood had been traveling at a steady pace, and in a move to put some distance between he and the other teams, struck out in the dark on the trail from Tulip's sack to Calskag. Underwood took a wrong turn that night, ending up on what was called the truck trail instead of the marked K-300 trail. That mistake would come back later and cost him his chance at winning the race. The trail from Tulip's sack to Calskag was a hard one. Unclear markings contributed to many measures losing their way. They wandered in the darkness going one way, then another. Four teams found what they thought was the trail, only to find themselves in open water. Ron Brennan was one mushroom who got an unexpected bath in bogus creek. I hear that there's open water.

Yeah, here is where. I can verify that. In the bogus creek, in the trail, leading out of the wheel is there. I didn't see any markers and I just followed some dog tracks and a light down to the right there and there's a bunch of black ice everywhere and suddenly the ice gives and bang at 14 dogs and I slept with the dog inside it in the chest deep in the water and wasn't very pleasant for any of us. I'm lucky the dog in the sled survived. I get out of it because the ice kept breaking every time he tried to get out. Less experienced mushrooms found the evening of searching, wandering, stopping, and turning around too much for their teams and scratched in Calskag. Both Garny and Blankenship got far enough off the trail. They missed the lower Calskag checkpoint altogether. They turned around, headed back the three miles to Lower Calskag where they checked in,

then turned around to go back. On their second entry into Upper Calskag, they spoke of KYU key reporter Rich Trotto. So what happened down there by Calskag? Yeah, I got lost there. Yeah, they have an idea of what happened or how one you guys got lost? Well, not really. We were just out and around all night sort of. It's just hard to tell where we messed up because we like we'd meet teams head on and teams disappear in front of us. Both of us, Blankenship and I were in lead. Just got everything that we lost all our lead. Oh, Garny and I took the Cine crowd a couple times. I don't know, we were running first and second and then a whole bunch of people were ahead of us

and nobody passed us. So then in some of the portages, we went one way. The other people went the right way, the shorter way and we took some extra loops somehow or other. We ended up meeting people head on some one time. I don't know what happened. Even on this trail before, do you think it was the markings or the poor snow conditions or what do you think it was the comments? Well, it's a combination of things or whatever you don't have any snow that takes an extreme amount of markers to show people where to go because you got no tracks to follow. And so that's one of the factors and then part of the trouble was that there were because of the weather and the poor snow condition, there was some last minute changes, I think. And what happened was we had a trail marked down one way and then we change it and put a shortcut through here but we never took out these markers. So if you missed the portage, you went on and you were following markers but you weren't on the right trail. Meanwhile, Underwood, Johnson and Brunkle-Wassley were setting a fast pace, all arriving in Upper Cascag

around 2 a.m. with Underwood in the lead. Henry Morgan left first, followed by Johnson and Wassley. Wassley passed Johnson soon after leaving but broke his light, then he fell in behind Johnson following him to any act. Just outside of town, Wassley passed Johnson but without his headlight, Wassley got lost again. After wandering around for a while in the dark, he met Johnson head on, heading for the halfway prize. Wassley turned his team around and chased after the Uniloclete Mushroom. He passed him on the street, winning the $1,000 prize by five seconds. Well, congratulations. Thank you. You look like you were having trouble early in the race with your dogs, how are they doing now? They got back feet now. If it was a snow on the ice, it would have been good. Did you, were you the first one out of Cascag? That the one he came in next night after me was the first one, I guess.

How long did you leave after him? Not right after him, I leave. Where'd you catch him? Just above Cascag, after I lost my height, after I baked my flashlight, you know, I come without no flashlight all the way from down there. With the halfway prize out of the way, both measures led the pack out to Whitefish Lake. In the meantime, the measures who were laying back were beginning to make their move. Restored and with good healthy dogs, Rick Matthew, Sue Berman, and Charlie Fica took off after the rabbits. As Skye's turned dark, the trail was almost impossible to find, so teams gathered together for a large bonfire and trail talk, waiting for daylight before heading out to Whitefish Lake and the turn towards Upper Cascag. Lily and McGill caught up with Sue Berman and Charlie Fica on their way back through Upper Cascag. Sue, how was the trail around Whitefish Lake? Wasn't bad at it, it got a little worse as it got dark,

because you couldn't see from Mark or Mark or but it turned out pretty good. Now I've got too many problems there, a little rough. Any problems with their dogs? None, yeah, they're the only thing with the dogs is they're a little sore if we invade brown on the ice, but other than that, they're all right. Do you think you'll be able to keep this pace up down there? Yeah, no problem. Who do you think is the person to beat now? Probably that Nathan guy, I'm not even told, I know his whole name, I just know Nathan. Yeah, you plan to drop any dogs here? No, I'm pan-to-rest, a little bit. Not myself, the dogs. Can you plan to stop up on the way down? A little bit here, a little bit there. So how are you doing? Getting tired, having to sleep for two days and start to feel it now. Charlie, how was the trail around Whitefish Lake area?

That's pretty rugged, there's no snow. Well, there's no snow to speak of in the trail and it wasn't marked very good to... Was that hard on your dogs? Yeah, we couldn't plan to create and keep bothering at the dogs. Any problems with your dogs? Not great, no, no. How are you? Tired. Geez, Libby, do you think you'll be... Do you think you'll keep this pace all the way down? No. No, they usually do. Who's the person to try and catch now? Everybody, I guess. Have you dropped any dogs in here in Upper Kalsgag? Today? No. What have you got in here? No, I got here with 12, this evening. You're pan-to-rest at any checkpoints, Elanui?

Not from here. How long have you arrested him? I'll give him back two hours and go. By the time the measures reached Upper Kalsgag on the way back down, Underwood had caught up and was within three minutes of the leader, Johnson. It was at that point that Underwood was informed of his penalty by the race marshal. He abruptly jumped on his sled and was led out of town by the race judges who made sure he didn't speak with anyone. The penalty was a result of Underwood's taking the wrong trail from Touluxak to Kalsgag on the way up. Underwood claimed he could not find the marked K-300 trail and thus ended up on the truck trail. Race officials said lost or not the trail was shorter. He would be assessed a two-hour penalty. Underwood jumped on his sled and left, trying to make up as much time in the short time left in the race. Because of the confused markings and open-water hazards, the trail was changed on the return from Kalsgag to Touluxak and all teams took the truck trail.

Rick, going back to listen, we stay on the river all the way to Touluxak. You steer it on the river right on the river right on the highway, huh? On the truck trail. All right, sounds good. Don't not head back towards that portage of Touluxak. Well, so we're going to stop in on in the lower at all, right? Nope, go stay on the river. A strange thing happened to Becca and Mushroom Gary McElwee's team. He went up to Amia, but had to return to Upper Kalsgag, he spoke to him about it. He told me why, how you scratched up Kalsgag. Somebody's dog team are going to happen to a pipe that had oil going through it, so where my dogs were laying, it filled up with oils, so they got oil all over their hair, and they started licking it, and then they started eating snow, and it just got dehydrated and stuff, and I had to turn around going to Amia to come back to Kalsgag.

How, how well do you think you were doing until then? Oh, bad. To worse. Out of Kalsgag headed towards Bethel, Vasily and Johnson still had the lead, but we're starting to slow down. Underwood was next. Mackie, Furman, John Row, and Fitkote were still three hours behind him, but the gap was closing. Outside of Aciac, Underwood passed Johnson, and was only two minutes behind Vasily. Underwood passed Vasily just before we looked and crossed the finish line first, Friday after noon at 2.57 p.m. In its six-year history, no one has ever won the K-300 with a two-hour lead.

Underwood would just have to wait and see who crossed the finish line to know where he'd placed. Rick Mackie, coming in second, but coming in first. Rick Mackie, a trapper creek. Thirteen minutes after Underwood's finish, Rick Mackie crossed the line, taking first place honors in his first running of the race. Congratulations, Rick. I'm really out of breath. Rick, you have it to have a habit of winning races towards the end. That's the way I like to do it.

I couldn't feel about the penalty for such a man. Well, I lost 50 minutes back to the last checkpoint anyway, because a bum mark can configure how to get out of there, so I would have had him anyway. You were picking up a lot of time on the track. I knew about the two-hour thing, or I would have made my pushway earlier. When you left, please let your dogs move and probably faster, and I'd seen them earlier. How do you keep that in the dogs? Well, I just trained them until I got to. Um, full of sack. You know, we just, me, Sue, Furman, and Dee Dee, we just trained them for 200 miles, and then, or 250 miles, and then started pushing. Was that a strategy you were holding back from the beginning and just taking the risk that the jack rabbit wasn't going to make it across first? Oh, yeah. That's what I like to do. I don't like to be the jack rabbit being chased, but it's the only way you can take care of your dogs, you know? Guys, you know, some of the guys have just passed back. They're going about two mile an hour, and, right out, yeah, I can't stand to run dogs that way.

When I whistle, I like them to go, you know, and I have to always have a lot left, you know, just like, um, guys like Jerry Austin, Rick Swinson, me, that's the way you do it, you know. This year, first 300, Rick, you've run a lot of other rides to the cold food race and a lot of other mid-distance races. This year, first 300, how you like it? Fun, huh? Yeah, it was, it was different. It was different. It's, you know, the trail is pretty bad this year, but overall, it wasn't, um, it wasn't that bad. It's a really fast race. That's for sure. Rick, that's the winner of the sixth annual running of the hospital for 1985. The man who led the charge around the track, Blumker-Wassley of Portage Creek, followed Mackie in about a half hour later to take second place. Blumker, you knew that Mackie was in, uh, Nathan, we're going to catch it. Uh, I never see him behind me. I love a suddenly caught up to me and caused me just like, I didn't know what to do. I see him come out like that.

Yeah, I thought he was going to catch me, you know, I never see him down up there. Blumker, this is two years in a row. You went out and you just went as fast as you possibly could and towards the end, you just didn't quite have the horsepower, uh, is that going to make you change your strategy next time you come back? Uh, I'm going to train more harder next year, maybe if I'm going to come. How can you train more hard to, uh, to do any faster than you've done here? Hi. Maybe I got to go upriver and, uh, train my dopes, come forward. Okay. We've had the team coming in and should be soo firming, uh, from what we understand. I'm not, maybe Ed knows a little different than that. Uh, Sue's team has looked strong all the way, uh, Sue has probably compared to a lot of people's dogs. They're shorter here. Uh, maybe a little bit thinner and also probably compared to most dog teams, uh, faster. Sue's real competitive mushroom. I did a ride veteran Sue Furman, a flat horn lake, came out of the middle of the pack

to take third place. You're going to real strong finish with you with your team that are, are they keeping pretty much, uh, up with you as you, as you had hoped they would? Well, yeah, but I, uh, they didn't get quite enough rest last night though and they're kind of tired. More, I got up in there. So asleep on me back there. I had to carry her in the sled a couple miles and she wanted out to see the finish line. So she, I put her back out. Were you disappointed that you had to drop as many dogs as you did? Well, I kind of planned, I even started with last because, uh, the trails were so icy. So I started with 11 instead of 13 and I knew that some of them would make it, but what, uh, they all would have made it, but it was so icy and that they got just thrashed and, you know, I bruised and sore and, and so they, I thought this Beth sent him home. Nathan Underwood's corrected time put him in fourth place. Three three teams finished the 1985 Kuskakwim 300 sled dog race, 19 teams or almost half

of the field scratched the trail and fast pace, taking a high toll of both mushers and dogs. But a race isn't over until the prizes are handed out and the speeches are made. All they can say is I'm happy I've taken their, in the money for the first time I feel like a professional family and making more than I put into the race here. And, uh, also, I'd like to think of, uh, John Nickelite for giving me some competition coming across the line when we come back to Bethel, where 10 miles out of town John, I raced for it. And, uh, just, I was ahead of him just about maybe, uh, 50 feet from the face line and they decided to go home. I lived just down the road from the face line. So we're just a little way to the wage. So I should have 18, but he knows what I'm talking about there. One, thanks for waiting for me that, uh, no man's landing. Congratulations, John. Well out in Whitefish, we didn't have much to do except think about what we could do

tonight. And so we're awarding the attitude award, the musher that had the best attitude out at Whitefish. No complaints, lots of smiles, and we're awarding him the Whitefish Lake checkpoint rules. First of all, I want to thank all the villages along the trail. The people in this area are by far the best people I've ever met in my life. I want to thank the Whitefish disco party. That was by far the highlight of the trip, uh, Matt and Dave, Mike, Jerry and Clara and Ray were all really super and I really had a good time out there. I want to thank Tex and Bob Sepp without you guys in the information you gave me about my dogs.

I don't know what part I've made it. And I really want to especially thank Gus Johnson for pulling out my two swing dogs out of the river. I don't think he knew who I was at the time and thank you very much, Gus, wherever you are in the audience. And thanks again for Bethel. Bethel is a great place. It's just the best in the world. Thank you very much. This is really pretty unexpected and when I found out I figured that somebody thought if they gave me this, I wouldn't complain about anything anymore. But I proved them wrong. It's kind of hard to figure it out too. I came down here for several years in the beginning of the race and tried real hard and pushed pretty hard and managed to win a couple of times, but never got any trophies because they didn't give them in those days and now if you come down and take it easy you get

a trophy. The next position finishing is a rookie of the race in this year's race, obviously a rookie because he took rookie of the year and that means that of the rookies in the race he was the first one across the finish line. I'd like you to give a big hand of applause to Joe D'Amantel Jr. Joe D'Amantel Jr. Joe D'Amantel Jr. Beginning of the next $300 in the committee, plus two free round trip tickets from Sierra. I'd like to thank all of you, Cusco 300 supporters for making this race possible along with all the mushrooms. My little scuff for you to need some beaver snacks, follow on that race, they really pull it through.

I had very good dog this year, but when I lost my leaders I lost the race. I figured I had it, but you can't count your money before you get it, you know. I'd like to thank Willy Pearson, he sent me some beaver meat, Joe D'Amantel only tried to win the beaver meat to me, but you never could catch me, huh? Besides taking number one, the first position winning the cup and $6,000 first place prize, Rick Mackie has also been declared the dog's best friend. Congratulations Rick. On behalf of Alaska Airlines, we'd like to present you with the Cusco Quim 300 Dog's Best Friend Award. I'd like to thank the head home, the whole town of Belkall and all the other villages

that just seem like every single person was behind the race and involved with it some way. And all the checkpoints were, they're the best checkpoints I've ever seen. And I would like to present this trophy from the Cusco Quim Valley Media Association to the first prize. Rick Mackie. Thank you. Bye.

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