1988 Start; Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race

Then back on the Cusco River and 55 miles to Tulexack, they're the teams that temporarily halted for a mandatory two-hour vet new trip. The final three short legs carried the mushrooms 25 miles to Acquiat, 12 miles to Acquiat, and then the final blast to the finish line and back 15 miles away. All right, go back on the air. No Blanca Rosley and no Gus Chuckknuck this year, which I think might slow down the front of the race up to Antioch, although one of the interesting things about the first, the half way prize getting up to Antioch about 140 miles into this race.

Nobody's ever won that half way prize and come back down here and won this race. Blanco won at three times in a row and finished second and just about John Massick last year. Last year won it and he had one of the slower runs coming back down at the time. Six or seven I think long took him a long time the last, uh, last 40, 50 miles of this race. You're in really set the tona about two years ago when he stopped a cow's gag on the way up and let everybody else stop at Antioch further up and take their rest there and mine and pass them and they never really caught him after that. It's an interesting part of people's race strategy. Most people do take that six hour layover in Antioch. This year, some people know people are going to take them cow's gag. The first two teams in this race, the ninth annual three, cusp get going through here is going to start about a minute and a half there. The first two teams, Harry Sutherland and Rich Burmister, it's not going to burmister this morning. He said that he is taking it no doubt about it in cow's gag today. Come with me tonight. He said he's going to hit cow's gag about 12, 30 tonight, take six hours and then, and

then go on up. The year that Myron did take a six hour in, uh, in cow's gag, six hour layover, rest there, hit the fastest time going up to two in, and it picked up about a half an hour just in running time, so it did help them out quite a bit. People who struggled a little, went a little further up to, uh, to any act to do their six hour did, uh, didn't finish quite as well. Well, they didn't, obviously, they didn't even take it till we got rounds of cow's gag on the way back in. Susan took the six hour there, Myron just passed them both up. After that six hour, they have a further two hour mandatory in two looks act coming home. That's a vet check and, uh, that is designed just for the vets to have one more good look to see, uh, which dogs are capable of making that man 55 mile dash back to Bethel and which teams might need to have a, uh, rest, uh, uh, pressed upon them. They're going to remove these two teams up into the starting shoot, uh, momentarily, Harry

Sutherland, uh, is going to be running the three and a half. He's on the far side of your screen and close closer to the crowd here is which permeister. The way it, uh, Harry's number one, which is two on the far side is shoot one on, on closer to the, uh, the bottom of your screen is, um, or if you're in radio land, you probably doesn't make much difference, but, uh, there'll be go side by side right out of here. Sutherland's 47. He's been running dogs for 16 years. He's run the 300 twice. He finished two years ago in fourth position, last three finished in, uh, fifth position. A lot of people think, and I'm one of them, he's tougher than his dogs. He's the one that gives dog team back here in the top five, he's, he's done well in other races. Run the quest, finished second, third and fifth. He's run, uh, I did a ride several times. He's finished, uh, third, 15th and 17th, ran the known Contribute 350 race finished, uh, second, and that the cold foot classic. He's going to run the idea to ride this year, uh, been around a lot of races and a lot of races and a very tough guy and burmeister's not much different in their race experience. He's been running a long time. He just has 15 years ago and got 800 miles on his dogs right now, but a lot of people

think that's enough in this 300 mile race. He's run, uh, I did a ride, he's run to rendezvous, he's run sweepstakes, uh, the 202, the elum 40, uh, all kinds of distances, lots of races. He feels real good about this team. He's got here, uh, some of the same leaders he's used in the past. He's gotten an 11 year old leader that he came in second in the mail trail 202 a couple of years ago. They're both up in the shoots now. Uh, and I think these two guys are really going to enjoy this. They're good friends. They've run a lot with each other. They know some of their habits to each other. And, uh, and they also know how to race. So I'd, uh, I'd say will that, uh, we would both agree to put each of these in the top 10. Yeah. Obviously people are all over the state right now, figuring who's going to come in, who's going to win, who's going to come in the top 10. I, I figure Sutherland's going to be in the top 10 for sure. And I put Burmice to 9th or 10th to finish to, yeah, to come in there about 9th or 10. And he could do better. Obviously, I do bad happenin' into dog race in the dog race. I understand there's not much open water, a little bit up near any accident.

That shouldn't be a problem this year either. There's a good shot of Harry, uh, taking care of his dogs. He's in a lovely red, uh, bright red, right, right, right, right, right. You can stand out on the white tundra out here. Uh, if I don't know a few seconds to start time, I don't know if you get it over on, uh, Sutherland's lead right now is race, Marshall, Steve Bush. Sutherland is on the back of his sled now. I guess they're not showing too much of Burmice to, he's got a, uh, sort of like a combination basket to bargain sled with a huge hook on, uh, break on the back of one of those claw breaks. He's got a little bit of a snow machine track with some spikes hanging down off the bottom of his rich Burmice there. And he also has, I guess we're going to go and pick up his anchor. He's got one of those ice, uh, tracks on his back. Three, two, one, and we're almost off. Dogs have those reflector tapes on them. Harry's having a hard time getting his hook on. So they go to Burmice dirt and they're going in front. I'm not sure who's on Burmice dirt on the right of your screen. Second sled.

They'll go to the left. He's have a second sled. There they go. How far are they on the? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Got the guy fell off Burmice to sled. Yeah, I don't know what the rules are about that he was supposed to go another mile before he dropped off the, uh, the handler. And he's obviously lost his handler, rich Burmice dirt, uh, just up there where you can see the car going by is the spot where the second sled and handler are dropped off. And Rich Burmice has lost his handler and clearly there's nothing to be done about it now. Well, you know, they're saying they're supposed to be on there for a while. I don't think that there's anything they can do about that. No. You can't really penalize the moisture if the handler falls off the back. The handler also is it? Not a mushroom. Right. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Generally they're, uh-oh. On that particular sled, she wasn't, uh, Nelly McElley. He wasn't staying with them. No. And she was very nervous. The next two teams in the shoe. Hi. Tom Lap. Chief Act is the second time he's running the race. He's got some of Myron Aksman's dogs and he says they're, they're the best part of his team. And I believe myron's got dogs and lots of teams around the delta. Well, it makes sense. You live down here and you watch Myron win all these races. And you're going to go by dogs.

Exactly, right? Exactly, right. Closer to us right now. Jeff King. Jeff King for now in the Nelly Park. Uh, should finish in the top 10 also. He's, uh, run, he's finished very well in the quest. Running it four times. Uh, he's at a second, third, fourth, and fifth in the quest. Clearly a very tough team. He's, uh, not a, not a real big kid. Uh, he's, he's got a lightweight over to wonder about, uh, guys like, uh, uh, smaller women, uh, as, as opposed to, to, uh, bigger mushers. How much of an advantage is, is weight in this leg? What would you think? Well, it, it's something that's debated all the time. You talk to Joe Garnet, Joe Garnet, he says, I don't care. Man, he says, I'm like, old runners on this, on this race. I don't care how much weight is in my sled. Uh, here goes these next two teams out. Jeff King's going to have a smooth start and just gets right out. Tom Lapp's just going to wait for him and follow him out. Good idea. By the way, they do a little dog left dog leg here to the left and, um, head on out. Just step right in to the highway cross tundra about seven, eight miles before they drop down from the high tundra onto the Cusco River, but another 50 miles, two quick luck,

which is not a checkpoint, but they just go by the village, then onto their first check point, which is Akiak, then onto Tulek sack, cowscak, et cetera. Karen Schmidt and Bobby Petler, the next two teams up, Karen Schmidt, a veterinarian, uh, out of them fairbanks. From Fairbanks, a rookie in this race, she's run the quest and she's run the cold foot, which erased it. It's not run any longer. She finished twice in the cold foot. I do believe she finished the quest last year also. She's come out here with Susan and Dave, and I suspect that she's learned a lot from Susan, who has run this race many times, and she's probably listened and... One of those things, you keep your mouth shut, and you can just rise opening your mouth a lot from those people. Absolutely. Bobby Petler from Caliganet, 23 years old, he's got 450 miles on his team. I didn't get a dog count when he went in there, he said 11 dogs. He's also going to race in Dillingham, a new story I hooked this year. He's got dogs from Gus Chucknuck, which are traditionally fast dogs, the first 140 miles

exactly. And he's sponsored by his family, which anybody out here is their families right behind them, one way or the other. Getting back a little bit to that weight thing, last year when Susan won the idea around the second time in a row, Swinsing got the safety and had a hard time getting his dogs out. People were saying, wow, it makes sense that they wouldn't, that Swinsing couldn't catch it, because he might weigh 50, 60 pounds more than right. I'm just wanted to ever use that as an excuse, and that does not make sense in a race like that. It just doesn't. Race like this, however. I'm happy, when I'm racing, I'm happy I don't weigh 270 pounds, there's no doubt about it. But other people think that you can use that weight to your advantage when it comes to helping your dogs out and strength and getting in a situation where you need some power. Next couple of months, she was our Carl Simon. She's a rookie from Nome, started with 14 dogs, 13 veteran dogs, and a rookie. And next to him is John McDonald, from KY UK television here in Bethel.

Got a big smile on his face as he pulls up into the streets. John's been anxious about this and just been looking forward to this race and smoking about it probably every day, several times for the last three or four months, just talking about what's going to happen. And I don't think John is different than any other mushroom out here, you know, dog stocks. One of the mushrooms earlier this morning, who's already out there on the trail, he says, this is about a half an hour before we started off broadcast, he said, here we are now before the race start. I got to go to the bathroom, I got to go to the bathroom, he says, but I know if I walk all the way over there, I won't have to, he said, it's just nervousness, he said, let's just get going. Every single mushroom out there, it calms down, they get out 8 or 10 miles and they see what dogs got down to. Oh, yeah, they do. A lot of questions are answered early in a race for some marginal mushrooms or marginal teams, you know, right where you're going to be, or who you're going to be racing against to worry about, obviously the big questions won't be answered for another 48 hours. John finishes race in 1982, he finished 26, he's got 13 dogs, he's got a good breed, he's got Swenson dogs and Jerry Austin dogs, and they've steadily improved, he gets

a kiss from Beverly his wife, a good luck, and they're going to be off in just a few seconds, Carl Simon and John McDonald called from Chevek and John McDonald from here in Bethel. Two teams side by side, John's waving off his handlers, there we go, count down five seconds right now and John's still got that big grin on his face, he doesn't let go of that handlebar at all. Hang on John. A nervousness happiness, whatever, there he goes, Carl Simon, a little trouble is hook I caught up in the, and they're having trouble, they've got this rope down there across the start line, to put their hook on, and it's not the easiest thing to pull that line back when you got 12 or 14 dogs, you got a lot of pressure on that, even with four or five people on an old phone, if people have ever experienced it, it's just a lot of power. A lot of these dogs who have been here before, they know it's a race, they know the drill, you know, they know that this is a race, and some of them are real happy about it, some like the race.

Yep. Here comes a dark horse of mine to bust into the top ten, have a real good race, Steve Chamberlain, of any act now of Bethel, he's a teacher at the Cuskam Community College here, he's teaching English, run this race for three times before, finished 19th, 14th, and 8th last year, Steve, and he's progressively improved. Absolutely. I'm sure he's not going to improve on that, he's going to have a tough time this year, though. I've raced with him, and he's a rough cookie, he's tough out there and pushes his dogs and pushes himself, too. Running next to him is Buck Williams from King Salmon, has the distinction of having probably the most training miles on his team, which is part-trapline, part-race team, I understand, 1600 training miles, and no previous racing experience, but I understand from folks down there that knows his way around a dog's leg. He says he's got 12 dogs, there are six dogs with experience and six rookies to racing. This is a good way to break in a dog on a three-handed.

Find out if they have a serious team or not. There's a good shot of Steve Chamberlain of Bethel, of any act in Bethel, I guess. His team was trained this year while at Wala Steve was working by Billy Eisenbarr, who's one of the best dog runners in the Delta, I'd say. He wants a lot of spit races, and himself has a six place in the three-handed. Steve, look, looks like he's going to... And here they go. There they go. Clearaway and... Steve's getting out a little. They're off and running. People who might be watching this on TV, and have never seen a beginning with sled dog race, who gets out first and who gets out second, who doesn't mean anything here? It might be nice to go out smooth in front of all these people who are watching this. And talking about that, you hit this piece of ice there, and in the former years, it wasn't even as much snow cover. You make that left-hand turn, and you go shooting way out to the right. It's so easy. A lot of teams just drop. It's so easy for the bottom... I mean, for dogs to have their feet together, it's so easy for a sled to have the runners just...

All of a sudden, you're just sideways and down. Well, here's one that has got to be one of the co-favorites, Myron Anksman, and Ron Brennan. Both of Bethel. Myron's won the rallies. Well, I don't think... I don't think about everything. There is any doubt in anybody's mind who races dogs, who has been following dog mushrooms. He's on top of the world in Middle-distance dog-mushing right now. Three-four-to-mives. He hardly can be beat. And besides winning races, he comes back and wins him two weeks later also. That's right. He said to me last night, he's planning on running the Northern Sound Boardage 250. That starts to 12th of... Excuse me, the 5th of February. He's not real sure he wants to see how his dogs are going to do in this race. I suspect they're going to do wonderfully well. Ron Brennan is a pediatrician here in Bethel. He's won these run this race a couple times before. His best finish last year was 11th. There's a good shot of Myron. Ron has a wonderful dog team. He's got a good stock from local stock and from Dennis Boyer. And he's been looking for a much better race than he's actually been able to put together.

He breaks, he could bust in the top 10, and maybe even who knows? Last year, it's possible. Up in any act, 130, 140 miles from here, the halfway point they call it, although it's not actually the halfway point. He got there and he had terrible dogs, he said. Myron's just standing there looking at Ron's goal. Not even moving. He says, just let him go there. No problem. Myron sees the problems that you can have making that left in turn with a third. Oh, golly. Oh, wow. Myron's team took off and on the handler's sled caught on that rope and just snapped that line. Myron's team, I think they got out, OK, but the tremendous job, boy, you could hear that handler's knee right over the handlebars and the sled took the handlebar off that sled. I'm not sure if that guy's hurt or not. I guess he's up and walking around, but I'm not sure if you could hear it. He's a young man. He just kind of flipped right over. We're inside the van here, about 40 feet from where that happened, and you could hear it inside here with the wind. I'm just wondering if there's any damage done to Myron's sled, that would be really

unfortunate. It looked like the rope just snapped and looking at it from here, it looks like it was a lightweight rope, probably sort of like a fuse. That's going to break before something on Myron's sled's going to break. It's the same situation as opposed to have a mile with that handler. They cannot penalize a mushroom for that. They might. There's been controversy in this race before, but I think that's going to have that. No, we're not about that, but not in this case. That was strictly an act of nature. The power. Unbelievable. Just ripped it right to pieces. That rope is probably tough. There's a shot of Dan Boyen, as the cusco threw it out at race chairman, been doing that job for three years. That's a gentleman with the microphone in his hand. Does a heck of a job get's all of us working our, uh, Joe Garnie with his big strong dogs. His sled looks like it's about a 10-foot basket sled. I don't know if you can see the dog sled like that before, uh, Joe's going to go fast. He's got the seal skin pants on and shoe packs. Joe apparently has, uh, gone back to that, uh, coastal team that, uh, that he and, uh, and, uh, Libby used to have and, uh, worked together the real tough dogs.

They get trained, they train many, many months out of the year, uh, during the off season, and they're a tough crew. His, his dogs are very tough and Joe himself is a tough guy. Joe's going in. And there's no one out there. Team next to him is not there, and that's, uh, Dan Johnson. It looks like. Dan Johnson, he's not there. No. I don't know what the problem with Dan's team is. Well, we should explain maybe what the rule is here. It's going to say it goes last now. Well, he still has this two minutes to get out as long as he gets out of it. That's the next team scheduled. He can still get out. He's got this two minutes. Now it's about, uh, looking down and I see his team being moved up. If he does not get out here, he's going to have to wait until the end of the back, the 32. Let's try to get a shot of a Dan Johnson and always handlers running his team up there. He'll get out. He'll get out. He's going to be a little late, but no big deal is Dr. J.R. Evans leading on the gang line. And there he goes. Two, three, four. Let him go. Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve dogs. And he's just going to keep going. There's no need to stop.

Oh, well, he's got to get a handler on there. It's got to stop him across the star line with his great. There he goes. Well, that rope's a problem. The rope is a problem. Your rookie, it's a problem too. There haven't been many dogs booted up at this star line. Not at all. Part of that, there's not a lot of snow down here. And I guess they've, they've, people have been out here this first 10, 15 miles. Most of these teams have been in town for four or five days. They've gotten this because they feel they don't need the boots on dogs. That's what the good teams like to do. They like to get to Betham early, especially to go up to Akichuk or a quidlock wherever the race is ending. The last stop and run it back down a couple of times to let their dogs know what, which is the way home. I write right here. We have Roger Nordleman. Roger Nordleman. And Leslie Monk from England. Roger Nordleman from Cotsibew. He run that Copa 220 around, right around New Year's came in second place, 220 mile race. I think his time in second place was like 32 hours and something, but there was where the 10 hour layover in that race also was scheduled for four. They got a big storm.

They held him, everybody for 10 so that they could go through some rough spot in a storm during daylight. There's Nordleman. Nordleman, I'm going to pick Nordleman for the top 10. Leslie, I hope she gets around. This is her first major race. And I'm not sure they have races like this in England, where she's used a bunch of spring dogs. Well, it says here she's finished fourth in total, I'm not sure how long that race in total is. Yeah. You can't have the sprint jobs out there. I'm sure she's wondering why she's here right now. Yeah. But you should have a good time and we should have the best of luck. Right behind Roger Nordleman going out. Francois Vadi Gus from Dawson City, Yukon Territory, and the regionally of France. Next, France is going to come into the shoot very soon. This is not in this is Peter Galila of Akiak, who's 31 years old, being held by nails Alexei in the Sealskin parka here, is one of our race judges. And Francois is not quite here yet. I don't even see team coming up.

Nope. Still looking at those two teams as they go out, Roger and Leslie, now we're back to Peter. This is a shot of Peter Galila from Akiak. He started with 10 dogs, which is, 10 good dogs will get you around in a pretty good time. You're not going to win a lot of money, but you're going to have a good time. I have a good time. I'm in count all the dogs, but I think the biggest string that's going out here today is 14 dogs. Oh, I think more than that is going to be around 16 here today. I thought that I saw a 16 and maybe even a pair more than that, but perhaps not. Can only drop five dogs and maximum drop beyond that you get penalized. No problem with carrying that the six wounded dog in your sled. And at any point, the mushrooms must have at least five dogs in harness, in the gangline. His friends, why? He's getting up to the storyline just on time. They've got a little less than 30 seconds right now. Do you recall why, Francois, scratch last year? No. Don't remember. Francois is an interesting fellow.

He uses a single dog food that's prepared by a... I believe Copa, if you'll feed up in Fairbanks area. And that's apparently all he feeds with very little supplement. And I'm wondering how exactly he can stack up with teams that are feeding beaver, liver, and very nice and glily ahead down the trail that eat miles to the hit the river. No, I'd say a bit more than that, probably Peter Gillier is going off to the left and into the crowd, and come on Peter, get him to get him to get him out over there. Bitnola, glare, ice over there. It's got some good leaders over there. It's great away, yeah, they are. He's got them over there. He's got right out on glare, ice now. Looks like they're going to step right back in line, get out of the top situation. Susan, put your up next. We said earlier, we've got the best mushroom in the world and mid-distance racing here. We have the best long distance right here. Susan.

He's going to be rated as tops in that. Susan doesn't want to hear about it. We've finished this race twice. Three times in second spot, which she'd like to end then, I'm sure. If it gets down to it, she probably won't finish third, instead of second again. She's not sure that. Yeah, I'm sure she's done. She's going to do everything she can to keep it as close as she can. The difference in Bucks is 75-100 per second, and I think only five grand for third. Lovely. Okay. Okay. Next to Susan is a good mushroom from out here. Lily Fittke, one of the many Fittkas who run dogs all very well up in the Marshall area. Charlie Fittke, of course, has run this race on several occasions doing well just about every time. Charlie's son, Steve Fittke has run this race, and now he's Willie back for another shot. He finished seventh last year, as I said. Very good race last year. We had a good race. The field wasn't quite as wonderful as this year, and that's why one of the reasons that Willie might have finished as well, but he does have good dogs, and if he's barred some of Charlie's, you know that they probably know the way around him, and will give a good

accounting of themselves. There's a countdown for Willie and Willie. And Willie. And they're off, Susan got a little bit of a two-second head start there, but I don't think they're going to hold that against her. I don't think there's any doubt that Susan not only wants to win this race, but wants the record. You think so? Yeah. Susan, it's one thing to say. I'm the winner. Breakdown. Take a note, and it's letting Willie fit Khalid the way. It's nice. Susan, you know, is winning races now, winning long-distance races, winning some mid-distance races. But yeah, she wants, there's no doubt about it, besides winning the people who win want the record. Swenson told me that when the first time Myron took his record away from me once and how many minutes had he got. He says, all I got to do is beat that record by one minute. He hasn't got back here to try it yet. I do expect him to do that sometime, though maybe he's waiting for he gets better dog team. He'll take some good dogs to break a record in a 300 mile race.

Okay. Dave Monson of Eureka is on the far side. There's a picture of a superman of Flathorn, a couple of thirds in this race, third last year, and third three years ago. And Dave Monson of Eureka, that's the front end of his team that you're seeing. Susan and David's channel has to be rated, probably best in the state, long-distance team. So you know that Dave has wonderful dogs. He's a terrific mushroom in his own right. He finished a second in the quest, is that right? Second in the quest last year, ten minutes behind Bill Carter. Well, he was pushing him all the way. But he said at the end, Carter just outsmarted a bunch of people, and beat everybody about a couple of my ten minutes. Butcher and Monson have said that they've only got three dogs that have run this race before. You believe in this team?

Well, yeah. You know, there's some people that will say anything, but there are other people who don't have to say anything. That's the truth. And you can accept it or not, and there's no reason to exaggerate. There's Dave. And close by, that's a superman. The vermin's team, she's all first, looks like Dave is going to wait for suitily the way. And there goes Dave with the team, and they both look like they're moving out no problem. Another former champion pulls into the shoot. Two-time champion, last year defending champion, Rebecca Mackie, smoking as usual. I've said earlier during this broadcast that I don't think Mackie can win this race, and here's the reason why. OK. You've got Susan Butcher here. You've got Myron Aksman here, Joe Garnies. Mackie obviously has won this race, he's won the cold food, he's won the I did a right, he's won this race twice, he is inconsistent, he can come out one race and not even finish in the next race. We're finished back out of the money. I just don't think Rick, I hope he does, you know, I really like Rick. He's a fun person to see out in checkpoints.

He's one of these people that we'd rather talk to you than get some rest. You'll take care of his dogs, but instead of resting himself, they're just like sitting and drink coffee and think how loud to you, and it's enjoyable to have people like that out there. But you don't get me shot at the winning. I do. He's got a shot at winning, I just don't think he can do it. In the betting pool, I'm going to hear about that, I'm sure, I'm putting him down the first. I think I've finished that. I think I have him there, fifth. I don't know. He's going to be in there. We'll see. We'll see. Let's see. 46 hours and 12 minutes, he runs 300 last year, I believe it's his time. Yeah, that's fast. That's an hour or less than two hours off the record. We haven't made note of who's running with the Rick, and it's Harvey demand of Act yet. Use his dogs on the Williams family clinic family candles in Act yet. He was 14th last year, good racing family, good competitor. Rick at traditionally sends down five or six mushers and they do always do well, they got

tough dogs up there and lots of them, lots of teams up on Act yet. All right, there goes Rick and Harvey demand was just going to wait for Rick to go out first. Good move. That's John Nickel. Both of these two teams don't have an extra sled. Their handler is riding on the basket and Rick sled does wife patty. Two mushers coming up are a couple of other Delta mushers, Bartagaklak from Imanlak, 45 years old, mushing for four years. He's a commercial fisherman. He's on the near side. On the far side, Sam Smith of Bethel has steadily improved his finishes in this race. This is his fourth goal. First year. It's a first time, 27th in 1986, 17th in 1987, went in the drink actually his first time in some horrible open waters.

That was the year the Glar rise all the way. He was lucky to get out with only a couple cold toes. We should point out this is Sam Smith is number 25 in the start line and Bartagaklak is 26, so there's just these two and six more teams to head out down the trail. Bartagaklak is sponsored by Delta Air Service of Imanlak and by himself, and Sam Smith says that he's self-sponsored, so we've got to do with these days if you want to run dogs, you've got to poke a lot of your own bucks into it these days. Just not quite the same ease of finding sponsors. Smith is another one of those people who on his sled, it looks like he's running a 10-wide sled. He's got one of those, I don't know what to call it, a blade for ice that you can just step on and it picks your runner up and so you're on actually on a knife that will keep your sled true, but they say it does anyway on some of this Glar rise. I think it's kind of hard to do when you're on Glar rise going on the gravel bar though when you're on a lot of mushrooms are also carrying a couple feet of snow-machine pad that they just step on and stops you on a dime.

And these two teams are heading out down the trail, Sam Smith in Bartagaklak. Immediately after the last two mushrooms go out will, people on the stage should stay tuned because K-Way of Kate television is going to continue its coverage with a half-hour production called Racing the Wind. This is a video documentary of the 1983 race, you remember that one? That was the one that Myron won his first time in a photo finish with George Adler who was just a scant 15 seconds behind, they ended the race in those days down on, first I haven't you down on the riverfront and people still talk about it was one of the most thrilling races a lot of people have seen. What's really interesting about that is the difference between first and second was one second or something similar, 15 seconds. They were 65 hours on the trail, I don't understand whether we did the start racing until they got right here. They kind of caught each other in the Queen look and they said let's race now. They traded places several times, it was a fabulous race, Myron knows how George Adler.

That will be on immediately following the last two mushrooms going out. Jay or Stone in Ralph Steve's 27-20, a little shout out of Ralph Steve's a buddy of mine from Cal Skag is going to put me up and take a good care of me. This is the first year Ralph has won this race and watched this go by his, literally his doorstep in Cal Skag for eight years, been a checker, I think two or three years ago he was seen as wife Lorina, we're volunteers of the year, she's running the hamburger stand up there. Well first mid-distance race last year was the MailTrail 202, he knows this is going to be an experience any might be out there at once. What kind of dogs does he have? I haven't seen his team in about four years, he told me they're a little slow, he's got there. I know he's got one or two dogs in there from Bush but I think these are all his dogs. Jay or Stone is running with Ralph Steve's and he's from, he's from Cheevac and I asked him at the, at the, at the Mushers drawing, what kind of running conditions he has at these as well, it's so flat, they're hardly any trees and you get to run in any direction

and you hardly ever get, get turned around because it's, it's all kind of monochrome. Steve got out on the trail, Stone had a little bit of problem getting off that rope at the start line so, Ralph looks good, he's moving along that fine. Two Mushers, Willy feels from Fort Yukon and Dave Dio from Antioch, Willy, first time he's come down here. From Fort Yukon, have you ever had a team here from Fort Yukon, he's running Nathan Underwood dogs, although they're a team that Nathan Underwood trained but actually they are field stocks from Fort Yukon, he shipped him down and Nathan around, I cook a quick, yeah and I imagine those dogs are going to be moving right along, obviously the problem fields is never run this race before, actually I don't think he's run any race before, so that's going to see, he's going to give him a little bit of a problem, he's a carpenter by trade he says, has no other race experience, it says you're no other race experience, we'll welcome to the K through and he'll have a good team, he'll get some, talk to him when he gets back around Saturday or Sunday, I tell you fishing this race is a thrill, it's a little bit of baffle area, the Delta area, the banquet for this race is Sunday evening I believe, hopefully

all the teams will be back and you're with 32 teams, they should all get back, you should all get back, I'd say late Saturday night, early Sunday morning, under these conditions and all things be, of course, Dave Deal is the other team going out next to Willie Fields, Dave Deal from Antioch, Randy Yukon 200 last year, he's run this race one time, this race once, and I finished 14th, yeah it did real well, respectable, what was that, 83 or 85 I got, 55, the word is he's got good dogs and he's one of these guys who should be in the top 10 to 15, I think, and he knows that in order for him to do well, some other people don't have to have some problems, but more importantly he's got to run a good race, you know, races are won and made by mistakes, won and lost by mistakes, they don't run a smooth race, a lot of handles there, they're all clearing out of the way, Willie Fields is a Ford Yukon and Dave Deal of Antioch, there goes Dave, and Willie's waiting, he's going to wait it out, wait it out, and oh, wow, now the snag with that rope, I bet you that you'll

never see that rope at the start, I would imagine not, I guess this would probably dig a couple holes in the ice and get a lot of bodies out to hold the team down, last two teams going out, you're 31st and 32nd, Dee Dee John, Rofen Bethel, and Doug Doolen from Bethel, Dee Dee's looking for a real good race, she's got some wonderful dogs, her own that she's bred, she bought a lot of dogs from Susan Butcher, she's got a terrific lead dog that she borrowed from Franrich locally, and Dee Dee's looking to do as well as she did the only other time that she really do well, which was a sixth place a couple of three years ago, I was surprised, I would be surprised if she finished higher than sixth or seventh, that would be a real clue for her. Dee Dee finished 19th and 81th, 17th and 82th, 22nd and 83th, 6th and 85th and then 10th and 86th, and she's also run the itinerat several times, finishing in the money I think once or twice, she's got a 14th place finish, she's her best idea, yeah, Doug Doolen's the 32nd team to go out next to Dee Dee, he's got 800 miles on his dogs, he'll start

with, I don't know what number of dogs are, I think 14, he finished 21st and 85, 16th and 86th and then he scratched last year, he had a good race two years ago, he had a very good race, and we were thinking that last year he was even better with the kind of limited field, but unfortunately he scratched, I asked him how his dogs were, this year he said they were a modest team, well, people are waiting to see and it's going to be a long while before this all sorts out and who's where, they've got 20 miles up to Kwiffluck, which isn't a checkpoint, everybody will blow right through there, Kwiffluck to Akia, 15 miles, Akia, two looks like 22, two looks like to Kalsgag, 50, Kalsgag, Danny, Akia, 35, any, Akia, which is like 35 and then back down around, 170 miles back down there goes one team, Dee Dee's done, and Doug is, he's up with his shots, we're going to be leaving you in just a few seconds, stay tuned to racing the wind, which is going to come

on immediately following this, we'd like to thank Alaskan one more time for their uplink that makes it possible for us to transmit this race all over, they're those doerling, they're just a team out of the trail, good luck to Dee Dee, good luck to all 32 mushers, good luck to you Rich, I'm heading up to any act, I'll be back to any or Saturday morning for the finish, good luck to you, I hope it's early Saturday morning, I'm looking for a record, it's got to be before 7.30 for the record I think, I hope. Satellite transmission of this live statewide broadcast has been provided by Alaskan, the one you call on.

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