Mushers Drawing; Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race

Live from the K.Y.U.K. Television Studio, welcome to the 1992 Kaskakwim 300 Mushers drawing. Good evening, I'm Mike Lane and with me tonight is Ad Andris. We're here for the Mushers drawing to determine the starting order and this year's Kaskakwim 300 race. How are you, Ad? We've been together for several years doing this now. Yeah, and this race has been here for, well, this is the 13th running. One of the best kept secrets in Alaska. The fun we have out here this time of the year. How many is this for you? 11 or 12? I'm not sure.

This is the sixth year that I have been down here. Looks like this is going to be probably one of the better 300s that we've had in several years of trail. I say this from living up in TULIXAC now is in real good shape, going up river from here. I hear the trails excellent and the weather is expected to hold. There have been a couple years recently when the amount of fun we've had out here has been a little bit limited last year and a couple years before that. Either icy or very cold, but boy, this looks like a great year, great competition, great trail, and same great people here to put it all together. Well, we're going to have the mushers here in just a minute, but I want to ask you this. You have been in town for several, several days now haven't you? Since Monday, every year seems like the mushers pick who it is that has a chance to win. You know, who's got a good team, but they say, oh, they might not be a winner. How many winners have you heard of this week? Winners that other teams of announced are winners that have picked it for themselves. Well, both, both. Let's try the other teams first. What's this kind of about on other teams?

Well, I hear there's some good mushers here that we don't know a whole lot about. Some from Cotsby area. We've got Mr. Johnson from over near Whitehorse there, Taggish, I believe he's from, and some of those that we don't know a whole lot about out here. And of course, those that everyone knows about, Susan Butcher, Myron Anksman, both of whom won this race in the past, Jeff King, who won it last year. So some pretty good choices there. He could bet on any of them, and nobody's going to make too much fun of you. Okay. But now, how many have told you that they are going to win? About four or five. Okay. Well, good. It's always good to have four or five winners. Well, you know, let's get going here by calling up Nell's Alexi this year's race marshal. Last year's race marshal. How many years have you been a race marshal? No, I'm not counting the years. Come on over here. Stand between me and Ed so he can puddle you with questions too. How many years? Let me ask you that again. Well, I don't know. I'm not counting the years. As race marshal, not your age. Well, I don't know.

Well, just give me your observations on the races here. I mean, last year, we rode down River in the truck together and it was nothing but wept and spring like this year, it's winter. What's going to happen? Well, this year, I think it's going to be better without you driving. I went up the little waste yesterday and to me the trail is going to be just like a nice channel. Okay, don't. Well, let me just ask you a couple of questions about the race itself. I've been sitting up there minding my own business not paying attention to it. Are there any changes? Any changes in the trail? The rules? Anything this year that are significant? Well, I sure don't know. We'll see if there's any changes in the way the things happen. Okay, but the changes is the reduced number of the team. That's all I know.

Just fewer teams running this year. Yeah, I'll come. Well, I don't know. Less interest? What less interest in dog mushing? Less teams running around here? I don't know. You asked me too many questions. Okay, I won't ask you any more questions. No matter how many out there, Nellis is going to keep them in line anyway. Yeah, I'll try. Okay, well, Nellis, Alexei, and I know he's joking because I did drive safely down River last time. It's the truth, too. Let me just let me take one minute to do one thing. There is one person in Tulik's fact that can get Bethel TV, Fred Alexei, Hi Fred. I'm down here. So now they know. Let's get on with the drawing. How's that? Yeah, we've got an excellent group of mushers here and what's really impressive is the fact that, you know, not because I'm saying there's good competition, but because some of the top mushers here say, you know, we have a good competitive field here this year. And I'm here because I figured this is competitive. And so

let's get it right started with one of them last year's champion and a well-known musher in other places in the state, Jeff King. Well, Jeff, how goes it? Well, real good. It's good to be back. Nice to see you guys again. Didn't want to miss a good Bethel hospitality. I wasn't counting on the weather, but I knew the hospitality would be here. But it's better than you, you would hope for, huh? No, I still don't believe this. I'm sure it's going to start raining sometime in the next 24 hours. You've been busy in mushiness here. You've got a couple of races in already. Yeah. We raced and two races up in Fairbanks, the cold spot classic and the fire plug, the fire plug 13. How far is the cold spot? What distance? 57 miles. So what do you call that? I mean, that's that's longer than a dash, but what kind of races of 57 miles? Yeah, it's pretty close to a dash this time of year maybe, but even one short month ago, it was all they all they wanted to do it without a stop. So it's perfect timing.

I think they have that real well planned out and races held in stages so that as our team's getting conditioned each year, the race schedule meets it pretty much the same dogs for those two races that you have here. I had two teams, one for the cold spot race and then one for the fire plug and there's I have three dogs from the cold spot race in this team, several from the fire plug and the rest weren't an either one. You're going to repeat this here? Are you one of the four that told Ab that you were first? Well, I'm a little slow to be saying that, but I've got a good good team and a little luck will be right in there. You're right in noting the competition's great here again and there's teams from all over the state that seemed to draw out of here like a magnet for this race and that's well deserved. It's a great race. You're a brand new father. Yep, one of the reasons I got here so late today was our brand new daughter, two weeks old,

Ellen King, number three, three girls and mom and I. Jeff, you've got some sponsors as well, would you like to give them a little recognition here? Well, first of all, I'd like to again, thank the last airlines for getting us out here. I mean, they really ought to be our number one sponsor for all of us who have to travel in by jet. They're tremendous help and kobuck feed and use the belly coal mine, both keep us on the trail. There you go, one's left. You're on the cross, so there better be. Number 16, number 16, two Jeff King. Well, good luck, Jeff. Being there's only 18 this year, that's toward the end of the trail. And we have coming up next one of the three rookies in this race, John Mercosas of Kneck and John has got Raven Fox kennels there and is a carpenter and as I said again, one of the rookies in this race is Mercoris. Mercoris, we'll get it straight before the race is over. I have a question for you.

Have any of your dogs ever been over to Joe Reddington's place? Well, not directly. Actually, some of the dogs have been bred out of Joe Reddington lines, but we've run past Joe's point several times, but so far I've managed to keep the dogs from going in there. I always wonder when I see Kneck, a mushroom biography, I think it's one of Joe's 2,500 dogs down there that it must be. Well, it's more like 500 dogs and yeah, he's got quite the operation down there, it's impressive. What brings you to the 300 as a rookie? Well, actually, we're down here to try to get a lot more experience than we have. The dogs are very young and I've only run two, two hundred mile races myself and hopefully we can learn quite a bit from some of these top drivers here. That is, we can keep them in our sights long enough to do so. But aside from learning, you came here feeling competitive too. No, actually, I'm really not hoping to compete. I'll be very happy if we can get back across the finish line and all the dogs

tails are doing this. That's my goal this year. Are you building a kettle? Well, we've built a kettle, we just have young dogs and now it's the time to get them out and start competing with them. Well, good luck and let's see where you're going to leave you. Yeah, let's get your sponsors here too, John. Okay, sponsor as well. I'll second Jeff's thing there. Last care lines does a great thing getting us out here and I really appreciate that. We're pretty much a self-supported panel, but I would also like to thank my brother Paul and his family and gnome, Amelia and Danny and my sister in Anchorage, Susan, who's a very strong supporter of us, and also Royal Canadian. Great. Let's see what you pick here. Drum roll. Go take the whole handful. Number 11. Number 11. Good luck, John. Okay. John, by the way, wasn't one of those who told me he was going to win. Matt D. Salerno's could be one that might win. He did real well here last year, finished fourth and went on to do real well on the dinner on last year. I've been doing great every year. Matt from Norm. Matt, good to see you.

Yeah, it's good to see you too, Mike. My first question, do you have a new yellow hat? No, orange. The same one, orange. I'm colorblind, okay. So we'll be able to tell who you are when you come into the checkpoints late at night. No problem. Okay. What are you been up to this year with your docs? Oh, just doing the best I can. We haven't had a lot of snow up there, so some of the training's been a little limited, but we're doing it. Here's a question I have for you and I'll ask everybody from Cots of you and everywhere else. Are there's many dog mushers out in gnome today as there were five years ago? I say it's about the same, probably. The candle club keeps things active out there. Yeah, they do. We have some races and something every weekend. You go from here back home and then the idea to run? Right. We'll go back home and sort things out and get packed up and head down to Anchorage in a couple of weeks after this to get ready for the dinner on. Are you one of the four that told Ed that this was your magic moment? No, I haven't talked to Ed yet today. I did break into the top 10 and he I did

her on last year though, so someone we certainly want to watch here. Okay, Doug. Well, tell us about the many people who sponsored you coming down here. Okay, first off, Alaska Gold Company's been my sponsor for a number of years and they're great Alaska Airlines. Of course, like everybody else. We had to have them to get here. Mike Weber, my dog handler and Royal Canadian Dog Food Company. Pick a number. 19. Number 19. Back at its back there. You'll know where to go, Matt. Nathan Underwood's run this race before and he's our next musher up. And Nathan did best here in 1985, driving my rennexins, dogs when he took four place and has been building his own team since then. Nathan, good to see you again. Yeah, good to see you. How you been? I'm seeing you since the last race. I've been doing all right and let me ask you a non-mushing question. What are you

been doing to keep busy up in the area? Pawny Nails. Have you? Pawny Nails? Have you been running your dogs a lot this so far this winter? Yes, since first of November, the team that you have are these all your dogs? I got one of Clifton Cads who's... How many dogs you bring down here with him? Right. 14. So you have kept a lot of dogs yourself over the years. Yeah, I think we have a feeding 41 total. This is going to be a good race for you this year. I hope so. I just hope to get around. Mike, we might point out that Nathan knows the trail pretty well because he drove his dogs down here from Antioch over it. You did. That's a harbinger of good luck. I'll tell you why. I was just talking to a friend of mine from a graph, Frank Torres. He came down with Ernie mom gardener and I'm trying to think there was four of them that came when they had a great trip

down but the race was also... It's a harbinger. This has got to be the turnaround. Nathan's also put in some trail. I guess you put in trail up toward Whitefish Lake, was it Nathan? Yeah, like Fish Lake and Calskate back up to Antioch. Who are your sponsors? Well, look at several sponsors and I guess my main sponsors would be my family and whole slew of friends that don't really know their names right now. And Mark, Eric, Eric, Express, Bob, Anderson out there, Royal K-9. Let's see where you're going to start. Drum roll once again. Number 12. We're getting all the low numbers early. These are the guys at the end of the packer and then be at the front of the bag going out or at least as far as signing up. We may see a lot of passing early on who knows but a lot more good measures in this field as well. Harvey D'Amato from Maciac did real well last year. He and Matt D'Silernos, I believe, we're fighting it out if you finish there and Harvey came in fifth

last year. Hello, Harvey. Hi, Mike. Happy to be back here to run again. Yeah. How's your team compared to last year? About the same. No, it's got to be better. I'm going to be okay. You told we're one of the four he was talking about. All of me is going to win. No, I didn't. Okay, okay. I won't put you on this spot like that. Well, what do you think? The trails at the very least are excellent compared to last year. This is the best I think it's been since they start. What's it like around home where you're at? Pretty much like it is in Bethel here. Yeah, it's packed and it's good real fast trail. How about just guessing how long it's going to take you to make it around? I don't know. Yeah, I was just going to ask. You think, what do you think are the chances of setting a new record this year? It's very high. I think it's going to be set this year. Somebody's going to do it. Okay, do it. Well, you have any sponsors? Yeah. I don't need a list here. So I don't miss him. I want you to step out here a little bit so everybody

can see you and I can reach around. Look at this wife, Alberta and Dexter. My mom and dad, my brothers and sisters, Kurt, Emil, Beverly Cloud, Robert Ivan, Charlie, Mike and Walt Williams, Tom Owens, Alvin Fos, Ralph and Monty Doyle. Well, K-9 and Bob Doofy. Sounds like a good bunch of sponsors. Let's pick a number. 17 still getting in the back of the pack. 17. And we got in a single digit number yet. No, I don't think so. No, I don't think so. No, I think so either. We're just way back there. Another rookie coming up next to your Tommy Tom of Aniac and 33 year old measure. And has one been the Mail Trail 202 and Aniac 150, but not any bigger races so far. But tell him the Mail Trail 202 is a tough race, isn't it?

He's curious. I mean, you've got to pull over the hills up there. Well, run that one too, right, Mike? No, I didn't. I just used to live there and report on it all. I've run nothing. I ran a novice race and finished fifth behind Ben Magnusson and only Myron can appreciate what it means to finish behind Ben Magnusson. He's called Ben. He needs a D8 and he needs a DA cap to get him around the trail. Step on out here, Tom. Well, what can everybody over here? Are you nervous before this race? Yeah, I'm sorry. You're not afraid that your dogs might get to Aniac and think they're home. No, I hope not. You trained them to run out of town a lot when they're tired. Not really. Well, what are your expectations? You you want to finish or you want to finish high? Probably in between. Okay, you got anybody you want to thank? Any sponsors? Hermann is a Marker and Marker Express also. Okay, good enough.

Well, let's give it a shot. You got it. You got to start up front. Yeah, at least you have a one and three chance of being rookie of the year this year. Number 10. Number 10. Still a little single. It's just take that with you and these folks over here will help you out. And more mushrooms to come. Not more mushrooms. It's number six. Number seven is a mushroom that's been here a couple times before John Terhoun of Kenai. And while we've had great training conditions out here, I understand. Kenai hasn't been as friendly as far as providing good snow cover. But John, as I say, run this race a couple times and keeps coming back for more. Well, because of the people and everything like that certainly wasn't because of last year. No, it's I haven't done a lot of racing, but the stuff I've done. I like this particular race better than any other where I've been. You have one distinction that probably nobody's going to

match for a while. Maybe never hear the first person to take rookie of the year and red lantern the same year. Well, when you're you can't always be done all you have to do is like I did video on a rookie to finish. The finishing isn't always that easy. Well, no, but it's you know, you just got to keep plugging along. Is this the first race long distance race you'll have run this year? Yeah. Yeah. We we have an extremely limited budget. So we're doing me and my dogs. We're doing this and I did it right as well. When you train down on the keynote, you have to go up in the high country to run. Oh, there's there's a little bit of running near where I live, but I chalk them about 25 miles away and train into careful hills and try to get away from the rain. It comes off and on this year. So your training schedule includes loading them into a truck, unloading them, gearing them up and doing it in reverse. Right. Yeah. It's pretty much I run them about four

times a week and it's uh, about a 60 mile round trip trucking them and then getting them ready. You know, it's it takes pretty much a good part of the day. What was your average temperature during training down there this year? Well, the majority of it's been in the high 20s, but uh, we've the last run I did was in freezing rain and stuff like that. That was purposely to train them for what you thought it would be like out here. Well, it it wasn't purposely, it was just like here. We started out and it wasn't raining and it was before we get done with the run. How about your sponsors there, John? Who's helping you this year? Uh, take a look here. I'm short of memory as I get older. First thing I like to thank the last airlines like the other ones, but I'd like also to thank the K-300 committee for putting this race on. And my two daughters,

Heidi and Tony, Tuhun, for financial and last frontier insurance cash and employees, sizzlers of soldot, non-royal canine, uh, trish heart for feeding my dogs and a big thanks to uh, my handler, Amy, headland from milliamh. That's pickin' umber. 18 still no single digit number. Are you sure they're even in there? Well, I won't guarantee anything. John Terrehoon from uh, Kenai area. Uh, next, uh, Chuck Schafer, who came in second year last year and uh, uh, a good mushroom out of Cotsby once respected up there, we're looking for great things for him this year. Welcome back, Chuck. Thank you. Good to be back. Chuck, when I think of you, I told you before this, we were talking. I saw you in Antioch last year and you were just a cool, it's cucumber in the world sitting there. You were gonna get up. You were gonna run in. Maybe you'd get second. Maybe you would still win. You came in,

finished exactly like you said, uh, which you hear mushrooms say a lot of things, but I was impressed with that. So tell me what you're gonna do now in this race. Oh, Jesus, probably a cool cucumber because uh, I had no company. Everybody else was sitting in calc gang. So I had all the time to myself and the dogs, nobody to bother the dogs. Uh, we just had a good time. I hope to do well this year. Um, I've trained harder than I've ever trained. So I'm a firm believer that, uh, homework pays off. John, you were telling me too that you're planning to lay off mushing for a while after the season. Well, that's the plan. Uh, I'm gonna do a semi retirement. I gotta get myself healthy. So, if I can win this race, maybe I can, uh, have an easier time selling my dog team. You're sure that a win in this race wouldn't make you think, wow, maybe I had to stay with it. No, no, it wouldn't, uh, change my decision in the least. Okay, don't. Good luck. Thank you. Who are your sponsors? Uh, Royal Canyon dog foods, uh, Cotsibew commercial fishermen, uh, John

and Mary Shafer. I don't think there's any double digit numbers left in there. So let's see if you get a single digit one here. Number four number four. Take it with it. Cuck Shaver from Cotsibew or actually from Evick in the Cotsibew area. Walter Williams is a local area, mushroom from Aciac, and he's been in this race before, but has been over for a few years. Welcome back, Walter. Hi, Walter. How are you? Oh, great. I feel great. You're nervous? Yeah, kind of. I'm nervous too. Are you nervous, Ed? No, I'm not nervous. Okay. You ask the question to that. You're gonna win this race, right? Uh, that's what I have in mind. This is like everybody else. That's the only way to start a race is that with that in mind, right? Oh, yeah, probably. This is one of the four guys. Oh, definitely. Okay. So, uh, you've been out of mushing for a few years and feel pretty good to be back. Oh, yeah, I never was out a few years, but this I really was

training for it. And I'm looking for it for it. Yeah, mostly, I guess, just out of this race, but good to have you back and you're running, uh, Williams Racing Kennel Dogs, uh, you and Mike both in this race this year. I think this is the first time you've both run it together, isn't it? Yeah. Last year we were planning on running, uh, the 300 both of us, but, uh, didn't go right. So, uh, this year was a great plan. You have enough dogs to feel too good teams there. Yeah, we've got enough dogs to have two with teams. I have one question. Uh, now Mike's got dogs that he's training for the I did a rod with right now. Uh, yes, and, uh, I'm, uh, training, uh, for I did a rod two for, you know, both of us are training for I did a rod. So he leaves, uh, some of the dogs I'm using and, uh, we got 22 pick 20 dogs to pick out of this team. Okay, cause I, somebody told me that he was going to go up in the kill by kills and train up there.

No, I don't think so. I haven't heard you never said, okay. So there, this is, uh, this isn't a split team. This is all your dogs in here, training them together. Yeah, these, uh, they're, they're all our dogs. And we just split the team. I don't care which one I use and, uh, they're looking good. For sponsors, I know you've got a lot of people supporting you up in Aciac. How about telling us about all of them? Uh, my, uh, sponsors is a Williams racing count Mike training for I did a rod and, uh, uh, Sunny Hoffman, uh, Aciac Recreation Committee and, uh, uh, uh, Carl Maxie and I got a lot of lists in my mind diet that I know that helped lots. Does the city up there help all the local measures? Oh, yes. They do. Good. Congratulations to the city and thanks for their support. Let's pick a number of altitudes. Number 14, there was another double digit number. Good luck, Walter. And next coming up is, uh, Louis Nelson, another Cotsby area,

a mushroom, uh, Louis Nelson, senior from Ambler up there in the Colbuck River, 49 years old, been mushing for quite a while and has run the 440 and the 250 and the 220 up there. And, uh, I'm told a good mushroom that we should keep an eye on all these Cotsby mushrooms are good mushrooms, right? Well, uh, they claim to be, but, um, sometimes a lot of things happen on the road. So you can't really say that we're going to be the best. So there's a lot of good mushrooms here. I just want to hope that everybody makes it through all safe and back. So we'll try our best also. When you come down here from Cotsby, do all of you Cotsby mushrooms have to take your dogs to anchorage and come out or you chart her down together? I know we talked about about anchorage to our Cotsby anchorage and then have a layover there and continue on here. When do you have to start packing up to bring your dogs down here to have your dogs get out and stretch and be ready to go? Well, I was scheduled to come out on a Monday,

which was yesterday, but when I got to my destination, Monday was already booked by another mushroom. So I wanted to get them out on a Sunday, but Susan Butcher bumped me on an anchorage. So I want to thank Susan Butcher for bumping me out of anchorage. So I had to come in Saturday. Okay, Doc. Well, do you have any sponsors you'd like to thank? Yes, I'd like to thank my sponsor, a couple of our valley supplies there in Amler and also my wife. She put up a lot of me and my dog. So I would like to try and do as best I could in this race here and also like my host that I'm staying with that they've been real lovely to me. Thanks to all the hosts around here with a lot of good host families that have been taking care of a lot of mushrooms every year and one of the things that makes this race go 15. I don't think we

have very many single digit numbers. I think we've gone some of these numbers in the teens two or three times. Well, yeah, I was sure the last two ones we'd drawn before. That was Louis Nelson from Amler and the next up another Cotsby of Mushroom John Baker who is from Cotsby who sponsored by Cotsby UAVation up there. I presume family business. And I believe this is John's first time down here, but I understand again that we have a good mushroom here. John, it says here that you have 800 miles on your dogs in fair training conditions. What's had me? Oh, they weren't any serious problems this year. Everything seemed to work well. As Cotsby, they're like the rest of us. We haven't got much snow. We hear up river. We got snow, but hasn't been a big snow year and has been a warm year. Is that the way it's been in Cotsby? It's definitely been warm and snow is late coming, but it's turning out to be a pretty nice year for dogs, actually. Here's a question I'll ask you this and it has nothing to do with you,

but some of the other guys that have been down here in the past wear sunny rustle this year. Sunny is in the Norvik training his dogs for the idea to run. Yes. How about what's Roger Nordland up there? Roger isn't training dogs this year. His wife is planning on running the quest Lucy. Okay. Well, that's all that. Now, let's talk about your team. What's it like? You're a rookie, but you're a dog. I'm sure you got the well-trained strong team. Yeah, and I do have a few dogs from Roger and Sunny both, and like I say, pretty fair condition, so I'm pretty comfortable with them. Okay, Doke. You're sponsored by Baker Aviation, and you're a pilot. I guess for them, did they fly you down here? You fly yourself down? No, I also have to thank Alaska Alliance for bringing me down. Anybody else you want to thank? Well, I'd like to thank my handler Cody Copper, my little family Karen and Alex, and also her parents Christine and Larry Westlake for helping us through the year, putting us up in

Kiana. We did train quite a bit extensively in Kiana, which is 50 miles east of Consubio. Okay, Doke, well, let's see if you can pull out one of the real low numbers in here. I think that's all that's left. We said that about three drawings. Yeah, I know, but one of these days will be right. Number nine. Number nine. Good luck. Okay, thank you, Mike. Yeah, and John Baker, not really a rookie. He's the first time in this race, but has run long races before this one. Next, uh, Myron Anksman, who is also not really a rookie. Good evening, Myron. How are you doing? Good day. You're in a good mood. This race is turning out to be good all around so far, huh? Well, we've got a lot better things to talk about now than we had a couple months ago, we were short of money and shortest. No, now we've got plenty both. Well, let me ask you this. Here's in Tulix, that guy I've heard this. This is going to be the last year for the 300. Is that the true rumor? Well, if we were out of money, broke as when we

paid the checks on Sunday night and we didn't have any more money, we'd be in trouble because you need money to operate, but we now have enough money to operate. We're in good shape. The Bethel people, the rank and file of the citizenry here has come through in big ways in the last couple of weeks and we're in real good shape right now with the finances. And so it's optimistically safe to say that the Costco Quim 300 will be an ongoing event. As far as we can tell right now, it will be because we're going to have a surplus again and that's all we need is something to work with. And certainly the interest is there. It always has been there. We've got close to 50 teams here tonight. And we've got lots of volunteers and cash support from the general public. And the fact that we've lost a few of our major sponsors, we've overcome that with smaller donations. So we're in business. Okay. A couple of people in Tulix Act said they want to see you on the way down this time. Well, I don't always make it back. I don't always make it back. I got what I consider to be a tremendous dog team. And

I'm not the professional mushroom that some of the mushrooms are in this group. We don't spend as much time with the dogs as we should. And I don't want to make any excuses at all for not making it back. When I don't make it back, it's because things don't look too good. And however, when we've done that, there's usually been trail considerations. I've got a team that goes best on nice flat, wide trails with good snow and nice weather conditions. I understand what you're talking about. So chances are good will be back this year. There's kids there that want your autograph. They don't know who you are. Tell them to come out on Thursday afternoon. I'll be there then for sure. Okay. Okay. Well, do you have any sponsors? Well, I'm sponsored a old friendly dog farm pays our bills and our customers at old friendly dog farm in turn help us pay our bills. And I want to thank all the guys that come by and pick

up bag of food or sled now and again because that keeps us going. Tomos helps me out. Tomos, his rail son is my handler and he's done a great job this year. This is his second year at our place and he's done a great job. And my office staff keeps me going because they cover for me when I'm not in the office, Sandy and and the rest of them at the office. So that's an important part of my operation and but this year I'm since I'm a little older and a little fatter and a little baller than I was the last time I raced. That means this year I'm running especially for the old fat ball guys of Alaska. Yeah. I just wish I was as fat as you are. I took a peak Myron. There's one double digit number left in here. You didn't get it. Number two. Number two. Myron Anksman, old friendly number two. That's the we try harder position. Yeah, you know, Myron is the only two time cusco queen 300 winner here this year. So he's the only one right now

with a chance to be the first three time winner of this race. Another rookie up next Tony Browning of two rivers, running some of Susan butchers dogs along with his own long-striding dog kennels and has run some other decent length races? Excuse me. Kathy Swenson, what did I say? What did you say? Hopefully not a Freudian slip. Two rivers. I've come to appreciate two rivers as a successor to the Tal Keaton of Valley area is the Haven for Mushers lately. There's a lot of mushing activity up there. Yeah, real good trails, good people. You people go out and run a lot together when I say you. I'm talking about all of the how you run into them all over the trail. It's a lot of mushing going on. What have you done this year? Mushing, have you run any races? Oh, I ran the fire plug and got beat by Jeff. So that's Tony race I've done this year. How does team that you have together? It's a put together team. They run together well. It's a

good strong team. Oh, they're a good team. Yeah, they seem to, they're working better every time I run them. I haven't had them together, but a couple of weeks. So we'll see you in this race. What do you think of the conditions there? Excellent. Just like up in the interior almost. Yeah, nice and smooth and hard. Okay, do you pass? Do you got any sponsors? Do you want to think? Oh, yeah, last carolines will bring me here and Kathy Swenson for the use of her dogs. Wait, are you sure that's not Susan Butcher? Yeah. What happened to bring you down here, Tony? How'd you hear about this race? Oh, I've heard about it for years, and I've been a trapper mushing dogs, and I decided I'd like to come down and race with the big guys. Great. Let's pick a number. Six. Six number six. This goes to show you when you're not nervous is when you should be. But Susan, are you going to loan him a couple of dogs? We'll get to that in just a minute. Terry Hoffman has run this race before, and boy, he worked hard

for several years trying to finish it, living in Antioch. His dogs always wanted to stay home, but you made it around twice now. He's Mike. Now, this is what I want to know. I was looking at this. It says Antioch on one baffle on the other. Antioch is where you live. Yes. Yeah, that's what I always thought. Well, you're back again. You're one of these steadfast guys, as much as year after year. Do you use your dogs for purposes other than racing? No. Anybody in your family? Well, my family, my daughter, or my son, use them too. You, there are short races up in Antioch in the springtime, aren't there? Yes. They're an act 150. We already sat. And I know they, in Tulek's Act, they have races there. There's a lot of, there's a lot of activity, dog-mushing activity around the village is up and down the river, isn't it? Yes, it is. But with the job that I have, it's pretty hard to compete with the other teams. Do the job you have does it keep you from getting a lot of long training runs in? Yes.

When you go out, what do you go out for? 20 miles? I'll go ahead. You can make something up. You're right. 50 miles, five times a week. Roughly. Okay. Okay. Well, do you have any sponsors you'd like to thank? Yes, I get one major sponsor is, uh, kind of, uh, Jean-Claude's service here in Bessel. He's owned and operated by my brothers, James and Carl. And, uh, like to take my sponsors, my brothers, uh, they're, they appear in Bessel, James, Carl, Ronnie. And, uh, George, and I'd like to thank my dad for helping me. And, uh, mostly my, my family, my wife, Sally, my daughter, a neighbor, and Tulek. Are you going to have a fun time this year? Better than last year. James, uh, one question, did you folks up in any area? Excuse me, Terry, um, uh, Terry, did you folks up in any

I care about the possibility that this race might not be continuing in the future? Yeah, that's what I heard. Then, uh, what, what did the people of any act think about that? Well, they were saying that, uh, hopefully they would still continue with this 300, you know, kind of look forward to this, uh, yes. And also, I'd like to, uh, uh, think, uh, my brother for a lonely one of his leaders. That's the one that knows G and heart. You'll know the coming back, but number five, five, number one is still in here, Mike. Five, we got two. Two is the highest so far, huh? Susan butcher, next up, and she can speak for herself this time and holds the course record on this race. Susan, uh, maybe a new record this year. Yeah, it certainly looks like conditions built for it. The only thing I've seen about you in two looks like we don't get the newspaper all the time, but I read about the copper basin. Yes. And I haven't even heard anything about the bear

greases that even happened. The bear grease happened and then it was one by Greg Swingly, um, who broke the record by two hours. You ran the copper basin 300 and finished to had a martin booster, correct? Yeah, all right. Uh, if you've been just, this has been more more a training year than other years. No, um, I just chose the copper basin in cusco this year over going down to bear grease. Um, I just like to, um, I wanted to stay inside the state this year and, uh, both these races are great races. So, uh, it's good, it's just as good a training for my dogs are probably better trading for the dogs up here in Alaska than it is going to Minnesota. Um, however, the bear grease is a good race, but, you know, I missed the cusco last year, so we wanted to make it down this year. How about, uh, the team you have this year, a lot of dogs that you hope to take to the idea to ride? Yep. Um, you know, like usual, I split the teams up and send them to different races. So none of these are the ones that we're in copper basin and, uh, a lot of these are hopeful for the idea to ride team. Good. Well, do you have a long list of sponsors or a short one? Well, um, I'd like to thank, uh,

GCI who gives us a phone out in the bush and, uh, West Mark hotels where we stay when we're in town. Um, and Linden transport and Northern Air cargo who get our us and our dogs around, uh, the state. And then, um, like everyone else, I need to thank Alaska Airlines for making the cusco possible for those outside the area. There are a lot of people in Tulex, actually said, can you get Susan Butcher's autograph for me? And I said, oh, she's got plenty of time on the way up when she gets here. So eight. Good luck. Number eight. Number eight. And by the way, Mike Susan looks, uh, a lot less tired this year than she has when she's just finished running the cold buck and the bear grease before coming here. So maybe, uh, we'd better watch out this time. Mike Williams, another aciac mushroom, another Williams racing kennels mushroom. Uh, uh, a lot of good local mushrooms here, especially from aciac. Mike, I didn't know you were running here. I thought you were out training. Yeah, I, um, was out, uh, training and, um, you know,

I was hoping to run the 150, but, uh, with the trail conditions we have, uh, uh, I changed my mind and, uh, jumped into, uh, 300 because after all this training, you just know that those dogs are chucked up and ready to go for this, huh? Oh, yeah. I think, um, you know, I have a veteran team and, um, and, um, they're tough. How are you doing any training for the idea to run? These same dogs, huh? Yeah, these are the same dogs that, uh, my brother and I, uh, are training and, um, and, um, hopefully, um, I'll come up with, uh, good 20 and, um, and, uh, with, uh, encouragement, like, um, Harvey Demental and, um, John Riley and those guys, um, um, um, with that kind of support, um, you know, how can I lose? Here's a question I got for you and you can punch me on the nose later on for asking us, but somebody said you're going to be a much less of Mike Williams

when you ran the I did around looking at you. You look like less of Mike Williams. Well, um, um, uh, I think, um, with, um, the training, um, I put in and, um, the time that I put in, um, I think, um, you know, with this mushing, um, I think, uh, if you're going to be a musher, you got to, you know, you got to work hard and, and do it 100% of the time. Mm-hmm. Well, good. You look great. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay. Who's your sponsors like? Yeah, um, my, uh, uh, co-sponsors for race for sobriety are, uh, National Bank of Alaska. You can't cause come health cooperation, um, Bethan native cooperation, association of village council presidents, and, uh, many, many others that, um, are joining in to the, uh, race for sobriety campaign. And, um, without them, uh, I wouldn't be here and, um, and,

uh, and especially, um, my wife, Maggie and the children for, um, uh, for all their support. I know it's tough when I'm out a lot and, um, and, um, we like here, Willie and Eva Lake here, and, uh, Bethan, and, um, all the people in state of Alaska. Thank you. Mike, uh, we haven't asked you about this, uh, list you're carrying, and you mentioned the race for sobriety real quick. Can you just tell us about that? Well, uh, last year, I ran, uh, race for sobriety and, uh, with, uh, approximately 300 people. And, um, I'm hoping, um, to, um, do the same thing, um, uh, in the eye dead or odd, uh, but in a larger scale. And, um, hopefully, um, it'll catch on in, uh, in the Indian country and, uh, in the Alaska, uh, Alaska communities. But for you, Mike, it's draw number one. So we can have a fast-drilled acchiac

beyond acchiac. Number 13, lucky 13 and the 13, Jessica Quinn 300. Hi, Florians. And we have just two measures left here for the K 300 and, uh, uh, norm stop and brink. Uh, I think this is his first K 300, but not his first trip to Bethel. I remember Norm, uh, being out here, uh, given, given a demonstration on training dogs for weight pulling a few years back. And he's into that quite a bit as well. Tell me anything about your dog team. I know nothing about your yard. Well, let's, uh, start with the fact there's, uh, only one weight puller in there and she's in the very lightest class. Uh, I don't know. The cow cut is very accurate, but, uh, it looks like they thought I was bringing all weight pullers. You're a buy in the cow cut, is that what you're saying? I'm a good buy in the cow cut. Okay. I'm not going to win the race, but I'm a good buy in the cow cut. How many dogs did you bring out with you? I brought 14, you've been running him a lot this year. Um, I don't think I have any more miles than I had last

year, but I have a lot to better training on them. A lot more back-to-back runs. Uh, they're just a lot, you know, a lot better shape than they were last year. All 14 of these dogs are your dogs. Uh, well, I have to give my wife credit. We alternate years, uh, mushing and, uh, I have a hard time on my year off, but, uh, they're all our dogs. And, uh, I don't know what else to say there. How about, uh, thanking your sponsor? Okay. That's, uh, Indian Valley Meats, uh, Raven, Veterinary Clinic, and, uh, the IMS company. And I also like to thank Alaska Airlines. They definitely made it worth coming out here at, I don't know how else we could afford it. Okay. Well, stick your hand in there and let's see where you go. Number one still in there. Yeah. And I hope it's not three left one. All right. Well, I thought I saw three in there. Number one. Number one. Congratulations. I think we have two there.

Oh, no, it's just a double one. That's what it is. Okay. Oops. I got a double one. All right. Well, it's number one and number three. What about your other team? One was on top. You nice. Well, keep it. Yeah. And, uh, Norm is not exactly a rookie either. He's, uh, run in the, I did a rod in the coldfoot classic. One mushroom left here, international mushroom this year, from, uh, Tagish, Yukon, uh, Bruce Johnson. Good evening, Bruce. Good evening. I haven't read your bio here. Well, don't worry. It's not worth reading. Okay, throw that out. Well, uh, what's the, where you're like over in Tagish, there have been Canadian mushrooms over here in years past Francois Verigott stands out in mind. What do you do over there, uh, as far as competition? Do you have a lot of short noticed and raised? No, we don't. Um, we're in kind of a backwater and I haven't raised it all this

year. In fact, I'm running a lot of dogs that have never raised. So to, to really have competition, we have to come over here somewhere. Tagish is interior kind of country. Yeah, reason hill. Yeah, it is. It's, uh, it's interior kind of country, but this winter has been extremely warm and lots of snow all at once. So it's, uh, dogs have been quite accustomed to warm weather. Uh, what was it a dream to battle? Well, I've always went to run this race for years and I always said, well, I'm, I'll go to the Costco when I have a real good team and I'm real organized and have the money to get there. And that never happened. So we just came anyway, decided to go for a broke, go when you're broke. Yeah, as a matter of fact, we have to make some money. I have to finish the race and make some money in order to afford to get out of here. No, my rins got an opening for a dog handler. How about the mayor's job? Is that open? I hear there's an administrator, but I don't know about the mayor. Okay, well, we'll try anything. Okay, do you have any sponsors he'd like to thank? I'd like to thank the Yukon news that covers

all of the Yukon for local and international events. And so if anyone's interested in what goes on in the Yukon, subscribe to the Yukon news. Give us an address and 800 number and all the details. No, just, just write Yukon news white orts and you'll get it. Okay. Well, two numbers left. I don't know if that means somebody isn't here or what, but I think you put in too many to start. Three. Try the other three. Try the other one. See what you get the second. The other one says seven. I'll take you to one. No, you can have three. Take it with you. Yeah. Okay. Good luck. I have a note that was handed to me. The Calcutta, if you're not familiar with that, it takes place at nine o'clock this evening at headquarters. Pick your favorite team and win prizes in the Calcutta if you're familiar with the race is a good thing to get in up. Let's see what else we have to do. Well, what do you think Mike after doing all this drawing, the race looks even better than when

we started, don't you think? I think the race looks good because living in Tulexack, I know the trails are an excellent shape from here to Tulexack and going up river. So I think it's just going to be an excellent race for the condition of the trails itself. Okay. I guess we've got a couple other races that we have to deal with right away here. We have, there's two other races. There's the Bogus Creek 150 and we could get all the Bogus Creek mushers to come up here quick. Just line up and we're going to run through you one by one. Come on over here and we'll just get names and where you're from and let the people get a quick glimpse of you on TV and tell us who you are and where you're from. Jerry Demento from Casigu in the Tundra villages. Good luck. John Riley from Pitches Point. You want to say hi to anybody? Hello everybody. Okay. Great spit rush. Sprit rush. Musher there. Okay. John, if I make a cashier, hello to my family. Okay. How did I get what I get? Did I get TV up there, Bethel TV up there in Acciack?

Well, Willie Francis from Pitches Point. Okay. And Willie's been in this place before or in the 300 before. And he peed her from Tuksek. Say hi to somebody. Hi from Matt. Fred tells me he's got the TV on and he can watch it. I, uh, John McDonald from Bethel. And what do you do, John? I work here at the TV station. At the TV station. Good luck. Is this your first race ever? No, it's not. Okay. He's got a buckle. He's a jackson from Wishy. I'd say hi to anybody over in Guitlet. I'd like to thank my sponsors and my brother for letting me do this. Good luck. Thank you. Melvin, you go up for McMuffel. I think this is a great group of mushrooms to have for this bogus creek this year. A real good crowd. This is what you call fast TV journalism. Uh, Daniel George Acacheck. Good luck. Yeah, thank you. Mike again. It's Gavin Bay. Thanks. I could expect a layer. Good luck, Mike.

Uh, Chuck, it's a luck phone. Do not be Chuck. Thomas Israel, so I'm traveling back and forth between Bethel and Sweden. Good luck. Thanks. Doug Dorlin Bethel. Doug, how are you? I'm Mike. Yeah. Another, another mushroom we've seen around here before. Uh, most powerful mushroom. Good luck. Uh, Bethel. I'm sorry, didn't he? Uh, Pete, Lupe, tend to do that. Good luck to you. Yeah. Yeah. Peter's probably the senior who I remember this guy being. I think my sponsors. Go ahead. Say one or two. Um, Teresa Olin and, uh, you know, my dad and, uh, Earl Sanderson and family. Don't know about Scott and events family. Don't know about Scott. Okay. Good luck. Rick Townsend from Anvik. Hi, Rick. Nice to see you again. Yeah, down here in, uh, in Bethel this year. I got to watch out what I call this.

Well, it's a lot better than last year. I've been out on the trails and it's going to be a great race. Good, good snow over in Anvik this year. Good trails over there. Uh, yeah, it's been a lot warmer than normal, though. Okay. Good luck in this race. Thanks. Looks like the only lady in the bogus creek this year. I'm Sue Buchanan from Nome. Good to have you. Good luck here. So what brought you down here? I just want to try. Good luck to you. Now it's been not least. Yep. Hey, no one's the wrong, it's time to tune a tour. Let us say hi to anybody. Yeah, my family had to tune and, uh, uh, I hope that moisture should have a good time out there. Yeah, it's anybody. Let us say thanks, anybody. Uh, thanks. Ron, you still live here in Bethel. So a lot of folks know him here. We've got the akiak dash coming up yet. Three races. First first time for this race, 65 miles up to akiak and back. I'm JR Cravins and Bethel. You're downsizing a little bit. Yeah, kind of kind of can't go too far from town because my wife's

you'd have a baby anytime now. Oh, it's a good reason. Yeah, JR is back. Uh, more mushrooms here for the akiak dash. James stickin from Bethel. Good luck, James. Man up, man, right up. Loud and clear. Yeah. Who are you? Jimmy events, you know, from the basket. From the basket. My wife was an event. The cow's cake. You can't feel from a cat cake. My wife is. Yeah, well, we've got a few more here. Good luck on the trail there. And, uh, we've had, of course, other moisture from the akiak and fast. Yeah, I came here for a good job. I told my son, you know, he's, he's a very doctor. Oh, okay. Good. We'll say good luck for him. Laurie Townsend from Anvik. Yeah, we've seen this guy before. Steve Chamberlain. Hi, it's Steve. What how come you're in this race this year? Oh, the IRS, uh, put me out of business.

Yeah, he wants a fast team on a short trail. I'm Debbie Rial from Bethel. Hi, Debbie. Hey, is this your first first race of this distance? Yes. You're excited? Yes. Good luck. Good thing. Hi, Phil Swarringin from Bethel and I'd like to think to my air, especially for climbing around. It was good. They flew you from Bethel to Bethel. Yeah, it was fun. Okay, good luck. That's flew the dogs in the sky so they could get a good look at the trail. Hey, that, that is scientific dog mushing. A new solution too. Okay, yeah. Hello there. I'm Jim Hoddle from Queeflet and uh, I'm going to run the egg egg dash here. Good luck. Yeah, I'd like to say hello to Henry and Bernie. Queeflet. Great. And Bernie. Great. Excellent. And that's that's quite a group of people. A lot of mushers. Three races. A lot of dogs on a trail. Okay, we're, you know, we're getting down to the very end.

But let's just uh, tell the what the viewers this. KYUK is going to have race coverage every hour. Very hour. Day and night starting with the start at two o'clock on Thursday afternoon and uh, K-300 start first and it'll be a mass start for the bogus 150 and then the egg yac dash. And that'll be at the top of the hour every hour on KYUK. Tune in if you want to find out what is going on in the K-300. Definitely. You'll be here at the studio. I'll be here. And we'll have a lot of people up the trail. So tune in then. What would you remember? 19 that decolernos is now number seven. Okay. We've apparently had, as somebody said, too many numbers in there. Number 19, Matt D. Solernos is now number seven. We're officially informed. Okay. And that's it. Add from the K-300 drawing. I'm Mike Lane. And it andros. And it's just about show time. Good night.