January 21, 2009
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Mitch Seavey Wins Kuskokwim 300
Veteran musher Mitch Seavey had some words of respect and admiration for the younger generation of dog drivers at the finish line of the K-300 sled dog race on Tuesday. He mentioned, among others, Mike Williams, Jr., and 21-year-old Pete Kaiser of Bethel, who finished fifth in this year’s K-300.In Spring of 2008, there had been some question of whether this race would run this year, after the race manager’s embezzlement left the races finances in poor shape. By fall, word was getting around that the reorganized Kusko was on schedule, with a full winners’ purse.
Then there was the weather. After teams in the Copper Basin race had braved minus fifty degree temps, things warmed up, thawed out, and the start of the Kusko was delayed several days waiting for the trail to firm up. As it was, the thawed and refrozen trail along the Kuskokwim River was described as a long skating rink.
It was a close finish for Seavey, Martin Buser and Jeff King. King was in the lead on Monday, then Buser and Seavey passed him. Buser was first into Tuluksak Monday evening, with Seavey nine minutes behind, and Jeff King seven minutes behind Seavey. By the finish in Bethel on Tuesday morning, Seavey had an eight minute lead on Buser, who was two minutes ahead of King.
The slick trail was rough on mushers and dogs alike. Seavey left the starting line with 13 dogs in harness and one riding in the sled, and dropped half his team along the way.
“I had a very liberal dog dropping policy,” he said. “If I didn’t like the way they looked, I just sent them home.”
“You can only go as fast as your slowest dog.”
“It was a lot of glare ice,” Seavey said. “There was no resistance. There’s not a hill; there’s no snow to pull through.”
Warm wet weather and sloppy trails delayed the starts of two other races last weekend, the Tustumena 200 and Klondike 300. The Klondike was rescheduled to this weekend, and the T-200, on the Kenai Peninsula, is scheduled to start on January 31.
Comments (11)
the sign made me laugh. nice feeling this early in the morning [or late at night in your case].
Congrats to the winners… looks like race reason is in full swing?
our dog sled race was cancelled as well… goofy weather!
@KarlaandSuperMedic - Karla, do the sleds race in your neck of the woods? Here, they are sled dog races, and the first nose over the finish line wins.
Love the sign! LOL
Ha ha! I’m displaying my ignorance of syntax for all the world to see. Yeah first nose over the line wins! I was excited to go watch them again this year. One of the racers a female from Alaska was very really nice and answered lots of questions.
@KarlaandSuperMedic - Do you remember her name? What race is it? I don’t remember where you are.
That syntax thing is interesting, I think. To most of the world, “dog sled” is a much more common and comfortable construction than, “sled dog.” Here, people seldom speak of sled dogs. Usually we say “dog” or “husky,” and sleds are often just sleds, and you don’t know whether someone is talking about a dog sled, a snowmobile, or a kid’s toy.
But in the official names of the racing events, sled always comes before dog. Mushers, in particular, make an issue of the dog races (not sled races), probably out of affection and respect for their teams.
my husky that just passed on would have hated being a sled dog since he hated ice and getting his feet wet! i’m always in awe of how hard the dogs work during a race.
No I don’t know her name. I’m really bad with names and don’t rememmber them well. She was running that newer breed the half husky half… see now I can’t remember what she told me. Jeesh. I know she either won or got pretty high up though. It was a great learning opportunity to bad I didn’t seem to learn anything.
HI!! I’m back! I saw your comment on my site back in 2008 and thought I’d drop in and say hello. What in the world has happened while I was gone?! Your blog page is overflowing with things we didn’t have years ago. Wow, I have a lot to learn now.
Hope you have a great week! Talk with you soon.
@chastityrose - Xanga has changed a lot. Welcome back.