Ready or Not

Here we come. Headed to Bethel Tuesday evening leaving Dillingham around 7:30 and arriving in Bethel near 9:00. Spoke with our host family today. Making final food preparations, preparing drop bags, and packing tonight and tomorrow night.

Ryan and Eric are coming along to help out before and after the race, but they are also planning to travel the trail. They will try to update the blog from the trail and give you a very frank impression of how the dogs and I are doing. Whether or not they can do it mainly depends of if they can locate a good internet connection in the villages.

You will be able to monitor my progress during the race at www.k300.org as well. Like most races, the K300 maintains a chart showing each musher's progress. You can view one right now at www.cb300.com by clicking on updates. Lance Mackey is currently leading the pack at the Copper Basin 300 being run in Interior Alaska. These charts show what time you get into a checkpoint and what time you leave the checkpoint. It will also tell you how many dogs are still in harness (I may drop dogs during the race for any number of reasons), speed between checkpoints, and if I've completed my mandatory layovers.

I had a pretty firm schedule to run the race, but have opted for more of a "do what feels right" approach. To start with, we will rest after the first 50 miles in Tuluksak. That rest should be 3 to 5 hours long. The dogs won't be too tired at that point, but I'm going conservative early. From that point, we'll see how the dogs do. I may run another 50 miles and take my mandatory 6 hour lay over in Kalskag, or we may continue another 30 miles and take it in Aniak. My anticipated run/rest schedule right now is to run 50 miles to Tuluksak and rest 3-5 hours. Continue another 50 miles to Kalskag for the mandatory 6 hour rest. Then push an 80 mile run by running past Aniak, up to Pike Lake, then back to Aniak and rest 4-6 hours. We would then do another 80 mile run from Aniak, past Kalskag, and on to Tuluksak for the final mandatory 4 hour rest. Then it's a 50 mile run back to Bethel. That is a general plan, two 50 mile runs, two 80 mile runs, and a 50 mile run. We may find ourselves resting more or less depending on the dogs. The race only requires the 6 and 4 hours of rest, but I'm planning on twice that much. I'm sending drop bags with enough food to all checkpoints so I can adjust the schedule as the dogs need. So as you're watching the race unfold on the internet, if you see me pulling up for longer rests, you know the dogs are getting tired. On the other hand, if you see some longer runs and shorter rests, the dogs are doing well. Hopefully Eric can log on and tell you exactly what's happening on the trail.

So who is going to Bethel with me? I'm bringing 10 dogs (plus the two humans mentioned earlier); Hagar, Lucky, Luke, Bing, Lucy, Felix, Bernard, Phoebe, Charlie, and Olaf. Hagar, Phoebe, and Bernard all had their old injuries checked by Dr. Hagee today, he gave them all a thumbs up. He sent me a note to bring to the race vets in Bethel. If the injuries cause problems, I'll drop them. You've met each of these dogs except Phoebe, couldn't find a picture of her. She is Luke, Bing, Charlie, and Bernard's sister and Felix and Olaf's mother. At 58 pounds, she'll be the smallest dog on the team. She's a sweetheart. With the exception of Hagar and Lucky, I've raised each of these dogs myself. Luke, Hagar, Lucky, and Bing will be my main leaders. Felix, Lucy or Phoebe could also get a turn in lead, but it's unlikely. All 10 of these dogs could finish the race and it will be my pleasure to enter the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race with this team. Final mileage can be found at the end of this post. We didn't get as many miles as I had hoped, but we've got enough to run the race. Those were some hard fought miles.

A weather system out in the Bering Sea is currently headed straight for Southwest Alaska. Warmer temperatures and snow are in our future. Hopefully it doesn't delay our trip to Bethel. My bigger stronger dogs would do better with some snow on the trail. I'd take a foot if I could get it.

I had better keep packing. I'll try update the blog from Bethel. Stay tuned.

Hagar-987, Lucky-1147, Luke-1146, Bing-1187, Bernard-828, Charlie-1156, Felix-1077,
Olaf-1168, Lucy-1006, Phoebe-874