The Kobuk 440,

Above the Arctic Circle, a nice way to end the 2008 season

Land of contrasts. A few weeks ago, I have arrived back home in the Yukon after an exiting winter of training and racing. While sitting at the campfire last night, the first mosquitos were buzzing around, hungry for some blood after a long winters sleep. The firepit is right next to the dogyard. The yard had dried out nicely. All doghouses were cleaned of the old straw, chains repaired and things started to look good. Most dogs were keeping their focus on every move of us, maybe a piece of meat would come their way. By nightfall the dogyard is a sea of green and blue eyes. Well the mosquitos might have been out a bit early, we woke up to a fresh layer of snow this morning. That most certainly will keep the pesky blood suckers away, but surely will bring on another bout of mud. It is beginning of May, spring should be just around the corner.

 

My last race of the winter was the Kobuk 440 in Kotzebue, above the Artic Circle. The fact that Kotzebue was that far north, only dawned to me after arriving there and seeing the long daylight. I had wanted to run the Kobuk for many years, but somehow always could not get my act together at the end of each season. For how long I had wanted to run it, I discovered when I called Ray in Whitehorse. I asked him to fax me the past race times, which I had always kept, just in case. The fax showed the 2003 times. Well it really was about time to finally quit talking and actually do the Kobuk.

Getting to the Kobuk is not quite easy and once again is an organizational challenge. More so to the fact, that my dog handlers were in Whitehorse and I was traveling alone with my Iditarod team. The original plan was to run the Percy de Wolfe. But you all who know me a little, know that I like to change my plans, to whatever I think is best for my team. My trailer with gear was still in Paxson, my truck once again in the shop in Anchorage, my dogs at Bonnie and Jim’s in Eagle River, my Iditarod Food Drop still at ITC headquarters. It took a bit of time to consolidate all that stuff. Alan and Susie at MacLaren Lodge were a huge help, to arrange that someone brings my trailer all the way from Paxson to Anchorage. I spend a relaxing week at Libby’s in Homer, before embarking on another packing and driving frenzy. A funny little side story: Driving back from Homer to Anchorage, I got pulled over by the cops. Oh great was my first thought, what did I do now? The officer was very polite, asked if I had any drinks, looked at my truck and trailer and came back. “ Well the reason I stopped you, is that I received a complaint that you are driving to slow and might be intoxicated. “ Well that is a first for me to ever be stopped for going too slow.

Once again I had many people help me out to make this trip to Kobuk happen. Margie in Knik looked after Herring, Libby and Wondar who I did not take up to Kotzebue. Vern Halter kept my food drops frozen, as it was too warm to keep them in the trailer before the race. Richie Beattie still letting me use Kavik and Keeper for one last race. Bonnie and Jim looked after my trailer and Tang. Actually they will be looking after Tang for the rest of her life. Bonnie had wanted to adopt Tang for a while. I had a hard time letting her go, she was the best leader I ever had, the Queen of the yard. But after all it counts, what is better for the dog. While at my place, she would have to watch her teammates go on long training runs, she can actually still go out with Bonnie´s team on distances which are much more suited for her age. Visiting her after the Kobuk, it was obvious, that I was OUT, and Bonnie and Jim were IN. I am glad she found such a wonderful home.

 

Flying the dogs has become somewhat of a routine, specially after winning the nice ATV at Iditarod. I am very well known at Northern Air Cargo now. Thanks again to Northern Air Cargo, not only for sponsoring the nice 4wheeler, but also for the great service flying my dogs all over the place. While waiting at the airport for my own flight, I got a bit of a scare. The weather was not good up in Kotzebue and it could happen, that we could not land. Well that could be interesting, my dogs making it there, me getting stuck in Anchorage. Just a scare, we touched down in blowing snow and I was re-united with the gang quickly. My hosts were Kathy and Dean Westlake. By the time I made it to Kotz, they had already picked up my dogs and gear which was waiting at their house. What a nice welcome.

 

Meeting new people and getting to experience new places is one of the things that keeps me so hooked on racing. It is as addicting as running dogs. A while after deciding to not run the Quest this year, it dawned to me, that this would also mean to not see Mike in Trout Creek, or Karl at Cochrines. I am very much afraid, that with me adding 2 new races to my racing calendar this year, the Kusko and Kobuk, that my racing calendar will be a full one again next season.

 

The pre-race days in Kotz were great. Kathy is getting up each morning at 4 a.m. baking donuts for various events and organizations. The nice side effect of that is, that each morning, by the time I crawl out of bed, there is a full table of donuts in all sizes and shapes waiting. Yeah, my dream come true, Donuts - all you can eat. Little did I know that I would need all that extra energy very soon. We spent long hours on the couch swapping stories and getting to know each others distant lifestyle.

 

The weather turned to the worse, blowing snow, switching to blowing rain. I wanted to run the dogs one time before the race, as they had been sitting a bit too long for my liking. They were pretty noisy and active. Skunk being in full heat did not help. But I could not convince myself to go out in those conditions. So when starting day came, the team was very well rested. I could tell I was going to be in for a bit of a wild ride. I was going to run the dogs over to the starting line, which was about 1 mile away. A mass start each team lining up next to the other. Ah, no big deal I thought, I got good leaders. All I would need to do is cross Lake Street, the street I was staying on, drive a few hundred yards by an equipment yard and drop onto the sea ice and hang a haw. Hooking up the team, I had Dean hold on to Finn and Skunk, so Finn would not start making puppies immediately. Here I made a big mistake: Putting Skunk on the right and Finn on the left, clearly not thinking about it. All 12 dogs hooked up they were almost dragging away Dean’s pickup truck. I pulled the hooks, Dean let go of Skunk and Finn. Finn right away tried humping Skunk, thus pushing her to the right, away from the left turn I had to make. My stern “haw” blew away in the wind. Off we went down Lake Street instead of across Lake Street. Both feet on my brake, we were flying down the road at 14 miles an hour. The dogs were on fire, but unfortunately they were also in control this time. Luckily Dean had loaned me is pickup a few times during the past days and I kind of knew my way around town. Whizzing by some people on ATVs and snowmachines I got some very puzzled looks. At the first intersection I hollered gee, which they took. After all that was the side Skunk was on, so Finn also happily went that way. We screamed by 2 more intersections, luckily no traffic. I asked them to do another gee. They took it, but I called it a bit too early and they cut the corner, almost wrapping me around a stop sign, which I could only avoid while flipping the sled. Stumbling behind I barely got on the runners again, just in time to call another gee, which completed our circle around the block. After going by the Westlake’s house we came to the same haw turn again, which this time they took. Soon we were on the sea ice heading for the starting line. What a wild ride, and this was just going to be the beginning. I parked my team between Mike Jayne and John Baker. It is quite an impressive sight seeing 17 teams lined up next to each other. Some arrived like myself mushing in, others were brought in by makeshift dogboxes towed by a snowmachine. Canadian sprint mushing champion Terry Streeper was also in town, and it was nice to catch up with him at the start. He would later go on to win the Artic Circle Championship.

 

We got a good start and left about 7^th place, each team threading in after each other.It was 4:40 p.m. As usual many teams were traveling much faster than us. It was blowing and snowing, making it hard to even look into the headwind. I tried googles, they would fog up. Sunglasses were a mess of snow and fog. So the only solution was to turn the head sideways and occasionally squint into the wind. Although I hate plans, I made myself a race plan, to at least have something to go by, being a rookie in the Kobuk. I hoped to be in the first checkpoint of Noorvik after 5hr 20 minutes. We arrived at 10:01 p.m. talk about timing, eh? While most teams continued on through, I rested 1.5hrs, giving my team a small meal. The Kobuk has a total of 20 hrs of mandatory rest for 440 Miles. With my team getting less training miles after Iditarod, than I had hoped for, I felt to keep my first run short was necessary. Although it was 10 p.m., bright daylight and raining, it seemed to be that the whole town of Noorvik was out to greet us mushers.

 

I borrowed a rain poncho back in Kotz, but while I tried putting it on, the wind ripped it into pieces. My down parka was soaked, not only weighing several pounds more, but also not insulating all that great anymore neither. Phil Meier the vet was nice enough to loan me his water and windproof parka shell, over which I put another wind breaker. I hoped I would stay warm enough just with my fleece under it. As usual I did not carry any spare cloths, but also did not send out any in this “short“ race.

 

After the short break, the dogs were running well. Unfortunately it was still a mix of rain and snow out there, not very pleasant. By now it was dark and once the weather cleared up a bit, I could see the lights of Selawik in the distance. The run was rather quite, only passing one team. I had calculated this run with 4hrs, which it took bang on the minute.

It was 3:34 a.m. and also in Selawik the town was far from being asleep. There was hot water for the dogs and a warm meal for us. Finding a spot to dry out cloths was a bit tricky, as with taking my early break, I arrived in the back of the pack. The dogs ate well, they looked good and nobody had any issues.

 

Not much rest for the weary. We left after less than 4hrs of rest. One thing about the Kobuk, you never quite know, which position you are in, or how much rest the other teams around you have had. Teams seemed to be leaving all about the same time. I could see 4 teams ahead of me and 2 behind. The ones behind were getting smaller, the ones ahead were getting bigger, that was a good sign. Passing Josh Kadzo, Michelle Phillips and Hugh Neff I was trailing Ken Anderson for a long time. It was off and on raining again. About noon it finally cleared up and I could start to see the surroundings. Mountains to the north, a big plain ahead, and very distant mountains to the south. We were in and out of timber. All for sudden, after rounding a corner, I could see Ken ahead. He seemed to be waiting for me. Wondering if we missed a turn I caught up to him. “Have you seen a dog“ he asked me “I had one slip out of the harness, trying a new gangline without necklines“. I did not see his dog. I snacked my team, not being able to offer much for help, we continued down the trail. Although I can clearly see some advantages of running no necklines, after trying it in training, I decided it does not work for me. The afternoon was getting warm, and the dogs slowed down a bit. Sometimes I could make out a team behind me in the far distance. Things got a bit exiting, once we came upon a creek which had a lot of overflow. The trailbreakers had tried to find a way around it, but there only seemed to be the choice of going through it. The overflow was deeper than it looked and we got pretty wet going through. Luckily I had my bunny boots on. Using my Taildragger Sled I could sit down while running to empty out the water. Everything was wet, from either rain, or overflow.

 

The mountains were coming closer, the trees were getting bigger and even the first birch trees were appearing. After a bit more than 10 hrs we arrived in Ambler. The town had a warm welcome. The team looked good, they all ate well and quickly settled in for a good nap. Austin’s tendonitis on his left wrist seemed to bother him a bit, I massaged him down. The checkpoint did have great food again. Fairly close was a little church with a wood stove in it. Great, finally a place to dry out all my soggy cloths. My down parka seemed to be a hopeless case. I left it here for the run to Shungnak and Kobuk and back, hoping it would be dry upon my return. We were running in 4^th position, which I was quite happy with. Mike Jayne, Martin Buser and John Baker were the lead group and traveling faster on each run.

 

Leaving Ambler at 10:30 p.m., still daylight it started snowing again. Before nightfall a group of snowmachines passed me. I put Popcorn and Nemo in lead, something I was going to regret. Those 2 brothers are great in lead, specially with Skunk as a partner, but with her being in heat I could not do that. Nemo and Popcorn in lead together are 2 big goofballs. Things went o.k. to Shungnak. I quickly gave the team a snack there before continuing. On the way to Kobuk, the lead group of 3 came my way head on. Martin Buser a bit ahead of the other 2. The trail got worse and there was a lot of overflow. Nemo and Popcorn would constantly struggle with each other, which path to take. We were zigzagging across the river, although I could sometimes see where the 3 teams ahead of me had gone, Popcorn and Nemo seemed to have no interest in following those tracks. The nightglow of Kobuk, the half way point was visible, so I decided to keep them in lead, wanting to change them out once in Kobuk.

 

The people in Kobuk were once again super friendly. Someone gave me some water to drink, a bag of cookies. It was 3 a.m. To leave Kobuk we had to turn the team around, where of course my whole team wanted to check out Skunk. I forgot my plan to change out the leaders. Leaving town, going down the river bank, it looked to me like we were going to go down the same trail as before. But things turned for the worse quickly, half of my team disappearing in some very deep overflow. This was quite a mess, dogs swimming, other dogs trying to get Skunk while swimming, my sled flipping over in the wet slop. Once again I was soaking wet after getting the tangled mess of dogs out of the water. The temperature must have dropped below freezing, as every tug and neckline was coated by a thick layer of ice, now having the size of a finger. The tugline toggles were completely iced up with the harness loops and I could not get them apart. I tried chipping the ice away with my axe and my leatherman. The ice won, after cutting myself several times, I gave up the project to change out the leaders. We zigzagged back to Shungnak, now having several head on passes with the teams behind. Without knowing exact times, I could tell that they had made a lot of time up on me. Back in Shungnak, I tried again to switch out some dogs, but the ice was even thicker than before, after going back through all that overflow. All that ice made the gangline almost drag on the ground. The dogs were also not happy with their iced up booties, which I took off. The temperature continued to drop. The good thing was that the soft trail hardened up. The bad thing was that my cloths froze solid. The trail became very hard and crusty, so I stopped to put new booties on most of the dogs.

 

Pulling back into Ambler after a very frustrating 10hr run I was wondering, how much time I had lost on that run. With Hugh Neff only pulling in 20 minutes behind me, I knew I had lost more time than I wanted to know. Bedding my dogs down took a long time. I had to chop the ice off each line and snap, using my cooler lid as a hard surface and the axe to chop away. Much cussing and a few more cuts later, the dogs could finally roll up to sleep, not before I took all their harnesses off. Time to crank up the stove in the little church. By the time I had the dogs fed, massaged and spend some time to dry out my gear, there was not much left of my 5 hr break. On the positive side, the sun was shining for the first time and my parka which I had left in the church was dry.

 

After a very short nap we hit the trail at 1:30 p.m. I had second thoughts about taking Keeper, he was not his usual bubbly himself. I could not find anything wrong with him, so I though he might be still a bit bummed out from that ugly last run, but would get over it. Unfortunately he did not get over it. After 3hrs runtime, I decided to load him into the sled. Not a big deal I thought, traveling on a nice hard trail along some river. Behind me I could see a team, most likely Hugh Neff. He was not gaining much. Before leaving Ambler I asked for some trail direction. One of the landmarks to look for was a cabin, which would mark the half way point. We came by a cabin high up the river bank. I checked my watch 5 p.m.. “Hey cool, if this is half way, this is going to be a 7hr run only“. Short after that cabin we left the river and started climbing in some hills. Nemo also had not been pulling. I stopped to snack the team. Now Nemo began to Neckline, not good. I also loaded him into the sled. Not plan A, having two dogs in the basket. Needless to say, my big warm parka disappeared in the sit down part of my sled and I had to run and skipole beside the sled. The scenery was fantastic, each hill we climbed would offer another breathtaking view. My spirits were high until we came to a cabin, right next to the trail. My watch said 7:30 p.m. “Hang on a second, yes Ed said, that the trail goes right by the cabin and than drops back down onto the river“ . Ouch, that was not good news. This was only the half way point, 6hrs into the run. It took me a while to digest the thought, that there was a minimum of 6 more hours until we reach Kiana. While Keeper and Nemo seemingly enjoyed their ride in the sunshine, I did not. To keep the team at a decent pace, I continuously had to either run, or skipole. Each time the team behind me seemed to get closer, I would dig in a bit harder. Finally after many hours of helping I had to take a break and sit down for a while. It was 11 p.m by now, the sun had just gone down. It was Hugh Neff passing me, asking if everything was alright. Muttering “a kind of alright“, I let him go by. I was hoping to see the village of Kiana around each new bend in the River. It started snowing and blowing hard, oh great, exactly what I need.

Hugh’s tracks ahead of me were all blown in. Luckily this was just a short snow shower, in which the temperature dropped quite a few degrees. By 1 a.m. no Kiana. 1:30 a.m. still not even a sign of Kiana. The time came to a crawl. All for sudden, there were the lights, right ahead of us. Boy was a glad to get off this river. A snowmachine escorted us up the steep river bank and through town to the checkpoint.

 

We were parked next to Hugh’s team, who was already done with his chores. This told me enough, about how long he had been here already. My team was visibly tired after this long 12 hr run, carrying all that extra weight. After feeding and massaging I gave Keeper and Nemo to the vet. Trying to shorten my gangline was another reminder of my swimming lessons back in Kobuk. The Kiana Checkpoint was very well organized. Inside they had a warm meal for us. Someone had made a cake, with all the mushers names on it. I was going to take a picture of it, but my camera was out in my sled and I was way too tired to go and get it. Here I finally slept for a couple of hours. Knowing I would not hear my alarm, I had to drink 2 quarts of water before laying down. The pee alarm never fails, it only sometimes rings a bit too late, I overslept a bit.

 

The dogs gave me the look of “you gotta be kidding?“, when I pulled the hook after 5hrs. I told them: “Never mind, I would have liked to sleep a bit longer myself, but I already gave us an extra 45 minutes.” After a steep descent onto the Kobuk ( I think ) River, we followed its shores westwards. I could see Ken Anderson ahead of me disappearing quickly. This was a beautiful morning, sunny and cold. The dogs settled into their usual rhythm and helped with the skipoles off and on. So far the whole trail had been marked very nicely, mostly with willow sticks. About half way to Noorvik we came to a Y in the trail, both options unmarked. The left fork was wider and more traveled, the right fork more narrow and less traveled. Both had sled tracks on it. Calling up the dogs I let the choice to them, they took the left. Of course I was thinking the whole time, that the right would have been the shorter one. Both trails merged after about 20 minutes, so either way it could not have been a big deal. Noorvik arrived faster than I had thought. A cow moose and her young crossed the trail short before we were heading into town. That gave the team a nice boost of energy. Half snowed in motor boats were lining the shore.

 

Two Days ago, in the middle of the night while raining hard, this little village was busy with people. Now at 10 a.m., nice and sunny, hardly a soul was to be seen. After snacking the dogs I decided to leave Diesel behind, too fresh was the memory from yesterday. I had my fair share of carrying dogs in this race. With 9 dogs we left town for a last 47 miles. What a nice day this was. A slight tailwind helped us along, thoughts of setting a sail were crossing my mind. I could recognize some landmarks from the first run. About half way we started crossing the sound over to the Kotzebue peninsula. Little willow sticks were continuing down the horizon, clearly marking which way to go. Sitting down I was daydreaming about the past 2 days, than the past winter and allowing my mind to wander into even further away places. The past 2 days had quite a few ups and downs, so did the past few years for me. In the end I always come to the same conclusion: Running dogs in places like this, and meeting the wonderful people I have been allowed to meet, are definitely worth while the challenges. Casually looking at the scenery behind me a little moving dot on the horizon behind me quickly brought my attention back to reality. Someone was catching up. Catching up rather quickly. Arriving at the overland trail crossing the Kotzebue Peninsula it was Eric Sieh, a local pilot running the second team for John Baker. John also had a great run, winning this years Kobuk 440, before Mike Jayne followed by Martin Buser. Eric´s team briskly trotted by. This was his home country and those dogs clearly knew that home sweet home was just over the next few hills. Same as with most races, I was glad to see the finish line nearing. Sad at the same time, that this adventure was coming to an end. On the other hand, each ending adventure is the beginning of a new one, all just a matter of perspective.

 

There was a small crowd at the finishing line and my eyes caught a beautiful sealskin parka worn by a beautiful woman. What a nice surprise: Libby had flown up to greet me at the finish line. Turning the dogs around one last time, I drove them back to Kathy and Dean’s. Hey fresh donuts on the table. Big old Sunny Boy, their house dog, slobbering my face upon arrival. Welcome home. We spend a few more nice days in Kotzebue. I had a chance to drive some of John Bakers dogs, before flying back down south. I much rather would have stayed a few more weeks up north, enjoying a bit more spring mushing. The Kobuk lived up to my expectations, I hope I learned a few new things on this run. As an added bonus, I received the Humanitarian award during the awards ceremony.

 

Back in Anchorage, the same game as before: Getting my truck form the mechanics, my trailer from Bonnie and Jim’s, my Kobuk dogs from Northern Air Cargo, more food drop stuff from ITC and picking up the 3 dogs I had left and Margie’s. Each time I am amazed that all this somehow always works out. After spending a few more days on the road, via Fairbanks and Paxson, I finally found my way back to Whitehorse. Much to my surprise, there was still snow left. The Edwards family and Laird had things in great order upon my arrival. They have been busy ever since with cleaning up the mess I brought home. Countless Iditarod Return bags, from myself and Rudi needed to be sorted through. Trucks, trailers, 4 wheelers need to be brought back into shape for next season. The dogs were happy to see their houses back, time for a new peeing contest. I picked up a few new team members which are getting socialized with the rest of the gang.

 

I hope you enjoyed following us through the past season. We sure enjoyed the ride. Time just flew by. I greatly appreciate your support. Since getting back to Whitehorse, hardly a day has gone by where I have not looked at past season’s race times. I guess I am really hooked. While I will sign off “ blogging “ for a while, I hope you will be following along next season again.

 

Have a safe and fun summer everybody.

Happy Trails

 

Sebastian