Willow Restart—10 am in the Dog Yard—Warm to prevail
By Joe Runyan
The Willow Restart is staged on the ice of Willow Lake. I asked a local if people fish here and he said “Probably, but mostly it gets a lot of float plane traffic in the summer.” A community center overlooks the site, loaded with concessionaires, creating the atmosphere of a state fair.
Traffic control is very strict, and without a badge, it is impossible to use the parking lot near the center. In addition, access to the dog trucks parked on the ice, is strictly regulated by a host of volunteer security that asks for the right badge. Most fans are relegated to an area along the start chute, marked by an orange snow fence. I am told there is jostling for photo vantages. Some even bring ladders, but security is wise to them and insist that they are placed far from the chute.
At 10 am the ice was sparsely populated with a few dog trucks occupying a lane defined by orange spray paint and a start number on a picnic plate stapled on a surveyor lathe. This is a great time to chat with mushers because they are with their dogs and gear and preparing for the 2PM start time. Conversations rarely wander from the subject of the race.
Yvonne Dabakk, #18, was picking up dog bowls amongst her team of Siberian huskies. Yvonne is working and studying the Aurora Borealis at the U of Alaska, Fairbanks for two years, and flew the dogs from Norway. “Well, it was expensive, but they are part of the family.” She is an obviously invested academic (PhD.), but has taken the time to run the Iditarod. She talked about her schedule and said she had designed a very conservative strategy, probably running a run/rest schedule with more time to the rest side.
Michelle Phillips, #15, is an Iditarod veteran, relaxed and obviously confident that her outdoor skills would get her over the Alaska Range. Like many mushers, she had a drag made from a snowmachine track, retrofitted with additional long studs. “I can stop the team with just the drag,” and then showed me in addition double brake splines bolted to the standard brake bar of her sled.
#25 Nathan Schroeder was by his long horse trailer, the team tethered on a long gangline along the trailer. Even in the shadows of the hills along the shore, temperatures seemed sure to rise above freezing by race time. “I’ll boot the dogs for sure, even if it is warm.” Many mushers will boot their dogs with lightweigh,t high denier booties for every inch of the trail. True, sled dogs can usually run uneventfully in warm weather, but in the Iditarod setting, no one wants to take a chance. Every dog will wear boots as a precaution for dings and abrasion from ice and snow.
Charlie Benja, #45, was just going through the dogs with the Iditarod vet assistants. Each dog was scanned to detect a special chip installed in the scruff of the neck. Not only does the chip allow the vets to track each participant in the race, it also verifies that the dogs having gone through the mandatory vet inspection are in truth the same dogs at race time. Charlie was still debating which final dogs he was going to declare from his pool to be in the final sixteen. “When do I have to make the final decision?” One of the tech girls shrugged and Charlie decided to declare his choices. The girls noted the sixteen dog team and numbers on a special form and worked their way to the next truck.
Charlie was fooling with his smart phone, so I ribbed him about the wilderness experience. He laughed and agreed that the smart phone was going off for race time.
John Dixon, #45, works two weeks on and two weeks off on the North Slope oil fields. Fortunately he has a partner that continues training dogs while he works. His son, John Jr, was busy organizing gear to the rear of the truck while John looked after the dogs. He ran his first Iditarod in 2000 and now returned for a second run. “It feels like I am a rookie!”
Mike Santos, #68, drives a very industrial cargo van diesel truck. “Well, we bought an old homestead by Cantwell, Alaska, and we need supplies, too.” He and his wife are designing a virtual reality “Iditarod” experience , including a theatre and presentation, near his renovated homestead. He plans on running a very structured race schedule to get him to Nome with a full team—-the goal is all the dogs!
#58 Hans Gatt. A little about the Yukon Quest Champion and dominant middle distance musher from Canada. Hans Gatt is on our radar as a potential champ as he has generated very competitive Iditarod efforts in the top ten. He is always knocking on the door of a great run with characteristically racy huskies.
I looked at the team of slick furred dogs and remarked that they seem well suited to the warm weather start. “They also do well in cold weather too, but they definitely can handle the warm temperatures. We were training in very warm weather on hard trails by Whitehorse, and they did very well.” Still, in the initial going he was quite adamant about a schedule that probably would not exceed 5 hours of running before taking rest to cool down and consume calories. He indicated that he intentionally had not allowed excessive weight gain—-he doesn’t want them too fat and ungainly on a hard fast trail.
Asked to identify his leaders, he pointed to Montigo, his favorite. “She leads alone and definitely will not be leading on the first day,” as he describes her personality as off the chart. “She barks on the trail, very intense, and excited about anything. A bird or an arctic hare will get her going too.” Instead 9 year old Darren, rock solid and sensible, will join Gingero to the front out of the start.
Hans is known for the quality and utility of his sleds which are often in backlog to mushers. I asked him about the “sit down” sleds used by some mushers (including Mitch Seavey and Jeff King.) He laughed, “No way I am going suicide, I will ride a traditional design,” pointing to a sled to the slde of the truck. Obvioulsy, the musher rides to the rear of the sled, rather than sitting midway between the front sled bag and trailer bag. “I’ll switch to a sit down sled at Nikolai (referring to the checkpoint on the north side of the Alaska range).”
Asked about training, he told me “We bang on ten miles an hour no matter what.” I mentioned that part of our insider crew would be in Finger Lake tonight. One last thought from Hans “With my plan, I won’t be stopping in Finger Lake
And finally, a chance encounter with Ray Redington on the way back to the community center. Well, he confided, he had a good team. He quickly changed subjects. “Watch, Johanessen will be the rookie to win the Iditarod.” He then went on to explain how he had watched Ralph’s team on a training run and was immeasurably impressed. “Just beautiful running.”
I relayed this information to a couple of Insider guys and they said Sorlie was asked about Johannessen in a pre-race interview. Sorlie shrugged his shoulders, (I am told) and said, “Yeah, he has a top ten team.”
Coincidentally, we are working on the stage at the community center and looking out on the floor I see Robert with a cup of coffee and Norwegian media. I have been to Sorlie’s home in Norway and have grown to appreciate his easy humor, his stoic approach to life , and affection for his friends and sled dogs. So, there he is, very slim in a windbreaker suit, dressed to depart Willow restart, shaking hands with fans. “All OK??” He has that quizzical smile, of course I am ready! “Yes, yes, everything is OK.”
He confides, “I will see you in Finger Lake. I think this is the best plan for the start of the race.”
Bruce Lee and I just met our pilot who will shuttle us to Finger Lake later this afternoon. We have learned that weather reports indicate mild/warm weather for the next five or six days.
Back to the dog yard and check out the rest of the musher pack!
