Teams Resting at Finger Lake (Photo: Dave Poyzer)
The race is all of 1 day old! We’ve got teams in Finger Lake, Rainy Pass and getting very close to Rohn. Yentna and Skwentna are back to their prerace populations who are attending to dismantling the checkpoint for another year.
Up at the front of the pack, Nic Petit is leading ten other veterans – Kaiser, Porsild, Redington, Diehl, Sass, Hall, Failor, Holmes and Maixner as they climb from Puntilla Lake up over Rainy pass and down through the Dalzell Gorge. It was this section of trail that Race Director/Marshal, Mark Nordman commented on during the musher meeting as well as the media briefing.
Trail crews worked the trail over between Puntilla Lake and Rohn, cutting alder branches and brush. Mother Nature contributed some snow so the trail is in better condition than the Iron Dog experienced in mid-February. As usual, crews built ice bridges throughout the Dalzell Gorge.
The trail from Rohn to Nikolai, especially the Farewell Burn was classified as rough by Nordman. He cited lack of traffic earlier in the winter and blowing snow as the reason for the large moguls and poor base. The area is typically windy so when snow falls it blows and leaves the trail bare. In recent memory, mushers the year of the Gold Trail Loop, experienced snow fall as they traversed the Burn. Some said it was a remarkable transformation and even went to far as to say they enjoyed the Burn that year. The same won’t be true this year unless Mother Nature comes through with snow and puts a damper on the wind.
Jason Mackey Heads into Finger Lake (Photo: Dave Poyzer)
Looking at the back of the pack, there are five teams (see teams below) resting on the ice out in front of Winter Lake Lodge. Upon leaving Finger, they’ll zig-zag down the Happy River Steps before arriving at Puntilla Lake. By the way, Rainy Pass is the route over the Alaska Range. The checkpoint before the teams negotiate Rainy Pass is located on Puntilla Lake so the checkpoint is often referred to as Puntilla. Here’s another by the way – do you recall the Alaska reality show, R5 Sons? That show is about the Perrins family, owners of Rainy Pass Lodge.
Gerhart Thiart from South Africa is driving the Mitch Seavey “B” team. In his first rookie attempt in 2022 he also had the Seavey “B” team. That year he was forced to Scratch at White Mountain when injured in the infamous Blow Hole Storm. He is back for the unfinished business of standing under the Burled Arch, earning the finisher’s belt buckle and being the first South African to finish Iditarod. As you might guess, “B” dogs graduate to be “A” dogs. Christian Turner is running Mitch’s “A” team this year – the dogs that Thiart raced last year. Thiart is running a whole new batch of dogs as the “B” team this year.
Deke Naaktgeboren from Fairbanks raced in 2020 and claimed 27th place. Deke was born and raised in Iowa. Before moving to Alaska, he worked as a park ranger in Florida’s Everglades National Park. He works for the Bureau of Land Management in the Chicken, Alaska area now. Deke holds degrees in Business and Recreation from Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. He’s a veteran of a number of distance and mid-distance races.Mike Williams, Jr. is a second generation musher from Akiak, Alaska. Mike is a seven year Iditarod veteran with one top ten finish, 8th place 2012. He has a young talented group of dogs and says this Iditarod is a training run for his team as he looks forward to the 2024 Kusko 300. Mike says, “Dogs that make Iditarod, no matter how long it takes, go home with a new toughness and a certain pride in their eyes, they know they’ve accomplished a tough race.” Mike Sr. has finished Iditarod 15 times. In 2013 father and son both completed the race with Mike Jr. finishing in 23rd place and Mike Sr. in 45th place. Even though they didn’t run together, father and son agreed it was an event they enjoyed doing together.
Mike Williams, Jr. Mushes Toward Finger Lake (Photo: Dave Poyzer)
Mike Williams, Jr. is a second generation musher from Akiak, Alaska. Mike is a seven year Iditarod veteran with one top ten finish, 8th place 2012. He has a young talented group of dogs and says this Iditarod is a training run for his team as he looks forward to the 2024 Kusko 300. Mike says, “Dogs that make Iditarod, no matter how long it takes, go home with a new toughness and a certain pride in their eyes, they know they’ve accomplished a tough race.” Mike Sr. has finished Iditarod 15 times. In 2013 father and son both completed the race with Mike Jr. finishing in 23rd place and Mike Sr. in 45th place. Even though they didn’t run together, father and son agreed it was an event they enjoyed doing together.
Jason Mackey has been mushing for 45 years. As a teen he participated in the Jr. Iditarod and graduated to 150 and 200 mile races then to the Kusko 300, Kobuk 440, Copper Basin 300, Klondike 300 and the Quest 300. Mackey’s first Iditarod was in 2004. He’s started seven races and finished 6. His last race was in 2017 when he finished in 21st place. After that race he sold his dogs and went to the lower 48 with his wife to reconnect and rebuild. He says, “Pushing the reset button is the best thing I could have done.” Now he’s back with a whole new kennel of dogs and the motto: “Mack is Back.”
Jed Stephensen, a rookie from Sandpoint, Idaho grew up in Germany. His dad read him Gary Paulson and Jack London mushing stories. He felt the call to Alaska. He’s trained with Billy Snodgrass and Linwood Fiedler, both Iditarod veterans and also musher Gabe Dunham. Jed acquired a couple of dogs and from there began building his team. He is one of only four people to finish the Rocky Mountain Triple Crown which includes 800 miles of racing over three and a half weeks – the Eagle Cap 200, Idaho Sled Dog Challenge 300 and the Montana Race to the Sky 300.
