Over the noon hour in Unalakleet, there’s a five-some parked between the berms. Team Baker arrived, checked in with the vets and immediately departed along the slough heading to the Blueberry hills and onto Shaktoolik.
Abby West and Ken Anderson are inside the checkpoint enjoying lunch. When you’ve been on the tail for a week, it can’t get any better than walking into a checkpoint and hearing the words, “How would you like your eggs?” West has devoured a plate of eggs, bacon, pancakes and salmon. Anderson is working on his breakfast.
Minnesota born Ken Anderson came to Alaska in 1993 to study biology and learn more about mushing. How’d he get started? It was through reading. When Ken was a little guy in third grade his Dad purchased him a book on the Iditarod. That book was Ken’s springboard to Iditarod. His interest in mushing goes much further back. His parents had a recreational team so Anderson has been running dogs since the age of three. When it comes to 1,000 mile races, Anderson hasn’t limited himself to the trip from Anchorage to Nome, he’s also run the Yukon Quest four times. This is Ken’s 14th Iditarod. I asked Ken how his race was going. His answer left me thinking he wouldn’t rank it any better than average. He was however very impressed with Regret, a young leader. Maybe it was a special treat for Regret or maybe it was just a sunny day hot dog roast. Ken’s leaders were snacking on ball park hotdogs.
Abbie West calls her kennel Cosmic Canines. The name comes from her love for astronomy and astrology. There are stars trimming the hem of her parka and her sled bag as well. Abbie was born in Oklahoma then grew up in New Jersey. An avid skier, she chose Maine for her post high school studies. When she first came to Alaska 20 years ago, she worked on the Kenai Peninsula fishing docks. Then, because she came to Alaska to run dogs, she started her own kennel. All of her dogs have stellar names and she says they are all out of this world.
Wade Marrs grew up in Redington country, otherwise known as Knik, Alaska. Wade started running dogs in 1996. He took to a portion of the Iditarod Trial running his first Junior Iditarod in 2007. Yentna Station is a checkpoint shared by both Iditarod races. Wade ran his second Iditarod in 2008 and received the humanitarian award for his excellence in dog care. In previous years, a GPS tracker from ION Earth was anchored to each sled to provide location information. The device was about the size of 2 bricks stacked on top of each other and taped together. There was a bracket secured to each sled used in the race to hold the tracking device. The new spot trackers are slipped into a bootie and pinned to the sled bags, thus the old bracket wasn’t used this year. Walking by Wade’s sled I noticed a small stuffed husky harnessed to his bracket right up front on the brush bow. Asking Wade about the husky, he said someone asked his to carry it on the tail and the bracket happened to be there so why not use it. Wade was very pleased with a couple of young dogs on his team. He was expecting to run a single leader for the race but a youngster has really taken to the lead spot and so it’s a pair of leaders for the Marrs team. Another dog has taken on the roll of cheerleader. More than other other dog on the team, Puma has always been on his feet and ready to go. Wade gets booties out and Puma is on his feet with tail flagging. that kind of enthusiasm from one dog is contagious. Marrs arrived UNK on Sunday Morning 0919 and departed at 0424. For the 40 miles run to Shaktoolik, the trail will have very little snow cover.
Pete Kaiser of Bethel has been mushing since he was a kid. Mushing is an avocation for Pete who works construction. Pete has watched the Kuskokwim 300 many times and credits that race for sparking his interest in running Iditarod. Pete is an ambitions young guy with a promising Iditarod future. Former Iditarod Musher Judy Courier was on the slough watching mushers in general but Pete in particular as Pete is running some of Courier’s dogs on this run to Nome. When it came time to leave UNK, the Kaiser team was up and off the straw, tails flagging and ready to go. They trotted smartly down the trail toward the bridge and the distant wind chargers. Kaiser was in at 0918 and on his way to Shaktoolik at 1523. What Kaiser doesn’t know is that while the winds are light in UNK, the closer he gets to Shaktoolik the winds will pick up to 25 miles and hour.
