RACE OVER

Rohn mushing the team home!

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Both teams are snug as a bug.  Both boys are very tired and a little confounded at what happened.  It seems the snow drifts were a bit of their undoing and the dogs didn’t really eat as well as they usually do.  Just a few hiccups in a fast paced race like that and it’s difficult to regroup. It always takes a few days to digest exactly what happened when.

After finishing with a cluster of other teams, Rohn decided to mush the team right back to Jeff’s house.  He certainly looked tired while the dogs still had energy to move him on to the house. 

Martin came in without pressure from behind, moseying down the trail with his old man Caribou right in lead!  Martin opted for his dogs to ride home in the back of the pick-up truck.  Rohn and Nikolai were there to help with the dogs. 

We have had such a great time with the Hoffman crew.  Lots of family members at the start and finish and Nikolai and I just love hanging out at Mike and Jill’s while the boys are on the trail.  Even though we don’t get here often, sure feels like family.

Jill Hoffman pets old Caribou

Rohn says to his Dad, " Did you hear where I finished?

  Dad says, "no." Rohn says "6th."  Dad says, "Great, Better than 7th,  heck way better than 10th."

Busers at the FINISH

Rohn escaped his interview since so many teams where coming in together.  Reporter tries again.

Caribou gets a pet from Mike Hoffman

Kathy with Bev Hoffman - race organizer and 49er fan!

John flew in from Chevak for the K300.

Buser Boys ready to head for the house.

Saturday in Bethel

Nikolai and Jill's dog Sugar try to make friends.

Mass Start of the Akiak Dash on Sat.  50 mile race.

Bethel Warrior Basketball - Elliot takes a shot.

Night 2: Race Changes

All the mushers go into any race with a plan – sort of.  Rohn’s plan was to try to repeat his successful plan from last year.  It worked then, who’s to think it wouldn’t work again.  Different year, different dog team, different field of mushers. 

Rohn has run an amazing race.  He’s worked so hard this year to do his own thing to manage his satellite kennel at his cabin.  Just thinking about going around those 300 miles, staying awake in the very cold and taking care of dogs is mind-boggling. Interviews with teams coming into Tuluksak (50 miles from the finish) report about every kind of challenging trail – cold wind in your face on the way out, blowing snow middle,  ground blizzard, and now it’s warming up.   Fastest 300 miles in sled dog racing.

Looks like Martin is mushing in a little bubble with no one right in front or in back of him.  I know his sights are clearly fixed on Nome.  We are wondering if his good friend Caribou is still in the team.

Almost over now!!  Early/late afternoon finishes for our guys.  Hooray, soon to be one more race in the history books.

Oh ~ Bethel basketball report:   Bethel warriors handily defeated Barrow by 48 points.  Carly Roemer scored 7 3point shots!!!!!!!  Elliot and Taylor played really well once again.

Night 1 on the Kuskokwim River

While Rohn was speeding down the trail, the Bethel Warriors were dismantling the Barrow Whalers in basketball ending the game with an 80 to 41 victory.  Bethel has beat Barrow only once in the last 18 years so it was fairly momentous.  Elliot played one of his best games ever and Taylor and Carly were right on the mark as well.  From the start line to the fireworks to the basketball court – busy night in Bethel.

So starting from Jeff’s house was a little confusing to the spectators but not so much to Rohn and Martin.  Nikolai rode down on the snowmachine with Rohn and the team. They did have to negotiate the parking lot of cars on the river but made it into the starting chute on time.  The tense moment was the transition of the entire gangline from snogo to sled. 

Rohn got off right on time, shooting up a rooster tail of snow behind him.(from him on the drag holding the dog team from going too fast.)

Martin came to the starting line out of nowhere.  I’m still not sure how he got there.  Jeff and Nikolai were waiting for him at the far end of the parking lot to help direct him.  All of a sudden here comes Martin and Jeff on the snow machine with a quick change over to sled and off they went.  Nikolai came running up a minute or two later saying he hadn’t seen his Dad, where was he?  We pointed to the chute and the outgoing trail and Martin had since zoomed away.

The race is blazing along at fairly typical Kusko pace.  A head wind going up river, some blowing snow and below zero.  There should be a warming trend today, already 15 in Bethel and not much wind.  This race always throws down the unexpected so stay tuned.

K300 and its Unique START

The K300 is a racer’s race – rules are basic, support is generous and common sense is applied whenever it’s needed. 

It’s Unique Start begins by how the starting order is determined.  The mushers actually choose their start number and they do that based on when they paid their entry fee.  So since Ken Anderson signed up first he could pick any start position between 1-21.  He chose 1.  Rohn and Martin were 3^rd and 4^th to get their entry fee in so Rohn chose #4 because that was his start number last year.  Martin chose 20 (Paul Gebhardt had already chosen 21.)   Martin’s reasoning has to do with timing and being able to know exactly where he is in relation to other mushers. 

Teams begin the race by twos.  There are two start chutes so #1 and #2 leave at exactly 6:30 and so on. 

This year Martin and Rohn will actually hook up at Jeff’s house.  Each team will be attached to a snow machine.  It’s about a 3 minute run down to the start line on the river.  They have made the run when they trained here this week.  The sleds will be at the Start Line and they will make a quick stop and switch attachments from snow machine to sled and be gone.   That’s the plan anyway.  Since Martin is starting last he has a bit more play with the timing and hope to almost cruise straight through the Start line.  Rohn will probably get to the start a bit early since he has lots of teams starting after him.

Tomorrow will be to checking and double checking gear, resting and relaxing. 

Enjoying BETHEL, Waiting for the Start Friday

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We are in Bethel preparing for the start of the Kuskokwim 300 race.  Rohn and Martin will be racing again.  Uncommonly calm and clear weather for the last few days here but predicted to drop to -30 with the wind chill tomorrow.  Then warming up again at bit.

Food drops went to airport today.  Dogs had their Vet check yesterday.  Musher meeting right now.  Selection of starting numbers later today. 

The community is so supportive of every aspect of this race and it feels so good to be here!

ADJUST and REGROUP

After a very rainy weekend with no possible passable trails, there's been a change of plans.  Studying the forecasts all over the state it appears that Bethel might be the place to be a little sooner than planned.  Some juggling of flights and tickets is making it possible for the teams to fly out today.  Martin and Rohn will fly out with 30 dogs and be able to do at least two training runs before the KUSKO 300 start on Friday night at 6:00 pm.

Brown is not supposed to be this season's color.  A friend in Anchorage even reported seeing pussy willow buds.  YIKES!   Here's what it looks like around here: