Along the Trail '95

Getting to the Iditarod this year seemed to be a challenge. A few short weeks before the start of this years race most of my team came down with a what we thought was a kennel cough virus, but actually turned out to be a bacteria that is associated with the virus. After figuring out the problem and putting the dogs on a regimented schedule of antibiotics prescribed by our vet, we were able to get the dogs healthy and back in training in time to be in proper condition for the race. Then a series of incidents happened before the race which made me feel fortunate to just make it to the race. First, on Valentines Day, I had a nightmare training run, where my trail that follows a road near our house had snow plowed onto it, and before I was able to do anything my dogs were dragging me down the middle of the road with cars going by and no way to stop. After several cars passed by a couple of young boys stopped and helped me get off the road and back onto the trail system. For the next thirty miles I had a fairly smooth run, but that changed real quick. On the return home, while running up the Chena River, a cow moose charged from behind and ran along side of my dog team for about fifty feet or so until she finally decided that we weren't going to bother her. Then less than a mile farther down the trail I had dog get tangled and stopped to get the dog untangled so that it wouldn't get hurt. That wasn't so bad, but when we took off, the sled hit a bump throwing it head on into a tree, crushing the brush bow. After that I didn't think any more bad luck could happen, and it didn't till we headed for Anchorage a few days before the '95 Iditarod.

Three days before the start of the race, after we got done with the vet check on Wednesday, I headed out for one last tune up run in Willow. Everything went fine until about a mile from the end when another cow moose jumped out from behind a spruce tree and proceeded to stomp her way through my team. Then she stopped part way through the team snorting and pawing the ground while standing over a couple of my best dogs. Desperately thinking of a way to get the dogs out of harms way, I did the unthinkable for a musher, I let go of my sled and called the dogs up to get them moving again to get them out from under the angry moose. As the dogs surged forward, the moose was struck by the sled making her more angry, and as she recovered from the shock of being struck, she started to chase down the team, while I watched my team in horror. To distract the moose, I started to yell at her, causing her to spin around and start charging at me full speed. Fortunately before I let the dogs go, I was able to grab my .357 Magnum from the sled. With only fifteen feet between the moose and I, the space between us started to close rapidly. I begin firing the gun at her as fast as I could squeeze the trigger, I seriously began to doubt that she was going to stop. After about the fourth shell was fired I began to frantically look for a place to jump, out of her may. With about three feet between us as I fired the sixth and final shot into her, she fell at my feet. I stood there for a few seconds in shock, before racing down the trail to catch my team, frantic that I had some serious injuries from the moose stomping on them. When I was able to catch them as they came down a switch back in the trail, I was not able to find any serious injuries with a cursory check over. With only a half mile left in the run, we finished and got the dogs unhooked and loaded into the truck so we could rush them to a vet. Fortunately, there was a fellow Iditarod musher, Susan Whiton, who is a vet that lived near by and we were there within minutes of the attack. Susan was kind enough to thoroughly check my dogs over. It was a miracle, I had feared the worst, but we came out with one small cut and a few scraped noses. I felt fortunate to still have a team to run the Iditarod with.

With that behind us and a day to calm down, I spent the next day at the mandatory mushers meeting. At the meeting Bobby Lee, the Race Marshal, read over the rules. Karen Schmidt, the head vet, then talked about what her expectations were from both the mushers and her vet staff. Once Karen was done, Jack Nigamire, the race manager, did a brief over view of the trail and the expected trail conditions, to help ensure that racers would be prepared when we got out there. After all of the officials were done discussing the rules and expectations to the mushers, we had a chance to ask questions and voice any concerns that we had.

Later that night the start banquet was held at the Sulivan Sports Arena. Gene Gregory, the field manager for BP's Endicott field accompanied by Chuck Bowman, the CEO of BP America and his wife Lynn met my wife Cathy and I there. Anne Marie Holen the director of the Trampling Tobacco Project, also met us there for dinner. After the dinner was over and we finally got to draw for starting position, I drew number eighteen. It was a long, but enjoyable evening as we got to visit with the folks from BP and the Trampling Tabacco Project, both of whom are sponsors of ours.

The next day was spent rechecking gear and relaxing. We did make a stop by Will Millers house where he lent me his .44 Magnum, since I was still a little shook by the moose incident and wasn't sure if my .357 Magnum was big enough. Cathy, with the help of Aarron and John, a couple of friends that were helping us out tried to do most of the work so that I could get as much sleep as possible, before we actually got started.

The next morning we had to be to Fourth Ave. by around 6:00 A.M. for the ceremonial start in Anchorage. Aaron, John, and Will all met us there around seven. A little later, TJ Peterson and her dad Mike met us on the avenue. We had asked TJ, a junior musher and a friend of the families to ride on the second sled down the avenue. While we waited for the start around ten, we dropped the dogs, watered them, and got all of our gear out and ready to go. Around eight several of the people from Eagle Premium Pet Foods started to stop by to see if we needed any help and to let us know that when it was time to go to the line they would have several people there to help us. Eagle is one of my biggest sponsors. Since we leave the starting shoot at two or three minute intervals, I wouldn't leave until about 10:40. About nine-thirty, Chuck and Lynn Bowman came by to wish me luck. Just after ten, Mike Carter, who had bought the ride with me for the start of the race, showed up. Once we had him situated in the sled, we started to put booties and harnesses on the dogs in preparation to go to the line.

Just before it was time to go, officials came by and gave us the go-ahead to head for the start line. With all the excitement, it took all of the people we had to hold the dogs back as they lunged at the line to go. Then we were there for the count down, and as the announcer said "ten seconds," I headed for the sled. "5,4,3,2,1,GO!," the announcer said as the dogs surged forward, and we were off. Mike, would be getting off about six miles up the trail. Those first few miles went by fast. We caught and passed a couple of teams fairly quickly, visiting all the while. Once to the drop off point Mike got out of the sled and said thank you and good luck as we hurried down the trail.

On the way to Eagle River, the first checkpoint, time seemed to fly as TJ and I tried to hold the dogs back a little so that they wouldn't hurt themselves trying to go to fast from all of the excitement from the start of the race. The time on the first leg, didn't count because the start in down town Anchorage is just a ceremonial start, the real start wasn't until the next day in Wasilla. We talked a little as we went down the trail, and even though we were holding the dogs back, we still passed several slower teams.

Once we arrived in the Eagle River checkpoint, we got the dogs watered immediately to rehydrate them so they would be ready to go the next day at the restart. After the dogs were done drinking we got them loaded back into the truck and loaded all of our gear. TJ and her dad had to head back to Willow, but said they would see us first thing in the morning. One of my moms cousins Chuck Casper, who had come down to help us also said he would meet us in the morning at the restart. Aaron and John left and said they would meet us back at Tim Mundys house where we were staying. So then Cathy and I Got in the truck and headed for Tims house.

We didn't get far though before I realized that we didn't have any brakes. Then Cathy remembered that she had had some problems with them on the way from Anchorage. Fortunately there was a Johnson's tire and brake shop there that we drove into and were able to get them to work on the truck so we could get to the restart. So instead of relaxing and rechecking my gear like I had planned, we spent the afternoon in the brake shop. The guys there were real accommodating as I had to let the dogs out one at a time for some fresh air and a pee break. I had to walk sixteen dogs across their floor to get them outside.

Once we got to Tims I was a little behind schedule and didn't get to bed until around ten-thirty. We ordered some pizza and Cathy also cooked me a stake for a last meal before the race. Aaron and John were kind enough to do the last dog drop for me so that I could get as much sleep as possible.

The next morning we headed to the restart bright and early. It seemed like a zoo with all of the people walking around and all of the mushers doing their last minute checks of gear. About a couple hours before the start, officials started coming around to check dogs to make sure we didn't change any over the night. Then another group came around to make sure we had all of the required gear:ax, booties, sleeping bag, dogfood cooker, and promotional gear. Then it was time to go to the line again. Everything was hectic, but nothing went wrong and we made it there smoothly. The announcers announced who I was to the crowd and then started the countdown. Once we were off the thousands of fans lining the starting chute, waved and wished us well on our journey. TJ stayed on the second sled until the Knik checkpoint. Once there, I cut the line that had attached her sled to mine and said one last good-bye to Cathy before I was off.

Leaving Knik, felt like a big burden had just been lifted off of my shoulders. The events of the last week were behind me and now all I had to worry about was taking care of my dogs. One of the things that has to happen when you race is to be totally focused on the race, and I hadn't felt like I was doing that until that moment.

As day one wore on the sun rose higher in the sky and the temperature began to climb. After about three and a half hours I decided to look for a good stopping place to rest the dogs while the sun was still out. A little past Flathorn Lake, I stopped at a place where several other mushers were stopped. We stayed there for about 3 1/2 hours before heading out. The dogs were moving along pretty good and we slowly started to pass other mushers camped along the trail and teams that were moving just a little slower than us. We pulled into Yentna Station around 7:30 PM, but only stayed there a couple of minutes before heading on to Skwentna.

To my surprise we were the fourth team to arrive into Skwentna, 100 miles from Anchorage. I quickly started to do my chores and within about forty-five minutes had them done. With the dogs resting I went up to the Checkpoint and had some warm food that the people of Skwentna had prepared for us. I then tried to catch a little cat nap, about thirty minutes. Then it was time to go do chores again and get the next feeding for the dogs ready. After about four hours, I decided that it was time to go and bootied up the dogs and headed out. We got out of there around two thirty in the morning.

The run to Finger Lake seemed to take a lot longer than it actually did. We were there by 6:30 AM, and we were second into there. I decided to rest the dogs long there, until the sun went down that afternoon. It was a relaxing day there as mushers started arriving there a couple of hours later. Most of them stayed there and rested their teams during the heat of the day also. Many of us got the chance to visit and catch a nap.

On the way to Rainy Pass, I traveled with Bill Cotter and Doug Swingley. At that point I was keeping pretty good pace with them. It was a real pretty run as we passed through the Alaska Range towards Rainy Pass. Once there, I only stayed for little over an hour. I was about the fifth person out of there. I was moving along pretty good, but then I realized that I was on the wrong trail, going towards Ptarmigan Pass instead of Rainy Pass. I had my head lamp out and missed the correct trail, the dogs travel faster without the head lamp on. But I guess I learned a good lesson because I ended up traveling farther and ending up taking longer to get to Rohn than it should have. By the time that I got into Rohn I had fallen down to around fourteenth position.

The next run to Nikolai from Rohn is about 93 miles, so I stayed there for six hours to make sure that the dogs were ready for the long run. When we left Rohn around six that morning, the trail was pretty rough and Omega, one of my team dogs, hurt himself on some of the rough section of trail. I loaded him and gave him a ride for about 80 miles to Nikolai. We stopped once for about three hours on the way there and snacked the dogs and took a nap. Once we got to Nikolai, I decided to take my twenty-four hour layover, to give the dogs and myself a much needed rest. All of the front-runners headed farther up the trail before they took theirs. During the layover I walked the dogs several times so that they would not stiffen up. All of my dogs except for Omega looked ready to go on.

Once I left their though, Camaro started to show some soreness a few miles down the trail. I then loaded her up gave her a ride the rest of the way to McGrath. Once they got warmed up, we started to move right along, and passed several teams. Into McGrath, I left Camaro there and then headed onto Takotna were I planned to rest for about six hours. About half way there Tofty started to look a little tired, so I loaded her up and gave her a ride the rest of the way. When I got there, many of the front runners like Martin Buser, Bill Cotter, and DeeDee Jonrowe were still finishing up their layovers. I didn't leave when they did because I felt that I needed to give my dogs a little more rest. Leaving there, I left Tofty in the care of the vets, because I didn't feel that she was ready to go on.

When I left Takotna, I was in the group of mushers that was traveling just behind the front runners, like Linwood Feidler, Matt Deslernos, John Barron, and Kathy Swenson. We pretty much blew right through Ophir, because it is only twenty some miles from Takotna, and there was 90 more miles to go to get to Iditarod. About three hours from Ophir, I stopped and camped out for about four hours, while the sun was beating down on us. The next part of the run seemed like it lasted forever as we went up one hill and down another. Just as it was getting dark I started to see wires hanging across the trail, and ducked out of their way so I wouldn't get hit. They weren't actually there though, I was tired and hallucinating, that's what sleep depravation does to you sometimes. Not much farther down the trail, I broke a bolt on my sled and had to stop and fix it so I didn't do further damage to my sled. I saw Linwood and Kathy as they passed me. We pulled into Iditarod, just before midnight. Doug Swingley was just finishing his 24 hour layover, and was the first musher out of there. That was the last time that I saw most of the front pack until I arrived in Nome. I ended up staying about nine hours in Iditarod, before heading on to Shageluk. The dogs got some good rest there and I was able to repair my sled a little better. The temperature seemed to be dropping.

The run to Shageluk went pretty smoothly, and I only stopped once to snack the dogs. I saw Linwood, Kathy, and Matt on the way there, I had a little faster run and made it there just in front of them. We are required to take an eight hour layover on the Youkon, and I decided that I would take mine there. I tried to get some sleep but was unable to. When it came time to leave, after the layover, the temperature had dropped to around 30 below. The run to Anvik was fast, though it was a little chilly. I only stayed there long enough to sign in and out and then left for Grayling. I think it was around four in the morning when I got there. That run seemed longer as the temperature continued to drop and I was having trouble staying awake.

After getting the chores done and checking the dogs over with the vets, I headed into the community hall to warm up and fix some Buffalo Wings from Jaybirds Wingworld to get some warm food into me. Then I went back out and gave the dogs another meal and headed inside again to get some sleep. I guess I was able to get about an hour and a half of sleep, and then I was awake and couldn't sleep anymore because I was worried about oversleeping and staying to long in the checkpoint. I went about getting ready to go then and headed out after about six hours of rest for the dogs. I left October there because he had a swollen Achilles tendon, and I did not want him to injure it seriously by continuing on.

The next leg of the race up the Yukon River, seemed to go pretty good. The temperature slowly warmed that afternoon to around -15F to -20F. We pulled into Eagle Island just as it was getting dark. Matt pulled in not too long after I did and Linwood not to much later. By the time that I was done doing my chores the temperature had dropped to around -45F. The checkers were very nice there and had fixed some warm food for mushers there, so I ate that instead of the food that I had, it was starting to taste the same after six days into the race. I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep there, before heading out around four that morning. The thermometer that I was caring went to -45F, but the mercury was shrunk down into the small bulb at the bottom and it felt pretty darn cold out. As an added precaution for the dogs, I put dog coats on them.

That run to Kaltag and to Unalakleet were probably two of the coldest times I have ever spent on the back of a dog sled. It was plain miserable. We stopped every hour to give the dogs a warm snack to keep their hydration level and energy up so we could continue moving. We stayed a few hours in Kaltag, where I went and visited with one of the elders there in the village. It was a very pleasant visit, she told me that the villagers would like to be more involved in the race. I hope that is possible in the future. The temperature had risen during the afternoon in Kaltag but as we set out to Unalakleet late that afternoon, the temperatures plumeted again. My thermometer was bottomed out again and then we would go into colder pockets where it felt like it must have been -60F or colder. I think the dogs were as happy as I was to get to Unalakleet. We were fourteenth into there.

Matt and I were traveling pretty close from around Shageluk on and he was about 30 minutes behind me into Unalakleet. Mushers are allowed to warm up in the basement of the old gym there, there is also water and a place to sleep in there. While I was eating, the power went out. Pretty soon we heard somebody knocking on the wall, then they started saying "hey, hey is anybody out there." Then a minute or so later Matt staggered out of the bathroom, it was pith black in there and he didn't have his head lamp with him and couldn't find the door to get out. We all had a pretty good laugh over it. Later in Nome the officials that were in Unalakleet presented Matt with a yellow flash light so that he could find his way when he got lost. We stayed there for about five hours and then headed out for Shaktoolik.

The run to Shaktoolik is real pretty, as we run through the Blueberry Hills and then drop down out of them just about the time that the sun is setting. I carried a video camera with me for the official film crew on that section. The dogs seemed to do real good over that section also. The temperature seemed to stay a little warmer than -30F for the rest of the race, by then after the -40F to -60F it seemed warm. We stopped and snacked the dogs frequently though to make sure they had the energy and hydration to run.

It was the middle of the night when we left Shaktoolik to head across the ice to Koyuk. Matt left a little bit in front of me and I saw him every once in a while as I slowly caught up to him. The early morning hours seem to be the hardest to stay awake and I really had to fight to stay awake that night. It seems like it takes forever to get to Koyuk because you can see it for about 45 miles across the ice when its dark out and the villages lights are sparkling in the distance.

While we were in Koyuk, was when Swingley crossed the finish line. Not long after that we left there. I left Aspen there because he had a flew bug and wasn't feeling good. Dave Swatzky was slowly catching us and we didn't want to stay to long and have him pass us. My dogs were starting to really look good on the run to Elim, and I pulled into there about 45 minutes ahead of Matt. Sioned was limping on a sore wrist, so I dropped her leaving me with ten dogs. I only stayed there for about an hour, because the next checkpoint, White Mountain, had a mandatory eight hour layover, so we headed out. Everything would have been fine except that about an hour out of Elim I stopped to give the dogs a snack. It happened to be on an uphill and being tired I didn't really think about it. Well, I should have waited until we got over it because its simply harder to pull uphill, and with the dogs being tired they figured it was time to rest. Matt caught us up there and went on by. We ended up sitting there for about an hour, before we got moving again, and I ended up having to be the lead dog until we got to the top of the hill. The dogs figured that they didn't want to go unless I was up in front of them until we got over little McKinley. I worked up a pretty good sweat and had to stop in Golivin to put some dry socks on.

By the time that I reached White Mountain, Matt was two hours into his mandatory eight hour layover. Then Dave was less than an hour behind me. I was happy to just be there and I think that I learned a good lesson about stopping on an incline with tired dogs. I was pretty sore and tired and was able to get about three hours of sleep there. There was only 77 miles left to get to Nome, I was glad that it was almost over. We got out of there with a chance to hold on to fifteenth place, but I felt that wherever we finished I would be happy. It took Dave almost fifty miles before he caught and passed us. At least the wind wasn't blowing like it was last year through the Topkok hills. Last year the winds were around 60 miles per hour. They seemed to be picking up though when I went through, later after we finished, some of the later mushers said it was blowing pretty hard when they went through.

Dave, had already been through Safety by about twenty or so minutes, by the time that I got there, so I gave the dogs a short break and went and had a hot cup of coco before we went the last 22 miles to Nome. The last leg was a relaxing run as the pressure was off us, the next mushers were over eight hours behind us. It was a relief to cross the finish line in Nome, I was ready to see Cathy, though she wasn't able to meet me in Nome because she was nine months pregnant and couldn't fly. My total time was ten days fourteen hours and eight minutes, that was good enough for a sixteenth place finish. I had to wait in Nome almost a week for the awards ceremony, and then the next morning I got a call from Cathy to rush home, she was on her way to the hospital and it was time for the baby to come. I made it just in time for the birth of our daughter, Abigail Dawn.

Since the race I have had time to look at my times and think about the mistakes that I made this year. I think that I learned some good lessons this year and hope to improve next year to the top ten.