Racing Beringia

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Snow, or no snow, no time for sitting around. Timofei is to get ready to run some races: Nadezhda in Chukotka come April and the big races of Alaska in the next couple of years. So, only minutes ago Timofei, Joar and Co took off, two dog teams blazing down the trail for a run!

(2 of 2) From the K300 Trail: According to Joar these two movies are from some of the better less wet section of the race trail -- he did not dare to try capturing elsewhere as he was too afraid to not be able to hang on and not loose the camera!

(1 of 2) From the K300 Trail: According to Joar these two movies are from some of the better less wet section of the race trail -- he did not dare to try capturing elsewhere as he was too afraid to not be able to hang on and not loose the camera!

Would somewhat cement 9-time Kuskokwim Champion (and 4-time Iditarod Champion) Jeff King's statement before the race that this maybe was "one of the most competitive fields in the history of sled dog sports."

Joar is asleep. The dogs are curled up in deep beds of straw, all cozy with their jackets on, bellies full of salmon steaks, beef cubes, lamb fat  and fish soup. I swear they are all snoring in-sync, as if still one unit, moving down the trail. Britt and Joar (the dog) pulled Willy, Sokk, Kjell, Leah and Jesus across the finish line of the  at 11:09 this morning taking 5th place in the 2014 Kuskokwim 300 race. What a race that was. When 2011 Champion Paul Gebhard, who napped the 4th place ahead of Joar, was asked by a journalist what was the most challenging part of the race this year--he answered with no hesitation: "Water.. water, water, water. I have seen my fair share of water in this and other races before, but never anything like this!" When I asked Joar about it, the answer is first a blank stare, followed by.. yes, that was really brutal, like nothing I have ever seen before." Joar was explaining how his dogs were running off trail and up the banks to avoid it, and he would have to walk out and bring them back out on the ice time after time. The bright side: this race was greeeeat training for the Iditarod or any wet race in the future that is! Jeff King, the extreme race veteran that he is, said he has seen it like this before but he too was challenged, not least as it was combined with glare ice, loss of trail markers, and his team then slipping mercilessly into a tangled ball of quickly frozen rope and clips -- taking him more than 10 minutes to get back on track, at a time where he was ahead of Rohn. Rohn slipped by then, and once Jeff was back on the chase, he was never able to regain the lead. Slippery, wet, ice, chaos. Joar eyes were closing as he was trying to tell of events from the trail, but those four words he kept mumbling as he slipped into deep sleep.  Joar has slept about 1 hour and 45 minutes since Friday afternoon at 3 when he woke up from the his pre-race nap. Besides recounting just how wrong the start went for him; there was him twice being passed by and catching a driver-less team -- which turned out to be the team of Mike Williams Sr; Joar finally was able to anchor the team, and Mike Williams Sr was brought up to the team getting a kind ride by Martin Buser on his sled. Then he talked about his pride in his team. This is one honest group of dogs. They just kept giving. Joar was running for the front-end the entire race, and dogs kept stepping up, keeping and excelling the extremely high pace needed to stay in the top-five of the race, although he was in every checkpoint taking out and leaving (super) dogs that he felt were not to benefit in the big picture of the racing season from continuing this race. Toughest was probably leaving Sivo at the halfway checkpoint in Aniak. She was screaming to continue on, and Joar had no doubt he would miss her, not least her incredible racing head come end of any race. By his departure from the last check-point, Tuluksak, it was only three of his Iditarod veterans: Leah, Britt and Jesus running with a bunch of youngsters. Joar knew it would be an uphill battle to keep "Cim the Closer" behind him, as well as Jake Berkowitz and his impressive freigt-train of 14-strong dogs. Despite Joar (the dog) screaming to go (just like his Mom Sivo will do) once Tuluksak was in the distance behind the team, Joar said Cim & Co indeed flew by and without Sivo he had no way to latch on to him.. but he was so incredibly pleased the dogs just kept at it keeping everyone else behind him and being happy at it. Joar (the dog) impressed hugely, once again, being in lead the entire 300 miles -- like he led all of Knik 200 a few weeks ago. Exciting, exciting, for what's ahead next as we continue down the trails around the Beringia! Tomorrow will be the banquet!

Only 7 minutes seperated the two front runners -- and frankly, both teams looked spectacular and in great shape at the finish line. No doubt, these are teams to watch this season. King is, with 9 past Kuskokwim 300 victories, the king of this race without a doubt; yes, he took second, but it was in the margins... It was a challenging race with a slippery, wet trail made tough by the extremely warm conditions that had teams sweating it out -- however, these two teams floated above it all, screaming down the trail throughout the 300 miles. King's dogs clocked +14 mph speeds on the home stretch. That is seriously impressive. Rohn Buser needed serious racing spine to not be intimidated by the competition: and he did indeed manage to keep cool and even pull away a bit at the very end. Rohn is now a 2-time Champion of this race, in five runs that is.