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By Gwen Holdman
I just got back to Nome from White Mountain. I got to spend about 1-1/2 hours hanging out with Ken, hearing about his race. He seems to be doing really well, although he is not sure he can hang with Ramey Smyth, who had a faster time than he did coming into White Mountain and specializes in strong finishing kicks.
Martin Buser and Hans Gatt are also nipping on his heels. Luckily, there is a bit of a gap between these four teams and the following trio of Mitch Seavey, Kjetil and Paul Gebhardt.
Ken’s dogs looked solid coming in, and they all ate very well. They looked perky and alert, and all had decent weight on them except Surya and Ochocco, who were a bit thin. Ken cooked up a big meal for them of beef, beef fat, and salmon mixed with Redpaw kibble, and they ate everything he had.
He said he had very few physical problems with the dogs, although he did take the time to massage all their feet and some wrists as well. Just as I had to leave, he made the decision to drop Kinga. He was thinking originally about keeping her in the team for sentimental reasons, since she has become sort of a kennel matriarch with 3 of her pups in this team, and 16 more at home from 3 litters that are all doing really well. But this is not the time to be sentimental, and I think he realized that and decided to drop her. I don’t think he was planning to drop anyone else, but he did disassemble the back end of his sit-down sled and sent it ahead to Nome with me.
As he told me from Koyuk last night, he was running Okayo and Jango, the two sisters who also led most of the way in the Yukon Quest, in lead.
Ken will be able to leave just before midnight tonight. I’m sure it will be a long night for all the teams, between struggling to stay awake and trying to keep tabs on one another without giving away their own positions. I am sure they will try to run with their headlamps off as much as possible, but it overcast and dark here in Nome tonight and they will need to use their headlamps from time to time to make sure they are on the right trail.
Ken’s GPS tracker has been fixed – and the mystery of its malfunction solved. Apparently, went he switch sleds in McGrath, he threw the tracker into a bag along with his scoop and various other paraphernalia which blocked the signal. They remounted the device in Koyuk, and so it seems to be working properly now.
I’d like to see Ken come in third, but if he doesn’t I’d like to see Ramey take it. Ramey’s best finish before now is 4th place, and like Ken he is an up-and-coming young competitor and someone we have a lot of respect for. I would really like to see Ken beat Martin, though. Ken mentioned Martin was not to pleasant during the race despite his façade of jolliness, and he directed a pretty rude comment at me while in White Mountain which really took me by surprise. I don’t think its personnal, he is just grumpy because he is unhappy with how his race has turned out.
Hans Gatt, on the other hand, is another competitor we respect highly, and while he has won the Yukon Quest three times in the past, he has struggled somewhat in the Iditarod. This time it looks like he will finish in the top 10 for the first time, and I like seeing new names up there. Hans is a real student of the sport who has participated in many race formats, like us. He has excelled at sprint and particularly stage racing before moving on to distance.
Ken’s Mom and Dad are stuck in Anchorage with standby tickets, so I guess it’s a good thing I made it out of White Mountain tonight. They are going to get in at about 9:15 a.m. Friday – which is pushing it a bit to see Ken’s finish. I am going to try to get up for Lance’s 3 a.m. finish, and then start to get things ready for Ken’s arrival around 10am tomorrow morning.
I am not allowed to enter the dog yard or sort through the supplies we sent to Nome until after Ken leaves White Mountain, which is at midnight. So I think the igloos will be foregone this year. I had hoped to get things ready at a reasonable hour tonight, but rules are rules.
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