With the thermometer plunging to nearly -30 below for yet another night here at the kennel, it is the kind of weather that makes me want to curl up by the fireplace.  It certainly isn’t the kind of weather I would personally choose to spend say… 24-30 hours outdoors in.  Hence, we once again see why Paul is the musher in the family and not ME!  Because as I write this update, Paul along with our handler Kristi and 38 other mushers, are all attending a pre-race musher’s meeting for tomorrow’s Knik 200 Sled Dog Race.

This is the first of our season’s mid distance tune ups as we head into the final phase of training for the 2009 Iditarod.  The Knik 200 is a race that Paul specifically selected as part of our team’s training due to the actual trail that the race covers.  Although it does cross some of the same territory as the first leg of the actual Iditarod trail, it is primarily the “river” running that piqued Paul’s interest in the Knik 200.  The race starts on the edge of Knik Lake, and goes out and back to the remote, Skwentna Roadhouse.  Although there are some benign hills, much of the trail just winds through rolling birch forest and on the frozen surface of the river there. Since we do not have this type of terrain for our normal training here on the Kenai Peninsula, and the fact that a great deal of the Iditarod Trail involves travel on river and wide open spaces, Paul feels it is a good opportunity to expose the dogs to this environment.

Although the race has a maximum allowable number of dogs per team capped at the same as the Iditarod – sixteen – Paul won’t have quite that large of a string in front of his team in the Knik 200 this year. Because he is focusing this as a training exercise, Paul will be running a team of 12 dogs.  However, this said, we will actually have significantly more dogs from our kennel running the race than that. As I mentioned, our handler, Kristi Berington, is also up at the race with Paul.  She will be coaching a team from our kennel, as will our friend and sponsor, Scott Janssen. This will be Scott’s racing debut, and he will be driving a pretty awesome team of 11 dogs that include several Iditarod veterans. 

With these three teams, plus those from our neighboring kennel driven by Dean Osmar and Kristi’s twin sister, Anna Berington, you have the makings for one very well organized camping trip for the lot of them. This is Paul’s intention, and although both Scott and Kristi are entirely responsible for the care of their teams during the race, he wants to be nearby to coach them if need be. With the “smaller” teams than some of the other mushers in the race may be driving, and the fact that Paul has some extra rest articulated into his schedule, I do not expect to see Paul as one of the top finishers in the Knik 200 this year.

He was concerned about the temperatures going into this race.  As I mentioned, the mercury has settled in around -30 tonight here, and the moon is just waxing into a thin crescent at this time. While they are likely to see some bright, bright stars in the midnight sky as they travel the 200 miles on the runners of their sleds, the mushers are going to have to be extremely diligent about watching their dogs for signs of frost bite or hypothermia.  To mitigate this, Paul has the special dog jackets packed along for every dog to wear.  The additional time spent camping on the trail will afford an extra opportunity to give the dogs more fluid to keep them hydrated, and by traveling together, Paul ‘s experienced eye can identify potential problems quickly.

It is always a challenge for the mushers themselves to keep warm in temperatures like these.  Unlike the dogs, who keep warmed up just by their running, the mushers are hunkered down on the back of the moving dog sled. (hmmm… dog sled with a windchill of say, -60 or crackling fireplace…where would I rather be… oh – forgive me, I digress!)  Really though, it is something that takes some consideration and planning to avoid frostbite and hypothermia themselves. They too need proper protection and hydration is equally as critical for the human athletes in this unforgiving environment. Sometimes even the best protection can’t stop this insidious cold.  The other night, Paul came in from a training run just out of the kennel here.  He had frozen a chunk of his face along the jaw bone. It is a section of skin that had previously been frozen in the Iditarod, and was probably pretty susceptible to the sub zero temperatures. As of the start of the race tomorrow, he will still be faced with this trauma to his skin.

In many ways though, that frost bite is not that big of deal compared to some of the other mushers.  Take for example our handler’s twin sister, Anna.  Just before Christmas, when the group of them were all out on a training run together, Anna lost her footing and someone managed to get her leg caught up with the heavy metal snow hook on the sled. The sharp point of the hook that is designed to bite into hard ice to stop the sled, gashed an eight inch swath out of poor Anna’s thigh. As it turned out, Paul took her to the hospital and was by the bedside as the doctor cared for the injury. Remarkably, it missed all of the muscle in her leg and after 28 stitches later “only” cut the tissue in her leg.  I hesitate to say tissue and fat, because those twins are such incredible athletes I would be hard pressed to find any fat on either one of them, but that is what Paul described it as.  Regardless, with the stitches barely out of her leg, Anna too will be navigating the runners in the Knik Race alongside Paul, Kristi and Scott.

I would anticipate that Scott will pretty much be bouncing off the walls tonight.  He had made the trip up to the starting line of this race to help Paul last year in the capacity of a handler. He was pretty jazzed then.  The fact that he will be leaving his position as the co-owner of Janssen Funeral Chapels behind when takes off as a bonafide musher in the race, is certainly a drastic change of pace. I think he will have a pretty good cheering squad though – which is a benefit to Paul, as he has some ready-made handlers to help out with getting the three strong teams to the starting chute.

And strong they certainly are… the other day, he and Kristi were hooking up two teams for a run out of the kennel here.  The team Paul had was tied off to his big heavy snowmachine.  Evidently, Kristi asked Paul what he planned to tie off to next time – as the dogs drug Paul and sled and snowmachine right out of the yard.  Her team had every intention of trying to do the same with their anchor.  I have literally seen the team pull the big dog truck when they are trying to take off. Knowing how excited the dogs will be at the starting line tomorrow, I can’t say I completely envy the crew’s cheering squad/ handling team.

I will be sending another update as this race progresses.  The Knik 200 is notoriously horrible in terms of the coverage that is, or shall I say “isn’t” available on the website. Granted, we all get pretty spoiled with the real-time coverage that the Iditarod spoon-feeds us, and races like the Knik are run purely by dedicated volunteers. So don’t take my comments as derogatory towards the efforts – just don’t get your hopes up for updates that are of a caliber you may have grown accustomed to with some of the other events Paul has raced. As much as I can, I will keep you abreast of their progress.  If you want to try and peek in to see what is happening outside of my updates, you can log on to the Knik 200 Sled Dog Race updates at :

http://www.members.tripod.com/knik200/

Until later - Life is a journey, enjoy the ride! Evy