Deep in the hours of midnight, when the rest of us were warm in our beds, Paul and our team crossed the finish line in the 300-mile "Kusko" race held in western Alaska.  His race was particularly satisfying, given that he made the challenging out -and -back course with 13 of the 14 dogs he had started the race with on Friday night.   (He had dropped one small female named Rosco when her wrist became sore.) 

Paul's goal when he entered the race was with the focus on providing the team with the unique training this highly competitive race affords.  His 7^th place finish was flanked by 6^th and 8^th place by the teams of Martin Buser and Jeff King, respectively, which speaks to the caliber of competition.  The tales of the trail that he has to tell now that he and the dogs are safely back in the village of Bethel, speak towards the challenges this particular race is notorious for.

Not unlike our area of Alaska back at home here on the Kenai Peninsula, the Yukon -Kuskokwim River delta where the "Kusko 300" race is run was slammed with some ill-suited winter weather.  All day Sunday, it poured rain here and coupled with high winds and abnormally warm temperatures, the region where Paul was racing endured equally severe weather.  All the gorgeous snow that had blanket the ground rapidly disappeared, and since this race course primarily follows the path of the Kuskowim River, the melt-off and rain channeled right onto their race trail.  Paul described a midnight run that had him wallowing in thigh-deep overflow, of seeing trail markers floating past him in the water, of loosing the trail like many of his fellow competitors did, and of his sled bobbing and floating like a convoluted life raft.  He said he was VERY thankful to make it safely to the finish line - describing the conditions which still had one musher narrowly unaccounted for after many hours of being lost in the dark off the trail.

He spoke highly of the efforts of the volunteers to try to do what they could to remedy what Mother Nature had undone. As a volunteer himself in the local Tustumena race, which is just around the corner, he could appreciate how frustrating it had to be for these area residents to have put the effort into making the trail before the race, only to have it decimated by weather. Then to compound their frustrations, he noted that over 30 snowmachines  were lost to the elements when they went back out to try and fix things, and ended up mired in the water and slush.

He described the piece of wood, gnawed to a spear-like point on the end by a resident beaver, that hooked the bottom of his sled and narrowly missed impaling its self into his belly.  "Fortunately " he said, it "only broke the back of my sled off". Now if THAT isn't an optimist talking, I don't know what is! The damaged sled put Paul off schedule from where he originally planned to be, but he took it all in stride, visiting with media and villagers during his unscheduled rest and repair work.  One such contact surprised me with an email hot off the trail, complete with a photo of the sled damage and some video of the team coming into a checkpoint. (video of Paul pulling into Aniak at http://feyer.freeshell.org/iditarodblog.html)  I had not known of a special award Paul had won, but through this message - I was treated to a shot of Paul on his runners next to a large banner proclaiming his title. (you can view this at http//www.k300.org/ and scroll down the home page)

I can't say Paul was relaxed in his run with this year's Kusko, but he was focused on providing the team with a training opportunity as I mentioned earlier.  The day he was leaving for the race, he was interviewed by a reporter about his upcoming run, and he highlighted several key elements as to why he would go through the trouble of going all the way out to remote western Alaska to run this notoriously wicked race.  One of the key  reasons was due to the topography.  The bulk of Paul's training is done in the hills and the area around our Kasilof home.  We live in a heavily forested area, and even in the upper elevations, the trails leading to the area are tree-lined and consequently, well-defined.   As he pointed out to the reporter, a large portion of the Iditarod is run on rivers, or open tundra.  The only way he can expose the team to this "vastness" prior to the Iditarod, is through this mid distance race. On this trail, the leaders learn to find the race trail, and to distinguish it from the many other paths laid down by the hundreds of snowmachines that lay tracks between the villages on Alaska's frozen version of the expressway. They experience the open landscape and the absence of trees as they travel on the river. He noted that in some areas, the Yukon River is a mile wide, and the open country of the Bering Sea coastline can be equally intimidating to an inexperienced team.  The article, which published the same day Paul left the starting line in 1^st place (see http://www.adn.com/ "Training on Gebhardt's mind" by Kevin Klott 1-18-08) captured a great deal of what I overheard Paul saying about the trail, of the competition and of the weather that often plagues the race.  But I did notice that it couldn't do justice to what I heard Paul saying about the people of the area.

I wish the residents of the Bethel area, as well as the Kotzebue/ Kobuk areas could have heard the compliments Paul payed towards their hospitality.  He noted how these communities really step up and make the mushers feel very welcome when the Kusko and Kobuk 440 races are held.  He talked about all the volunteers and the way the people open their homes to the mushers to host them, and how it is obvious that these races are an important cultural and social event for the communities.  Just making it to the starting line of either of these two races (the Kobuk 440 is held post-Iditarod in April) is a huge logistical undertaking.  But for Paul, the benefits to the foundation he is giving the team, and the great community support, are well worth it.

I will highlight something that Mr. Klott's article did elude to - the fact that Paul has historically had very strong runs on the "river" portion of the Iditarod.  He pointed to Paul's gambling strategy in the 2006 race that propelled him to 3^rd place, and the pivotal move in last year's Iditarod that gave way to an incredible race to watch as Paul and Lance Mackey marched up the river and the coast and all the way to Nome ahead of the rest of the competition.

Paul completed the Kusko with the most dogs of any musher crossing the finish line hands down.  He was thoroughly jazzed by this prospect, and was eagerly quizzing me about the status of the rest of the dogs in my care back home here at the kennel.  The next step will be a 100-mile trek that our helper, Tyler, will be taking with some of these athletes in the Tustumena 100 this weekend.  Paul serves as the volunteer race marshal for this Iditarod qualifier, so he won't race it.  The main competitive mushers, including no less than 3 past Iditarod champions, are racing in a different division, so it won't be cause for conflict to have Tyler running our dogs in  a race.

Once this is wrapped up, it is 100% countdown to Iditarod time!  Food drops are already underway, and the cuts are going to be made to which dogs will stay in training, and which ones definitely will not make the team this year. Paul will shift his training to how many miles, down to calculating "how many more runs" he will squeeze in before the 1^st Saturday in March is upon us.

Tentatively, The Crossing Restaurant at the Kenai River Bridge in Soldotna is hosting a send-off event for us on February 10^th. It will be a casual affair including an auction and most certainly, some good trail stories from Paul.  Let me know if you think you may attend!  This is planned to be a free burger buffet event, so we would like to keep a tab on head count if possible.  Plan to bring a can or two of non-perishable food for the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank! I will send more information once we all get through the busy race weekend ahead.

For now, I need to finally catch some sleep.  With Paul and Tyler both in Bethel, I have my hands full with all the remaining kennel chores before and after work each day. 

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