Three teams will compete in the 2017 Nome-Council 200 sled dog race this weekend.
Competitors include Bib #1, Janet Balice, and Bib #2, Stephanie Johnson, both of Nome, in addition to Bib #3, Bridgett Watkins, formerly of Nome, who will be running a team of dogs from the kennels of Iditarod competitors Aliy Zirkle and Allen Moore.
Volunteer Race Director and Race Marshall Sue Steinacher says the race has gone through minor changes over the years, from layover lengths to a checkpoint in Topkok. But this year, “they’re going to follow the Iditarod trail. They follow it down the coast, past the Topkok shelter cabin, up the hills. And then, they go up and down the Topkok hills, and where you would normally turn right onto the Fish River and go a few miles to White Mountain, instead, there, you actually turn left — and you go about another twenty miles up the Fish, both inland and over to the Niyukluk, until you finish at Council.”
Once the mushers arrive in Council, they will have a mandatory eight-hour layover before returning back to the finish line. It’s an estimated 80-85 miles in each direction.
The race is put on by the Nome Kennel Club and has been for years. Steinacher shares more about its history. “It dates back to about the mid-1980s, when Ray Lang was here, and a very active musher and good at promoting things, and got this race started. There were also a lot more dog teams here back then.”
Fewer dog teams in Nome and nearby almost resulted in the cancellation of this year’s race, until one final musher, Janet Balice, rounded out the competitors to a total of three, just one hour before the deadline.
Waiting at the finish line for the three mushers is a minimum purse of $3,000, which is being recalculated from paying out to a previously-anticipated top 5 finishers. First place will receive at least $1,000. There’s also a prize for the first team to Council, titled the “Golden Canine Halfway Award,” a golden-casted wolf/wolverine pendant donated by Dan Stang. And an additional contingency prize of a half-ounce of gold was put up by Nikolai Ivanoff.
There are many moving parts to putting on a race. Volunteers and trackers will be on the trail this year, and Dan Stang will host the teams for the halfway point in Council. Steinacher says there will also be plane support. “We’ve got several pilots that have offered, so, they’ll be flying in drop bags of dog food and gear for the mushers. They’re each entitled to 50 pounds of drop (bags). Much like the Iditarod, there’s a mandatory gear list of things they must have in their sled: a certain amount of food, a way to cook, a way to support their team on the trail if they, say, didn’t make it to Council. But, you know, Dan’s going to have a big pot of muskox stew on for them when they get there and offer everyone a warm place to sleep, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The 2017 Nome-Council 200 Sled Dog Race will begin with a mass start of the three teams tomorrow, Saturday, March 24th, at 10 a.m. at the end of the snow dump road, off Greg Kruschek Avenue, in Nome.
