Update: As of 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24, all but one of the field of 23 mushers had checked into the Aniak checkpoint. The majority opted to finish off their mandatory six hours of rest before heading back down the trail, where they will be required to take a mandatory four-hour rest in Tuluskak before the final 50-mile push back to Bethel.
Five mushers – Mike Williams Jr., Travis Beals, Cody Strathe, Lauro Eklund, and Aaron Peck – had already jumped back on the trail. All but Mike Williams Jr. will need to complete their required rest in Kalskag. Peck is racing with just 8 dogs on his team after deciding to drop four dogs in Kalskag on the way upriver.
Mike Williams Jr. led the pack early on in the 47th annual running of the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race (K300). He reached the halfway point at Aniak just before 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Williams Jr.’s first order of business was feeding his 11 dogs sloppy ladlefuls of kibble with beef and turkey skin. He also made the tough choice to drop one of his dogs, Toby, before heading into the local community center for a four-hour rest.
In the musher’s meeting held in Bethel the day before the race, Williams Jr. said that he was expecting a “super nice” trail all around. But after arriving in Aniak, his impressions had shifted.
“There was a lot of punchy sections, and [I] came across a little bit of wind on the way up. Other than that, the trail is pretty good,” Williams Jr. said.
Williams Jr. was followed close behind by last year’s Rookie of the Year, Emily Robinson, and longtime K300 musher Jessica Klejka. Both of the mushers took two hours of rest in Kalskag on the race upriver, and both told checkers in Aniak that they would be taking four hours of rest at the community center.
In addition to the distinction of being first to Aniak, Williams Jr. also clocked the fastest elapsed time from the start line in Bethel to Kalskag. But he said that the race had only begun.
“The race is on the way back, and there's some strong looking teams here, and this is a competitive race,” Williams Jr. said. “I ain't gonna get my hopes up too high, because there's a lot of trail for them to make up time, but we'll see. I like how my team looks.”
According to race veteran Richie Diehl of Aniak, the way back to Kalskag, passing through the notorious Whitefish Lake Loop, could present new challenges.
“When I snowmachined from Kalskag this morning, I stopped a few times, jumped on [it], and I was like, ‘This is gonna be a great trail,'" Diehl said. "And then I got home, started looking at the tracker, and everybody's doing 7 to 8 and a half miles an hour. And I was like, I expected that to be a 10 to 10 and a half mile trail. So, I mean, so it really makes me wonder what might happen around Whitefish here.”
Keep up with the race action by tuning in to KYUK 640AM for trail updates six minutes after the hour, every hour. The K300 Race Committee will be livestreaming the finish, and KYUK will be carrying the livestream and posting updates regularly to our website, Facebook, and Instagram pages. You can follow teams on the race’s online GPS tracker, which will also be pinned to the top of KYUK’s web page.
