Running the grueling Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race makes for both hungry dogs and mushers.
With the race starting Friday, Jan. 17, volunteer cooks are gathering supplies and getting ready to feed dozens of competitors down the trail. Their goal is to make sure that the humans have all the energy they need to care for the dogs.
Bethel resident Rachelle White started volunteering as a checkpoint cook three years ago. Race organizers needed somebody in a hurry.
“They were saying, ‘We need someone to cook in Tuluksak! Can someone please cook in Tuluksak?’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah! We can do that. No big deal,’” she said.
It’s not a simple task, though, even for experienced cooks like White and her husband, Bob. The first year, they only had six drinking glasses, which they washed over and over to keep up with demand. Last winter, they ran short on eggs after hauling them from Bethel to Tuluksak on a bumpy snowmachine trail.
“The container had cracked and the eggs had cracked,” said White. “So it’s always an adventure, but we have been figuring it out and perfecting it.”
According to fellow Tuluksak volunteer Twyla Elhardt of Bethel, the cooks make everything from scratch, from breakfast burritos and baked chicken to cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies.
That’s tricky to do on a tight schedule, but she said that mushers deserve some hot, homemade food. Especially on their second stop in Tuluksak, when they’re preparing for the final leg of the race.
“You see this progressive disorientation and exhaustion,” said Elhardt. “Their hair gets crazier, their faces are redder. But across the board, they’re just so grateful, so excited, to have food.”
The cooks are glad they can help. Elhardt said that keeping mushers well-fed lets them focus on their most important job: looking after the sled dogs.
“The first thing, when a musher stops, is they take care of their dogs,” she said. “So when they come in, I think it’s really special to get to take care of them.”
At this year’s K300, the Tuluksak cooks are planning to offer an even bigger and better menu. Mushers have requested more Native and subsistence foods, so they’re packing up plenty of moose and salmon before they head to the checkpoint.