2016 Kuskokwim 300 Champion – Peter Kaiser
After the long weekend of racing and excitement, Mushers, Families, Sponsors, Host Families, Volunteers, and a good crowd of folks met to break bread together and listen to the stories from the trail. It was a hard fought battle this year with many comments from the Mushers including, “Worst I’ve ever seen” or many other adjectives. The Kuskokwim 300 is world renowned as being a tough race. As Pete said in his pre-race interview, “After you have prepared for the K300, you may as well run the Iditarod because you are already trained well enough to do the race.”
Pete received $25,000 for his win and a beautiful trophy made by his dad, Ron Kaiser. Ron makes the trophies every year and the last two have been extra special for him because they go to his son. Over the years Ron has created some real pieces of artwork and this year was no exception.
Now that the banquet is over, the airport is bustling with mushers, handlers, and dogs leaving on planes to bring mushers back to their home dog yards to prepare for the next challenge. For Pete and the Team, it is off to Kaiser Kennel North, a new training yard that he now has in the Nenana area. After several years of really bad training weather, he knew that he would have to make arrangements to keep training even when the weather was poor. Last year he was lucky enough to have a place with Aaron Burmester, but he decided that a more permanent place was needed and Kaiser Kennel North was borne.
Next up for the Team is the Iditarod in a month and a half or so. We will keep you posted. Go Team Kaiser!
