We love this guy! I’ll just say it– His relaxed way and kind dog care has really made us his fans! He fits in just perfectly with the Kaiser program.
About 30 minutes behind Pete and the Team, Niklas Wikstrand arrived into the Knik Checkpoint, just before dark.
The Willow 300 is really a different sort of race in many ways, but one big difference is in what each musher can do and what help they can have during the race. Niklas is using the Willow 300 as an Iditarod qualifying race, so he cannot have any help at checkpoints. Pete, since he isn’t using the race as a qualifier, can have help at the checkpoints.
Unfortunately for Nik and some of the other later arriving mushers, the facilities ran out of hot water just after the first Teams arrived, so he had to heat his water to cook his dog food. In his quite, calm way, though, it didn’t bother him a bit and he completed his chores in short order and it was off to the restuarant for his own large order of a Cheeseburger and fries.
After Pete and the Team were off on the trail, Nik began to ready his Team as well. I teased him and asked him if he was teaching his Team Norwegian- “Yah” was his answer, “they seem to understand me.” As I listened as he bootied the Team, indeed he was speaking to them in Norwegian. As Nik gently worked with the dogs and speaking to them, the Team was definitely responding. I then teased Ron, “Hey- We’ve got a bilingual Team now” We all chuckled, but I for one think Nik has something here…
As his 3 hour break came to an end, Team Kaiser sprang into barks and howls, lunging at the gangline- Ready to Go. Nik grabbed the hook, signed out with the Checker and off the made onto the trail. 65 miles to go until the next Checkpoint.
We won’t see them again in person until the Sheep Creek Lodge Checkpoint late tomorrow. Go Team Kaiser!
