Category Archives: 2015

So many races, so little time 🙂 Here is his interview before he went down to the Start Line. Go Team Kaiser!

KYUK‘s Ben Matheson interviews Pete on his layover in Tuluksak.

From Tuluksak Checkpoint Facebook:

It’s getting pretty exciting down here at Team Kaiser Central. Pete and his Team have 7 short minutes to make up on the 50 mile section from Tuluksak.

In terms of a Finish Time, it is looking like an early morning, but maybe not as early as expected previously. My Guess #2 is now between 5:30am and 7am. Rohn can leave first at 12:31am followed closely by Pete and the Team at 12:38. Jackie Larson’s Team made the trek in just under 6 hours. I am not sure the speed difference between a Bogus Team and a K300 Team, but I would venture to guess that the K300 Teams may be a bit faster. Last year, Rohn made the trip in 5 hours, which would put the Teams near the mark of 5:30 and 7:00am.

Here is the make up of the top 10 Teams into Tuluksak:

We stopped down and grabbed a few shots of a couple of our favorites at the Akiak Dash Finish Line. Bill Eisenbart and Little Joan Klejka.

Official Times are now posted- Notice 17 Minute gain in 50 miles. Looking to see Jeff Kings Times…

It’s all in the minutes now. Pete and the Team left Kalskag 24 minutes behind Rohn Buser and now is just 1/2 mile or so back as they enter the Tuluksak checkpoint and a 4 hour layover. Each musher must plan their minutes very carefully here so as not to cause any problems. The luxury they have, though, is that they are “Off the Clock” so to speak and can snack their dogs, bed them down a bit and maybe take a short break themselves.

Pete has gained 24 minutes in the course of 50 miles, but his competition might not be in front of him as Jeff King is bearing down from the rear. He also has made up quite a bit of time and once the official times are in, we will know how much work Pete has in store for him on the last 50 miles into Bethel.

Bogus 150 Musher Louis Pavilla arrived soaking wet from kicking so hard in his attempt to catch Winner Jackie Larson. A bit of rest might be in order for our favorite musher to prepare for this next challenge to the finish.

Stay Tuned! GO TEAM Kaiser!

Mushing Weather for tonight has similar conditions as they have been encoutering since Kalskag with a possibility of a bit more snow. The trail is well marked, so a bit of snow shouldn’t cause any difficulty.

TONIGHT...SNOW LIKELY IN THE EVENING EAST OF BETHEL...THEN A
CHANCE OF SNOW AFTER MIDNIGHT. ELSEWHERE...ISOLATED SNOW SHOWERS.
LITTLE OR NO SNOW ACCUMULATION. LOWS 5 BELOW TO 5 ABOVE INLAND 
SOUTHWEST WIND TO 15 MPH.

It’s going to be exciting!

Playing with Statistics as Teams head down the river towards Tuluksak and a 4 hour break:

Just using outbound times for Rohn Buser, the elapsed time (not taking into account any checkpoint times) for his Team was 8hrs 11 minutes. Add 4 hours to that and add that to departure time from Kalskag on the way down at 1/1715 at 15:52. That puts a Finish as early as 4:00am or so.

Factors to consider:

1. Whether speed can maintain on latter part of the race.
2. Conditions are different now that there is snow on the trail
3. Temperatures are cooler without rain or water on the trail.
4. Checkpoint times to drop dogs

It’s going to be an early one. In the old days before the tracker, we wouldn’t know until a snowmachiner ran into headquarters with the news- “They’re Coming!” The tracker is really a blessing!