Audio Interview in Takotna

By KNOM

audio by Laureli Kinneen; text by David Dodman

Pete Kaiser says that a 24-hour layover means about the same thing to him as it does to his dogs: “eat and sleep.”

At a moment when he was doing neither, the young Bethel musher talked to KNOM trail reporter Laureli Kinneen. Kaiser was in the middle of his mandatory 24 in Takotna, where he regretted to report that portions of his team had been hit with a stomach virus.

In Laureli’s interview, he talked about the “stars” of his dog team, his emphasis on improving their health – hopefully sooner rather than later – and his status as an “up-and-comer”:

KNOM Takotna Interview – 2011

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Audio Interview in Nikolai

KNOM trail reporter Laureli Kinneen caught up with both veteran mushers in the Nikolai checkpoint.

The 23-year-old Kaiser noted the “pretty punchy” conditions of the trail, which – on top of the warmer weather – have kept his dogs at a relatively slower pace. Kaiser also shared his thoughts on taking a 24-hour layover, as well as how he’s dealing with less sleep than last year:
KNOM Interview in Nikolai

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Wahoo! We’re moving now!!

Pete’s time from Iditarod to Shageluk was second fastest of the 18 mushers into the checkpoint. Myron Angstman has a contact in that checkpoint that spoke to Pete when he got in. Pete is going to be there “awhile.” But who knows how long that will be.

Temperatures last night were pretty chilly and I am speculating that going later was probably better as the trail probably hardened in the cold night air. When you stir up loose snow, it takes a couple of hours, but it gets as hard as iron when it’s cold.

Pete’s Dad and Myron are flying to Shageluk and at this time are airborne. Richie Diehl took off from Aniak at 5 this morning to show up and cheer the team on as well. It is a 90 mile ride from Aniak by snowgo and a 150 mile ride by airplane.

Nice Job Pete!! (And the team!!! 🙂 )

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KYUK Needs Our Help!

The Tundra Drums are in crisis- Help if you can!!

The next 48 hours are critical for KYUK

by Mike Martz on February 16, 2011

The U.S. House and Senate continue to debate the next steps in keeping the government funded before the current Continuing Resolution expires on March 18th. The focus of the debate is on cutting government spending in the face of the enormous deficit facing the country. Proposals to eliminate all federal funding for public broadcasting are still included in the legislation being proposed. The next 48 hours will be critical to the effort to retain federal funding for public broadcasting in Alaska and throughout the country.

For KYUK, like most small rural public stations, federal funding accounts for up to 60% of our annual budget. Without those funds we would be unable to provide news, information, cultural programs, music, emergency information and community messages at the level we do now. In fact, the loss of our federal grants may force us off the air.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, along with Congressman Don Young and Senator Mark Begich, has been a strong supporter of public media in Alaksa in the past. She understands the critical role public radio stations play in Alaska. However, she needs to hear from more Alaskans that they value their local public radio stations and the services they provide.  These calls must be made now.

If you value public media in Alaska and your local public media station, KYUK, I urge you to call the office of Senator Lisa Murkowski at (202) 224-6665 today or visit her website to send an email.

Thank her for her support. Tell her how you value the services KYUK provides and urge her to support continued federal funding for public broadcasting.

Also contact Congressman Don Young at (202)225-5765 or visit his website to send an email and Senator Mark Begich at (202) 224-3004 or visit his website to send an email with the same message.

If you’ve already made a call or sent an email, thank you, but please call or email again over the next two or three days. Your expression of support for the value of public media in Bethel and the Y/K region is vital to keeping our delegation members in Washington DC fighting to maintain a level of funding for public broadcasting.

Thank you for your support of KYUK, public media for the Yukon/Kuskokwim Delta.

Mike Martz
General Manager, KYUK AM/FM/TV

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Shageluk within the hour

Pete is moving along nicely. He is 7 miles out from the checkpoint at this time. If he pushes to Anvik, that will be another 3-4 hours. It is a toss up as to what he will do. Mike Jr. and some of his peers are resting in Shageluk, but the front runners have pushed on to Anvik. He’ll be under some mental pressure to be sure, but the final decision will come down to the dogs.

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Day 5- The Yukon

Teams are into Anvik this morning. Pete is on the trail to Shageluk. He was out of Iditarod at 01:28 with 13 dogs. That should put him into Shageluk by 10 or so this morning. The front runners didn’t take a break in Shageluk and pushed on to Anvik. We’ll see which strategy Pete uses this morning.

Looking at the trail time into Shageluk, it appears that the teams did a good job over the trail. Average speeds and times are in line with other parts of the trail. Maybe a little slower, but not as bad as I feared early on.

From Iditarod.com–Shageluk (SHAG-a-luck) is a village on the Innoko River. The name Shageluk is an Indian term and means village of the dog people – how cool is that. The area is very scenic with hills and small spruce trees. The Community Center acts as the checkpoint for Iditarod but the teams park by the school. Of the 129 people living in the village, most are Alaska Native Athabascan Indians. Thirty five children attend the K-12 school.

The trail between Iditarod and Shageluk crosses MANY ridges, some steep and some gentle. None of the ridges are really distinctive so to the mushers the trail seems to go on endlessly. There is an old burn area that the teams pass through before crossing two streams, the Little Yentna and Big Yentna. Don Bowers makes a note in his Trail Description that it’s easy to mistake the Little Yetna for the Big Yentna. That’s a bummer to think you’re 20 miles further down the trail than you actually are. Mushers have to take an 8 hour mandatory rest once they reach the Yukon River. Shageluk is the first checkpoint where mushers can take their Yukon River rest. The trail connecting Iditarod and Shageluk was used during the gold rush but not a lot. So when it came time to locate the Iditarod Trail for the race to run the southern route, trail breakers sought the help of Shageluk Elders who had used the trail a half century earlier. Without their experience and knowledge, the historical Iditarod trail could have been lost forever.

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“I hear there’s no trail…”

Pete is in Iditarod resting and probably weighing his options. It is going to be a tough one, so it will take patience and hard work and those tremendous dogs to put this section of trail behind him. It is 65 miles of hills and valleys and SNOW SNOW SNOW in front of them. Good Luck Pete!

From Alaska Dispatch — “…word Tuesday from the people tasked with making sure mushers have a way to get from point to point was that between Iditarod and Shageluk — a 46-mile stretch — things didn’t look good.

“I hear there’s no trail,” Roger Ashcraft said plainly as he tinkered with his snowmachine in the sun.

Ashcraft is one of the race’s top trailbreakers. He’s traveled the line since 1992, working with crews to comb the trail and get it in shape for the onslaught of dog teams that come through. The good news is there’s a lot of snow. The bad news is it’s a pristine blanket, untouched but for the mushers and their teams carving their way to Shageluk.

From Iditarod.com – Joe Runyan

The trail leaves the Iditarod River slough in a couple of miles and then seems to undulate up and down mountains without any logical reason. The musher asks nobody in particular, “Why are we continuously going up and down hills, why don’t we just summit out on this range or at least put the trail up a valley?” From the air, I have seen why the trail breakers were not able to do this. The earth, for whatever geological reason, is folded and wrinkled randomly, and the only way north toward the Yukon is to take on the hills.

Running behind the sled up a hill seems to the musher like running in place in a bowl of sugar. This section of trail is known for soft trails of granular snow that do not harden up. Part of the reason is that the snow machines’ tracks spin going uphill and break the crust on the top of the deep trail. For that reason, a musher may try to sneak out of the Iditarod checkpoint early in the morning and try to catch the trail when it does have a little hard crust. Later in the day, the following teams will break up the crust, wallow in the sugar snow, and possibly lose a lot of time.

Finally, the trail crosses the Little Yentna and then continues on to the Big Yentna at about Mile 34. The creek bottom is shielded from the wind – a constant feature ever since leaving Iditarod – by big spruce and groves of willow and birch, and is a favorite place for mushers to give their dogs a break, change their booties, and offer them a snack. Cooked food, prepared in the Iditarod checkpoint, is kept thawed in a foam cooler that fits perfectly into the sled bag.

Sometimes half-a-dozen teams are parked on the stream’s frozen surface. By now, the dogs are so accustomed to the chaos of teams parking and departing that they scarcely notice a new dog team. Five days earlier they might have gotten off their bed and barked at a strange intruder.

The trail continues west over more hills, hits an old Cat trail which meanders through some bigger timber, and then descends gradually into the Innoko River Valley and the small village of Shageluk, population about 130. The dogs have traveled close to 200 miles since leaving the last outpost of civilization at Takotna.

The smell of smoke from the cabin stoves and the howling of village dogs ignites the teams into outbursts of speed. Teams gradually work into a high-speed trot, and some teams become so animated they alternately lope as they get close to Shageluk and hit the well-used, hard-packed and fast village trail.

The village school is the main hub of activity as well as the checkpoint. Mushers who had a hard time sleeping outside in the cold quickly feed their dogs, lay out straw for bedding, complete their chores, grab a sleeping bag out of the sled, and make a beeline to the gymnasium for a deep nap in a warm building.

 

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