Category Archives: 2012 Paul Johnson Memorial 450

Good Morning Team Kaiser!
This morning the Sarellite tracker shows Pete with about a 6 minute lead. Looking back at the tracker, Team Kaiser was about 6 minutes ahead of John Shandelmeier into the Village of Elim this morning at about 6:10am.
Tracker shows that Pete left Koyuk last night at about 7:30pm. Times from all of the mushers are pretty slow over this part of the race. Generally during the Iditarod, Koyuk to White Mountain would be a 12 hour run. In this race, mushers are on track for for close to 16 hours.
Quite possibly we will see short breaks in Golovin even though there is a layover in White Mountain.
Presently, (8:30) Pete has increased his lead slightly to about 2 miles as they head up onto a penninsula that will take them into Golovin.
Golovin weather is absolutely great for mushing. 12 degrees above with a 10 knot wind from the northwest. Golovin is about 18 miles from White Mountain. Golovin is 95 miles from the finish in Nome.

Just off the wire with Janet-
Apparently Pete was leading the pack into Koyuk, and then the trail disappeared. After a bit he called by Cell phone to Ron who was able to contact the organizers and tell them what had happened. Apparently there was open water and no trail and no markers. All of Pete’s lead was erased as all of the mushers ended up in the same place on the ice. Finally a snowmachine came out from Koyuk and led the mushers into Koyuk. At this hour they are having a meeting to determine how to procede with the race. I’ll keep you posted!

The Paul Johnson Memorial Norton Sound 450 runs between Unalakleet and Nome. Iditarod veteran and long-time Norton Sound Sled Dog Club member Paul Johnson died during surgery in October. He was known around Alaska for his commitment to mushing, and the new race honors his memory and love of the sport. The race begins with the long-running Portage 200 which runs from Unalakleet to Kaltag and back. From there mushers will head through the remaining checkpoints of Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, Golovin and White Mountain then finish in Nome. Middy Johnson predicts the race will take approximately three days, with a six-hour rest in Kaltag and 24 hours of total rest required in the Norton Sound 450 portion. Eight of that must be spent at White Mountain, though the rest is at the mushers’ discretion.
The Race Started this afternoon. Follow Pete’s progress here:

Go Team Kaiser!