Return of the gulls.

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Spring is funny in the arctic. I mean, you know it's coming, but it takes forever to get here. The days slowly trudge by on the calendar. Then April comes and the days are getting longer. It's light out at 10pm so you know it's spring, but your still freezing your ass off at the dog races. And then one day you wake up and it's like someone has switched on the thermostat and everything starts dripping. For me, the ultimate sigh of relief is the return of the gulls. They arrived a couple days ago.




I may be singing a different tune later on this summer when they are stealing my fish and crapping on my head, but for now I am rejoicing in their return.




We are gaining over 8 minutes of light a day.




It may be 38F degrees now but it got to 40 degrees today!!! I had the window or the door to the office open all day. I was sitting at my desk listening to the seagulls screech and the water drip.




The forecast looks great and I'm looking forward to doing some fishing before the ice gets funny. I haven't seen many people out on the ice after work.




Usually there are more people out there like this bunch of fishing fools from last year. It must mean the sheefish aren't biting close to town yet. Maybe this weekend.

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If You Can't Beat It, Blog It!

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I think I have the swine flu, or the bird flu or the hippo flu or something. I'm still sick. I started to feel a bit better today but I think it is getting worse again and starting to spread to my lungs and the fever has come back.




Buy you know...you can only stay in bed so long before you start to get crazy so I decided to take a ride around town and check out the water situation. This is the road my office is on. Ironically it is called Lake St.




The water doesn't bother kids any.




It's just something to play in.




The snow is steadily melting....




...but it is nowhere near even half gone yet.




And it's going to be a few more weeks before the gravel melts enough to allow the water to start slowly draining away.




The pumps are working overtime....




....but there are not enough pumps to go around.




Most of the roads look like this.




Some are worse than others.




Uyaana really wanted me to drive through this one but it looked DEEP.




He walked into it to show me it wasn't so deep.




He had to turn back because it was too deep for his boots.




Spring is not pretty in town.




It's all dirty snowbanks and mud.




It reveals 200 days worth of windblown trash from bags broken open by ravens and loose dogs.




This is the edge of the Swan Lake Lagoon. This is one of the places they have been dumping the snow they scoop out of town.




Another pump. This one is pumping out part of the hospital parking lot.




The hose crosses the street and empties into the lagoon.




Here is the honeybucket sucker sucking the puddles all over town. When it is full they dump it out onto the ice.




And here is my lovely mucky road.....but I"M NOT COMPLAINING....remember?

You know, ever since I froze my 18-200mm VR lens it doesn't seem to be taking very good photos. Either that or I am just used to looking at how great the 70-200mm f2.8 VR looks.

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Too Nice Out to be Sick

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So this is the first beautiful, warm (36F degrees), sunny day of spring and I am too sick to enjoy it. I just thought I would check in and say hello and let everybody know I haven't forgotten you all. Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow, but for now I'm going back to bed.

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Slop Happy

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Here's 3rd Ave. The only road in town that doesn't have a puddle....at least until you get to the Boys and Girls Club. Sometime during the first couple weeks of March, after the 11th blizzard in three weeks I prayed "Lord, please hurry up and send Spring. I promise I won't complain about the mess!".




Here is the lake by the Boys and Girls club.




It stretches all the way across the road.




And it is deep.




As you can see from the piles of snow we have just barely started melting. It is going to get so much worse before it gets better.....




...but I'm NOT complaining.




The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful....




...and I shan't complain.


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Classy Dude

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Kotzebue has three Alaska airlines flights a day. The afternoon and evening flights are a usually 737-400 Combi like the one in this picture that I got from alaskaair.com. Combi's have 72 seats and a dedicated forward compartment for cargo, therefor there is no first class section. The morning flight is sometimes a regular 737-400 with a fist class section.




Uyaana and I flew to Anchorage on Wednesday (we'll be here til Saturday evening). Because I am MVP on Alaska Airlines I can upgrade to first class. Since Uyaana was coming with I upgraded him as well. This was his first time in first class. He thought he was hot stuff.




He was very impressed with breakfast. He asked me what it was and told him it was a tomato basil quiche. He said "YUMMMM!!!!" Now this is a kid who wouldn't normally touch anything called "tomato basil quiche" but because it was served in first class he said it was "the best breakfast EVER".




"Look mom, we get REAL glasses!"

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Ice

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How deep is your ice, is your ice, how deep is your ice la la la la la la .......




Here is Chad good-naturedly drilling one of five holes in the ice so a bunch of us could hook for sheefish while waiting for the snogo racers to come back from Noorvik.




I took these photos so that people who don't know could see how deep our ice gets. This is brackish water ice. It is a mix of ocean water and water from the Kobuk and Noatak Rivers.




Upriver the ice can get so thick that you need a 6-8 inch extension for your auger.




This auger doesn't have an extension on it, and he just barely got the hole drilled.




After drilling down for a while you have to pull your auger up enough to empty the hole of ice shavings and then go back down for more drilling.




Almost there.......




Got it! Once the augur goes through to the other side you pull it up in a rush of water.




Here's the water coming up out of the hole.


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Spring Sunset

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Getting Wood For Ahna

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Yesterday we went to visit Uyaana's ahna. Ahna is the Inupiaq word for grandmother. Ahna lives year round out at camp on a slough on the Noatak River. She lives out there alone but has lots of visitors to check on her and bring her things that she needs. Yesterday we went out there to visit and get her some wood for her wood stove.




Ahna's cabin is surrounded by huge snow drifts.




Uyaana had a great time climbing all over this one.




Uyaana likes to follow to go get wood because he loveds to play in the trees.




Problem is this year we have had so much snow that he kept sinking in up to his hips.




He asked to try the snowshoes that we brought.




I thought for sure that he was going to fall over and not be able to get up.




I wasn't looking forward to postholing over to him to help him up when he fell.




He wobbled a couple times when he crossed the backs of the snowshoes together, but he never did fall.




He took to it like a natural.




He had a great time following the rabbit tracks all over.




He did so well that I told him I would get him his own snowshoes for next winter.




Here is the shelter that Uyaana boult for the animals. He said "See mom, just like Survivorman". He thought maybe a wolf might take a nap in it. If you look carefully you can see uyaana inside of it.




In the end we brought home two loads of wood for ahna.





The weather was warm (about 18F degrees) and we had a great time playing out in the trees.

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Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association Women's Race

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Here are some photos from the first day of the KDMA Women's Race yesterday.Day two was today but I didn't get a chance to go as we headed out in the country right after church.


Margaret Hansen, 1st place.




Allie Henry, 2nd place.




Joanne Harris, 3rd place.




Susan Beck, 5th place.




Iva Baker, 4th place.









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Today was the Kotzebue Sound Racing Association 2009 Women's Race. It's a 120 mile trail from Kotzebue to Noorvik and back.


Here is the list of racers. It does not include the late entries that entered the race after the list was published. I am not postine photos of all the racers. I missed a few poeple and some pics didn't come out so well so I am only posting the good ones. If I could figure out who racer was I posted their name under the photo. If anyone knows any of the other racers shown feel free to leave a comment and let me know who they are and what photo they are in.


Spectators stretched along the trail.


This is one of the cover planes that follow the racers. They keep an eye on everybody and will radio to race officials if there are any racers that wreck or run out of gas.



These three planes are following the winner back to the finish line in Kotzebue.



Katrina Carter, Arctic Cat 570.



Samantha Harris, Arctic Cat Fire Cat 700.



More spectators and cover planes.
















Helen Harris, Polaris XC 700




Lucy Nelson, Arctic Cat Z 570.




Leanne Viveiros, Arctic Cat Z 570.




Sonja Schaeffer, Ski-Doo 550.




Zazell Staheli on a Yamaha, minus her cowling and various other parts she left along the trail.




Muck Viveiros, Arctic Cat 570.








Carrie Goodwin, Arctic Cat ZR 500.




Agnes Anasogak, Arctic Cat Fire Cat 600.
















Autumn Mitchell, Ski-Doo MXZ-550.



Here is a video taken at the Noorvik Checkpoint where each racers pit crew gasses them up.

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It Has Begun

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Here they are folks, the first puddles of spring! Are you excited? I know I am. It only got to about 22F degrees today but that sun is pretty powerful this time of year and it starts to melt the snow. The pavement is starting to emerge form its cement like coating of snow and ice.



Gotta love this forecast. We'll be on the ice hooking for sheefish in our shirtsleeves. Rain? I vaguely remember that as drippy wet stuff that falls from the sky.


I read in the paper that the Northwest Arctic Borough has asked the state of Alaska to declare a disaster in Kotzebue due to excessive snow. Kotzebue averages about 40 inches of snow a year. This year the weather service says we got 102 inches. We need to get as much snow as possible out of town.



If this.....



...and this were allowed to melt as is, there would be a lot of flooding in town. City crews have been working long hours 7 days a week to scoop up the snow and dump it out on the ice. This has exhausted the city's budget and caused some major equipment failures.

The borough received a reply from the Governor’s Disaster Policy Cabinet basically saying that many Alaskan communities received above average snowfall and that Kotzebue should quit it's frikkin' whining. They stated “The Department of Military and Veterans will continue to actively monitor Kotzebue’s snow removal and seasonal melt-water pumping efforts, as this spring weather event is not finished.” In other words "Until you are totally inundated with water and cannot access vital infrastucture without a kayak we don't wanna hear from you buncha pansies".

This should make for an interesting, and soggy, breakup.

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When in Doubt....

...post photos of dogs. I drove my snogo to Noorvik today with a few friends of mine. They were going to a basketball tournament there. Unfortunately we left a little late and then had some snogo trouble so they didn't make it in time and they had to forfeit their game. I didn't take any photos on the way, so instead you get yesterdays dog photos.




















































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C-130 Hercules

A C-130 Hercules from the Alaska Air National Guard landed here in Kotzebue yesterday. I think they were here for a career fair at the high school. I happened to be by the airport this evening when they were leaving.




























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P-I-N-G-O and Pingo was it's Name-O

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These are some photos of several pingos that dot the Noatak Flats. A pingo is formed by a compicated process involving ice. It is a phenomenon that is said to occur only where there is permafrost.




Underneath the tundra is permafrost, ground that is perpetually frozen year round. The tundra is dotted with many lakes and ponds. Some of these lakes, if they are the right size and deeper than about 7 or 8 feet, do not freeze solid in the winter.




Because the lake does not freeze all the way, the permafrost underneath it melts. This creates an unfrozen layer of waterlogged soil between the lake water and the underlying deep permafrost.




A pingo is formed when one of these lakes die. If the lake drains or becomes more shallow it is much more likely to freeze solid in long winter. The water soaked soil at the bottom of the lake also freezes and expands. The soil on top of the water freezes from the top down as it also freezes from the bottom permafrost layer up.




The feezing soil cannot handle the excess water and as the area continues to contract, the unfrozen water is squeezed under tremendous pressure. Over hundreds of years of time the water is under such pressure that it begins to push upwards and the water gets trapped underneath the top layer of permafrost that formed after the lake drained. This causes the top layer to rise and forms the pingo.

Pingos are interesting to look at, but they are also useful. Not only to they break the monotony of a vast flat area such as the Noatak Flats and serve as helpful landmarks, but they also provide a high point in the land which makes a good lookout while hunting.

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He's Probably Pinin' for the Fjords

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These three photos have gone viral around Alaska and beyond. I have probably had them emailed to me by 20 different people in the last couple days. The text that goes with the email says....



"Check this out...the caribou was found frozen in place by DEC personnel on a site inspection on the North Slope. That is some cold weather.... temps were down in the -40s F and wind chills to -70 to -80. Caribou froze standing still at -80 with wind chill in Kuparuk AK."




I tend to be Doubting Thomasina about these kinds of emails. I think some guys came across a caribou that had fell over and froze to death and they propped it back up on it's feet and took some photos of it. Hey maybe I'm wrong. KC chime in here. I'm thinking you may have the real scoop by now.

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Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

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Noatak by Snogo

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On Friday we headed to Noatak on snogo. This time I did not take my good camera especially after freezing my 18-200mm lens. Instead I took a little point and click Nikon Coolpix. It only has an LCD screen so most of the time I could hardly see what I was taking a pic of much less whether or not it was in focus.



First we stopped at camp to pick up a few things. Remember my new anaqvik? It's half buried. So sad, can't even get to it to enjoy my toasty blue foam seat.




Uyaana was happy to be heading to Noatak.




Here's the view of the Noatak River from our camp.




The trail follows along the Noatak River for a while.




Heading towards Hugo Mountain.




Going up over the shortcut portage.




The country along the Noatak River is, in my opinion, the most beautiful. Winter, spring, summer or fall, doesn't really matter at all...lalalala....




This is the shelter cabin near the confluence of the Noatak and the Agashashok (Aggie) Rivers.




We stopped at the cabin for a few minutes and chatted with a some guy who was also taking a break here.I also needed the break to get the blood flowing back into my throttle thumb...owie.




There were lots of bunny tracks all over.




After the shelter cabin the trail crosses over about 15 miles of the Noatak Flats. The flats are...ummm.....very flat. When the trail is rough it sometime feel like forever to get across. Lucky for us the trail was smooth and fast and it didn't seem to take as long as it usually does.




When you get to the other side you are greeted by this sign. When I first saw it I thought it said "Welcome to Noatak Smiles"...hahaha...oops.




Here is a random shot from the village.




I have written about Noatak before but for those of you who may have missed that post Noatak is located on the west bank of the Noatak River, 55 miles north of Kotzebue. It has a population of about 512 people and is the only village located alon the Noatak River.



We went to noatak to visit family and friends. While we were there Uyaana got a chance to participate in the annual Easter egg hunt. The kids, by grade, get a chance to hunt for plastic eggs.



The eggs have a monetary value written on them such as $1, $5, $10, $20, and $50. The kids run around and find eggs and then get to trade them in for whatever amount is written on it. Uyaana found a $1 egg and a $10 egg.



Of course all that money was burning a hole in his pocket so we went over to the store so he could spend it.


I took some photos of the trip back to Kotzebue but the weather was overcast and the whole white sky white snow makes for lousy photos as nothing has any depth or definition but here are a few....



Two moose in the Noatak flats.



My bad ass snogo. You might see my bad self wizzing down the trail at a whopping 40mph. I'm such a hotshot....not.




Me.

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Flashback Friday

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You think my brother will forgive me for this one?? Yeah, I didn't think so.

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Christmas Lightsicles

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2009 KDMA Mushers Banquet

The awards banquet for the Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association was held on Monday, April 6th. This is a chance to celebrate everyone's accomplishments during all the races held during the 2008-2009 racing season. The banquet lasted three hours and people won multiple awards so I will just post the photos that I have and try and lest what awards they received.




Quinn Iten, 3rd blace in the Noatak 120.




Ed Iten, 2nd in the Noatak 120 and 4th in the Kobuk 440.




John Baker, 1st in both the Noatak 120 and the Kobuk 440.




Buddoo Gallahorn. 3rd in the 8 Dog Championship, 1st in the Doc Harris/Dan Snyder Combo.




Paul Hansen, 2nd in both the 8 Dog Championship and Doc Harris/Dan Snyder, and 3rd in the Arctic Circle Championship.




Cyrus Harris, 1st in the 8 Dog Championship (Do I have these 8 Dog places right?? Someone let me know, and the KDMA Sportsmanship Award.




Luke Sampson, 3rd in the Doc Harris/Dan Snyder.




Bill Kornmueller, 2nd in the Arctic Circle Championship.




Terry Streeper, 1stin the Arctic Circle Championship.


And Now the Kobuk 440 awards.....




Heath Coro award for first musher into Ambler.




Rainer Lorenz, award for last musher into Ambler.




Heath Coro again for the Rookie of the Year award in memory of Dr. Roger Gollub.




11th place, Dempsey Woods, Nome, AK.




10th place, Middy Johnson, Unalakleet, Ak.




9th place Rainer Lorenz, Kotzebue, AK




8th place, Mike Williams Jr., Akiak, AK.




7th place, Jerry Sousa, Talkeetna, AK.




6th Place, Jerry Riley, Nenana, AK.




5th place, Robert Nelson, Kotzebue, AK.




4th place, Ed Iten, Kotzebue, AK.




3rd place, Pete Kaiser, Bethel, AK.




2nd place, Heath Coro, Kotzebue, AK. Heath's mom in Maine will be reading this and I bet she's real proud of her boy.




1st place and Humanitarian Award winner, John Baker, Kotzebue, AK.




Race veterinarian, Dr. Phil Meyer of Wasilla Veterinary Clinic.




Here is a group shot of the participants of the 2009 Arctic Circle Champoinship.

I hope you all enjoyed the photos from the 2008-2009 dog racing season. That's all til next year.

Photos Around Town

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This morning is another gloomy morning. It looks like it wants to be foggy, but it's not too bad at the moment. Yesterday was a beautiful day after the fog cleared up. I took some photos while driving around town. I used my old camera so please excuse the big spot in the middle of them.




This is the elementary school. I took all these photos while picking up Uyaana from school and going to the post office.




Here is an exciting shot of a guy crossing the street! the building on the left is Rotman's Store and the place in the background with all the cars near it is called the "Eskimo building". It houses the Kotzebue IRA, Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association and the Post office.




It's difficult to have a view of anything but snowbanks on many of the streets.




Kotzebue public works has been doing a lot of this lately. They use loaders and dump trucks to scoop up as much snow as they can from in town and then dump it out on the ice. The water from all that melted snow will take forever soak into the gravel. It will just sit there in big giant puddles until it is evaporated by the sun or slowly soaks into the ground. Because of this, all that water has to be pumped out into the ocean. Removing as much snow before it melts makes the pumping job easier.




This is the start of a new addition to the hospital. These pilings have to be drilled into the ground while the ground is still frozen. This addition is (I think) going to be a nursing wing. Right now Kotzebue does not have any nursing home for elders who have a high level of care. We do have an assisted living facility but elders who have a higher level of care than that must be sent to nursing homes in Anchorage or Fairbanks. This addition will allow us to keep our elders in our region where they belong.




These guys are digging up the water line. Something happened and water was leaking up to the surface so they have to dig though the frozen solid street to get to the pipes and find the problem.




5th avenue. The orange building on the left is the Alaska Commercial Company Store. Hang on to your wallet.




















This photo and the one after it were taken in the "uptown" part of Kotzebue. This is the part of town that received the most snow during all those blizzards.




This part of town is still digging out. It's going to be one heck of a mess here in about three or four weeks.




Still looks like winter doesn't it. Spring is sneaky around here.





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Fog is good...

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...because this fog is like a sure sign of spring. It blots out the sun, cancels flights and ruins hunting plans.




It's also something that I I don't like to complain about because it's almost like insulting spring, and Lord knows we have waited so long for spring. So as for the fog, I say bring it on!



The weather is slowly warming up. Around it sometimes seems like one day it's winter and then WHAMMO the next day we are above freezing and there are puddles all over. That's kinda true, it does warm up a bit over time, but the line between snowpack on the road and lakes in the street is crossed within a couple days. I was taking photos of waterlogged roads in Kotzebue I think on April 21st last year.




And the days keep getting longer. now go to bed in the light and wake up in the light. It's great, but it does make getting the boy to bed a bit harder. I will tell him it's time for bed and he will say "But MOM....it's STILL light out". And I say "Uyaana...it's gonna be light out from now until the middle of August but that doesn't mean you get to stay awake that whole time!"

FYI- I am working on the Nusher Banquet photos and hope to have them up this evening.

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Take a Little Trip

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On saturday I went to the village of Noorvik to help gas up a couple of the snowmachine racers. Noorvik is located on the Kobuk river about 50 miles east of Kotzebue.




Noorvik has a population of about 642 people.




While we were there we had a chance to visit some family. Then we headed off for a ride in the countryside.




Here's Uyaana ready to head out of Noorvik.




Around here this is our version of a superhighway.




We left the trail and traveled along the river. We some moose. After a while we left the river and headed into the hills. There were lots of caribou here and there all over the hills.




We came across some fresh wolf tracks.




We followed the tracks for a while....




...and we came upon a caribou that had been killed by wolves.




Perhaps we scared the pack off with our noisy snowmachines.




We headed down out of the hills onto Kobuk Lake (Hotham Inlet).




We traveled along Kobuk Lake to Ivik.




Ivik is a group of subsistence camps with a few year round residents.




These Icelandic Ponies belong to one of the families who live out here year round. After visiting Ivik we headed back to Kotzebue across the inlet.




This cross is in memory of Dr. Roger Gollub.





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**2009 Kobuk 440**

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**** THIS IS THE STICKY POST FOR THE 2009 KOBUK 440 ******

To go to the Kobuk 440 website for updates CLICK HERE!!!
Please send me an email if you are experiencing problems with the link.



This post will remain at the top of the blog until the race ends.


The blog will continue along as usual but you have to SCROLL DOWN below this post.

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Results- Archie Ferguson Willie Goodwin Race

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Here it is, by popular demand. CLICK HERE for the results of the 2009 Archie Ferguson Willie Goodwin Memorial Snowmachine Race.

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The Photos- 2009 Archie Ferguson Willie Goodwin Race

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My original plan was to take some photos at the starting line and then head to Lockard Point and take some photos of the racers passing by. That's not how it worked out.. Instead I left at 9am that morning and headed to Noorvik to help gas up some racers.

It was a beautiful, but cold day. We had some issues with one of out snogos and we barely made it to Noorvik 10 minutes ahead of the racers. I also, for the first time, froze my camera. Well, actually it was my 18-200mm vr lens that I froze. Itwouldn't auto focus any more and it wouldn't even manual focus at anything past 150mm. So all these photos were manually focused and luckily I still got some decent ones.















































































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Day 1: 2009 KDMA Arctic Circle Championship

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Today was day 1 of the 2009 Arctic Circle Championship. The race follows a 20 mile loop. There is one heat Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.




Terry Streeper working on his sled before the race.




Joe Harris watching everyone get ready. Joe mushed dogs his whole life.




Buddoo's helper.




I sure like Buddoo's dogs. They are really friendly. You can walk by them without worrying that they are going to bite you.




Here is one of Luke Sampson's dogs.




Dog races give everyone a chance to hang out and chat before the action starts.




This is Bill Kornmueller and his eighteen dog locamotive.




Kornmueller Express




Cyrus Harris




Where's Waldo Maija?




Luke Sampson




Terry Streeper needs a whole lotta help getting his eighteen dogs to the starting line.




Off he goes.




Buddoo Gallahorn




Bill Kornmueller




Terry Streeper




Paul Hansen




Cyrus Harris




Luke Sampson




Buddoo Gallahorn




Here is today's times. Day 2 starts tomorrow at noon. I may miss the start becasue I need to take photos of the snowmachine race which starts at 1pm but I should at least be able to catch the end of the day 2.

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2009 Archie Ferguson Willie Goodwin Mem. Snow Machine Race *Racer List*

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The 2009 Archie Ferguson Willie Goodwin Memorial Snowmachine Race starts tomorrow at 11 am on the ice in front of town. The race goes from Kotzebue to Noorvik to Kiana to Selawik back to Noorvik and then home to Kotzebue. Here is information on the racers......












I'll post the purse info tomorrow.


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Kobuk 440 Videos

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Here are a couple reader submitted videos from the 2009 Kobuk 440







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More Kobuk 440 Start Photos

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Here are some more Kobuk 440 photos. They were taken about 2 miles from the starting line. These were not taken by me. They were sent to me by an an anonymous submitter.



Heath Coro




Chuck Schaeffer




John Baker




I think this is Robert Nelson




Pete Kaiser




Ed Iten




Mike Williams Jr.




Rainer Lorenz




Jerry Sousa

If anyone in Kotzebue or the other villages would like to send in a couple of their Kobuk 440 photos you can email them to me and I will post them up with your name, unless you want to be anonymous. aqvaluq@hotmail.com

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Kobuk 440 Start Photos

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John Baker getting ready at the start. John came in third in the Iditarod this year.




This is mike Williams from Akiak. He came in 42nd in this year's Iditarod...




...his son, Mike Williams Jr. is running in the Kobuk 440.




This is Heath Coro. He is John Baker's dog handler. He is a Rookie in the Kobuk 440 this year.




This is Jerry Riley from Nenana.




John Baker again.




Chuck and Tracey Schaeffer.




Tracey helps chuck hook up the dogs.




Here is Robert Nelson, son of Uncle Louie Nelson. Robert came in 29th in this year's Iditarod.








John baker putting ointment on his dog's feet before putting booties on.




This is Pete Kaiser from Bethel.




Ed Iten.




This is Rainer Lorenz. He has been handling dogs for Ed Iten this winter and this is his first Kobuk 440.




The Kobuk 440 is a mass start. All the mushers take off at once. It can be pretty chaotic.








A photo of ladies taking photos.




This is Dempsey Woods. I think he should win an award for having the most family and friends with him at the starting line.




Here is the crowd of dogs, mushers, and spectators just before the start.




And they're off.




Is this Dempsey or Middy??



Here comes the rest of the bunch.




At the split in the trail these dogs went haw instead of Gee. He had to stop them and try to get them to gee over, but they weren't interested. When other teams started going down the correct trail these dogs decided that would be a good way to go too.




Ed Iten on the left and Chuck Schaeffer on the right.




Ed Iten





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Kobuk 440 Stuff **UPDATE**

****Ok, here is how the Kobuk 440 updates will work. Noah Naylor is doing a current standings chart and he will be updating it straight from the time keeper. It is my understanding that he will be posting them as they come in so it should be fairly realtime. Tomorrow I will make a "sticky" blog post that will stay at the top of the blog for the duration of Kobuk 440. It will contain the link to the current standings. UNDERNEATH that "sticky" post the blog will go on AS USUAL so if you want to look at other stuff about the Kobuk 440 or the Archie Ferguson Willie Goodwin Memorial Snowmachine Race or the Arctic Circle Championship sled dog races you will have to scroll down and check......OK? OK.****


The Kobuk 440 dog sled race starts tomorrow at 4:40pm on the ice out in front of Kotzebue. The musher's meeting and will be held tonight at 7pm.

It is my intention to do updates on the blog as they come in.....and I have no idea how I am going to do this. I am trying to come up with an easy format in the form of a "Sticky" blog post that will stay at the top of the blog until the race finishes. I'm not sure how successful that will be but it seems much easier than trying to do an individual post for each update. That would just be craziness, and things are crazy enough as it is.

So bare with me. I know a lot of you are coming here for Kobuk 440 info and I will do my best to have it up as soon as I can as it comes in.

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Sundog

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