First time musher says race was first step to the Iditarod

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April 18, 2008 at 10:02AM AKST

For rookie musher Eric Sieh, 33, of Kotzebue, it was no piece of cake finishing the 2008 Kobuk 440 dog sled race.

But despite some wet challenges and a blizzard right on the first stretch of the race, he came in sixth, leaving behind experienced mushers such as Sebastian Schnuelle and Ed Iten, both long-time Iditarod mushers.

It was a good time, Sieh said, a time that not only taught him about endurance but also taught him a lot about his dogs.

Sieh ran one of John Baker’s dog teams and plans to work with Baker this fall as a handler. The Kobuk 440 was his first step to qualify for the 2009 Iditarod.

Sieh used to run dogs for his father many years back, but the sport took a back seat to flying, hunting and trapping.

Sieh completed the race in 71 hours and 48 minutes. He took home a $4,400 award.

Kobuk 440 results

ul ulc0 Name Time

John Baker 66:58

Mike Jayne 67:56

Martin Buser 68:38

Ken Anderson 71:26

Hugh Neff 71:35

Eric Sieh 71:48

Sebastian Schnuelle 72:06

Louie Nelson Sr. 72:33

Brian Mills 72:41

Michelle Phillips 73:05

Ed Iten 74:29

Jason Young 85:55

Josh Kadzo 88:14

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Arctic Circle Championship results

ul Name Time Purse

Terry Streeper 3:32:43 $6,250

Bill Kornmuller 3:43:28 $4,850

Buddoo Gallahorn 3:49:20 $4,370

Luke Sampson 3:50:19 $3,565

Cyrus Harris 3:25:39 $3,060

Paul Hansen 3:53:53 $2,455

Jay Cadzow 5:07:20 $1,450

Mother Nature takes mushers for a ride

Kobuk 440 sees youngster finish right behind Baker

CHUCK SCHAFFER

For The Arctic Sounder

The Kobuk 440 has lived up to its reputation once again.

Even when the trail and weather are perfect, it’s a tough race.

When conditions like this year’s occur, Mother Nature combines with the competition to give the teams just about everything that could possibly be thrown at them.

"The Iditarod is a piece of cake compared to this," DeeDee Jonrowe said.

"This race eats up rookies and spits them out," Mike Jayne said.

Jayne, a young musher, ran Ray Redington Jr.’s team, finishing second to John Baker and beating out Martin Buser by a hair. It was quite the accomplishment considering he only remembered a few of the dogs by their names.

Back to Mother Nature, the major factor in any race. She threw just about all she had into this one.

Temperatures were pretty mild at the start, around 30 degrees with a little bit of wind and blowing snow. It was a bit warm for a dog race but not too difficult.

Temperatures prior to that were right around 40 the day before, so 30 looked rather good.

Kotzebue experienced close to record snowfall this year. These three elements together made for an extremely sloppy trail.

The warm temperatures the days prior to the race also deposited lots of water underneath the snow, which created tough, slow conditions.

By the time the first checkpoint in Noorvik came along, some 55 miles up the trail, sleet, rain, snow and even more wind blew in.

The weather even upped in intensity before the next checkpoint of Selawik, about 90 miles up the trail.

By the time everyone got there, trial crew included, we all resembled something out of the animated movie "Finding Nemo," which in layman’s terms means wet. It was time for mushers to dry out a bit.

Getting to Selawik ended up being somewhat of a chore, and the field of mushers sorted itself out with Buser, Jayne, Ken Anderson, John Baker and Hugh Neff leading with the likes of Sebastian Schnuelle and Michelle Phillips hot on their heels.

The hours of rest in Selawik also saw a break in rain and snow. The next 90-mile stretch to Ambler proved to be just as challenging.

The bad weather started over again about 25 miles out of Selawik. More wind, snow and a bit of drizzle, not to mention the Kougorak creek that started to flow on top of the ice and snow.

I think us trail breakers had much more fun trying to find a way to cross than the mushers.

A lot of sweat and a few choice words and we were on our way for the last 25 miles into Ambler.

Anderson, who was running with the frontrunners, lost a dog on this stretch of trail and spent time attempting to catch the critter. Fortunately, after borrowing a snowmobile he finally got his dog back and in the process lost a good three hours doing so.

After a well-deserved rest and drying out personal gear, the field was ready for the loop, which goes to Shungnak and Kobuk before heading back to Shungnak and then back to Ambler.

Regulations prohibit dropping dogs on the loop so everyone was very careful with team selection out of Ambler.

The trail into Shungnak wasn’t as bad, minus a few patches of overflow here and there.

Going into Kobuk presented more water on the last three or four miles into this beautiful little village.

Finally it was time for a break in Kobuk. Mushers were treated to awesome grub and hospitality, which the Kobuk 440 is noted for.

About the time the second group of mushers left, the weather had started to cool down.

By the time the third group started trickling into the village, the overflow had begun to firm up.

Our trip back to Ambler in the wee hours of the morning was the first dry ride we had experienced in the last 200 miles.

I’m sure the musher morale had picked up immensely. It was another nice rest for the dogs and mushers.

In this race you need to have 20 cumulative hours of rest. These hours can be taken at any of the checkpoints. So we as a trail crew take educated guesses as to how long these guys will rest so we can get ahead of them to make certain there is a marked trail to follow.

The long 90 miles to Kiana turns out to be an awesome setup trail. In fact the whole way to the finish line was practically a highway. What a change from the day before.

Baker put a 50-minute lead on Buser and Jayne in Kiana and continued to win the 2008 Kobuk 440, with Jayne and Buser finishing in that order.

Just finishing this race with all the elements provided a feat in itself.

"This is the toughest race I’ve ever been in," Phillips said.

The people in the villages along the trial route outdid themselves and provided great hospitality with food and a place for mushers and trail crew to rest.

This is one race that depends on those hearty volunteers to make it all happen.

Chuck Schaffer is a trail breaker for the Kobuk 440 dog sled race and a resident of Kotzebue.