Billy Shungnak: the weather improving, wind has died down. visibility is 3 miles, light snow.
Jeff King hit his SOS button, 5 miles outside of SHG this morning and the trail crew responded and have brought Jeff into Shungnak. He is warming up and drying out, in good spirits now.
To be clear: Jeff and his dogs are all safe and doing well.
The trail crew retrieved his dogs; we’re glad to have trail crew with mushing experience! Clay Beck and Kelly Marcus have mushing experience. Clay was the one who assisted with Jeff’s dogs.
*Billy Lee in Shungnak:
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Three mushers were withdrawn: Philip Hanke, Nic Petit, and Jeff King. Reese Madden is still on the trail.
Derek Starr says thank you to everyone who supported him along the way. He won a beautiful birch bark basket and a cash prize. He actually drove by snowmachine from Huslia to Kotzebue to participate. 8th place.
Hugh Neff thanks his dogs. He thanks a dog that is retiring. A team with a lot of rookies. Emily is the leader. "Never seen a race like this A magical experience. It's not about what place, or how much money you win. But the love of the race and the Kobuk Valley. [Paraphrased]
KDMA racers include: John Gallahorn, Cyrus Harris, Jerry McCall, Glenn Thomas, Jim Borquin and Joe Nay.
The event was cut from three days to two days, due to weather.
Racer John Gallahorn spoke about all the value Kotzebue Dog Mushers Association (KDMA) provides to the community beyond dog mushing, including help with local burials, donations, search and rescue, and more.
Bib #4 Tony Browning out at 2:00 with 10 dogs
Bib #5 Gunnar Johnson out at 2:01 with 11 dogs
Bib #7 Ryan Redington out at 2:03 with 10 dogs
Bib #6 Hugh Neff out at 2:05 with 10 dogs
Ambler Restart:
Bib #10 Sam Brewer out at 2:10 with 10 dogs
Bib #8 Kevin Hansen out at 2:11
Bib #11 Dempsey Woods out at 2:14 with 12 dogs
Bib #1 DJ Starr out at 2:31 with 10 dogs
u might think the 440 in kobuk 440 signifies how long the race is in miles. u would be wrong. it’s actually the number of things that go wrong every single day. the more u know.
it’s also the number of dogs nic petit has when he decides to leave the other 407 at home
of course, while 440 things are going wrong, another 440 things are going right :)
Iḷisaqativut Received the 2020 AFN Eileen Panigeo MacLean Education Award for their work. From all of us at Kobuk 440, Thank you for all you do for language learning in Alaska.