Year 2005 Race Results!

On January 8, 2005 the Nome Kennel Club held the first race of the season. The event was an 8-dog, 22 mile race between Nome and Dexter. Iditarod Veteran Nils Hahn won the race, edging out Kim Waldrep by a minute and a half for first place. Waldrep finished second. Greg Parvin, Chris Rowe, Keith Conger and Karlin Itchoak rounded out the field. The times for the mushers were:

Despite relatively warm temperatures, the trail was in good condition thanks to Race Marshall Kevin Bopp, Mike Weber and the NKC trail committee.

The trail went out the Nome River Valley to Dexter and Banner Creek. We went up the hill at Banner Creek and back along the ditchline to Dexter. It was about 14 above and very windy 25 to 30 mph out of the north. The trail was hard and fast with a headwind going out and a tailwind coming back. This was the first race for Dempsey Woods who went out first and the first race for Kirk Scofield. Dempsey's wife Fannie was the timekeeper. Thanks to the people who helped at the race start and put in the trails. Thanks to Conner Thomas and Jane Anderson for making sure all the teams made it across the road at Banner Creek.

Feb 5 was clear -20 no wind, sunny. The trail went from Nome to Banner Creek via Triple Creek and Dexter. There was a moose standing on the river at Banner Creek at the river crossing.

Jim and Jane Anderson were at the road crossing in Banner Creek.

Feb 6 was cloudy 5 above, calm in some areas and windy in others. The trail was east to Cape Nome and return along the coast. Reindeer droppings and bedding areas all over the trail but no reindeer. Hard ice on the Nome River.

This year instead of running the Council 200 we planned a stage race to Salmon Lake. Our checkpoint was the Boy Scout cabin. Charlie Lean, Randy Romanesko and Brian Blandford and sons and scouts provided a warm cabin to stay in, a beautiful 50 mile trail for the 2nd day of the race, and reindeer stew for dinner. Kaci Fullwood and Bryan Imus shared timing and race marshal duties. The first day was a mass start at 6 p.m. Friday April 1st. The trail went out the Snake River Valley and crossed over to the Nome River at Grub Creek , joining the Kougarok Road about mile 22. Jim Rowe had staked and groomed the Snake River trail for the weeks prior to the race and was out repairing holes made by moose and standing guard to make sure no problems with moose on the return. There were lots of moose in the upper section of the trail. Teams had to stop because of a moose in the trail and a moose ran in front of two teams for awhile on the trail past Dorothy Creek. The first team arrived at Salmon Lake shortly after 10 p.m. and the last team was there shortly after 11 p.m. The 2nd and 3rd day we left in reverse order from how we arrived in order to keep the teams from spreading out so much. Day 2 we headed out down the hill to the lake, straight across the lake to the Eldorado valley and then took a right up the hills by Venetia Creek and over some high hills into Iron Creek and back out to the Kougarok road north of Salmon Lake. This was new country for everyone. We were lucky to have cold temperatures, clear weather and no wind. It was great fun for the dogs and mushers to get to go on new trails and camp out overnight for two nights at Salmon Lake. The dogs got lots of attention. Each team got a bale of straw, a case of heet and we hired Russell Rowe to fly out 60 lbs. of dog food for every musher the day before the race. Greg Parvin provided clean up and hauled a load of stuff back to town, along with lots of stories about his recent Iditarod experience. The stakes were picked up after the race and also brought back to town. The run home is along the road on a hard fast trail with just one hill from the Grand Central Bridge up to the top of Nugget Divide where it is a gradual downhill run till we crossed over to the Snake River Valley and on into town. We had 6 teams in the race: