Dog problems plague mushers on way to Eagle
By Matias Saari
Fairbanks, AK Daily News-Miner

Published Wednesday, February 13, 2008

SLAVEN’S ROADHOUSE — Turning around is akin to taking points off the scoreboard, but on Monday three mushers did just that, and with good reason.

Julie Estey of Fairbanks left Circle City on Tuesday morning sporting a red parka and in the red lantern position, but a short while later returned and reluctantly dropped Timmy, one of her lead dogs.

Estey had carried Timmy in the sled basket the night before and hoped he had recovered enough to continue after an 8 1/2-hour break. That wasn’t to be. Estey, however, still passed Ann Ledwidge en route to Slaven’s Roadhouse.

Cor Guimond, meanwhile, left Slaven’s late Tuesday morning, but was unexpectedly back within the hour. Three of his dogs weren’t pulling well.

“I’m going to have to baby them,” Guimond said. “Some of them got hurt on the ice last night.”

Then he returned to the roadhouse to wait things out.

“It ain’t no fun being stuck,” Guimond said. “You gotta make sure you’re unstuck before you run out of grub.”

Guimond eventually got going again with 11 dogs, one fewer than when he first left Slaven’s.

Dan Kaduce’s experience, however, was the most serious.

Kaduce left Slaven’s in fifth place at 6:15 a.m. on Monday and returned about three hours later with a 4-year-old male named Guetknecht in his basket.

About 10 miles from Slaven’s, the dog vomited, so Kaduce pulled over, he said. Then he vomited a second time, with considerable blood.

“That’s when I realized we had to go back to Slaven’s or I probably would have arrived in Eagle with a dead dog,” he said.

Guetknecht, whom Kaduce said had bloody ulcers, was stable after getting to Slaven’s.

“The vet said he’s going to be fine,” he said.

Kaduce ended up dropping two dogs after his first Slaven’s arrival and two more on the second trip, leaving him with 10. He also lost eight hours of time — and five places — because of the ordeal, departing for good at 2:20 p.m.

Kaduce put his race on hold for the welfare of his team and was relieved nothing worse happened. He did not appear dejected about the turn of events.

“I want to finish, so I try not to think about it too much,” he said.

Kaduce was also the beneficiary of some good sportsmanship, as Bill Cotter and Kelley Griffin each gave him food — lamb, horsemeat and salmon — because he was running short after the extra trip.

“The food fairies delivered,” he said.

Awaiting Mackey:

A seemingly invincible Lance Mackey left Trout Creek 40 miles shy of Eagle at 6:45 p.m. Monday night; he was eagerly awaited there by those waiting to hear about his navigation of severe jumble ice near Kandik River.

Approaching Trout Creek late Monday afternoon, Hugh Neff had a narrow lead on Brent Sass as Ken Anderson camped in fourth place about 10 miles back.

Penalties assessed:

According to race rules, Ken Anderson, Bill Pinkham, Julie Estey and Kyla Boivin will have to spend an extra two hours at Eagle checkpoint because they failed to check out of the Chena Hot Springs checkpoint on Saturday.

The oversight was somewhat understandable, given the highly unusual circumstances of leaving there to truck their dogs to the Mile 101 dog drop because of a route change.

[All the more reason to consider boycotting Yukon and Alaska as tourism destinations]

Let the Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture hear about it!

http://sleddogwatchdog.com/howl1.html

News-Miner story and reader comments:

http://newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/13/dog-problems-plague-mushers-way-eagle/