Crow Village Iditarod Blog

King and Buser depart for coast

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:13 -0900

Jeff King departed Kaltag at 4:46 this morning to stake his claim on the Iditarod lead after a 6 hours 23 minute rest. Martin Buser departed Kaltag 13 minutes later after cutting his rest to 5 hours and 44 minutes. These two teams have been running neck and neck at the front of the pack for the past 200 miles, but King is showing signs that he is ready to start increasing his lead. Over the 70 mile stretch from eagle Island to Kaltag,King finished in 8 hoours and 28 minutes. Buser was considerably slower finishing in 9 hours and 15 minutes. This points to some issues starting to appear with Martin's team. He as to decide whether to try and keep pace with King, or whether he wants to hold off those chasing him.Lance Mackey and Paul Gebhardt are in a dog fight for 3rd place now about 3 hours off the lead. Mackey still has quite a few dogs on his team that won the 1000 mile Yukon Quest less then 2 weeks ago. A few of those dogs showed some hesitancy when rousted from their rest in Eagle Island. I might show some hesitancy myslef if I just ran 1600 miles! The run from Kaltag into Unalakleet is 90 miles. Most will break this run in 2 stopping half way at Old Woman cabin.

Cat and mouse games begn

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:13 -0900

After the mushing season finished in 2001, Paul Gebhardt had his fill of dog sled racing. He sold his kennel and began concentrating on his carpentry trade. Paul had finished as high as second in the Iditarod, but was feeling burnt out. His retirement didn't last long. By the summer of 2002 he had a kennel again and started building a dog team from scratch. He cracked the top Iditarod top 20 again in 2004, and the top 10 in 2005. hen last year he finished 3rd by deploying a unique strategy to take his 24 layover very late. So while Lance Mackey and Jeff king race up the Yukon River trying to reel in Martin Buser, they continue to glance over their shoulder to verfy Paul Gebhardt with his unique bamboo framed sled is not closing in. For his part, Paul is currently about an hour behind Mackey and about 3 hours from the lead. With a bit more then 400 miles left in the race, he is still very much in contention. We recommend you checkout Ely Gebhardt's thoughts about the race an Paul's chances as she now flies up to Nome to greet her husband in what promises to be a strong finish. Also, you owe it to yourself to checkout the written and audio reports at Alaska Public Radio Network like we do on a regular basis.

Gebhardt pushing race leaders

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 07:13 -0900

After the mushing season finished in 2001, Paul Gebhardt had his fill of dog sled racing. He sold his kennel and began concentrating on his carpentry trade. Paul had finished as high as second in the Iditarod, but was feeling burnt out. His retirement didn't last long. By the summer of 2002 he had a kennel again and started building a dog team from scratch. He cracked the top Iditarod top 20 again in 2004, and the top 10 in 2005. Then last year he finished 3rd by deloying a unique strategy to take his 24 layover very late. So while Lance Mackey and Jeff king race up the Yukon River trying to reel in Martin Buser, they continue to glance over their shoulder to verfy Paul Gebhardt with his unique bamboo framed sled is not closing in. For his part, Paul is currently about an hour behind Mackey and about 3 hours from the lead. With a bit more then 400 miles left in the race, he is still very much in contention. We recommend you heckout Ely Gebhardt's thoughts about the race and Paul's chances as she now flies up to Nome to greet her husband in what promises to be a strong finish. Also, you owe it to yourself to checkout the written and audio reports at Alaska Public Radio Network like we do on a regular basis.