Nome Kennel Club sets season’s race schedule
The Nome Kennel Club met for its annual meeting last Friday. The club set its race schedule for the season, elected board members for new terms and discussed ways to promote safety on the region’s winter trails.
The club also heard an update about a project to replace tripods along the last stretch of the Iditarod Trail leading to Nome.
Just months before ex-typhoon Merbok hit the region, the Nome Kennel Club built and installed 200 reflectorized timber tripods along the Iditarod Trail between Nome and Topkok. This part of the trail is notoriously dangerous and prone to high winds and ground storms. When Merbok hit in September 2022, many of those much-needed trail markers were lost.
The club has purchased new timbers to replace some of those tripods with funding help from NSEDC. The Lutheran Church also offered disaster relief funding for the project.
In his financial report, board member Frank Carruthers said that the club had spent $1,049 on the new timbers—coincidentally the same number of miles on the Iditarod Trail.
“We had to reorganize and find money again and purchase some more timbers,” said board member Diana Haecker. “Kirsten [Bey] spearheaded that effort. And now we have the timbers. All these things, they improve little by little the situation of the club, and that is so satisfying. We’re such a tiny engine, and we still find time to run our dogs, put in trails, organize our organization, keep it alive—and keep it alive in a good way.”
President of the club Jessica (Burr) Lemaire later added: “We might not be Fairbanks or Bethel, but we’re doing stuff and we’re keeping the tradition of mushing alive here in Nome. We have good kennels, we have good dog care, and we strive to promote that.”
Members voted on three board seats that were up for reelection. Terms are two years. Lemaire was reelected to her seat, as was Haecker, elected for a three-year seat. Drew McCann’s term was ending. He was absent from the meeting, and Sarah Richards was elected to that open seat. The other two board members whose terms expire in 2024 are Carruthers and Cindy Barrand. Both were present at the meeting.
Bey let the Nome Kennel Club members know that she is hoping a successor can soon take over for her as the Nome representative for the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance. The nonprofit supports the trail through various projects and collaborations. For instance, the alliance helped fund the complete renovation of the NKC’s shelter cabin at Topkok and a shelter cabin project between White Mountain and Topkok.
This season’s races
The winter’s sled dog racing events are kicking off the first week of the New Year with a Poker Run scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 6. It will be a 15-mile, eight-dog race leaving from the race start at the city’s snow dump facility on Greg Kruschek Ave.
Lemaire said the club will be looking for about three or four volunteers to be out on the trail to hand mushers the playing cards they’ll need to complete their poker hand.
In general, the club, which has between 30 and 40 members, is always looking for volunteers to provide trail support and to participate in various committees. They would like to see more volunteers step up to be race marshals and timers for the club’s events.
The next race will be a 20-mile, eight-dog race on Jan. 20.
Then, the 12-dog Nome River race will occur on Jan. 28, going
from the snow dump to Dexter and back, covering 25 miles.
The Feb. 17 Dexter Classic will also see mushers travel between the snow dump and Dexter. That 25-30mile race will involve teams of up to 12 dogs.
On Feb. 24 and 25, the two-day Engstrom Mountain race will go from the snow dump, to the mile 20 mark on the Kougarok Road and back. Mushers will be allowed up to 12 dogs.
The three-day, 12-dog Nome Spring Carnival will be held from March 22 to 24. Friday’s portion will see mushers and their sled dogs traverse a 15 to 20-mile loop from the snow dump. Then on Saturday and Sunday, they’ll travel a 35-mile route.
All race dates are weather pending and may be postponed if race days see inclement weather.
This past winter, the club saw a nice turnout of participants and spectators for the mushing season and the added events of kick sledding and skijoring races in between the start and finish one of the longer mushing races. Lemaire said that the club would like to bring those events back during the 2024 Spring Carnival. “One of our goals is again to get more people involved,” Lemaire said.
Haecker later said that she wanted the club’s activities to stay centered on celebrating the sled dogs and mushing. “Why are we here is because of the dog, and we cannot leave that,” she said. “That’s the focus.”
The Nome Kennel Club also plans to schedule a camp out event in April, though the exact date and location is yet to be determined.
Promoting safety
Recent snowmachine accidents in Alaska loomed over the meeting, and the club discussed how to promote safe trail-sharing around Nome.
Twice in the span of a month, dog teams traveling on the Denali Highway in Interior Alaska were hit by snowmachiners, resulting in death and injury for several dogs. On Nov. 17, two dogs were killed and seven injured when a snowmachiner crashed into a dog team belonging to Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey. Then, last week musher Mike Parker was running a dog team from Jim Lanier’s kennel, also on the Denali Highway, when they were struck by a Polaris test driver, killing three dogs and injuring another dog.
During the first round of member comments, Richards wanted to discuss ways to make Nome mushers more visible to the rest of the community in light of the accidents.
“I think that it’s important to make sure people know that we’re out there, especially when races are coming through,” Richards said. “I’ve had personally a couple of really close calls, not in Nome, but in Southcentral, and in one of them my lead dogs almost got run over, and it was a wide open, clear trail.”
Lemaire said that the board was looking into whether it could purchase sled dog crossing signs at intersections where trails cross roads. The group also discussed ways they could make themselves more visible, such as lighted collars and reflective jackets, and ways they could reach out to the local snowmachining community to promote awareness.
“We might want to invest in posters or pamphlets that we give to the snowmachine stores for proper trail etiquette,” said Haecker. “How many of us have been on the Iditarod Trail and come within inches of getting run over?”
Club members agreed to start an awareness campaign to “share the trail” and reach out to other trail users to be educated on how to safely pass dog teams.
NKC can be reached via email at nomekennelclub@gmail.com