Kristin Bacon of Big Lake is this year’s Kuskokwim 300 Red Lantern winner. The last finisher in this year’s icy sled dog race, Bacon Crossed the finish line Monday at 8:40 AM with an elapsed time of 62 hours and 10 minutes.
“I must have seen 5 different kinds of terrain on the race that I had never imagined a dog sled being in,” said Bacon as she nursed an injured foot at a host house in Bethel. “Sand crossings, gravel, glare ice, over flow and tussak jumping.”
Glare ice was especially destructive on this year’s trail, trashing sleds and banging up mushers and dogs. One racer, Brenda Mackey, was medivaced to Anchorage after suffering a cornea abrasion.
Bacon says she came in to this years race with several leaders but in the end there was really only one, Felon, who could lead her team on this year’s trail.
“I knew that if he got hurt, or decided he was done, we were done,” said Bacon. “There was not anyone else that was going to step up to the plate.”
Bacon says she ran Felon in single lead nearly the entire race.
“I have the race finish to thank to him.”
Four racers scratched this year in a field of twenty five.
Shane Iverson is a reporter at KYUK in Bethel.
