(Photo: Jenny Neyman/KBBI)
After a three-year hiatus, the Kenai Peninsula’s Tustumena 200 sled dog race was finally able to celebrate its 30th anniversary this weekend. Iditarod veteran Cim Smyth of Big Lake took first place, followed closely by Girdwood musher Nicolas Petit.
The final stretch of the Tustumena 200 sled dog race was nearly too close to call.
Petit led the pack for much of the 200-mile race through Kenai Peninsula’s Caribou Hills.
Just after the final checkpoint at Freddie’s Lodge in Ninilchik, Smyth began closing the gap.
“I realized that Nick was just outrunning me,” Smyth said. “I got back to Freddie’s and I’d only made five minutes so I was just like, ‘Oh, no, this is going to be really tough.’ And it was. It was definitely tough to catch him.”
Smyth sped up, catching sight of Petit just 30 miles from the finish line. The two mushers were neck and neck for the last leg of the race, zipping through near blizzard conditions.
“When he saw me he started really pouring to it and I could barely keep up with him for the next 20 miles almost,” Smyth said. “Finally, his dogs started to get a little tired of the speed he was holding. He put up a good fight for, like, 20 miles.”
Smyth finished in 26 hours, three minutes — just three minutes ahead of Petit.
For Petit, winning the race was never the goal.
“I don’t care if we win,” Petit said. “I’m just going to run my dogs at the pace that works for them and if we get passed by 30 people I don’t care.”
Fairbanks musher Dave Turner finished third, clocking in at 26 hours 48 minutes. Because T200 is one of most southern races in the state, teams often cope with warmer conditions than they’re used to. Turner said he kept a close eye on his dogs to be sure they didn’t overheat.
“It was a good 50 degrees warmer than the highest what we were used to the last three weeks,” Turner said. “Half the dogs didn’t want to drink anything when we finished the run. They needed to cool down.”
The trail begins in Kasilof, curving south through the Caribou Hills to Homer before looping north again. A tight turn on a bridge over Deep Creek in Ninilchik proved tricky for several teams, including that of seasoned musher Mitch Seavey.
Deep Creek was one of the few places on the trail with open water, unlike in years past, when the race was canceled due to warm, wet conditions.
Some mushers, like Monica Zappa of Kasilof, have been hoping for a chance to compete on home turf.
“I’ve totally been waiting for four years to do this race,” Zappa said. “[I] wasn’t sure if it was ever going to happen, but here we are.”
Crowds met the racers at checkpoints along the way to cheer them on, including McNeil Canyon Elementary School in Homer.
Mille Porsild, who conducts freight expeditions with sled dogs, was one of the spectators at McNeil. She said working as a musher goes beyond the excitement of the race.
“These animals are unbelievable in what they can do, the minds they have, the energy that they feed you,” Porsild said. “That’s a very special feeling when you get this synergy between you and this group of dogs.”
23 teams competed in the race, with two scratches. This year’s $30,000 purse will be distributed among the top 20 mushers.
Results: 1) Cim Smyth, 26 hours, 3 minutes; 2) Nicholas Petit, 26:06; 3) Dave Turner, 26:48; 4) Mitch Seavey, 26:50; 5) Joar Leifseth Ulsom, 27:58; 6) Noah Burmeister, 28:02; 7) Wade Marrs, 28:03; 8) Ray Redington, 28:12; 9) Monica Zappa, 28:15; 10) Tim Osmar, 28:21; 11) Paul Gebhardt, 28:43; 12) Anna Berington, 29:09; 13) Dean Osmar, 30:24
Shahla Farzan is a reporter with KBBI - Homer.
Shahla first caught the radio bug as a world music host for WMHC, the oldest college radio station operated exclusively by women. Before coming to KBBI, she worked at Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and as a science writer for the California Environmental Legacy Project. She is currently completing her Ph.D in ecology at the University of California-Davis, where she studies native bees.
When she's not producing audio stories, you can find Shahla beachcombing or buried in a good book.
