The Bogus Creek 150 Sled Dog Race begins this weekend. A competitive field of mushers have signed up to race over what could be a slow, snowy trail from Bethel to Bogus Creek and back.
Here’s what to expect from the race this weekend, and how you can keep track of the action:
The race will begin earlier than originally planned. The new start time is 10 a.m. on Saturday. It was previously set to begin in the afternoon at 3 p.m. However, with rain and warm temperatures forecast for Sunday the organizers moved up the race. They hope most mushers can finish before the worst of the weather settles in.
The roster is stacked with names familiar to the Kuskokwim mushing community. Nearly all have run this race before. At least five of them are past champions, one-time winners Herman Phillip of Kwethluk, Fr. Alexander Larson of Napaskiak, Matt Scott of Bethel, and Pete Kaiser of Bethel. Kaiser has also won the Kuskokwim 300 six times and the Iditarod. Also racing is two-time Bogus winner Jackie Larson of Napaskiak.
“It’s going to be a really competitive race,” K300 Race Manager Paul Basile said.
He pointed out that Jackie Larson is on a winning streak this season. He took first place in the roughly 65-mile Akiak Dash last month, and first in the February 50 last weekend. Both those races are shorter, faster sprint races, compared to the longer Bogus Creek, and they require different race styles. But Larson has proven he can do both. Also coming off a big win is Pete Kaiser, who took his sixth K300 title last month and is preparing to race the Iditarod in a couple weeks.
The Bogus is racing on a separate weekend from both the Akiak Dash and Kuskokwim 300 to prevent crowding during the pandemic. This is the second year in a row organizers have separated the Bogus from these other races. Basile said that the change has come with benefits.
“We discovered that people really liked having the race separate. There turned out to be way more teams in the Bogus Creek 150 than we’d had in a long time, and having the race separately a couple weeks apart from the K300 put a little more spotlight on the Bogus Creek 150,” he said.
Basile says that with the Bogus Creek’s $60,000 purse, perhaps the race deserves its own spotlight. That’s a high payout per mile compared to other races in the state.
With mushers not having to choose between races as much, more are competing in this year’s Bogus Creek compared to recent years. Nearly all the registered mushers also competed last month in either the Akiak Dash or Kuskokwim 300.
The Bogus was originally scheduled to occur before those races, but was postponed a month due to weather causing poor training conditions. At the time, the trail was hard and icy. Basile expects the opposite this weekend.
“We’re looking at potentially having a lot of snow and a pretty soft trail,” he said.
Recent heavy snow has covered the trail, and more is forecast to fall during the race. That could lead to a slow competition, exacerbated by warming temperatures that could cause rain for the Sunday finish.
The Bogus Creek 150 has returned to its traditional trail from Bethel to Bogus Creek and back after taking an alternative route last year. However, there will be no checkpoint at Tuluksak. The only checkpoint is at Bogus Creek, where mushers are required to take a four-hour layover.
All mushers, handlers, race officials, and volunteers must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to participate in this weekend’s race.
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Anna Rose MacArthur is a reporter at KYUK in Bethel.
