Husky News

The Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race’s legendary and built-in “from Bethel to Aniak and back” theme always had a nice rhythmic ring to it.

During January’s 31st running of the famed mid-distance race and Iditarod qualifier, K300 enthusiasts should prepare to go from the “Bethel chute to Napaimute” and back.

K300 race manager Casie Stockdale and the committee on Sept. 21 announced a significant change to the trail. For the first time, mushers and teams will leave Bethel and work their way northeast to Napaimute, a village 29 miles east of Aniak, before heading back to the Bethel finish line.

The 2010 K300 begins Jan. 15.

“The village (of Napaimute) has been pushing for it for quite a few years,” Stockdale said. “The board voted on it and we’re going to try it out.

“It’s going to be good to go through the checkpoint. We depend on a lot of the same people on the trail. It will be great to deal with a new group.”

With the extra miles to Napaimute added to the race course, Stockdale said attempts will be made to shorten the trail on portions closer to Bethel to keep the total distance as close to 300 miles as possible.

“We want to keep the traditional distances and times,” she said.

According to the state’s online community database, Napaimute recorded an estimated but not certified population of zero in 2008. The site said the village is used as a seasonal fish camp.

But Napaimute Traditional Council director of development and operations Mark Leary issued a five-page memo to K300 officials in November 2008 asking them to consider getting the village involved.

“In the years since this discussion was last brought forth, Napaimute has continued to move forward as a community much more capable of supporting an alternative route that would be more enjoyable to both racers and spectators than previous routes,” Leary wrote in the memo, which K300 officials linked to on the race’s Web site.

Attempts to reach Leary and the Napaimute Traditional Council for comment were unsuccessful.

Leary closed the memo by speaking to many of the K300’s Iditarod veterans and local Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta mushers about the route that loops up the Kuskokwim River.

“It may remind the Iditarod veterans of some of the friendly little places they pass through on their way to Nome, while at the same time giving our local mushers a better shot at being competitive with the easier, more-supported trail,” Leary wrote.

Source: The Tundra Drums