Right on time at 10:20am Allen and his Black Team left the start chute at Gakona headed for the Red Eagle Lodge at Chistochina. They will be following the green marked trail on the map below.
It is a crisp, calm morning at around -20F and snow conditions are low, as seems to be the case in many parts of Alaska. Allen expects the trail to be fast, compared to last year when there was lots of snow making the trails hard going! The forecast for the area is to “warm up” today.
Leading the team out this morning was Commando and Junior, with Amber and Dutch in swing followed by Spark and Kodiak, Chevie and Nomex, Five and Rodney with Violet and Champ in swing.
In an interview with KCAM radio Allen told how much he enjoys this race and the fact you get a little bit of everything on the trail – snow, water, wind… He believes it should be a mandatory qualifier for the 1000 mile races as rookies would gain invaluable experience running this race. His advice to rookies was to expect everything and plan for it then, if it doesn’t happen – great, if it does happen then they are prepared.
The start line, although not the regular location in Glennallen, was still expertly organised and well run, getting the teams’ support vehicles parked efficiently and the dog teams to the start line in a orderly fashion.
Now the teams are on the trail you can now follow along using the free GPS tracker by clicking this link.
The trail notes over to Chistochina from the CB300 website say: “The race trail will parallel the Tok Cut-Off Highway for less than one mile and then turn left and gain 360 feet of elevation when following the historic Valdez to Eagle Trail up and out of Gakona.
The race trail parallels the Tok Cut-Off Highway for many miles northward. At approximately MP 33 of the Tok Cut-Off Highway, the race trail crosses the road at a high visibility light tower (provided by Alyeska) and is manned by volunteers to ensure safe passage for sled dog teams to the east side of the highway. The Chistochina checkpoint is then approximately half a mile further on across the airfield at the Red Eagle Lodge, where warm shelter is available to race participants, officials and spectators. Total distance from the Race Start to the first checkpoint is approximately 32 miles.”
Expect the trail to be fast with the first teams likely making it to the checkpoint in around three hours.
Remember to keep an eye on the CB300 website and Facebook page for updates and our own Facebook page in case we are able to get some pics directly from the handler team on the trail. A reminder that the race is a wilderness race so cell coverage won’t be reliable. We may not hear from the teams regularly with updates.
Pics from Karolyn
Go Allen and all the dogs!
I am listening to the KCAM radio to watch the beginning of the race!
Go Commando, Junior, and the rest of the team!
This will be another exciting race!
Woohoo! Go Allen! Great photos of all the dogs- thanks, Karolyn!
So Great to see Allen and the SP Dog Team running the CB300 with all the other Great Teams ,have a great trip ,were Praying for the Safety of all the teams.
Love this race!