Homer Alaska - News

"It's great to have fresh snow," Murray told the Homer News. "It'll be good for the race. We don't want to have it too easy for them."

The race has drawn such well-known Iditarod veterans as Paul Gebhardt, Dee Dee Jonrowe, Jeff King, Cym Smith and, as of Friday, other Iditarod winners still expected to show up. Jonrowe won the T200 in 2011, with Smith in second place; Gebhardt won the T100, a shortened version of the race.

Also crossing the starting line Saturday is 19-year-old Rebekah Ruzicka of Anchor Point who isn't new to racing, but is new to the Tustumena 200. Ruzicka placed second in two of the four years she entered the Junior Iditarod. She has raced in the 50-mile Junior Tustumena three times, taking first place in 2010.

Snomads, a Homer-area organization of some 400 snowmachiners and outdoor recreations, was busy Friday preparing an area for mushers and their dogs, as well as spectators, at the race's new checkpoint at McNeil Canyon Elementary School. Specifically, it was Snomad's contract groomer, John Wise of Wise Services, who was hard at work. Wise took over the trail-grooming role when another groomer was unable to do the job.

"It was an incredible stroke of luck for us. We asked if he could step up to the place and he got the machine in shape and is ready to go," said Snomad Vice President Scott Connelly.

Wise and his groomer are creating a trail that's 16-feet wide. It has tracks that measure 57 inches wide and it has a blade that can move in 10 different directions. In addition to the area at McNeil Canyon, Wise also is focusing on a 12-mile section of the racecourse.

"I've actually never run it," he said of this part of the trail.

He isn't the only one. This year's course marks a change for the race, as well.

Homer was a stop in the first Tustumena 200 in the mid 1980s. Since then, the route has taken teams from the starting line in Kasilof to Caribou Lake, then on to the halfway point in Clam Gulch. After a mandatory layover, the entrants retraced their steps, finishing back at Kasilof.

This year's 200-mile race begins at 11 a.m. Saturday in Kasilof at Mile 112 Sterling Highway and proceeds to the 50-mile mark at McNeil Canyon McNeil Elementary School. After a two-hour mandatory layover, the mushers and dogs proceed to the halfway point and a six-hour mandatory layover at Freddie's Roadhouse in the Caribou Hills. After that, teams return to McNeil and another two-hour stop before racing to the finish back at Mile 112.

Grooming the remainder of the trail falls to Caribou Hills resident Tinker Anderson. Recent snowfalls have proven a "constant battle, but we're ahead of the game," Anderson told the Homer News. At the trail's higher elevations, he said drifts are measuring up to eight feet.

Saturday, Anderson and T200 Race Marshall Kevin Fulton will run the course on snowmachines and arriving at checkpoints ahead of the teams to ensure everything goes smoothly.

"And it will," said Anderson.

This is the first year the Snomads have been responsible for a Tustumena 200 checkpoint — tracking teams' times in and out, doing equipment checks, having food ready.

"And they are doing a remarkable job," said Anderson. "Cathy Davis is the Snomads chairman for the T200 and she's really taken the bull by the horns."

Snomads effort has been aided by a financial donation from Caribou Hills Cabin Hoppers, a similar club with larger membership in the central peninsula, according to Davis.

Traveling with Fulton and Anderson as a spectator will be Iditarod Race Marshall Mark Nordman.

"He'll be impressed with this trail," said Anderson. "He'll find out it's ot a nice, flat run. When these mushers run this trail, they know they've run a trail."

Anderson also had praise for the support from Homer.

"The chamber of commerce has been involved and we're finding lots of local enthusiasm," said Anderson. "You've got big-named people living in Homer like Libby Riddles Jack Berry."

In 1985, Riddles was the first woman to win the 1,049-mile Iditarod. Berry has raced in numerous events, including the grueling Yukon Quest, a race of 1,000 miles stretching between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

The National Weather Service is forecasting the snowfalls in the Homer area to taper off Friday evening, with partly cloudy skies over the weekend, temperatures ranging from 15 below to 15 above zero, winds out of the northeast from 10-25 miles per hour.

For up-to-date information on entrants and to track the progress of teams after the Saturday start of the Tustumena 200, visit www.tustumena200.com. For weather updates, visit www.arh.noaa.gov.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.