68 ready for run to Nome

WASILLA — When Jake Berkowitz finished the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, he met his goal of completing what’s been called the world’s ‘Last Great Race.’

Now he’s back, mushing dogs for Sheep Mountain Lodge owner Zack Steer in 2009 while Steer takes the year off.

For Berkowitz, it’s another chance to battle to be first into Nome. Like every other musher at the Iditarod’s officials sign up in Wasilla Saturday, Berkowitz trains for the big one, hoping his dogs will work with him for a safe, and fast, race.

“It’s something else to get 500 miles out and have the same dogs,” Berkowitz said, referring to his first Iditarod.

The Iditarod headquarters buzzed with activity Saturday, as mushers ranging from legend Jeff King to newcomer Tom Thurston, shook hands and got a first look at who they’ll be racing come March 2009.

Thurston, an Oak Creek, Colo., resident preparing for his first Iditarod, said he’s avoided nervousness because he doesn’t really know what to expect.

“Ignorance is bliss, right?” Thurston said.

After paying his $4,000 entry fee Saturday — $1,000 more than last year — Thurston said he didn’t mind the higher charge.

The experience is worth it, he said.

“I’m like ‘geez, no problem,’” Thurston said.

Earlier this year, the Iditarod Trail Committee announced the increase in entry fee and decrease in the overall prize purse for the 2009 race.

Mushers’ opinions have been split on the issue, some understanding the Iditarod’s reasons for the change, others frustrated by what it will do to their pocketbooks.

With higher entry fees and economic woes from high fuel costs, being a musher is becoming more expensive.

“It hurts,” said four-time champion Martin Buser. “Every one of us feels increases in fuel.”

Steer, who said he hopes to be back for the 2010 race, is taking a year off because of time and money.

“A lack of both,” he said.

The Sheep Mountain Lodge owner said the expense of the entry fee, and general care of his sled dogs, mounted too high this year. But, he said, one year off won’t ruin his determination.

“I can race those old guys next year,” Steer said.

But for nearly 70 mushers, the call of the trail is apparently loud enough to drown out the thoughts of rising costs.

Just an hour after the official sign-up began at 9:30 a.m., nearly 25 mushers had signed up. Many mushers also mailed in their checks, and a steady stream of veterans and rookies continued to drop their money at the table and sign up as the morning went on.

As of Monday afternoon, 68 mushers had declared their intent to make a run toward Nome in 2009.

One of the younger participants set for the 2009 race, Melissa Owens, an 18-year-old musher from Nome, said she’s looking forward to her second year competing on the trail.

Like her competitors, the experience of racing the Iditarod is well worth the challenge of raising the money to do it, she said.

Owens has a good reason: she grew up around mushing practically from birth after he father, Michael Owens, carried her across the stage when she was an infant to draw his starting number.

Mushers weren’t alone during the sign up Saturday, as a gaggle of mushing fanatics eagerly asked for autographs and posed for pictures with the mushers.

One fan could be overheard saying “this is the highlight of my life.”

Berkowitz got his fair share of attention too, and he said he’s ready to take what he learned during his first race and apply it in 2009.

Steer said he trusts Berkowitz to take his and kennel partner Robert Bundtzun’s dogs down the trail.

“I can trust him with the dogs,” Steer said. “He knows what he’s getting into.”

With the Iditarod still nine months away, mushers have plenty of time to continue their training and prepare for the big show.

Saturday’s bunch of jovial mushers — full of hand shakes and back slaps — said they are ready as ever to escape to Bush Alaska.

But at the end of the day, as Buser pointed out shortly after singing up, the race is really only about one thing.

“It’s not a personal race,” Buser said. “It’s a race for first place.”

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.