Friend to fill in for injured musher

WILLOW — Karin Hendrickson, a dog musher recently injured by an out-of-control car near the Parks Highway north of here, is still running her dogs in the 2015 Iditarod.

With a surrogate musher, that is.

In her stead will be longtime musher Bryan Bearss, who has been friends with Hendrickson since 2006 when he ran his first and only Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Bearss said that when he heard about the accident, his mind rushed to Hendrickson.

“Instantly my heart went to her, knowing that area, knowing that’s where she trained,” he said. “There was a great moment of panic.”

Bearss referred to Hendrickson as someone “not only in the mushing family,” but someone he’s “known for years,” echoing a viewpoint shared by many Alaska mushers:

“We’re a family,” he said.

Trusting Bearss’ knowledge of her dogs’ personalities and her training style, Hendrickson pitched the idea of him running in her place on Dec. 1, while she was still in the hospital.

He agreed.

“There are so many similarities between Karin and I and how we work with dogs, and that’s gonna make the process a lot easier,” he said.

But there are still great challenges looming ahead of them.

“Right now it’s a lot to chew on, there’s a lot of planning that we have to get done,” Bearss said. “We’re essentially looking at compacting the 12 months I spent training in 2006 to about two and a half, (plus) planning, financing.”

The “Karin’s Run” crew is looking to raise the $10,000 cost of the 2015 Iditarod. Erin Kirkland, a travel journalist and public relations person for Hendrickson and Bearss, broke it down: $3,000 for the entry fee (for which Bearss has paid Karin back); $2,070 in dog booties and replacement booties for when they wear out during pre-Iditarod races; roughly $1,160 for a strong “miner’s” head lamp, batteries and a charger, so the musher can see all 16 dogs ahead of them in the dark during the race, and in temperatures of 50 or 60 below zero; $1,650 for shipping gear and dog crates from Nome, and flying Bryan back; $2,500 for dog food and medicine/first aid; $468 in cold-weather gear, such as socks, gloves and hand warmers; and $380 for sled runner plastic and plastic bags (Ziploc, trash and vacuum-sealable), for a total of $11,228.

That cost does not include meals and snacks for Bearss during the race.

Since Bearss and Hendrickson still need to raise much of the money for those necessities, time is an issue for both training and fundraising.

“This is not a lot of time for him to get ready,” Kirkland said.

As a teacher at Abbott Loop Elementary in Anchorage, Bearss’ only time to be with Hendrickson’s team is during weekends and the holiday break. In the meantime, Hendrickson’s handler, Maliko Ubl, will be competing in other sled dog races to determine which dogs in her team will perform best in the coming Iditarod.

But that’s not all Ubl is donating to the cause.

“She’s amazing, she held down the fort while Karin was in the hospital,” Bearss said. “You wanna talk about donations, that there in itself (is huge), she’s volunteering her time with Karin.”

Keeping the kennel in shape is no easy task, either. Ubl manages all the day-to-day and week-to-week tasks of getting the dogs food, veterinary care and exercise while Bearss and Hendrickson are unavailable. Prior to Hendrickson’s accident, she was working a full-time job for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and needed Ubl then, too.

Bonnie Brummett with Alaska Spirit Crafts in Chickaloon also contributed a great deal, Bearss said, by sewing and donating a fur ruff to replace the one formerly on the hood of his coat, which wouldn’t have cut it to keep his face warm in sub-zero temperatures.

“I can’t put a price on that,” Bearss said.

And the number of people involved in Karin’s Run is a point in itself.

“Everybody’s got a little finger in it somehow,” Kirkland said.

Bearss made a point not to exaggerate his role, however.

“I called this ‘Karin’s Run’ because I’m trying to keep her as involved as possible,” he said. “I have my own personal ways of working with dogs, but I’m gonna try to walk in her footsteps as much as possible. This her team, this is her run.”

Bearss and Hendrickson aren’t the first to do something like this, either. According to him, musher Jim Lanier was injured several years ago and had his handler run in his place.

“It’s in the rules,” Bearss said. “But it’s only under special circumstances that a musher can go to the board and ask for someone to mush in their place.”

According to the official 2015 rules, rule 4 states, “substitute drivers will be allowed only in cases of emergency and only if approved by the Race Marshal prior to the re-start of the Race.”

Needless to say, Hendrickson’s accident classified as something of an emergency.

Bearss said he hopes Hendrickson will be well enough to stand at the 2015 start and maybe even at the finish in Nome, but the chances of that are uncertain. Getting ready for next year’s race could be difficult enough.

“Karin has that challenge to heal herself up for next year’s Iditarod,” he said.

To donate to Karin’s Run via PayPal, visit bit.ly/1zidp8Z.

For more information, visit facebook.com/KarinsRun.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.