Junior Iditarod returns to Knik Lake for 40th run

WASILLA — In recent years poor conditions in the Knik area have forced the Junior Iditarod north.

Organizers have had to turn to their Plan B, starting the annual 150-mile sled at the Willow Community Center. Willow will continue to host the finish. But this year, the start of the race will return to the spot organizers feel it belongs.

Knik Lake.

“It’s really nice to see the race being able to start where it originally started,” Junior Iditarod board member Barb Redington said earlier this week of the race which is slated to start Saturday at 10 a.m.

And the return of the start to Knik Lake is even more important this year considering the race is celebrating its 40th run. With budding interest from young mushers Iditarod founder — Redington’s father-in-law and the father of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race — the late Joe Redington Sr. gave the go-ahead to add a junior race in 1978 to run in addition to the Iditarod, which made its debut five years earlier. Barb Redington, who would go on to marry Joe Redington’s son Raymie, was 15 at the time and was part of the first race. Before she became a member of Alaska’s first family of mushing, Barb Redington said she was involved because, “my friends were in it.”

Redington was close friends with a pair of siblings who lived in the area, Mike Newman and his sister Scooter Newman. Redington said they were lent teams by mushers in the area for the race. Scooter Newman used a team from the kennel of Raymie Redington.

The Junior Iditarod featured a pair of divisions in 1978, a junior and a senior division. Mike Newman won the senior division, finishing first among a field of 11 teams. His time of 5 hours, 9 minutes and 8 seconds, was about five minutes faster than runner-up Ray Domeir. Scooter Newman finished second in the junior division, finishing about four minutes shy of the winner, Joe Good.

Barb Redington finished 11th in the junior division, and won the Red Lantern Award.

The first races in 1978 would mark the lone year in which the Junior Iditarod was divided into a pair of divisions, but the event has held strong for nearly four decades. This year there are 14 teams in the field, which includes mushers ages 14-17. There are nine girls and five boys in the field. Ten of the mushers are rookies.

“In recent years there’s been a lower count. It’s nice to see there’s interest,” Barb Redington said.

This is the largest Junior Iditarod field since 18 mushers hit the trail in the 2009 race.

There will also be a first-time champion this season. Defending champion Kevin Harper, of Wasilla, earned his second straight title last year in his final year of eligibility. Leading the list of veterans is Andrew Nolan, of Wasilla, who finished as the runner-up last year. Nolan finished about 16 minutes behind Harper. Willow’s Bailey Schaeffer also returns after finishing third last year.

Chandler Wappett, of Fairbanks, is back after finishing fifth last season, and Anchorage’s Ksenia Deits, who won the Red Lantern in 2016, is also in the field.

Of the 10 rookies in the field, four — Rebecka Stephan, Anna Stephan, Colby Spears and Michael May — hail from Wasilla. Emma Shawcroft, of Fairbanks, and Rachel Cockman, of Cantwell, are also in the race for the first time.

The field also includes four from outside Alaska. Hannah Mahoney (Bloomfield Hills, Michigan), Katherine Winrich (Reedsville, Wisconsin), Kali Herbst (Ketchum, Idaho) and Logan McCready-DeBruin (Haliburton, Ontario, Canada) are also in the race.

Organizers are thrilled about the trail conditions for the 40th Junior Iditarod.

“It’s actually fantastic,” trail manager Richard Park said Thursday afternoon. “There’s been plenty of snow here in the last week.”

Park said volunteers have been out on the trail all week preparing the trail.

“Real good conditions. It’s more snow than we’ve had in a long time,” Park said. “We’ve been dragging groomers along the trail just to give them a good foundation, good base for the trail.”

Teams leave Knik Lake at the start of the race, hit the Iditarod Trail and make their way to a checkpoint at Eagle Song Lodge. From there, teams move on to Yentna Station Roadhouse, the mid-way point at the race. After the mandatory 10-hour layover in Yentna, teams return to Eagle Song Lodge. From there, teams work their way to the Susitna River before hitting the Big Lake Trails, which will lead them to the finish line at the Willow Community Center.

Teams are expected to finish Sunday.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.