Knik 200 set for Saturday at Deshka Landing

WASILLA — Each year organizers of the Knik 200 Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race have the same initial goal. Keep the race on its traditional route, with a start and finish on Knik Lake. But for the last several years, Mother Nature has thrown race organizers a few curveballs.

But if all possible, the show must go on. And for the second time in four years, the race has been moved north to Willow.

“Safety is paramount with us, it always has been. But if it’s possible, we’re going to go,” race trail director Bob Sexton said Wednesday evening. “We’re excited to even have a race. We don’t have to cancel.”

Before a winter storm blanketed the core of the Valley with snow Wednesday, Sexton said race organizers had been working on an alternative plan once it became obvious that the traditional route that starts and finishes on Knik Lake could not be used. Sexton said ice safety on Knik Lake is a major concern this year, and a big factor in the decision to move.

Attention was shifted north to Deshka Landing, where organizers will host the 2018 race, slated to start Saturday at noon.

“With the weather we’ve been having in the last four to five years, it’s just been a major challenge for us,” Sexton said.

The race was moved to Willow in 2015 and canceled in 2016. Last year, conditions were good enough to use the traditional route. Sexton said starting and finishing on Knik Lake is always the primary goal. But there’s always at least one alternative. Organizers even try to have another date in mind if the race has to be postponed.

There will also be a modified course for both the Knik 200 and the Knik 100 Bruce Braden Sled Dog Race. The Knik 200 will feature a pair of loops from Deshka Landing to Yentna Station Roadhouse and back. Teams will make the first loop, which is just more than 80 miles, and take a mandatory six-hour layover at Deshka Landing. After the layover, teams will take the loop again, passing by Yentna Station before returning to the finish at Deshka Landing.

The 100-mile race will send teams about halfway to Yentna, approximately 40 miles total.

Sexton said the Knik 200 is officially about 170 miles, and the shorter race will be just about 80. Sexton said organizers ensured the course would meet the qualifications to count as an Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race qualifier when it set the trail.

That’s an important aspect of the race, Sexton said. It’s also the opening mid-distance race of the season. With the poor trail conditions and lack of snow in many areas of the Valley, Sexton said some mushers have not had as much opportunity to train their dogs this winter. Sexton said a modified course will also help mushers ease the dogs into in-season form.

Overall, the trail that’ll be used this weekend is in good shape, he said.

“Snow-wise, the trail going onto the river is looking really good,” Sexton said.

The Knik 200 currently has 38 mushers. The field includes four-time Iditarod champion Lance Mackey and Nicolas Petit, who finished third in the Iditarod last year.

For more on the race, see knik200sleddograce.com.

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