Lack of snow pushes Jr. Iditarod north

CANTWELL — The 2015 Junior Iditarod will be following its parent race up the Denali Highway to a new start location due to “extremely icy conditions.”

“The previous storm here last week just brought too much rain and iced up the trail,” said trail manager Richard Plack. “It’s too dangerous for the kids to travel on with their dogs.”

Plack said neither the standard sled brakes nor snow hooks would be able to dig into the ice enough to slow down the dogs, thereby endangering the racers.

“It is strictly for the safety of the kids,” he said.

Plack said ruts in the ice caused by four-wheelers on Knik Lake, where the race usually starts, also have become a problem this year.

“We’ve had enough snowfall in past years that it covers those up,” he said.

In recent years, Plack said, Knik Lake has been the plan A start venue, with the finish line at Willow Community Center. Plan B has typically been to start and finish at the community center.

Plan C?

Well, it varies.

This year, the 150-mile will start and finish in Cantwell on the Denali Highway. The mandatory 10-hour layover will be held at Alpine Creek Lodge, where racers will have access to restrooms but are expected to prepare their own food and sleep under the stars, as usual. An awards ceremony will be at Cantwell School on 2nd Avenue, Plack said.

The reroute means the Williams Family Peony Farm at Trail Lakes checkpoint and the usual halfway checkpoint, the Yentna Station Roadhouse, will be bypassed.

The start date and time has also been changed to Sunday, March 1, at noon, from Saturday, Feb. 28, at 10 a.m., meaning racers will finish on Monday.

Although the changes come just a few days before original start date, Jr. Iditarod Board President Barb Redington said moving the start was “not a light decision by (any) means.”

The extra commute, for one thing, has the potential to affect racers’ and volunteers’ budgets and pre-race schedules. Volunteers must snowmachine in to the lodge, Redington said, and racers who wouldn’t have otherwise needed special transportation to the start must now arrange for two hours or more of travel time, one way.

Securing lodging could have been an issue as well, if not for Cantwell School opening up its doors for the night for racers who need a place to sleep over the weekend.

While the new start location may be more convenient for Healy racer Rose Capistrant and may not make much difference for returning Nome musher Jannelle Trowbridge and Bethel racer Joan Klejka — who already have a great distance to travel — the remaining eight mushers who live in Willow or south of that may be feeling the heat.

Coming from Willow will be returning musher Nicole Forto and rookies Dakota Schlosser and Jordan Seager; from Wasilla, veteran mushers Kevin Harper and Andrew Nolan; from Chugiak, veteran Jimmy Lanier and rookie Marianna Mallory; and from Anchorage, rookie Ksenia Deits.

Ninilchik rookie Liam Hogan withdrew before race changes were made.

Forto, a senior at Houston High School who won the Red Lantern award in last year’s Jr. Iditarod, said she’s “both glad and concerned” about the move.

“The trails in Willow are really, really bad — very punchy, very icy — so the move is very good for the safety of the dogs,” she said. “At the same time, it’s really bad because now I have to change out my team to have bigger dogs that can pull really hard because there’s a lot of hills (on the course) now instead of just flat ground.”

Forto said she will also have to pack lighter to get up those hills and rethink what gear classifies as “mandatory.”

Still, it’s not really going to affect her racing strategy. Though she has her eye on one of the scholarships that go to the top finishers, finishing safely is her main goal.

“I wanna finish with healthy dogs and cross the finish line no matter where I am in position,” she said.

As for the travel issue — for Forto, at least — it’s mostly just “an inconvenience” that could mean less sleep the night before the race.

“But at same time,” she said, “I’m usually too nervous and jittery to sleep anyway.

For updates on the 2015 Jr. Iditarod, visit facebook.com/JuniorIditarod.

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