Mushers urge KGB drivers to use caution

WASILLA -- Mushers who train their dogs with four-wheelers along Knik-Goose Bay Road are asking motorists to use caution after several close calls recently in which teams crossing side roads were almost hit by vehicles.

Distance musher Kelley Griffin, who lives just off Knik-Goose Bay, said the problem is worse this fall than ever before.

"There's been a huge population explosion out here," she said. "People are clearing like mad beavers."

Griffin said about 10 mushers are training on the trail that parallels Knik-Goose Bay. The lack of snow has kept them from using sleds on more remote trails.

"The last couple of years it has been a main training trail," she said. "We'd much rather go out to the Aurora dog track, or the Iditarod Trail, but we're landlocked now and have to use four-wheelers. We'd like to get the heck out of town."

Griffin, a two-time Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race finisher, occasionally takes her team to Cantwell or Petersville to run on snow. But that's not an everyday option.

The trail along Knik-Goose Bay crosses side roads about 20 to 25 feet away from Knik-Goose Bay. Mushers often start across the road before seeing a vehicle bearing toward their team, said Griffin, who runs a 16-dog team.

"It can be clear when teams start across the road, but one gal almost nailed the middle of my team," Griffin said. "She was going too fast."

She's had two or three near collisions, and said her neighbor came even closer to disaster when a driver slammed on her brakes and skidded on ice as the team approached. The vehicle slid right over the leaders but the front wheels missed them, Griffin said.

"One dog got out of its harness, panicked, and zipped up KGB," she said.

A driver caught up with the dog a half mile later and, not knowing who it belonged to, took it to the Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation shelter. The dog had an implanted chip designating it as an Iditarod racer, so animal care personnel called Iditarod headquarters with the information. Eventually, dog and musher were reunited.

Griffin said the problem isn't just in the first few miles out of Wasilla. She almost got hit at Mile 10 Knik-Goose Bay, for example. She said development has sprung up all along the road.

"It's taken a hammering way out there," she said.

The best solution, of course, would be more snow so mushers can run in secluded areas. Until then, Griffin hopes people drive cautiously.

"There are probably people who don't even realize there are dog teams out there," she said. "My suggestion is to approach KGB slower and be aware there may be dogs."