Willow 300 canceled

WILLOW — The Willow 300 sled dog race has been canceled due to poor weather conditions and too much overflow on the trails, according to race organizer and director Christine Stitt. She said that the warm weather and heavy amounts of water rendered the course unsafe, so they had to shut it down this year.

“I can’t justify putting mushers and dogs and trail crew and volunteers out on that type of conditions. So, trail boss said it was a no go. It’s a no go. The weather got it this year. It’s safety first at all times,” Stitt said.

Stitt said that is was sad cancelling the race after all of the hard work that was done preparing for it and having, “everyone geared up and ready to go.” She said that 34 mushers were registered to the race and all the checkpoints were set up. She said the Wasilla based Tier 1 Veterinary Medical Center was even on staff, ready to appear at all the checkpoints.

“It’s been hard. A lot of people are pretty disheartened. I totally get it but we’ll move forward and we’ll plan for next year,” Stitt said.

Stitt said that the Willow 300 is a major part of the Willow Winter Carnival so that’s one of the key reasons why they don’t have an alternative route.

“It’s just sad. It is a major part of the carnival. Everyone was looking forward to it,” Stitt said.

The Willow 300 is one of several races mushers can enter to qualify for the Iditarod and Yukon Quest races. The Willow 300 is also one of multiple sled dog races that were forced to cancel this year due to poor trail conditions.

Both the Iditarod and Yukon races require mushers to have extensive amounts of experience before they embark on either of the 1,000-mile journeys. Rookies looking to enter the Iditarod are required to run at least a pair of 300-mile approved qualifying races and one 150-mile race to demonstrate their knowledge of the skills needed for an endurance race, according to Iditarod.com. For the Yukon Quest, rookie mushers need to complete an officially sanctioned 300-mile race and another race of at least 200 miles, according to its website.

Now, the trouble for these rookies is finding qualifying race. In the wake of the recent closure of qualifying tracks like the Knik 200 Joe Redington Sr. Memorial Sled Dog Race, Stitt said that she is worried about the rookie mushers looking to earn their miles.

“I’m not sure how many qualifiers are left. With all these races dropping it’s very difficult for these rookie mushers to be able to get their mileage in so they can plan to run the Iditarod next year. That’s probably going to fall through a few people,” Stitt said.

The Willow 300 is still a new qualifying race here in the Valley. This was supposed to be the third race but according to trail boss Buddy Gibbens, “Mother Nature” was against them.

“Mother Nature and the weather just would not cooperate,” Gibbens said.

Gibbens said the Willow 300 has nine volunteers on the trail crew that are split into three different teams in the south, central and north. He said the south crew works closer to the Willow area, the central crew works out of the Sheep Creek area and the north crew works by the Trapper Creek area.

Gibbens said that the volunteers invested countless grooming the trails to prepare for the race. He said that on Friday, the temperature started rising. The crews busily groomed the trails over the weekend. Gibbens said that the warm snow wouldn’t shed off the crews’ groomers so they started using their snowmachines to pack the trails.

“Each volunteer had a couple hundred miles on that snowmachine,” Gibbens said.

He said that despite the warm weather, the volunteers did a pretty good job clearing about 280 miles of suitable track. He said the weather predictions looked good for the remainder of the week so they felt like they were all ready to go then the rain wound up being the final nail in the coffin for this year’s race.

“I will always, always go for safety,” Gibbens said.

The rain started on Monday and continued through Tuesday. Gibbens said that there’s a crossing at the Susitna River near Sheep Creek that built up a lot of water thanks to the warm weather and steady rainfall. That unsettling river crossing and the wet trails ultimately led Gibbens to make the final decision to call off the race to avoid any potential harm.

“The Big Sue is a dangerous river in the summer and it’s probably just as dangerous in the winter,” Gibbens said. “There was just too much overflow. We really need some cold weather for these trails to set up.”

Gibbens said that he lives directly behind the Sheep Creek Lodge. On Jan. 30, he said that he looked outside and saw that it was 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the rain was still coming down.

“It’s not that we didn’t give it a try,” Gibbens said.

Gibbens said that he and his volunteers groom the trails as a labor of love and a lot people may take their job for granted unless they actually see them in action and see how much goes into it. He said that seeing the rookies sled on their freshly groomed trails to qualify is a huge incentive to do a good job.

“Those are some hard working boys. It’s kind of an unsung job,” Gibbens said. “We do it because we enjoy it.”

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com