The Under Dog 100 dog sled race is designed to be one for the smaller kennels.
But this year’s race saw some international flavour, including one musher who’s considered to be the best of them all.
The 2023 edition was held on March 24 at North Arm Park with 11 mushers lining up at the start. It was a six-dog, 100-mile (161-km) straight run with checkpoints at Old Fort Rae and Trout Rock Lodge before heading back to the finish line. Mushers took off from the start line in a staggered-start format under the watchful eye of race marshal Trevor Bower.
Marcel Marin was the winner this year, finishing in a time of seven hours and 33 minutes, the only musher to break the eight-hour barrier.
He said the conditions on race day were much better this year than in 2022.
“We started in the morning at around -27 C and it went up to -8 C by the afternoon,” he said. “It’s a lot better than the -40 C or so we had last year. Everyone was more comfortable and the dogs ran better because of it.”
Like most races, there were mandatory rest periods at the checkpoints along the way. Each musher had to stop for four hours at some point while out on the trails — all four hours could be taken at once or they could have been split into two stops of two hours.
Marin said most of the mushers did the two-and-two rest, but some decided to do all four hours at one spot and take their chances.
“It was a bit of a chess game out there — do you split them up or do you rest for all four hours?,” he said.
The trail out near Trout Rock Lodge was put in by Ragnar Wesstrom, the lodge’s owner, and that’s something Marin said Wesstrom has been doing for many years.
“He’ll go out and drag the trail all the way to North Arm Park before the race,” Marin said. “He’s been a big supporter of the race and we can’t thank him enough for all the work he does to make it happen.”
The checkpoints also represented a chance for mushers to get some sustenance during the rest periods and Marin said those were overseen by volunteer Jamie Hynes.
“He put together an amazing spread for everyone,” he said. “All sorts of food, coffee, tea, carpets on the ground. He did all that as a volunteer and I know the mushers all appreciated that very much.”
The international contingent included Martin Early, who flew in from New Zealand just to take part in the race, along with Kathleen Frederick from Alaska, a part-time musher whose full-time job consists of being an administrative law judge in Anchorage.
The big celebrity this year, though, was Jeff King of Alaska. King is considered to be one of the most successful mushers ever; Marin referred to King as the Wayne Gretzky of dog mushing. King is one of just five mushers to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race four times (1993, 1996, 1998 and 2006), along with a win in the Yukon Quest in 1989 and several other major races.
“It was at least a 10,000-km round trip for King and he brought Martin (Early) with him so he could run Jeff’s second team,” said Marin. “Jeff said he came because he said he liked the idea of a six-dog race.”
Even though it was a smaller race than the Iditarod, Marin said beating King was a honour.
“He’s 67 years old, but he’s a tough 67,” he said. “He took it slow at the start, but once he came around the turn (at Trout Rock Lodge), he started catching a lot of mushers. He’s the best for a reason and we all got to see just how great he really is.”
Before the racing, the tourists got a chance to visit various landmarks and attractions in Yellowknife, including the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and the Snow Castle.
“They absolutely loved it,” said Marin. “We’re used to it because we live here and we see them all the time, but you see how much they get into it and it makes you smile.”
Here are the official results of the race:
1st — Marcel Marin (seven hours, 33 minutes)
2nd — Jeff King (eight hours, four minutes)
3rd — Jesika Reimer (eight hours, 10 minutes)
4th — Martin Early (eight hours, 34 minutes)
5th — Craig Houghton (eight hours, 46 minutes)
6th — Kathleen Frederick (eight hours, 47 minutes)
7th — Anna Nordin (nine hours, one minute)
8th — Chavez Marin — (nine hours, nine minutes)
9th — Silas Godber (nine hours, 27 minutes)
10th — Ilana Kingsley (10 hours, 29 minutes)
11th — Eric Marsden (eight hours, 58 minutes)*
source: Under Dog 100
*Eric Marsden was placed last after he asked for assistance from another sled to carry one of his dogs. The race rules stipulate that every musher must return with everything they leave the start line with, including dogs.
