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Mar 18, 2008 11:21 AM Filed in:
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Iditarod Mushers Accept Honors
BANQUET: Bicknell Claims Red Lantern As The Race Wraps Up
By CRAIG MEDRED
Published: March 18th, 2008 02:03 AM
Bicknell, the last musher to reach the mandatory 8-hour rest stop of White Mountain 77 miles east of Nome, left there with Liz Parrish from Klamath Falls, Ore., about the time the Iditarod finishers banquet and awards ceremony was coming to a close in Nome on Sunday night.
By 8 a.m. Monday, Parrish's team had emerged from the sometimes problematic Topkok Hills, and she went on into Nome to finish before noon. But there was still no sign of Bicknell, who gets around on an artificial left knee and a surgically rebuilt right knee, despite the fact the women were only three minutes apart leaving White Mountain.
It was hard not to flash back to what happened to Bicknell in her first try at the Iditarod in 2007. The last musher out of the Puntilla Lake checkpoint high in the Alaska Range last year, she and her team drove straight into a blizzard in Rainy Pass. Trail markers had by then either been knocked down by other dog teams, blown away by the winds, or knocked down and blown away.
Bicknell and the dogs got lost and eventually ended up heading down through Ptarmigan Pass and Hell's Gate instead of finding the Iditarod route through the Dalzell Gorge.
Down on the South Fork Kuskokwim River below Ptarmigan Pass, she got into overflow, got soaked and ended up spending a night out with the dogs as a search for them all began to ramp up.
Bicknell eventually made it to the Rohn checkpoint, but she and the team were so worn out from the misadventure, she decided to scratch there.
She reached the finish line at 8:36 p.m. Monday to claim the red lantern -- the last of the awards to be presented as part of Iditarod 2008.
The others were handed out at the banquet Sunday night. It was attended by 75 of the 78 official Iditarod finishers. Sixty-four-year-old Gene L. Smith from Omak, Wash., crossed the finish line just in time to make it. Iditarod rookies Bicknell, Parish and Martin Koenig from Seeley Lake, Mont., didn't make it in time, and will get their own banquet, sans the hoopla of the big affair where notable Iditarod achievements are recognized.
This year, the honors went to:
• Paul Nader, a volunteer veterinarian on the trail, won The Golden Stethoscope Award for his life-saving sleuthing at the Kaltag checkpoint.
When a dog dropped there didn't respond to the intravenous antibiotics it was being given to fight what was believed to be a bacterial infection, Nader got on the phone with a specialist, a veterinary internist, he knows in Pennsylvania.
They discussed the dog's symptoms. The internist thought the dog might be hypoglycemic -- suffering from low blood sugar. To check for that, however, Nader needed a blood-testing kit he didn't have. So, he went to the village clinic and explained the problem.
They put him in touch with a diabetic in the village, who loaned his blood-testing kit. Sure enough, when tested, the dog was hypoglycemic. Vets swapped out the antibiotics in the dog's IV for sugar water, and pretty soon the animal was doing fine. Along with Nader, veterinarians Vince Gresham, Vern Otte and Michael Zindeen also got an honorable mention with the award.
The 11-year-old Babe paced Smyth's team at a time when most sled dogs his age are retired.
Smyth was deeply moved by the award. Not only is Babe a part of his family, the award was begun by his late mother, who used to sew the golden harnesses herself. Smyth was so shaken he couldn't talk, but he and Babe were roundly applauded by the crowd.
• Cim Smyth from Big Lake, Ramey's brother, won the Nome Kennel Club's Fastest from Safety to Nome Award. The award goes to the top-20 team that posts the best time on the roughly 20 miles of trail between the Safety checkpoint and Nome.
The Smyths are famous for being able to get their dogs to put on a kick at the end of the demanding 1,100-mile Iditarod. They've taken turns winning this award, and this year Cim got it with a time of 2 hours and 11 minutes. The prize for being 50 minutes faster than race winner Lance Mackey on the last leg of the trail was $500.
• Jeff King from Denali Park, a four-time Iditarod champ and the runner-up in the race this year, won the Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for dog care.
Pancakes in Mt. Shasta
King managed to get all 16 of his dogs to White Mountain, and it looked for a time as if he might have a chance at becoming the first Iditarod champ to make it to Nome without dropping a single tired or injured dog along the trail.
But at White Mountain, King -- recognizing that a team can only go as fast as the slowest dog -- decided to drop two in a bid to catch race leader Mackey. It didn't help. Mackey still won by an hour, but for being voted by vets as the winner of the Seppala award, King did get a couple tickets to anywhere Alaska Airlines flies. The musher is planning on a Mexican vacation.
• Ray Redington Jr. from Wasilla, the grandson of Iditarod founder Joe Redington, claimed the Fred Meyer Sportsmanship Award. Every time somebody got in trouble on the trail this year, the young Redington appeared to be Johnny on the spot to help.
He assisted one-legged Canadian musher William Kleedehn after he lost his team on a treacherous ice bridge in the Dalzell Gorge and came to the aid of musher Silvia Willis in Shaktoolik.
When Redington wasn't helping other mushers with problems, he was reportedly spotted on the trail putting back trail markers -- knocked down by leading teams -- so that mushers coming behind wouldn't get lost. He got a trophy and a $500 gift certificate for his efforts.
It's official
• William Kleedehn from Carcross, Yukon Territory, who treats his artificial leg as if everyone had one, won both The Northern Air Cargo Herbie Nayokpuk Memorial Award and the Rookie of the Year. The Nayokpuk award is voted by checkers along the trail.
They are asked to be on the watch for someone who especially exhibits the spirit of the late Shishmaref Cannonball -- tough, resourceful, helpful and always of good humor. Kleedehn got a trophy, a Northern Air Cargo freight allotment and a Carhartt jacket -- the pockets of which were stuffed with dollar bills along with Herbie's award.
The rookie of the year goes to the top-placing rookie. Kleedehn, who sometimes flirted with the top 20, ended up 27th in the most competitive Iditarod field ever.
The rookie award did, however, net him a nice trophy and a $1,500 check from Jerry Austin from Saint Michael. Austin, a member of the Iditarod Hall of Fame, and his wife, Clara, have been covering the rookie award since 1980.
• Jennifer Freking from Finland, Minn., won the Chevron Most Inspirational Musher Award for enduring tragedy along the trail but hanging in there.
• The village of Nulato won the Golden Clipboard Award for hospitality. When the community hall in the village became unavailable for use during the race, local residents helped to move the checkpoint to the village school, which proved easier to reach and provided hot water for mushers making warm food for their teams.
Mushers who vote on the award also showed significant support for the Takotna, Galena, Cripple and Nikolai checkpoints, according to the Iditarod.
• Warren Palfrey from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, won the GCI Satellite Communications Most Improved Musher Award.
Palfrey, who bought the 2007 dog team of four-time Iditarod champ Doug Swingley from Lincoln, Mont., rode behind it to a 26th-place finish.
It wasn't as good as that for which he'd hoped, but a huge improvement over his 60th place showing in 2007 and the biggest leap forward by any musher in the race. He gets a year's use of a satellite phone and 500 free minutes.
And pancakes in Sellersburg
• Lance Mackey from Fairbanks, the race winner, officially picked up the Wells Fargo Winner's Purse Award of $69,000 and the Anchorage Chrysler Dodge Official Truck Award of a 2008 Dodge Ram Laramie, Hemi 4X4 quad-cab pickup.
In addition to the awards handed out at the banquet, those collected along the trail were:
• The PenAir Spirt of Alaska Award, a spirit mask and a $500 credit on PenAir, for being first to McGrath -- Mackey.
• The Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award, $3,000 in gold nuggets, for being first into Cripple -- DeeDee Jonrowe from Willow.
• The Millennium Hotel First to the Yukon Award, a gourmet meal and $5,000 in cash, for being first to Ruby -- Mackey.
• The Wells Fargo Gold Coast Award, a trophy and $2,500 in gold nuggets, for being first to Unalakleet on the Bering Sea Coast -- King.