Local dog musher Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof placed third in the Gin Gin 200 Dog Sled Race over the weekend, just six minutes behind 2nd place.
He said with the warm temperatures the Peninsula has been experiencing it was shocking to head to those cold temperatures up north.
Gebhardt: “I left here at 42 degrees above and then we raced at 32 degrees below with a little bit of a breeze so it felt really, really, really cold to me. But the conditions were good there was plenty of snow for the trail and then with that cold weather the trail really set up hard so it was a hard fast trail coming back which is ideal for dog racing.”
The Gin Gin 200 trail runs from Meiers Lake to Alpine Creek Lodge near the Denali Highway, and back.
On January 16 Gebhardt will participate in the Kuskokwim 300.
Gebhardt: “I came back from Paxton last night and actually got a nice sleep, that was really nice. Now today we’re loading up the dogs that were sitting at home and heading back up to Eureka Lodge to go train those guys for three days and then come back and get the guys that I brought back from Paxton and take them back up there so it’s a lot of traveling.”
He said the lack of snow did not affect his practice schedule too much.
Gebhardt: “I was really fortunate to sneak out enough training conditions with the four wheeler early and then we got enough snow to get by on this snowmachine for a a long time, the Gin Gin was actually my first time on a dog sled this year. But I had to make one trip up to Cantwell to run on the Denali Highway for five days I guess but other than that I’ve been able to train down here until now, after that last meltdown there’s nothing left.”
