Welcome back Race Fans!
The Kobuk 440 is known as “The Toughest Race Above the Arctic Circle”, and is Husky Homestead’s last race of the season. Ellen, handler Jeff and her team of twelve (see photo above: Banjo, Ben, Cyclone, Earl, Ebb, Jerry, Kenmore, Lightning, Nylon, Riley, Twister and Zig.) arrived in Kotzebue on Monday afternoon. They’ve been enjoying visiting with friends, spending some time on the trail, and participating in the pre-race activities. Last night Ellen drew Bib #16, however that’s not her starting position as the Kobuk has a mass start and all the 16 teams pull the hook at the same time! The race starts on the sea ice, so there is plenty of room for everyone to line-up.
A look at the start line earlier today.
The Kobuk race offers long daylight hours and most often has spectacular spring weather. The temperature at the start line today was 25°F (we’re at 44°F here in Denali!) and calm – with sunny, blue skies. Here’s a few photos for you from earlier in the week:
Ellen is sporting Jeff’s former headband – go, Team King!
Cyclone is EXCITED!
Out of the 16 teams running in this years’ race, and only seven of those are men – this years’ field is dominated by women! Ellen also ran the 2017 Kobuk race, and finished in 7th place, two minutes ahead of Jeff!
We’ll be doing some race updates here on our blog, as well on Facebook and Instagram – so check back and follow along with us! The Kobuk will be doing updates on their Facebook page, and the leaderboard and live tracker can be found on their website.
More later!
These two sisters are excited and ready to go!
