For Kotzebue's Baker, it's Iditarod timing

Published on March 4th, 2010

By LEW FREEDMAN

This may be John Baker's moment.

In any sporting event the confluence of circumstances produce a winner. In an unpredictable event like the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, where competitors are as secretive about the cards they are holding as they would be in a poker game, and where the elements conspire to dictate racing and trail conditions, there is no sure thing.

But the 2010 Iditarod could be the 47-year-old veteran Kotzebue musher's time.

Baker is coming off a third-place finish in 2009, a race where his team got stronger at the end. His dogs are in their prime years, they are seasoned, and weather conditions have favorably treated his home area trails, making for excellent training opportunities this winter.

"It's the best I've felt about my team," said Baker on the eve of his 15th attempt to win the 1,100-mile mush from Anchorage to Nome.

Baker, a commercial pilot when he is not mushing, has posted 10 finishes in the top 10 since he began racing in 1996, none higher than last year's. Another good omen: Baker won the Kuskokwim 300 in Bethel in January for the first time. The trophy is making the rounds of the neighborhood, he said, on display at the Red Dog Mine temporarily.

This is a fertile year for Kotzebue mushers, not only from the standpoint of featuring a contender for the top prize. Two rookies will join Baker at the starting line in Anchorage on Saturday for the 38th annual race, but if the mushers are Iditarod novices, their families have Iditarod backgrounds.

Quinn Iten, 18, is the son of Iditarod veteran Ed Iten, who placed second in 2005. And Robert Nelson is the son of Louie Nelson, who in his only Iditarod finished 21st that same year.

The younger Iten started seriously thinking about attempting the world's most famous long-distance sled-dog marathon when he was 14.

"I was raised in a mushing kennel," said Iten. "It's always something I wanted to do being basically raised around dogs."

As the final training push to prepare his dogs for the race, Quinn and his father took a 480-mile camping trip. It was good for him and the dogs, he thinks.

"It really was a lot of fun," Iten said.

Considerable advance planning went into Quinn's decision to attempt the Iditarod at the youngest allowable age. He finished high school early and cleared the schedule of everything but mushing after January. This is supposed to be a one-time racing thing - at least for now - with plans for Quinn to enroll at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the fall.

"Quinn's wanted to run this for a couple of years," said Ed Iten. "It's just kind of a progression. He's had his own dog team since he was 6. He wants to see what it's all about. I don't see him changing his college plans."

Counting costs

One frustration for the Itens, as well as other Bush mushers, is the high cost of keeping a kennel and racing around the state. Both Baker and Ed Iten say the price of everything keeps increasing, whether it is postal shipping or freight, flying dogs by jet, or simply shipping supplies from stores to the kennel. Iten said he might pay $15 for a bale of hay, but it might cost three times that to get it home.

Baker said costs of transportation and shipping have increased four-fold in the last few years.

"The cost is getting worse all the time," he said.

Quinn Iten said he could not have afforded to enter the Iditarod, organize shipments, and organize logistics on the Anchorage end without the connections his father has built up over the last two decades.

"It's incredibly expensive," Quinn said. "We have to rely on sponsors and friends in Kotzebue and Anchorage."

Robert Nelson, 41, lives only a mile or so from the Itens and has trained with them and his dad, Louie, over the years. A construction worker who attended the University of Oregon, Nelson said his interest in dogs followed his dad's.

Louie Nelson, 67, is planning to ride the second sled out of Anchorage behind his son, and he has been helping maintain the dog team. Each day, Louie and his wife, Lulu, have gone ice fishing on Kobuk Lake to catch sheefish for the huskies' snacks. On a good day they catch 250 pounds of sheefish.

"I'm just trying to support him as much as I can," Louie said.

For Quinn Iten and Robert Nelson, this Iditarod will likely be a chance to make memories and see what everyone else has been describing about the wonders of the trail.

For Baker, sight-seeing is not on the agenda. He is thinking about victory.

"This group of dogs is the perfect age," he said.