1-9-2016: the Copper Basin 300

The Copper Basin 300 is a dog sled race, approximately 300 miles long, that starts and ends in Glennallen, Alaska, and is a qualifying race for the Iditarod.  We had a fun time watching the start last year and driving along the route to cheer on the teams.

This year our weather has been up and down so much that the trails by Glennallen weren't good enough to host the start of the race, so it was moved to the Gakona Lodge.  We noticed a huge difference in amounts of snow once we hit about 5 miles north of Glennallen, so we weren't surprised that they changed the start of the race.

We got a late start today, and missed the start of the race, so we just kept driving up the Tok Cutoff, pulling off at a few places to watch some teams pass by.

We eventually made our way to the first checkpoint in Chistochina (saying Hi to the VPSO on our way).  We stood around, me taking photos, Jeff chatting with some of the people who were there.

Jeff said this plane has been sitting there for quite a while.

2 teams coming in to the checkpoint

But, alas, we had not dressed properly to stand around outside for a super long time, and after only 124 photos, decided it was time to go.

they're so frosting when they get to the checkpoint. 

It was a good time, and I'm excited to go and watch it each year...