"Honey, " you ask her, "what would you
like to do for next Valentine's Day?"  She will be SO excited that
you are thinking of her for NEXT year, that she will be mush in
your hands. And that is good because next, she is going to come
unglued...
"Oh, I'm not sure dear, why do you ask?" “Well”, you reply, "I was thinking
that we could go for a snowmobile ride up in Alaska . Well,
actually it's kind of a race,…kind of a 2,000 mile race, for
a team of two riders, and I would really like to do it with you
since there has never been a male/female or spouse team
entered!" By now, you either have the BEST wife/girlfriend
partner to ride with you on the Iron Dog Race, or her response will
be; “Oh, that is so sweet of you to think of
me, but really, I think you should do that with your best friend
Billy Bob down from the snowmobile shop - it sounds like too long
of a ride for me. " NOW, you REALLY have the BEST wife or girlfriend!
You are IN, your first hurdle has been conquered.  As you settle into the fact that you now have
a kitchen pass for this little adventure, there are just a few
other issues you need to overcome. One of course, is for Billy Bob
to not laugh you all the way out the back door of the shop,
thinking you have inhaled way too much 2-stroke smoke. But with any
kind of luck, he too has the aspirations of trekking with you on
the longest snowmobile race in the country, The TESORO IRON
DOG RACE.
So after a few brewskies, you both have made the
first step of becoming an Iron Dog Racer - you have mentally
decided that YES, we want to do this. From here, it will be all
downhill and smooth sailing to find yourself on Big Lake , February
13, at the Call of The Wild Bar, revving your
engine at the starting line with your absolute, for the next 6
days, BEST friend in the world, your teammate. Well, maybe not
really smooth sailing and down hill, but short of getting yourself
in tip top physical shape, putting on hopefully thousands of miles
on a machine before the race, and beefing and building your machine
to get you up, over, and across the most rugged terrain Alaska can
offer. Oh yeah, and the little issue of around $30,000 to do this,
you too, can run the Iron Dog. But with big prize money, and
hopefully not totaling your sled, not a bad investment!  This is the first of a two-part story on
someone just like you that wants to run the Iron Dog. We are going
to follow a regular couple of guys that have never run the Iron
Dog, or for that matter, ever run a snowmobile race before. These
are just two normal every day hard core snowmobile rider's that
have a desire for a huge adventure. Just regular guys like you, me,
and ……..Billy Bob.
Here in the first half, the decision and the
preparation by the rookie team of Skeet Black and
Larry Kropp will be layed out to see if in fact
YOU want to run the race. These two guys have very different
backgrounds, are not “old” school buddies, and have
only in the past few years become pretty darn good friends.  | Skeet has grown up here in Alaska and
“snowmachines”, as they are called up here, go all the
way back to Skeet's childhood days as being a part of most Alaskan
families. Not just for recreation, but the only mode of
transportation for many of families in getting around. (Heck, in
the late 70's I was able to ride me 1970 Ski Doo Olympic to school
from my house to work on it in shop class!) |  | Larry, on the other hand, is still a
“cheechako” to most Alaskans, a newcomer. But his last
2 years here in Alaska has included a lifestlye that puts him into
the deserving makings of a long time “sourdough”. His
experiences and life dream was to run the one of the Baja Series
Motorcycle Races as he grew up riding bikes in the lower 48 states.
Still a motorhead by choice, but shorts and flip flops as the
casual wear instead of bunny boots and beaver hats like Skeet
knew. | | [Editor's
Note - We're not sure if Larry & Skeet actually look like this,
or if these twitchy photos do indeed best represent their current
state of helter-skelter. They look as if they phoned these photos
in from Antarctica and for some reason are both missing their left
eye - is there such a thing as Pre-Iron Dog Twitch?! ] |
In fact, it was actually Larry that said, "Yo Skeeter,……..what's this Iron Dog
thing? Why aren't we running that?” Well Skeet thought to himself, first, 2000 miles
across the last frontier, and the little issue of $30,000 for a
team of two to plan on shelling out for this ”fun”
ride! Skeet is in pharmacy and Larry a doctor, with neither being a
wrench turner by trade. But after some soul searching, and some
serious selling of themselves to come up with some sponsorships
from their work acquaintances and miscellaneous business's, the
boys are in! Starting with the $4,000 race entry fee, the tab
starts to build.  Just like the old cowboys, each rider's
closest companion will be his pony for this trip. So plan on a
brand new sled to START the race with. That means some other mode
of mileage racking equipment to hopefully put on your 2,000 to
3,000 miles BEFORE the race to prepare your body for the grueling
trip. So there is a cool $15,000 to $20,000 for sleds getting you
up to the $24K mark. Of course like with any fun new toy, the
beef-ups and mods that you will need for this type of ride will
bring the $30,000 tab right quick. Shortened seats, bigger gas
tanks, saddle bags, GPS's, aftermarket shocks, studs, double
windshields, and survival gear are just a few of the needed or
required equipment items to be inspected at the sled tech
inspection.
These race rookies ponies of choice are
2005 Ski Doo MXZ RenegadeX 600's. As one of the
rules of the race limits the cc's to 700 for 2 strokes and 1,000
cc's for 4 strokes, they felt this would be a good choice as the
600's are fair on fuel consumption, and Rev's DID win last year's
race. They snow-checked these sleds to get the X model. The guys are going to do this race a little
unorthodox per most of the “experienced” race teams, as
they do not have “training” sleds to put all their
pre-race miles on. Skeet even commented that he had to
“re-learn” how to ride a snowmachine when he got on his
Rev. The handling characteristics of the machine was more like a
motorcycle than a snowmobile, which suited his motorcycle
background partner Larry just fine! Both are new to Ski Doo's this
year so extra time and effort was involved in learning about their
rides. They both spent a lot of time this summer racing their 4
wheeler's on Alaskan trails as their summer training program and
figure they will have about 1000 miles on their race sleds prior to
the start.  One of the features they will have on their
machines which has not been very common to the Iron Dog, will be
battery equipped sleds. Their thinking is to be well-prepared with
some comforts such as heated clothing and 12 volt power. With the
trail following many rivers, navigating VFR (visual flight rules
for you non-pilots) is a good portion of the race. However, in the
trees, mountains, and of course, in the dark, life is much easier
with a Global Positioning System (GPS). They are going to be
running Garmin 276 Marine GPS's. The GPS needs to
be heated as anything below 20 degrees they become less accurate so
the 12 battery again comes into play. This will help them navigate
the race as we all remember from school, the shortest distance
between two points is a straight line.
And I can guarantee you, not many people have
EVER ridden between Ophir and Poorman just for a place to go
riding, so only the John Faeo's, Scott Davis's, and multi yearly
entrants of this race have a clue on the route. AND throw in a
blizzard and white-out conditions, and the experienced racers too
are humbled on which way is up! The Ski Doo's will have taller windshields,
saddle bags, bar riser's, and are wired for LEAD-DOG Helmet
Lights as a good portion of the ride is through Alaska's
dark, long winter nights. Locating reflective trail marker's, being
able to see where you are looking instead of where your machine is
pointing, and working on a dead sled all are time saving feats on a
long race like this. The boys are really going on pretty much stock
out of the box sleds as the factory production sleds of today don't
need the tub/suspension/ and motor modifications that machines even
in the early 1990's usually did. The last section of preparation for each and
every team is …YOU, the physical conditioning of your body
and preparation of your gear. It will be you, your teammate, your
two sleds, and your gear. Out in the middle of nowhere. This race
is 2,000 miles of cross country beating, AND, the winners will
cross the finish line with a running time of around 38 hours.
That's an average of 50 miles per hour including legs up and over
three mountain ranges, runs up and down three major rivers
including the most spectacular Yukon River , and out on the frozen
Bearing Sea ,…. AND BACK! Everything from running on
windblown frozen sea ice with pressure ridges that love to eat
skis, to water skipping the typical open leads of the South Fork of
the Kuskokwim River. The Race has become SO fast with today's
machines, that safety has been strickly implemented and mandatory
layovers set spreading the race over a 6 day period. So in 6 days
you will ride more miles than most recreation riders get all year.
So you BETTER be in shape and have lots of the current season miles
under your belt before the green flag drops! Skeet and Larry have tried to be out every
weekend since June and feel they will have 1500 miles logged before
Race day. They actually started this summer with the 4 wheeler's.
Skeet likes working with weights, and Larry doing upper body work.
Larry has even had three back operations! This is an endurance race
no different from any marathon or triathalon. Your body will get
beat, bruised, and taxed, so it better be 100% when you start. As
with any race, psychology, both your mental concentration and your
strategy must be keen. Where and when to layover, where and when to
do your repairs, when to sleep, staying hydrated, are all key to
you, on this race, EVEN to be able to finish! Their gear will need to be layered to compensate
for the heavy sweating of hard racing and plan from everything from
rain to 60 below zero. They will be wearing heated one piece suits
and are going with the Ski Doo modular helmet.
They hope to not need the typical duct taping of exposed nose and
cheeks to prevent the bare skin from getting frostbite from wind.
Remember, even at 10 degrees above zero, riding at 90 miles per
hour skin can freeze very quick! They will have light weight poly
gloves and goretex overgloves tucked into the handlebar gauntlets
on the machine . Their choice of footwear will be Bunny
boots. You can literally fill them up with water while
pulling your sled out of the open creek you fell into, and your
feet will still be warm. The rules say each rider needs a sleeping
bag good to –30 degree's, each team needs a tent, stove, and
emergency food. They need tools and parts as required by the race
rules. You can get all the Iron Dog information at
http://www.irondog.org So 3 ½ months into Skeet and Larry's
winter, they are ready to trailer their race sleds to Big Lake for
the start of the 2005 Tesoro Iron Dog Race. Plenty of preparation,
time, planning, and oh yeah, money, now brings them to Race
day. Next month we'll bring you full coverage of
the Race along with our featured Rookie team of 2005's conquest of
the 2005 Race. Check out Larry and Skeet's website at http://irondog.blogs.com to help you
more in figuring out if you too, want to run the Iron Dog. [And
then we can solve that Iron Dog Twitch mystery once and for all...
] |
