As if we didn't have enough sled dog action going on with the Yukon Quest Alaska kicking off Saturday, another race begins Saturday afternoon closer to South Central Alaska. The Goosebay 150 - also known as the Tug Bar - begins at noon and this year will do two loops around the famed Scary Tree section of the trail.
That's right, another race that has to change course last minute because the weather in South Central Alaska freaking sucks. There's no other way to say it. Above freezing temps are sitting over much of the area and it's caused either very wet snow or, for the most part, rain. Trails are icy. Icy and wet. Thankfully the further north you go in South Central the better the trails are, but they've still used caution to reroute the race.
A quick peek at the forecast for Saturday is a high of 26F with the possibility of "light snow". A little warm, perhaps, for the dogs, but with it being a loop trail of out and back (two times) of roughly 39 miles (according to the race's facebook page on Thursday) teams should still feel confident in their teams abilities. Just don't expect to see too many dog coats or "male wraps".
The roster may change from what the race last posted on February 2, but for now it's a strong roster of just over twenty names. The race is a "pre-qualifier" for the Iditarod and while not all of the teams that run it are planning a trip to Nome in the near future, it's fun for seasoned and new teams alike.
We won't be doing a race preview for this race as it's quite the informal set up (we like it that way) but highly recommend following the race's Facebook page as they do try to give out information when possible. They run on very little in the way of volunteer manpower so the race organizers wear a lot of hats.
Let's see that roster now, shall we?
Musher Roster
