December 10, 2009- First of all, we would like to thank 3-time CB300 champ Allen Moore, former Quest champs Sonny Linder and Aliy Zirkle for signing up for the 2010 race. We have decided to run the race backwards this year so the weather has turned backwards on us. In general the eastern and southern portion of the Copper Basin has received greater snow fall than the northern and western areas. The trail in and out of Gakona and Chistochina is in good condition and there are no issues with hooking a team down. Twenty miles north out of Chisto the snow depth is less than a foot, but the trail has been in since mid-November. Bruno Baureis and I were able to snowmachine to Paxson the day after Thanksgiving and the crossing of the Gakona River was dry. The distance for this leg of the race is 55 miles from Paxson to Chisto. The top of the mountain is exposed, but dog teams have been running across from both directions. A raven flew down from Paxson yesterday and told me it witnessed a wiry little guy with curly dark hair, a mustache, wearing jeans and bunny boots furiously hacking away at tussocks with a pulaski. (John takes trail breaking a little to literally.) He and Zoya have the trail broken to the Gulkana River crossing south of Meirs. John says it is as good has he has ever seen it. Dog teams have traveled over 120 miles of the trail at this point. On Tuesday, I set the base from Tolsona to Gulkana, including the firebreak trail and the seis line around Glennallen. At this time, with the chinooks icing and melting the trail in and out of Glennallen, we are considering moving the start, but are committed to a Tolsona finish. Tree reports marginal conditions around Wolverine. I saw about a foot of snow near Tolsona on Tuesday. I will be back over on the western side next week and will update this report at that time.
The CB board meets again December 16th at 6:00 pm at the Caribou in Glennallen. All interested parties are invited to come! We will have more concrete information after the meeting. Feel free to contact us if you have questions. www.cb300.com
~ Darrin ~
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