That bold move won Sonny Russell, now 55, the 1989 Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race. He repeated the feat a year later, repelling challenge after challenge from the late Susan Butcher, who would go on to capture her fourth Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race two months later.
Russell no longer races -- heart problems ended his competitive career. But in the two decades since Russell's first victory, only one other Native musher, Ramy Brooks of Nenana, has captured any one of the Big Four of Alaska distance mushing -- the Copper Basin 300, the Kusko, the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Brooks won the Quest in 1999.
The expense of maintaining a large kennel and traveling to big races hits rural mushers particularly hard. Plus, fuel prices have declined slower in rural Alaska than on the road system.
"(Mushing) takes everything, all of what you have, especially time. It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Russell said. "Because of the economy now, it's going to be even harder. For Natives, it take a lot more work -- storing up food, fish and everything else for the race."
But the Kusko, which begins on Friday in Bethel, has long been a beacon for the rural mushers of western Alaska, along with its smaller cousins -- the Bogus Creek 150 and the Akiak Dash. And while rural mushers dominate the shorter races, it's a big jump to the granddaddy. Native entrants in this year's Kusko 300 don't own any top-five finishes in the Big Four and, as usual, the Kusko field is stacked. Entrants include:
• Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King, whose eight victories in Bethel make him the winningest Kusko musher in history;
• Fellow four-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser, who has prevailed twice at the Kusko;
• Defending champ Mitch Seavey of Sterling, who last year earned more prize money in a single season than any musher in history. In addition to the Kusko ($20,000), Seavey was seventh in the Iditarod ($48,000) and won the All-Alaska Sweepstakes' $100,000 winner-take-all jackpot.
• Ken Anderson of Fairbanks, whose second place in the Yukon Quest, followed by fourth in the Iditarod, suggest he's poised for a championship breakthrough.
All are chasing the winner's $20,000 share of the $100,000 purse, mushing's biggest prize after the Iditarod and Quest.
A few months ago, that purse -- and the entire race -- was in jeopardy.
One-time Kusko race manager Staci J. Gillilan was arrested last May on charges that she had been embezzling race funds for almost a year. Myron Angstman, the Kusko race chairman, said Gillilan has not yet pled to charges, and the race hopes she'll pay back some of the missing funds as part of a settlement.
Last month, the race committee announced that fund-raising and cost-cutting efforts would allow the purse for this year's Kusko, the 30th, to remain at $100,000. Purses for the two smaller races, the Bogus Creek 150 and Akiak Dash, will remain at $25,000 and $10,000 respectively.
That's good new for local mushers who dominate the field of the latter two.
The triad of the Kusko 300, Bogus Creek 150 and Akiak Dash makes Bethel the sled dog capital of Alaska in mid-January, infusing the sport with new blood and enthusiasm, particularly from Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta mushers.
The big race draws some of Alaska's best sled dog racers, while the shorter events develop local mushers' confidence and ability.
And what a spectacle it can be. Kusko 300 weekend is a holiday in Bethel, with cars, trucks and snowmachines zipping back and forth from downtown to the staging area on the frozen river. The two longer races begin on Friday, while the 75-mile Akiak Dash starts Saturday.
Russell misses it.
"I mushed for maybe 30 years. Just when I figured middle-distance out, it was time to quit. But it was hard to get off the dogs. They kept me in shape, healthy."
Brooks and John Baker of Kotzebue, eighth in the Iditarod two years ago, now lead a somewhat younger generation of long-distance Native dog drivers -- though Baker, 48, and Brooks, 40, are solidly middle aged. Brooks was suspended from the Iditarod for hitting his dogs in the 2007 race and won't be eligible to return to that race until next year.
Other top Native distance mushers are even older.
Louis Nelson, 66, of Kotzebue broke into the Iditarod top 20 three years ago, and the venerable Mike Williams, 56, of Akiak always seems capable of a top 30 Iditarod finish. Grizzled Jerry Riley of Nenana, the 1976 Iditarod champion, is 72. As recently as 2001, he was eighth in the Iditarod, but in his last two Kuskos, he finished last and scratched. He is not entered this year.
That may open opportunities for such youngsters as Mike Williams Jr., 23, who was 15th in the last two Kuskos.
"Mike Williams Jr. is very much an up-and-coming musher," Angstman said. "There's a lot of excellent dogs up there (at the family kennel in Akiak), and he has a built-in mentor. I'd look for big things out of him. Everything is in place."
The musher agrees.
"Team is looking fine," he said by cell phone during a training run on Tuesday. "I really like these dogs. I'm expecting a strong run."
He's not alone. Twenty-one-year-old Pete Kaiser of Bethel has 30 dogs in the kennel he and his father Ron, a former Kusko racer, operate. Last year Kaiser won the Bogus Creek 150, and this year he decided to move up.
"Pete grew up on runners, and he's very good with dog care, very particular on details and training," said Bob Sept of Bering Sea Animal Clinic, a former Iditarod Trail Committee president and chief veterinarian.
But some young mushers in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta simply prefer the shorter races. Count Ryan Housler, 30, of Russian Mission, among them.
"Yeah, I like the shorter races," said Housler, who's won the last three Aniak Dashes. "My dogs are mostly sprint racers. Last year, we ran seven sprint races and won five of them and were second in the other two."
But the recent death of his grandfather cut into his training, and on Tuesday he was still undecided whether he'd defend his title.
"I don't feel that confident this year if I end up running," Housler said. "All the little things are catching up with me. Some years are just like that."
Reporter Mike Campbell can be reached at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.
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