This is the leg!

FL-500: Dag Broch shares about the leg from Levajok 1 to Karasjok.

Dag describes the leg from Levajok 1 to Karasjok in FM-500 as easy, nice and flat, a leg he enjoys. It is in many ways similar to the areas where the musher from Tana does his everyday practice. Many can experience the leg as long and a bit monotone. If you have started out too hard from Alta, this leg is where you’ll start to see injuries, Dag explains. The entire stretch is done on the river ice, there are no scary hills to go down. Twenty kilometers before you reach Karasjok the river changes name from Tana River to Karasjohkka. These last kilometers can be long and dull. For a long time you believe Karasjok is right around the next bend. Several new bends later the town finally appears.

This might be the leg where you can get the best impression of the other mushers in the race; you can see a long-long way up the river and get a good look at where the competition is. You can of course look backwards too if you want, say Borch and insist that he himself never looks back.  

Dag Borch participated in his first Finnmarksløp in 2009. That year he only had five dogs in his team all the way from Levajok to Alta. Dag had a special memory from this leg from the same year. The river ice was shiny and free of snow. Through the clear ice you could see the rocks and plants on the bottom of the river. The leg was difficult for the dogs, they did not like running on the ice and kept searching for snow covered trails.

The musher from Tana also talks about the checkpoint in Karaskjok that was moved to the center of Karasjok in 2010. “I like the new track in to the checkpoint. You come in from the lonely river and straight in to the center of town. It is a nice checkpoint with high spirits”.            

Photo: Jørn Losvar