In the Kobuk 440 sled dog race, the top three finishers get most of the attention. But this year, one musher stood out as the fan-favorite along the trail. Rookie musher Jessi Downey spent part of her childhood in the Northwest Arctic and was the only Iñupiaq woman in the race. In fact, she might be just the second Iñupiaq woman musher in the race’s more than 30-year history.
This was 23-year-old Downey’s first Kobuk 440. She says it was the longest and hardest race she has ever competed in. This year's nearly 400-mile race started in Kotzebue and then carved its route through six villages before looping back to Kotzebue.
“There were some harder spots — like, solid. But the base was softer,” Downey said. “It's like walking in mashed potatoes.”
Downey was one of two women in the race, along with veteran musher Michelle Phillips. Race organizer Paul Hansen thinks Downey may be the just second female Iñupiaq musher in the race’s more than 30 year history. He says the last Iñupiaq woman musher, Kotzebue-based Lucy Nordlum, ran the course over three decades ago.
Downey said she thought a lot about the connection to her culture while she was on the trail.
“People traveled by dog team for a long, long, long time between these villages and just all around the region,” she said. “It felt pretty special to be able to continue doing that.”
Downey also got to visit the community she grew up in, just before the race start. Her father, Wesley Downey, is from Noatak, a village of nearly six hundred people about 50 miles north of Kotzebue. Downey’s family left the village when she was six.
Returning to Noatak by dogsled after more than a decade, Downey says she was overwhelmed by the warm welcome.
“I felt like the whole town was out, and everyone made signs,” she said. "And they just only found out I was coming up that day.”
It was also Downey’s first time visiting the six Northwest Arctic communities along the Kobuk 440 course.
“Another fun part of it was, once they learned my name ‘Jessie Downey,’ they're like, ‘Oh, my mom was cousins with your Ahna,’” she said. “So I'm like, ‘Oh, cool. We're family.’”
Downey didn’t grow up mushing. She says she first got into the sport while living in Willow. An elderly neighbor asked for help caring for her dog team.
Downey went from working with other mushers’ dogs to acquiring her own dogs and establishing a kennel of her own. She started Aimaagvik Kennel in 2016. Aimaaġvik means “home” in Iñupiatun.
This year she ran the 440 with all of her own dogs. Which, Downey said, is significant.
“I put all my time with them, helping them learn how to run and figuring out which ones can lead. And it was just me and the dogs,” she said.
Unlike many of the more established mushers in the Kobuk 440— who rely in part on sponsors to fund their kennels – Downey said that besides support from friends and family, she has funded her kennel and races herself.
She says she spent the past five years, from late May until early November, loading lead and zinc ore onto ships at the Red Dog Port. The port is part of the Red Dog Mine, about 80 miles north of Kotzebue.
“I can fund the kennel almost the whole winter,” Downey said. “It gets a little slim at the end, but we make it.”
Downey and her nine dogs crossed the Kobuk 440 finish line in ninth place, after a little over four days on the trail.
Downey said she wants to return for another Kobuk 440, but she isn’t sure if it will be next season. After finishing the race, she is now qualified for longer distance competitions, like the Iditarod. This year, her boyfriend Hunter Keefe placed 11th in the Iditarod. Downey said her goal is to run that race next year, alongside Keefe and other friends.
