Eight Mercer Island Dads Compete in Ski to Sea Race

From the foot of Mount Baker to the shores of Bellingham Bay, eight Mercer Island dads ran, kayaked, went skiing, bicycling and canoeing with 500 other teams for 100 miles, to reach 15th place (100th overall) in the Open Recreation division of this 100-year-old race.

The Ski to Sea Race (S2S), widely known as the Ski to Sea, is a seven-legged multi-event competition held on Memorial Day in Whatcom County. The race starts on the ski slopes of Mount Baker, a 10,800-foot-high volcano, and extends all the way to Bellingham Bay, where the finish line is on the shores of Marine Park in Fairhaven. The seven legs of the race are: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, running, bicycling, canoeing, mountain biking, and finally, kayaking. The Ski to Sea has its origins in the Mount Baker Marathons of 1911. The early races ran from the city of Bellingham, to the top of Mount Baker and back.

Mercer Island’s “Don’t Panic Dad’s!” team consisted of 7 MI dads, (and one former MI dad) who came in 100th overall with a combined time of 9:08:56 (9 hours, 8 minutes, 56 seconds).

The team members are: Eric Jaecks - nordic ski, Marco Angel - alpine ski, Dave Hauge – run, Dean Kanenaga - road bike, Rick Bogar – canoe, Ken Duffié – canoe, Mike Gage - mountain bike and Ralph Jorgenson - sea kayak.

Island resident Jaecks, who got the team together, noted that this wasn’t the first time he’d done this race. “I did this race when it was called the “Ridge to River” 20 years ago with my dad,” he mused. “So when a bunch of us (Mercer Island) dads had our kids do the Junior Nordic Ski Program, we got to talking about the Ski to Sea race and how much fun it would be, and we pretty much assembled the team right there! I had to fish around a bit for a runner and bicyclist, but there are a lot of dads on the South End who like to remain active, so that was easily done.”

Jaecks started the relay race off with cross-country skiing, and said that the packed snow and ice made for a wild race. “It was a challenge just to stay on your feet—there was a guy who fell on his face right in front of me and I just managed to dodge him-the last half mile was a rocket ride downhill, so it only took me 25 minutes to do four miles.”

A former Mercer Island resident who moved to Bellingham, Kanenaga, not only rode 42 miles in a little over two hours on his bicycle, he hosted all the other team members and their families for a pasta feed the day before the race. “This was my first Ski to Sea, and it was a great day with lots of excitement in the air,” said Kanenaga. “There’s an 8 mile downhill during the course, though, that gave all us cyclists a pounding—people were suffering, nearly falling off their bikes in the transition area.”

Angel was contacted by the Don’t Panic Dads team because of his reputation for skiing every month of the year without missing a month in eight years. “We all live a stone’s throw from each other on the South End of the Island, too, so it’s not like I was hard to find,” Angel said. “I think it’s awesome that we came in 101st on the 100th anniversary of the race, especially on our first time out.”

Angel’s alpine ski was one of the shorter legs of the relay race, though he had a “900 foot vertical” climb that took him 35 minutes to complete. “It was dangerous, but also a tremendous amount of fun to see all seven disciplines come together in one race, with each of us handing off an electronic chip to each other,” he said. “Dean got us all Boundary Bay Ski to Sea ESB ales in a big bottle to commemorate the event’s 100th year…I’m enjoying mine now.”

“There’s 500 teams that compete with skills ranging from Olympic athletes to guys who like the outdoors, like us,” said Jorgenson, the kayaking dad of the group. “You just jump in and see how many boats you can pass while minimizing the boats that pass you.” Jorgenson earned the respect of his teammates for entering the water with 4-foot whitecaps in 25 mile per hour winds. “They ended up canceling the race for the last 200 boats, but if you were in the first 300, you were allowed to go,” he said. “I saw 3, 4, 5 people capsize during the first half of my leg … but there were plenty of rescue boats and Coast Guard people there, so it’s really not that brave.”

But it was the fear factor of trying this new event that got the Mercer Island dads their team name. “Some of the guys on the team were quite nervous about trying this race, so that’s why I called it Don’t Panic Dads” said Jaecks. “But it turned out to be a good guys activity, since most of us don’t have enough time to go out and do stuff with other guys on the Island. It gave us plenty of time for some serious male bonding.”

 For more information on the Ski to Sea event, visit their website, at http://www.skitosea.com