“I'm like, ‘Man, I can't believe I won this thing so easily.’ And then like, two minutes later, there's Richie,” said musher Hugh Neff. “I looked back and I just started giggling. I just couldn't believe it.”
Hugh Neff during a 24-hour break at the Iditarod checkpoint of Cripple in March 2022.
Neff led almost the entire race and had a comfortable hour lead on Diehl out of the Kiana checkpoint, just 80 or so miles from the finish.Neff said he was watching his back. Shortly before the finish, he stopped on a hill where he had a good view of the trail to snack his dogs. He said he didn’t spot Diehl. He then cruised into Kotzebue, thinking Diehl’s team was still miles behind.
Neff is a longtime musher who currently lives in Anchorage. Neff said his Kobuk 440 dog team was similar to the team he took on this year’s Iditarod. The dogs are from veteran musher Jim Lanier’s Northern Whites Kennel based in Chugiak.He said the Kobuk 440 win felt good. Among the challenges this year, he said: breaking trail. Neff and his team cut a path through 4 to 6 inches of fresh snow, plus drifts of up to a foot during an 85-mile chunk of trail on the way back to Kotzebue. Neff credited the win to his 22-month-old dog Solo, who he had in lead for about 300 miles of the race.
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