Just a short impression after boarding our helicopter and viewing the trail from Willow to Yetna.
After watching teams from the vantage of a helicopter, one thing noticed is the symmetry and smooth running of the elite teams. It was no surprise when we saw Sorlie’s #50 team shortly out of Willow. Sorlie is a traditionalist driving a classic tobaggan style sled with none of the cabooses and trailer sleds of others and uses the old style harnesses that pull off the hip of the dogs. Noticeable, and a key to his game plan, was the trotting team. Sorlie had already settled the team into an efficient traveling speed.
Even though mushers wear their bibs with numbers out of the start chute to Yetna station (about three and a half hours on the trail) it is difficult to read numbers. We briefly saw John Baker, a top contender, at number 48 trotting ahead of Sorlies team, then Swenson, King, Seavey, Buser, Gebhardt, Swingley, Jonrowe, Brooks and the pack one by one. On several occasions we saw passes, sixteen dogs flowing in an arc around a slower team, with an immediate impression. It was clear that the top mushers have trained their teams to travel at a trot. Some teams were loping, but overall it was my observation that the top teams had adapted a strategy of easy trotting.
Finally, just outside of Yetna, traveling in direction Skwetna we spot #5 Ramy Brooks at the head of the pack with a half bale of hale tied to his sled. Obviously, his intention is to camp for a rest—-normally a four hour rest at this stage of the race—-and then continue up the trail by simply blowing through Skwetna. Swingley, on the other hand, told me he planned on an arrival in Skwetna about 9;30PM. This means that Doug plans to make the 6 hours 70 mile run in one leap and will not camp outside the Skwetna checkpoint.
Out of the chute, we are witnessing dramatic differences in strategy, which is all the fun of watching the Iditarod.
The Master, Ric Swenson, true to his patient strategy that led him to 5X’s wins, is observed comfortably seated on his caboose sled, a respectable rooster tail of snow exiting from under his brake (to slow the dogs.)
Dee Jonrowe’s team looks magnificent, working carefully around overflow on the river, and trotting and alternately trotting just short of Yetna Station. Unlike most of her male top contenders, she is driving a traditional tobaggan sled with none of the modern attachments. Reason? She is being extra careful. Since she is concerned about the rough trail she wants to be safe. If she has to jump off the sled, she will not be in danger of being entrapped by trailer sled to the rear.
Jessie Royer, #3, another elite female musher, is spotted just at Yetna about 5:30PM still in formation. Only Ramey Brooks is slightly ahead, about a six minute advantage after three and half hours of running.
What to Look for:
Our crew is now positioned in Skwetna looking for a first team in the checkpoint. Insiders are more interested in strategy, than time, because it is clear that the top teams are actually trying to go SLOW, so they can go faster tomorrow. All this posturing is confusing, but it makes the race. Note, which mushers camp before Skwetna, camp in Skwetna, and those that blow through Skwetna for a camp further up in the woods.
The race Detective enjoys this challenge. By midnight, we will have a tighter notion of strategy. In particular, I want to see Sorlie in action. His influence is profound because he was quite willing to take an hour from the competition on the first night of mushing. Will top mushers be willing to give it to him this year?
Just Reported
Stan Hooley, Iditarod race director, reports a musher five miles out of Skwetna at 7:45 PM.
Temperatures quickly dropping to 0 F and wind ceasing.
Jim Lanier and Zach Steer arrive first into Skwetna at 8PM. Top contenders Martin Buser and Dee Jonrowe arrive within the next half hour.
As a little mental exercize I decide to time Martin Buser, who I know to be one of the best in checkpoints, and see how long it takes him to park the dogs, prepare a straw bed, remove booties, run to the water hole in the river for cool fresh water (which he immediately offers his dogs in bowls), then run and walk fast back to a giant cook pot of hot water, add the hot water to a cooler full of kibble and meat and fat, then serve the dinners to his hungry huskies. In 26 minutes, which is a record in my book, Martins dogs are satiated, and now settling in on their straw beds for a nap.
After this flurry of action, I inform Martin of a 26 minute time. He smiles, and says “I am sorry I couldn’t have done it faster,”—-an understatement. While Martin walks from his resting dogs on the frozen river up to the Dehlia cabin, high on the bank of the Yetna River, the rest of the mushers in the yard are still doing dog chores. Martin could have said thank you very much for the half hour gift. His dogs were already resting while others were waiting for dining room service. Rest is the bank account of the musher. The more you collect, the easier it is to invest in running.
Doug Swingley, at exactly 9:28PM, arrives in Skwetna with one dog riding in a special carrier in the back of the sled. He explains that he has been alternating dogs every hour just for a little rest—–a practise similar to Jeff King. I asked what he thought, and Doug shrugged his shoulders and thought it was worth trying. For sure, he reasoned, he had plenty of power and it was better than riding the brake to slow the team.
By 11:30 Mackey, Sorlie, Baker, et al ,blew through Skwetna enroute to a camping ground up the trail out of Skwetna in direction Finger Lake. Their probable camp spot is a lake midway to Finger Lake known as One Stone Lake. Theoretically, it gives this group a good shot for a one run push to the divide of the Alaska Range at Rainy Pass. Our film crew caught the action in the dark while Buser , Swingley, and Jonrowe had dinner in the Dehlia cabin and remained unconcerned and indifferent. They have witnessed this dizzy divergence of schedules before and understand that they will converge at the Rohn River Checkpoint tomorrow Monday night.
Easy to decipher? Not yet, but this puzzle of moves and thrusts will begin to reveal itself.
In the dog yard, I was impressed with Martin Buser and Doug Swingley. They were the fastest of any in the Skwetna yard to bed and feed their dogs. That means they are minutes ahead of the pack because their dogs are logging sleep. Rest minutes are as important as run minutes.
In the Checkpoint
Skwetna is a loose connection of a few cabins and lodges -beautiful houses— separated by miles but centered around the Joe and Dehlia Residence on a high bank of the Skwetna River. Their new house is our work station, and the old residence, a sturdy two story log house, is the checkpoint where mushers can sleep in the top story. Below, volunteers have prepared a wonderful meal for the mushers and the trail crew. Martin Buser finishes his ham dinner and salad and observes that is precisely the reason he has docked at Skwetna.
The others, who have checked in and moved further up the trail, prefer to camp in the woods to avoid the chaos and noise of barking dogs and snow machines. However, about 2:30 AM a natural maelstrom begins to howl. The wind, as predicted, is gusting and blowing hard and one can only imagine the 50 mile an hour winds predicted further up the shoulders of the Alaskan Range at Rainy Pass. Rainy Pass is the destination of front runners, scheduled for a Noon arrival tomorrow Monday.
The insulated Tee Shirts of Doug Swingley’s team, which seemed superfluous in sunny warm Willow, are now an advantage. He demonstrated how he can also attach a “blanket” to the rear of the dog, also, to protect the flank. He might use these enroute to Rainy Pass.
Generally speaking, all top competitors in Skwetna have taken a four hour rest and are now on the trail by 2AM, Monday morning.