Willow, Alaska – Morning Staging Area
Our film crew departs Anchorage about 7:30AM and arrives at the Willow Restart Staging area at 9:10AM. The Staging area for parking for mushers is organized with spray paint spaces with musher numbers on the ice just below the Willow Community Hall. It’s a good set up with lots of room for hooking up dog teams and manavuering trucks and trailers.
For the spectator, if you are thinking about being one in the future, is a little grittier. I talked to one fan who had arrived at 8AM, six hours before the 2PM start, and was parked in the hinterland about a mile an a half from the start line assembled on the ice by the musher parking lot. Although it was minus 12 F at 9AM, she was flushed with heat.
By 9AM, we had interviewed a selection of rookies but had not spotted one veteran. The concern for the newcomer is getting stuck in the long lines of traffic coming out of Anchorage to watch the race. By 10:30AM I spotted Sonny Lindner, a prime time contender, and assumed the majority of mushers would soon be arriving.
Pre-Race
Number one topic in the dog yard was trail conditions—-expected to remain hard and fast up the south shoulders of the Alaskan Range to Pontilla Lake (Rainy Pass). On Monday, the advisory for front runners is a trail down the north side of the Alaskan Range through Dalzell Gorge to be good, but hard and fast. By Tuesday Morning, leaders will be traversing from Rohn River to Nikolai through the Buffalo Tunnels and Nikolai Burn on bare dirt. The latest advisory I heard indicated big winds, maybe enough to ground airplanes. Strong winds will not stop dog teams, but it is a strategic element to consider.
In the yard, we interviewed Matt Calore, Rich Humm, Scott White, and Mike Rossi (Herbster, Wisconsin)—all rookies—and looked for one of those wild-eyed interviews, but didn’t find it. These rookies are very prepared and realistic about their race strategy. Requirements for first year entrants includes a couple of preparatory races, extensive vet check of dogs, and rookie meetings.
Pre-Race Drug Testing
Iditarod dogs are tested. WE saw the drug testing team, headed by Dr. Maurie Craig of Oregon State University, located to collect samples from randomly selected teams. Always a question from fans, the use of drugs is an interesting sidebar to the Iditarod race. In my experience and conversations with mushers, performance enhancing drugs, even if it were allowed, do not gain an advantage because the negative effects out weigh the benefits. For the sake of conversation, steroids seem like a likely choice to build muscle strength, but it is common knowledge amongst mushers that this drug is diametric for use with long distance animals and reduces resistance to infection, for example. Its generally held to be a bad ider. At any rate, drug testing is comprehensive on the Iditarod and puts a secure control on the competition.
The Leaders
Our film crew is trying hard to document team leaders of teams. But here is the deal—most competitive, really championship quality teams, will have an abundance of leaders. In fact, in training, nearly every dog in the team will have the training and experience to lead. Sure, there is a special athlete in every team, but often the mushers will protect this dog by putting them in the middle of the team, and save them specifically for special sections of trail where they feel like a fast run would be a good strategic move.
On the other hand, a good sensible, but less animated and slower leader, may be the best for today’s run from Willow to Yetna and Skwetna. Why? Because the mushers goal is to conserve energy and reduce team speed to a controllable level. In addition, the really elite teams are so well matched, that the musher is not certain which animals, by luck, good fortune, or raw genetics, will emerge in the later stages of the race as the strongest and most vibrant leaders.
To Watch:
Willow to Yetna (the mushers take off their start bibs and return them to checkers) and then to Skwetna, the first checkpoint with food, should be about a seven or seven and a half hour expedition. By midnight tonight we should have a good idea how our leaders are organizing their schedule. My main interest? Robert Sorlie will certainly influence the race because he is, by nature, inclined to take control of the front of the race on the first day, if he can. Note that he is starting at position 50, which will give him about a 4 PM start. Most of our front running personalities, to include Buser, Seavey, King, and Swingley will be in front of him. The Dynamics of this first day of racing are going to be great. WE’ll keep track of them.
Tonight: Sunday night arrival in Skwetna. Don’t get confused. Mushers will dramatically differ in strategic moves. Some will rest outside of Skwetna and blow through the checkpoint to camp in the woods enroute to Finger Lake. Others are likely to head directly for Skwetna and rest in this remote checkpoint, despite the noise and chaos of hundreds of dogs and a coterie of spectators.
This strategic manavuering, however, can be the most interesting for the Fans.
Big Moon tonight.