Date: March 12, 2010 at 3:53 pm
As the front runners are pulling out of Ruby and heading down the Yukon River we have positioned our Insider crews at the various villages along the race trail.
Jeff King leads the pack with a very strong looking team but no one has thrown in the towel and given him the race. There’s a lot of trail miles remaining for the teams behind him to make a move to take over the lead and do battle with Jeff. We might expect one of the other mushers to make some type of “tricky” move going down the river like skipping a rest at one of the checkpoints. There’s a number of ways to run this section of the course, breaking the run to Kaltag into different lengths with different resting locations. Jeff King usually likes to rest at each of the checkpoints heading down river and his competitors know this, so they might try something to throw him a curve ball.
We will be sending updates from the different checkpoints along the Yukon as the racers pass through, as well as video clips on the Insider. By viewing those clips you can judge Jeff’s, Lance’s and Hugh’s teams for yourselves as they pull out of Ruby.
Also in the mix of the race we’re beginning to see the other racers break into different packs as they race for 5th through 10th and 10 through 15th. Watch those rest periods, dog numbers and trail travel times to figure who has the most power.
Date: March 12, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Ingenious Bootie Horn
Just like kids who are ready to return to school after winter break, Newton Marshall left McGrath with a team of happy dogs who were ready to hit the trail. Being lazy in a checkpoint is fine for a little while but they’d rather by running. Newton gave his dogs soup, packed his cooker and dog dishes then set about putting coats and booties on the dogs before putting his own parka on and being lead out of the checkpoint. As Newton’s mentor and coach, Lance Mackey has undoubtedly shared lots of small tricks that make a big difference. Do you know what a shoe horn is? Well, Newton was using a bootie horn to slide booties onto 56 paws. Just as the shoehorn is inserted into the heel of the shoe to make the human foot slide into a shoe easier, Newton inserted a half circle of plastic into the bootie to allow the dog’s paws to slide in easier. The horn was attached to his wrist by a short piece of wire and elastic band making it easy to pull the horn out of the bootie as he was fastening the Velcro strip. It didn’t take him long to get all the booties in place, a task made more efficient with the ingenious little bootie horn. While doing his pre-departure chores, Newton asked what the temperature was. One of the spectators checked the thermometer outside the checkpoint and reported a reading of 8 degrees.
Linwood Fiedler scratched at McGrath. That’s always a tough decision for a musher. His focus over the past year has been to rebuild his racing team and things were looking great for him in the early stages of the race. Fiedler was first into Skwentna arriving at 20:28. But by the time he’d reached McGrath he had dropped 5 dogs and felt that continuing to Nome would not be in the best interest of the remaining dogs. He and his team flew back to Anchorage on the PenAir caravan. His handler’s and family were waiting to greet them. Fiedler has made the trip to Nome 15 out of his 18 attempts. He place 2nd in 2001 being first to McGrath and first to Ruby he completed the race in 10 days, 2 hours and 58 minutes. Fiedler is a recipient of the Humanitarian Award and the Sportsmanship Award in previous races. Linwood has been a great neighbor to Lynda Plettner. A couple of years ago, Plettner was running a local race when she became drastically ill. She was airlifted, from the checkpoint to an Anchorage hospital and had surgery. While she recovered, Linwood trained her team so they would be ready for the Iditarod.
Dalzell Gorge encounter
The Iditarod Trail, especially the Dalzell Gorge is not always a forgiving trail. Pat Moon crashed suffering a concussion that resulted in him scratching from the race. Celeste Davis is sporting a pair of black eyes from a similar encounter with a tree in the Gorge. She said it looks quite a bit worse than it feels but she’d prefer not to run into anything in the near future. Davis has great faith in her leaders but for some reason, when they hear the scratching of the brake they seem to pull harder and run faster. Her cries of easy, Easy, EASY seem to go unheard. She said that they just don’t understand that “I’m trying to slow us down and keep everybody in one piece.” Davis, who was in great spirits, left McGrath mid-morning with an eager team of 14 dogs.
Marshall out of McGrath
Date: March 12, 2010 at 10:23 am
On March 10th, 2010 IDITAROD XXXVIII Musher Justin Savidis (Bib #10) lost one of his team members, Whitey, a three year old male, between Nikolai and McGrath Checkpoints. Since that time, Savidis has joined Alaska State Troopers on an aerial search but they were not able to locate Whitey. All Iditarod Air Force Pilots traveling north and south of McGrath have been on the watch for Whitey from the air. Local McGrath volunteers have also been looking for him on the ground via snowmachine.
Savidis remains in McGrath with his team in hopes that Whitey will be found and returned to him.
Date: March 12, 2010 at 10:11 am
From minus 33 degrees at sunrise, the temperature peaked around 10 this afternoon. The sky was clear, the sun shown brightly and there was wind but the checkpoint, sheltered by trees was without the wind chill the mushers moving to Takotna experienced. It was just a perfect day for the dogs and mushers to rejuvenate.
Chewing necklines - a great pastime
The routine for the 24-hour layover is fairly standard between mushers. Upon arriving, the dogs are given straw. The musher gets water and begins cooking up some broth. Booties are removed and the soup is served. Mushers spend the next hour or so interacting with the dogs, massaging their wrists and shoulders and applying liniment and wrist wraps. Next comes dinner- dry kibble and maybe beaver, fish, lamb or other red meat. The dogs are covered and left to sleep while the musher goes inside to eat and sleep. In the 24 hour rest period, the dogs will eat 3 high calorie meals and enjoy a 4th soupy meal before heading back out to the trail. The dogs have developed a 6-hour clock so it’s not uncommon to see a whole team standing, playing or digging in the straw during the day long rest. The mushers will fuss over each dog at every meal – a little more liniment on a wrist, massage a shoulder, scratch behind ears and general good dog encouragement.
After sleeping for a few hours then going out to feed his team, Trent Herbst was surprised to find a few of his dogs standing lose around the gangline. After waking from their first nap, they were antsy and had to find something to do. Chewing necklines is a favorite past time and so they did. Trent is thrilled with how well his dogs are doing on the trail. He says that the trip down the Happy River Steps, over Rainy Pass, down the Dalzell Gorge and across the Farewell Burn were the easiest of his four Iditarod Races. He came into McGrath 14 hours ahead of his schedule. Trent and a young village boy who was serving as a dog handler sat inside the checkpoint eating M&M’s talking about the run through Takotna to Ophir. With a current stat sheet in front of them they estimated it would take about 5 hours to cover the 43 miles. Looking at his adjusted out time of half past midnight, Trent commented that it would be cold then but he’d be in Ophir by the time the thermometer bottomed out for the night time hours. He pulled the hook and dropped down onto the Kuskokwim River at 00:34, stopped briefly in Takotna then arrived in Ophir at 05:35. It can’t get much closer to five hours than that.
Siberian Husky peek-a-boo
Karen Ramstead scratch in McGrath sighting personal reasons. Her dogs were in great spirits coming into the checkpoint. Undoubtedly, her Siberian Huskies are some of the most beautiful dogs at McGrath and anywhere along the Iditarod Trail. As villagers stopped by the checkpoint, they all gravitated toward her team to admire her handsome team. Handsome is as handsome does is a proverb meaning character and behavior are more important than appearance. It seems though with Karen’s dogs, they have it all – good looks, strong character and stellar behavior.
Date: March 12, 2010 at 9:02 am
IDITAROD XXXVIII musher Tom Thurston, (Bib #68) scratched at 8:38 a.m. Alaska Time (March 12, 2010) in McGrath Checkpoint. The 39 year old musher from Oak Creek Colorado had 9 dogs on his team when he made the decision. Thurston cited his team’s performance as the main factor in making his decision. He is expected to run his team back to McGrath, where they will be transported to Anchorage.
Date: March 12, 2010 at 8:03 am
IDITAROD XXXVIII Musher Jeff King (Bib # 15) arrived in Ruby Alaska at 03:08 am Alaska Time with 15 dogs, and is the first musher to Reach Mighty Yukon. King was greeted by well wishers and an eight course meal courtesy of the Millennium Hotel Anchorage, proud “Lead Dog” Partner of “The Last Great Race to Nome.”
As the recipient of the “First Musher to the Yukon Award”, King was treated to an eight course meal prepared on camp stoves by Millennium’s Food and Beverage Manager Jared Leake.
This year’s menu included Alaskan king crab, bison stew, grilled halibut in citrus sauce, lemon sorbet, and much more, including a blackberry jubilee. There was also an After Dinner Mint of $3500.00 in $1 bills!
The Millennium Alaskan Hotel “1st to the Yukon” Award will be re-presented to King in Nome on Sunday, March 21st, during the Iditarod Awards Banquet at the Nome Recreation Center.
Date: March 11, 2010 at 9:13 pm
IDITAROD XXXVIII musher Karen Ramstead, (Bib #29) scratched at 8:00 p.m. Alaska Time (March 11, 2010) in McGrath Checkpoint. The 45 year old musher from Perryville, (Alberta) Canada had 14 dogs on her team when she made the decision. Ramstead scratched for personal reasons.
Date: March 11, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Everyone at Cripple Checkpoint was expecting John Baker to be the first musher in to Cripple, but John got confused and thought he may be on the wrong trail or had gone past the checkpoint, so he stopped and waited for about 5 hours. Our best guess is he was only 3-5 miles from the checkpoint. Dallas Seavey came up behind him, reassured him that there wasn’t another fork in the trail and Dallas then passed him and was the first in here winning the halfway prize. This is a deja vu of the 2008 Iditarod when Paul Gebhardt thought he had missed the trail to Cripple and turned his team around. While heading back down the trail he ran into Dee Dee and she passed him and won the 1/2 way prize that year.
It’s been said that it’s a gamble to go to Cripple for your 24. It may help you but it’s possible it could cost you the race.
If you check the current standings the statistics speak for themselves as far as to who is traveling the fastest. An on sight observation of teams shows that Jeff King has one of the strongest, healthiest looking dog teams out here.
Other notable teams in appearance are Hugh Neff, Lance Mackey, and Sonny Lindner.
Conditions around Cripple are 10-20 above, clear skies during the day and 30 to 40 below at night.
Mushers report a firm, fast trail base with lots of moguls. Generally this trail will benefit the teams with speed.
It certainly looks like this may come down to the classic battle of the tortoise and the hare. Long steady runs versus short runs with more rests to keep your speed up.
We’re only halfway into this thing but one thing is obvious at this point. Whoever wins this thing is going to have to beat Jeff Kings team.
We’re now heading to Ruby to catch the leaders there sometime tomorrow morning.
Date: March 11, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Frosty Dogs into McGrath
Now that all the teams have reached McGrath, some are speculating that Martin Buser’s 2002 record of 8 days, 22 hours and 46 minutes might be in jeopardy. Some of the teams that are resting in McGrath and expecting to take off later today are as much as 14 hours ahead of their carefully planned schedules. It’s not because our routine is better or we’re more efficient – the trail is fast. Granted, these are folks that are running deliberate schedules. But teams coming off their 24-hour layover in Takotna are burning the trail up as they head to the Yukon but things can change drastically upon getting to the coast.
It doesn’t matter who you talk to, the sentiment is the same, “In McGrath,
Newton Marshall's wheel dogs wait for the snack shack to open
the race means a lot to all of us.” It gives us a tie to the past. We have the opportunity to appreciate the ways of our ancestors and how they depended on dogs. It’s an opportunity to connect with the way things were when the village was established. Watching these dogs come through the village instills a sense of pride in the way things used to be. There aren’t any mushers with racing dogs in the village but a few residents have dogs for winter chores. The question as to why there aren’t any local races as there were in the past surfaces regularly. The answer is simply that there aren’t any racers around. There has been mention of sponsoring a local race to bring dogs and racing back to the area. Isn’t that how Iditarod was born?
Miners of the early 1900’s needed supplies and equipment. Using rivers as highways, steamboats delivered goods when the rivers were open and dog teams took over after freeze up. McGrath was established across the river from the current town sight in 1907 and was named after U.S. Marshal Peter McGrath. This was the farthest point the steam boats could travel before their cargo had to be off loaded onto barges to be poled up river or in the winter hauled up river by dog team. McGrath was a busy place until the mines closed in the 1920’s. Airplanes soon took over for the dog teams and steamships in the supply delivery system. But since the birth of Iditarod in 1973, McGrath has again become an important way station for dog teams. For one week in March, the residents relive the historic days of the Iditarod Trail when dog teams hauled freight and they remember their family members and friends who raced in The Last Great Race.
The local museum has a cherished collection of McGrath’s Iditarod Musher biographies. One incredibly interesting story happened in 1985 the year of Libby Riddles’ storm run. Just four days before the start of Iditarod, Frank Torres had his team out on a training run when he stubbed his toe and broke his leg. His partner, Betsy McGuire went out to feed the dogs then next day. They were happy, wagging their tails and ready to run 1,000 miles. Betsey said, “It was like they were all dressed up with no place to go.” Just hours before the race would begin, Betsy decided to run the team to Nome. She was literally outfitting herself at the race start buying boots from a local merchant as the first team took off from the start line. After the race, Betsy reflects that she was learning on the trail what other mushers already knew about their dogs. Betsy didn’t do too badly. She placed 29th out of the 40 teams that finished. Frank’s leg healed and he ran to Nome the next year.
Date: March 11, 2010 at 1:27 pm
The following is a post dated March 10, 2010 at approximately 9:30 pm Alaska Time, by Iditarod veteran Aaron Burmeister. Aaron’s traveling along the trail from the air this year, and filed this report.
After a few sleepless nights at home in Nenana Alaska trying to follow the race on the Internet I had to jump in the plane today and check things out. After a beautiful 2 hour flight to McGrath and a short break to refuel I took off and flew into the small community of Takotna. It is a picturesque little town of 51 people on the bank of the Takotna River, that today with Iditarod in town is a booming 130 including mushers, volunteers, fans and race personal. The community center kitchen is working overtime cooking and feeding all of the mushers and other folks that are here providing lots of calories and good food.
As you can see following the Iditarod insider many of the teams are currently enjoying their 24 hour layovers here in Takotna with just a few on their way to Cripple including John Baker, Dallas Seavey, Martin Buser, Bruce Linton, Robert Nelson and Michelle Phillips. These teams are setting themselves up for a strong run to the Yukon and down to Kaltag.
The trail from Ophir to Cripple is an easy run down the Innoko River valley with several river crossings and some rolling hills the last 20 miles into the Cripple checkpoint. From Cripple teams will travel through 25 more miles of rolling hills and into the ghost mining camp of Poorman. At Poorman teams will travel under an old suspension bridge across Sulatna River and onto the old mining road that 46 miles later leads you into Ruby the first checkpoint on the Yukon River. The road to Ruby seems endless as it has mile signs that give you an opportunity to see how slow you are actually traveling up and down some long hills. I expect teams to arrive into Ruby as early as 3 to 4 am on Friday morning.
As for the competition at this point it is really hard to say as all of the mushers I have talked to this afternoon are in great spirits, dogs are healthy and eating very well. It is a sign of great trail and weather conditions to see so many strong teams at this point. Leaving the 24 hour layovers we will be able to see some differing strategies as teams head over to the Yukon. Often this stretch of trail will separate your front teams from the rest of the pack as their strengths will start to show as they hit the Yukon.
I see Jeff King traveling with a full team of 16 dogs that are all strong and his confidence today is beaming, Mitch Seavey is posting some impressive travel times as well as Hugh Neff. Sven Haltmann is in a new position for him as a front runner but seems quite confident and happy with the team. Lance Mackey’s team is still a powerhouse that is in full contention for another victory as well. A little further back we have 5 time Champion Rick Swenson with 16 dogs who is posting the fastest times of the race and feeling like a million bucks himself. Along with many other strong teams that are all in striking distance we are in for an exciting race.
It is time for me to do some more visiting and looking at dogs while here in Takotna. I wish you all a good night and until the next post, may your trails be well marked and the wind to your back…
As the front runners are pulling out of Ruby and heading down the Yukon River we have positioned our Insider crews at the various villages along the race trail.
