Inside the Rec Center

Sportsmanship Award

PenAir Spirit of Alaska award – Jeff King

 GCI Dorothy G Page Halfway Award – Dallas Seavey

 Millennium Alaskan Hotel First to the Yukon Award – Jeff King

 Wells Fargo Bank Alaska Gold Coast Award – Lance Mackey

 Rookie of the Year – Dan Kaduce

 Nome Kennel Club Fastest Tome Safety to Nome – Paul Gephardt

 Horizon Lines Most Improved Musher Award – Sam Deltour

 Fred Meyer Sportsmanship Award – Ray Redington

 ExxonMobil Mushers’ Choice Award – Jim Lanier

 Northern Cargo Herbie Nayokpuk Award – William “Middy” Johnson

 Golden Stethoscope Award – Dr. Carolyn Griffith

 Alaska Airlines Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award – Sebastian Schnuelle

 City of Nome Lolly Medley Golden Harness Award – Maple (owner Lance Mackey)

 Northern Air Cargo “Four Wheeler” Award – William “Middy” Johnson

 Red Lantern – Celeste Davis

 Outstanding Checkpoint Award – Cripple Checkpoint

 Interesting Facts

 1. First time ever that all mushers reached Nome before the banquet.

 2. Fastest Red Lantern Ever

3. First Jamaican Musher to finish the Iditarod

Crowd In Convention Center

As the fans swarm into the Mini Convention Center, and the mushers sign autographs, outside not more than 100 feet away the Nome Dog Lot people are busy taking care of over 400 canine athletes.  These dogs just raced 1000 miles and need some serious TLC.  Kathleen Zwolak, a 3 year veteran of the Nome dog yard, is the manager of dog lot.  She is the perfect person to make sure the dogs are treated according to the mushers instructions.  Some mushers want Kathleen to feed their dogs, other mushers like to take care of their own dogs.  Not only do the dogs need food, snack, and water, they also need protection. After a 1000 race, the dogs need to rest and relax.  A crowd of people walking through the lot would excite the dogs and cause them increased stress.  Kathleen and her staff provide security 24/7.  Another job Kathleen is responsible for is plotting out where each team will go when they arrive.  There is a limited amount of space, so she has to make sure she uses the space efficiently. She recently added a line along the snow bank.  The mushers liked this because the dogs were protected from the wind by the snow.  The Dogs didn’t seem to mind either.

Kathleen, Dog Lot Manager

Kathleen told me a funny story about Gerald Sousa and Sebastian Schnuelle’s dogs.  Both teams were wearing blue coats.  Kathleen saw a dog with a blue coat on a wrong line and noticed that Gerald’s line was missing one dog.  She immediately took the dog over reuniting it with its team mates, or so she thought.  Unfortunately, Sebastian now had a hole in his teams line. About that time, Sebastian showed up and watched as they franticly looked for his dog. After allowing them to search for several minutes Sebastian asked, “What are you looking for?”  Kathleen said to Sebastian, “One of your dogs.”  Sebastian chuckled as he said, “Oh, that’s Skunk.  He’s like a pet.  He slept in my truck last night!”

Behind Snow Bank Volunteers Feed the Dogs

Martin L. Olson School

I arrived in Golovin Wednesday.  Golovin is a very beautiful village on the coast.  The school has 45 students in grades k through 12.  Again, the  people made me feel very welcome here.  The native Alaskans have gone out of their way time and time again to introduce themselves to me.  Half the people in the villages know my name before I leave and greet me every day with a smile and a hand shake. It is always sad to leave the friends you have made in each village.

Baldy

This is the hill where the kids slide down called Baldy.  It looks like a lot of fun!!!

They have a well equipped health clinic.

Golovin Power Plant

All of the remote villages that I visited have their own power plant that generates the electricity for the village. Most of the power plants have 3 or 4 diesel generators. The generators are run 1 at a time.

Golovin Books to the Trail

This is some of the students with the books from the “Books to the Trail” program.  Reading plays an important part in all content areas.  Reading the book “The Cruelest Miles” is how I got interested in the Iditarod.

Jay and Tracey

This is Jay and Tracey Petervary. They are biking from Knik to Nome. Tracy is on pace to break the woman’s record. The trip from Knik to Nome is about 800 miles and will take them about 18 days. Go Tracey and Jay !!! Read more about there biking adventure on alaskaultrasport.com

MVI_2428 -  Click to View – Golovin From the Air

A College Degree is a Tool    

 This is Nancy Persons the 3^rd grade teacher from Unalakleet. Nancy has had an interesting teaching career.  She hasn’t spent her time teaching in one place, but rather has used her teaching degree as a tool to experience life in a variety of locations world wide. What an interesting approach to life. She hasn’t used her college degree to reach the end of her trail, but rather has used it to expand her trail. Nancy has taught in Peru, Bolivia, Oman, and Morocco.  Since coming to Unalakleet, Nancy has rejuvenated the ski program. She has her team practicing skiing for 6 months out of the year!!! I’m jealous Nancy. I wish our skiing season in Pennsylvania was 6 months. Her team will be going to the Arctic Winter Games, which every country that touches the Arctic Circle can compete.  They even have dog mushing and biathlon, which is skiing and shooting, at the Winter Games.

Preserving the Traditional Ways

 Meet Donna.  Donna works at PennAir in Unalakleet.  Donna was raised in Barrow, Alaska. Barrow is north of the Arctic Circle. When Donna was in 6 through 12 grades, she had classes in Arctic Survival.  She learned things such as navigation by the stars, building snow shelters, and building fire using a certain kind of rock with gold specks. I thought that was great, but I had to wonder what they used for fuel. I look across the landscape and all I see is snow, and snow doesn’t burn well at all. So, I had to ask her what they used for fuel.  She said there is a certain kind of moss that will burn.  She learned how to build 2 different kinds of snow shelters.  One was the traditional igloo type; the other was the cave type, which was built if time was limited. She also learned how to hunt polar bear, seal.  To this very day, the fishermen bring her seals because they know that she has the skill to process them the old way. She uses every part of the seal.  For example, the intestines are dried and can be used for making raincoats and the bladder can be used for making a bag.  Donna also teaches a community coarse on making Heart Sole Mukluks. This is the traditional boot with a seal skin sole. 

Donna is interested in preserving the old ways which were taught by the elders and have been passed down from generation to generation. The value in learning the old ways gives us “a sense of who we are,” Donna said. 

Wow Donna!!! That is a profound statement.  I agree with you 100%.  As a matter of fact, that is exactly what the Trail to Every Classroom program from the National Park Service is all about. This program, if you read in an earlier post on my blog, is being adopted by the United States Forest Service for the Iditarod Trail. I hope Donna will get involved with this program and hopefully get some support for educating students in traditional Alaskan ways.

 Going at the Shak

 The toilet at Shaktoolik is not the traditional toilet, or maybe it is. I guess it depends on who you are and where you live.  Going at the Shak requires climbing skills.  In order to sit upon the throne you have go up several steps.  This is required because it is a composting toilet which has a mechanical devise for stirring.  The stirring devise needs room in order to operate properly, therefore, the raised platform.  When the contents have sufficiently decomposed, they can then be removed.  There are several types of composting toilets.  Check them out online.  If you want to really find out something interesting, go to the NASA sight and find out how they treat waste in space. 

The last 48hours has been a whirlwind tour for me.  I started in Takotna and have visited Galena,Nulato and Kaltag.  At each location, the most interesting part of my trip has been the trail crossings that I have experienced with the wonderful people I have met. The people in the villages have been very friendly and welcoming.  The children in the villages have caused me to miss the children at my school at the Southern Fulton Elementary back in Pennsylvania.  And the volunteers for the Iditarod, which come from all over the world, are interesting, friendly, and fun.  Some of these people are a long way from home, but they have come for the dogs, for the people, and to work together as an international team to make this race a success. 

Volunteer (Picture later) This is Tracey.  She is from New Zealand.  She was a volunteer at the Iditarod last year and got hooked on dog mushing.  She corresponded with some Iditarod mushers and ended up at Jeff King’s kennel as a handler.  She wants to see the world so she is taking some time off and traveling the world.  She is certified in Canine Behavior, and has a diploma in veterinary nursing. She wants to do further studies in the field of Canine Behavior in order to become a specialist.  We want to wish Tracey lots of luck in her endeavors and thank her for working as a volunteer.  Question of the day: In what hemisphere is New Zealand?

(picture later)  This is Ruth.  Ruth is a veterinarian from Germany.  Ruth volunteered with the Iditarod because a fellow veterinarian had visited Seavey’s kennel and talked her into applying. Ruth has enjoyed her visit to Alaska and loves working with the dogs.  Danke schoen Ruth.  We appreciate your efforts.

Connections With People

Tom Jarding from Pennsylvania is walking the a Trail from Knik to Nome.  Tom lives about an hour from where I live back  in Pennsylvania.  He walks about 50-60 miles per day.  Tom pulls a sled behind him with food, a sleeping bag, and white gas for his stove. He doesn’t have a tent, but has devised a system by which he sleeps on his sled and uses the tarp as a tent.  Tom is on pace to break the record of 22 days and 6 hours to walk the trail. I saw Tom from the airplane as we were flying from Galena to Nulato. We buzzed him a couple times and waved the wings at him.  He was really trucking. Go Tom go!!!  We’re pulling for you!!! (Don’t forget to duck next time Tom.)

(picture later) This beautiful family is Keith Ramos, his wife Tabitha, and their son Kaden.  They moved to Alaska from sunny Florida.  Keith works for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.  Tabitha is studying to be a physical education teacher.  Tabitha and Keith love Alaska and feel that it is a healthy place to live and raise a family.  I actually have 2 connections with Keith.  The first one is we both have had training at the National Conservation Training Center in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, which is a great place to study and eat, and eat, and eat. . . . The second connection is that we both have taken classes in Missoula, Montana. Keith has mule packed in the Bob Marshal Wilderness. (Check the Bob Marshal Wilderness out online, and then go there.) As some of my readers know, I mule packed for the United States Forest Service and mule pack recreationally.  We wish Keith, Tabitha, and Kaden well and hope our trails cross again.

(picture later) This is Monica from Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. She is a volunteer at the Nulato checkpoint. Dillsburg is about an hour from where I live. Monica and I both know Urtha Lenharr, an Iditarod finisher from Pennsylvania.  See you back in PA Monica!!!

(picture later) This is Melanie Hans.  I ran into Melanie last year at the National Conservation Training Center.  She is a biologist for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in Galena, Alaska. It was wonderful to be able to go so far away from home and see a familiar face.  Melanie was one of the followers of our NCTC band.  Many a day was spent studying, and many a night was spent playing music at the social center. Stay warm Melanie!!!!

This is George Nyce.  George has been a resident of Alaska all of his adult life, but he was actually born in the same town in Pennsylvania where I was born.  The connection doesn’t stop there though. His father owned a planning mill in Doylestown, PA where we used to buy lumber 40 years ago.  It’s a small world!!!  What are the chances of occurrences such as this happening.  I traveled thousands of miles to walk on a snow covered road in Alaska’s interior(a place with no roads to or from) to meet this man.  George, it was great meeting you.  We’ll have to do it again sometime. 

Folks, these trail crossings are wonderful experiences, but they only happen if you take that first step.  It may be as simple as saying, “hey, how’s it going,”  or as simple as stopping and helping someone along the way.  One connection may be all it takes to change your life or to help someone who has lost their way along the trail of life.

Post Office

School

Takotna is a fine place to be.  I visited the school yesterday.  There are 2 elementary students, one in kindergarten, and one in sixth grade.  The high school students and the elementary students are in the same building.

This is Regan.  She is a comms person at the Takotna Checkpoint.  She remembers her 3^rd grade teacher using the Iditarod in the classroom as a teaching tool.  She also remembers reading books by the author, Jack London, who wrote stories about the north. Between her sophomore and junior years in college, she joined AmeriCorps and ended up in Anchorage.  While in Anchorage, the Iditarod Ceremonial start rekindled her interest in sled dogs and the Iditarod.  At the start of the race, she saw how excited the dogs were about pulling.  She said they tugged and barked and were having so much fun.  Last year she was an official comms person in Nome, this year in Takotna. Regan said, “I love volunteering and watching the mushers interact with their teams. Iditarod ensures that mushing skills are passed on to the next generation. The bond between mushers and dogs is neat.”

Thanks Regan!!! And, all you 3^rd graders watch out if your teacher is using the Iditarod in your classroom.  You might end up in Alaska as a volunteer at the Iditarod.

Larry is a native Alaskan.  He is a race judge.  He grew up with dogs in the north western part of Alaska.  While he was growing up, his family depended on dogs for hunting and transportation. He said the original Alaskan huskies were much bigger than dogs used in the Iditarod today.  Their hair was thicker and they weighed more. Dogs back then were bred for pulling heavy loads, not for going fast.  He started competing in dog sled races in the 1960’s and raced for several years. Unfortunately, he found it too expensive and time consuming to continue since he had to provide for his own family. He was away from dogs for many years, but dogs have always been in his blood. He is glad to be back around the dogs as a race judge.  We are glad he is here also, and love that he shares his knowledge and experience about dogs with us. Thanks Larry!!!

A team rests in Takotna.

The landing strip on the river in Takotna is marked with spruce bows.

After leaving Skwentna checkpoint yesterday, we were flown back to Anchorage for the night.  The weather had gotten too bad for us to continue up the Iditarod trail.  Today we boarded a Cessna Caravan, which is a slightly bigger aircraft than the one we had been flying in, and it can carry about 9 passengers.  It is able to fly in bad weather when there is low visibility because it has the proper instruments for the pilot.  Bush pilots fly by the seat of their pants, not by instruments for the most part. (I underlined the figurative language in this sentence. What does it mean?)

We traveled North West over the Alaska Range to a town called McGrath. The peaks in the Alaska Range were steep and covered with snow.  They were absolutely gorgeous.

It was much colder in McGrath than in Anchorage.  Can anybody explain why?

Visibility in McGrath was about 1 mile because of a snow storm. So, we were grounded again.  I checked in with the comms people and asked if there were any interesting places for me to visit while I waited for a flight to Nikolai. They told me I had about an hour and a half and to check out the museum.  About 15 minutes after finding the museum, a snow machine operator came screaming into the library parking lot looking for me.  They had found a pilot going to Nikolai. That means I needed to go immediately. We jumped onto the snow machine and darted back to the airstrip. Unfortunately, when we got to the airstrip, it was snowing and we were grounded again.

It’s back into the Iditarod Trail Cafe for another wait.  This is where I found out what trail breakers do when they get a few minutes.  Keep in mind that this is in the middle of the café in downtown McGrath. 

I was lucky enough to finally get out of McGrath and get to Nikolai before nightfall. Nikolia is a beautiful village along the Kuskokwim River.  Here’s a musher coming off the river to the checkpoint.

It’s finally race day.  I wasn’t able to make the festivities on Willow Lake for the start of the race because I had to be ready to leave from Lake Hood right outside my hotel in Anchorage.  The lake literally is 75 yards from the back door of the hotel.  So out to the plane we went and we were airborne in a matter of minutes. 

It was interesting to the pilot explain the gauges.  The altimeter is really just a barometer that is calibrated to tell how many feet above the ground we are when we are flying. Because it’s a barometer, it needs calibrated or adjusted every time the pilot flies since air pressure varies with the air mass that is present at any given time.  If you have just a simple home weather system that has a barometer and you want to see how pressure changes with altitude, put the barometer in the car and drive up a mountain or down into a valley.

Here’s a picture of the comms room for the Iditarod.  This board shows all of the flights leaving Lake Hood, the tail number of the plane, who is on the plane or what supplies are being transported, who the pilot is, the ETD (Estimated Time of Departure), and the ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival). Can you find me on the board?

Does your local post office look like this? Skwentna is a refreshing step back in time.

The ladies are cooking up a storm!!! The Skwentna Sweethearts did an excellent job at keeping our strength up. The meals were fantastic!!!

How do you set 2 poles up on a river?  Does anyone have any ideas?

 All ready for some mushers to roll in.