My Mind on Things North

by Jane Blaile

Physically, I am back home.  But my mind and heart still have pieces in Alaska – with the people I met and at the places I was.  On the trail every day, I’d wake up and have to ask myself, “Where am I?”  That has happened to me several days since I’ve been back!  One day I woke up thinking about where I was.  When I realized I was home in Phoenix, I asked myself, “Is the Iditarod over?”  I guess some of my thoughts are still catching up with me.  I have had dreams about mushers traveling along the trail and being at checkpoints.Everything around me reminds me of my experience. I thought a bumper sticker promoting the county sheriff’s department stated “Honorary Musher”.  But it said “Honorary Member”.  When I was checking things off a list with my daughter, I told her I was being the “checker”.  Playing cribbage with my husband and father-in-law, I pointed out that the two highest scorers were Lance Mackey and Jeff King and the last was the Red Lantern winner.  Those are silly, but true examples!  I suppose my family and friends might tire of the Iditarod references, but I never will.  My experience along the trail is over, but my experience of the Iditarod is not.

by Jane Blaile

As I’ve been traveling along the trail, I’ve met people who have things in common with me, such as other teachers, people who have relatives in the Phoenix, AZ area, and even people who live there themselves.  This morning, I was talking to volunteer veterinarian Paul Nader.  He was talking about his work at a zoo.  Assuming the zoo veterinarian group enrollment might be small, I asked him where he worked.  And when he told me, I mentioned that my brother was the head veterinarian at the St. Louis Zoo, in Missouri.  It is a prominent zoo and I knew he’d have known about it.  Well, when I told him my brother’s name, Paul said he knew him very well.  They talk on the phone about lemur care, one of my brother’s areas of expertise.  That has got to be one of the neatest connections I have made up here…someone who knows one of my family members.  And we meet in Nome, AK….over 3,000 miles from my home.  Iditarod surprises continue!

by Jane Blaile

Only 3 mushers remain on the trail. Tomorrow the 36^th Iditarod will be over. There will be a red lantern winner. But many mushers and dogs won’t be leaving here until later this week. There are many logistical considerations to getting dog teams flown out of Nome. It is expensive, there aren’t a lot of airline options, and some airlines have specific requirements, such as crate size. Well, when you have 1,000s of dogs needing a ride home, it can get a little complicated.
This morning I attended the musher service at the Covenant Church just at the finish line on Front Street. What a moving experience to sit with my pilot, Danny, Jeff Schultz, Dee Dee Jonrowe, Aliy Zirkle, Ed Stilestra, and the Lanier family. Aliy and Dee Dee told some of their experiences on the trail and Jim Lanier and his family sang.

This afternoon was the finisher’s banquet. It was packed into the rec center. The food was exquisite – provided by the Millenium Hotel in Anchorage. I couldn’t believe I was sitting there actually participating in it; each year previous, I have eagerly waited for the pictures and news to come out on the website. I put out my quilt squares to have the mushers sign as they exited the stage after their award presentation and got all but the 3 mushers still on the trail. I will treasure the quilt those squares will become.

My journey here is ending; I’m OK with that. The race is ending, and I have been a part of it from start to finish, so I’m able to come to some closure on this. Tomorrow I will visit Nome Elementary School and Tuesday I go back to Anchorage to wrap things up with the Iditarod Education Department. Thursday I return to Phoenix, just in time for Easter weekend.

I am contemplating how I will continue to be part of Iditarod; it will always be a part of me.

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Jane in Nome! Which way to the next adventure?

Welcome to Nome!

by Jane Blaile

Right when I finished my last posting this morning, I was about to find something to eat for lunch when I got the message that Danny was going to fly to Diomede Island, and if I wanted to go, I should be at the airport by 1:00. So, I raced back to the church where I’m staying and got geared up. Where is Diomede Island? Actually, there are two, Big Diomede and Little Diomede. They are located in the Bering Strait; Little Diomede is U.S., Big Diomede is Russian. They are separated by just over 2 miles of water and the International Dateline. This area of Alaska is beautiful. There are hills and sharp rock mountains, lots of rivers and valleys, and ice along the coast. The wind was blowing fairly hard, and we had a few bumps, but mostly it was a spectacular day. We passed a military post and the whaling village of Wales. As we approached the island, it was apparent that we weren’t going to be able to land due to wind, blowing snow, and unsure ice conditions. The village didn’t have the airstrip cleared, so that was evidence that it wasn’t OK to land. So we circled around, which actually put us over the date line and into Russia a little!

Afterwards, we went flying across the Seward Peninsula with our eyes peeled for polar bears. We didn’t end up seeing any; but our trip led us to the village of Shishmaref. Now, I never expected to visit Shishmaref, that’s for sure! It’s only 10 miles south of the Arctic Circle! And, since the sea is frozen solid, I didn’t know it was an island. Danny found out where the pastor lives, and we went in and visited. That certainly was unique to my journey here. There is a quilt through the Common Thread Quilt project at the school, but being Saturday, I wasn’t able to see it.

On leaving Shishmaref, we were headed towards Serpentine Hot Springs, but since bad weather might have been rolling in to Nome, we went ahead and came back. What an extraordinary flight we had. I just stared in awe at the vast, white wilderness of Alaska….spotting moose and herds of caribou along the way.

by Jane Blaile

Tom is the manager of the Safety roadhouse. He’s there for Iditarod and in the summer. Originally, he comes from King Island in the Bering Strait; currently, he lives in Nome. When I heard him talking about hunting walrus, I started asking him about it. He hunts them by boat. His boat is 26 feet long. In past times, his boat would have been described as 2 ½ skins long, walrus skins, that is. He then said his grandfather had a boat 4 skins long. When he gets a walrus, he takes all he can to use and eat. Tom commented that kids today don’t know enough about how to get things; he titled the thesis for his anthropology degree “Trading in Your Harpoon for a Shopping Cart”. So, he is a college educated man. His family moved to Nome in the 1940s when the school on King Island was taken away. Although he used to visit there, no one lives there anymore. His was a whaling community along with Wales, Waiwright, Barrow, and a few others. Each whaling village was allowed a specific amount of whales, walruses, etc. to catch for subsistence living. He explained that when he attended school, he used to get hit on the knuckles for speaking his native tongue. So, he and his cousin made a vow to preserve and use their language, which they did. Furthermore, he can understand Eskimo people across Northern Canada and Alaska. His children love their native ways, even though they don’t all live nearby anymore. When he can, he sends them boxes of native food: seal, walrus, greens collected from the area. Oh, and here’s another interesting fact about Tom. His eyes are blue. When I mentioned that I’d noticed he has blue eyes, he just laughed and said, “That happens sometimes.” Meeting Tom was the highlight of my day. Nice to meet you, Tom.

Usually, you should never talk to strangers, but during the Iditarod, everyone who is part of the race is definitely someone you should talk to. And then they aren’t strangers anymore!

In Takotna, I asked a woman to take a picture of me. We got to talking and I found out that she and her husband are friends of Dick and Jan Newton, who run the Takotna checkpoint. They were traveling the Iditarod Trail on snow machine all the way to Nome AND BACK! I ran into them in the checkpoint and they were always friendly and struck up a conversation with me, which is so appreciated when you are alone somewhere very different and far from home. Again, in Unalakleet, we met at the Unk Bunkhouse. Then they weren’t strangers anymore, but Iditarod friends. They had ridden that far and Dick Newton was with them, too. So, when I arrived in Nome late Monday night, it was nice to see their familiar faces again. I sat with them at a table in the mini-convention center. Jennifer, the wife, was playing cribbage with Dick, and 2 other men I didn’t know. After I introduced myself, one of the men said, “My son was the Teacher on the Trail one year.” Well, Jeff Peterson has been the only male teacher yet, so I knew exactly who he was talking about. His name is Randy Peterson. We had a little conversation about the program, etc., and he even said he had been at Jeff’s house when he called me to tell me I’d been selected.

The next day I came across Randy again playing cribbage with someone who was going to leave, so he invited me to play. I had time, so I did. The Peterson family is related the Jeff and Donna King; Randy was waiting for Donna to come and pick him up. Ellen King and a friend came over to our table and sat. Randy introduced us. Then a young man sat beside me and Randy announced we would teach them how to play cribbage. I introduced myself to the boy, and he introduced himself to me as Nikolai. When I asked if he was Nikolai Buser, he said he was. So, here I am in Nome, Alaska playing cards with a fellow Teacher on the Trail’s father, Ellen King, and Nikolia Buser, like we have been friends all our lives.

I find it’s that way all over Alaska. People are warm, welcoming, and hardly anyone is a stranger. So, if you attend an Iditarod – talk to strangers! You never know who you’ll meet.

by Jane Blaile

Did you ever have to quit or drop out of something? It was probably a hard decision, but you knew it was what you had to do. And maybe it was disappointing – you’d worked hard and gave your best, but you just couldn’t do it…YET. Think about the mushers who’ve scratched. You know they have worked and prepared to go for it; you know they wanted to finish; you know they definitely didn’t want to scratch, but they did. Why? The Iditarod is a living, breathing thing. No one knows when they go out there what will happen. Each day is different – the weather, how the dogs feel, how the musher feels, how the trail is….and on and on.In Unalakleet, I talked to 2 mushers who had to scratch – Ryan Redington and Peter Bartlett. I told them my message of “Live Your Dreams” and asked them what they would say to people who want to live their dreams.

Ryan, in his quiet, understated way said, “Keep at it.” Now, that isn’t a long speech, but it tells it all. Keep at it.

Peter Bartlett added a dimension to it. He said that if it is something you know you want and have in your heart, you should go for it and not listen to people who tell you differently. Go for it.

Think about a dream of yours, right now. Keep at it! Go for it!

Nome. I’m here in Nome. And it is midnight – Wednesday now. The 2008 Iditarod race will be won in a matter of hours. If Jeff King wins, he will tie the all time number of wins. If Lance Mackey wins, he will blow the mushing world out of the water having won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod 2 years in a row.

I started in Unalakleet this morning, but we left before noon to go to Elim. On the way, we spotted 2 red fox running around on the tundra. I wish I had had more time there, but during my short stay, I accomplished a lot. I found the Big Read books to deliver to Elim Aniguiin School and got a ride up there. It was a half day, so the students were leaving just as I arrived, but the staff and remaining students were very warm, friendly, and welcoming. I was led to Nick Schollmeier, a 4/5 teacher who was a quilt recipient through the Common Thread Quilt Project. He is as excited about the race as anyone, and eager to make connections to students “outside”. His students have been following my journals, and they came up to me knowing my name. It was really moving. I had to run out fairly quickly to fly out, but had enough time to take great pictures at the checkpoint just as Rick Swenson was pulling in.

After that, we stopped in Golovin. Again, we saw a fox below. Golovin is no longer a checkpoint along the trail, but the trail runs right along it. Jeff had to take a quick portrait photo, so Danny and I didn’t even get out of the plane.

Next stop – White Mountain. We arrived about 1 p.m. Lance’s allowed out time was 4:53 and Jeff’s was 5:50. The mood was calm at the checkpoint and supportive in the village. The sun was shining brightly on this village located on the steep banks of the Fish River. Planes were landing on the ice just beside the hole in the ice for mushers to get water. Both mushers bootied up and took off amidst a small crowd of onlookers.

Since Jeff wanted to take pictures of King along the trail, he had Danny and I BOTH jump on the snow machine he was borrowing. It must have been a funny sight, Jeff driving at high speed with me sandwiched in-between him and Danny Davidson. We raced along the trail and stopped just before some lightly dusted rock outcroppings which make an excellent background for race pictures.

We got a ride up to the airstrip, me in a toboggan behind the snow machine, and flew out towards Nome. It’s fascinating to watch the trail from the air. When Jeff or Danny spots a racer, they say, “Dog team!” just like the checkpoint volunteers do when they spot a team coming in. We first saw Jeff and then further up, we spotted Lance. One of the fascinations with flying over the trail is that from up there, you are able to see multiple teams and how far apart they are from each other, but the mushers often do not know that based on their perspective on the ground. We saw one more fox then, making our total 5 for today.

Having passed over Safety, we started looking for musk ox. They had been spotted in the area recently. And do you know, we found a herd of about 15? It was outstanding!

Seeing Nome brought mixed feelings for me; I am excited to see the finishers, but this signals the end of my journey here. I can’t wait to participate in the fun Iditarod week activities (I’m mushing a dog team here Friday.), but I’m not used to so many cars, buildings, etc It will be great to go home to my family, but I will sorely miss my traveling companions, Jeff and Danny, and all the great people I’ve been seeing hopscotch along the trail as we do.

As I was sitting here writing, someone asked me how my journey has been. I said, “It’s indescribable, but one that I will enjoy for many years to come.” This experience will stay with me forever.

Watch the slide show of images.

By Jane Blaile

You might think that this article should be titled “The Finish”. But that is one aspect of the Iditarod that makes it unique from other races. The first musher to finish is definitely the first place winner, but EVERYONE who crosses the line is to be celebrated and commended. And that will be days from now.

So, the chute was lined with fans and media last night. I went out at 1:45 a.m. to secure a good place along the fence, but not too much later, Mark Nordman, race marshal pulled me into the media chute right at the burled arches. It was a magical moment; maybe it was even more magical than last year. Lance’s dogs loped into the chute, happy and energetic. The cheers, whistles, screams, and applause filled the bitter cold air with warmth and good wishes. For the second time in my journey, I had tears in my eyes.

Lance Mackey is a story of pure grit, determination, and desire. He works hard and long to achieve what he does and he does it in an “average Joe” way. He spent quite awhile up there at the finish, talking with media, being presented his winning “check”, and posing for the Golden Harness picture with Handsome and Larry. The whole time he was smiling, happy, and positive. When he spoke with Governor Palin, he though outside of himself and congratulated her on her upcoming family addition. He then walked to the mini-convention center down the street. Tired and hungry, he graciously answered all questions while trying to eat a little and drink some water. You can watch his, Jeff King’s, and other musher interviews through the Insider video clips.

Miracle? Magical? Maybe, but mostly it’s just Mackey!