February 19, 2007

Hi Boys and Girls,

Last week was a busy week for Iditarod folks, staff, volunteers and mushers. Two weeks before the race, mushers must bring their food bags to the designated place for shipment to the trail. Since it is not possible for mushers to carry everything they will need and food for themselves and their dogs on the sled for the whole trip to Nome, they prepare “food drops” for the checkpoints so they can replenish their supplies. For the 2007 Iditarod, this food drop shipping took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week.

The race marshal, the race director and a couple of other staff members were present to oversee the operation, but most of the actual work at Airland Transport’s warehouse was done by a bevy of enthusiastic hard working volunteers. I have not heard how many tons of food and supplies were shipped, but I bet it was a lot. I will sniff around and see if I can get the actual tonnage for you.

A friend of mine went down to food drop with a musher she is doing a photo layout on and she has allowed me to use the pictures so that you can see some of the operation. I seem to have misplaced my camera so have to depend on others for the pictures I use here. That is another thing I need to sniff around for.

Zoya DeNure and Peter Bartlett withdrew from the race and we are now down to 83 mushers slated to start the race on March 3.

Just one more week and we will be moving to the Millennium Hotel for the race. I am looking forward to getting some real scoops from the volunteers as they go to and from the trail. Be sure to check back often to keep up with what is going on.

Lots of Tag Wags,

Zuma

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