Did you know that mushers have already signed up to run the 2010 Iditarod?  That is right!  As of today, 63 mushers have signed up.

While I was spending my summer days taking boat rides on the lake with my human and k9 friends, mushers were making their plans for the next racing season.

The mushers started to sign up last June.  You can see who has signed up by looking at the musher listing on the website.

Some of the mushers are veterans.  Some of the mushers are rookies.

A veteran is a musher who has completed at least one Iditarod.

A rookie is a musher who has not finished the race.  The rookie might be racing in Iditarod for the first time or the rookie could have been signed up before but for some reason, didn’t make it to Nome.

Not every rookie musher gets to Nome on the first try.

Getting to Nome and finishing the race is not easy.  Rookies and veterans train all year long and make lots of goals.  Their dogs don’t get to lounge around like me.  I am a reporter.  They are athletes.  I write.  They train.  I can’t wait to read all about them during the next several months.  On the first Saturday in March, the rookies and the veterans will have their 16 member dog team ready to leave the starting line in Anchorage, Alaska.  What an exciting race to Nome it will be!`

I hope you look at the musher listing.  Count the rookies.  Count the veterans.  Check back every month.  Keep watching the list of rookies and veterans to see how many of each will start this year’s race.

Be sure to check back at Zuma’s Paw Prints, too.  Zuma, Gypsy, Sanka, and I will be putting lots of stories on the website to help you learn more about the rookies, the veterans, and lots of other Iditarod information.

Just Spinning D’Tails!

Libby

PS.  In the picture, my fur friend, Wicket and I are shown enjoying a boat ride on a bright and sunny summer day.  I love summer boat rides!  They are almost as much fun as riding in a dogsled!

OH, and if you want to learn more about why some mushers don’t finish Iditarod,  read this article by Gypsy.  I know you’ll enjoy it.

Hello Students!

A big shout out to you and your classmates!  

The northern lights are so beautiful.  I love to stand outside and watch them dance across the sky.  Sometimes you can almost hear them dance as their greens, yellows, reds, and blues mix and move across the sky.

Northern lights are hard to explain because they are very ’scientific’.  It has to do with pieces of charged particles of the earth’s magnetosphere crashing into to atoms and molecules of the earth’s upper atmosphere.  These particles become a trapped magnetic field of the solar wind.  Oxygen and nitrogen in the air determine if the particles are seen as green, red, blue, or violet.  The different gas in the atmosphere and the solar wind create the colors.  It is all so ’scientific’ but it results in a beautiful display of colors.  I hope you all get to see what I say is better than fireworks someday.

Lots of Tail Wags,

Zuma

Hi Boys and Girls,

We K9 reporters have received many emails and blog comments asking us what the difference is between a musher who has scratched or was withdrawn from the race.  This is an excellent question for the blog. 

When a musher scratches from the race, he or she makes the decision themselves.  The most common reason a musher scratches is for the best interest of the team.  This means a lot of things.  Sometimes, a musher is hurt or ill and they feel they cannot take care of their team properly. The team may be ill or not performing to the level needed to finish the race and the musher scratches.  The sled may have been damaged to the point that it is not useable and an extra sled is not available.  There’s just so many reasons a musher may have for not continuing the race. 

Withdrawn means the decision was made for the musher.  The decision is made by a 3 judge panel.  At least 2 of the judges must agree to the withdrawal.  This decision does not mean that the musher did anything wrong.  This year Rob Loveman was withdrawn from the race due to his team no longer being competitive.  He was in last place and far enough behind the others that he would not be able to catch up to them. 

There is one more way that a team would leave the trail and that is by disqualification.  This is more serious and rarely happens.  All 3 judges must agree that a musher should be disqualified. The chief Veterinarian may be consulted also if  cruel or inhumane treatment of the dogs is suspected.  Mushers can be disqualified for deliberately breaking the rules, cheating, or abuse of the dogs.  The musher is given the chance to present his case to the judges before a decision is made. 

Hope that helps.  Thanks for the great questions you have been asking this year.  We will be answering  the questions we are asked the most on the blog.  So keep reading and writing.

See you on the trail,

Gypsy  \\

Hi Boys and Girls,

Several of you have emailed me about dog booties.  You’ve wanted to know what they are made of and when they are worn.  So this post is for you!

Most dog booties used for dog sledding are made out of a material called Cordura 330.  Cordura 330 is a lightweight flexible nylon material.  There are other weights of Cordura that are used for tougher trails (like gravel) and for things like backpacks.  But for booties on snow and ice, the 330 works just fine.

I bet you’re wondering why a dog would need booties.  Ice and snow can pack between the toes and can cause small cuts and discomfort to a dogs paw.  The bootie stops this ice packing from happening.  Booties protect a dogs paws just like shoes protect your human paws.

Another question that is often asked is: “Do the dogs like wearing the booties?”.  I can answer that one.  They are not my favorite thing to wear.  When my human puts them on my feet, the first thing I want to do is take them off.  I’ve tried shaking them and biting at them but they don’t usually come off.  They are tighten with a a Velcro closure that’s really sticky and tough.  That’s probably a good thing for dogs like me that try to take them off.  Once I get running though, I forget I have them on and run the same as I do without them.  I do know that I need them and that they keep my feet safe.

I have also been asked how many booties are worn during a race like the Iditarod.  That usually depends on trail conditions.  I’ve heard mushers take between 1500-3000 booties with them on the trail.  The booties are changed when they wear out or fall off.  I’ve heard some mushers say that they change the booties every 30-50 miles.  Booties are taken off during rest times and feet are massaged and ointment is put on the pads. When a team is ready to start racing again, the booties are put back on.

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Hope you’re enjoying the race.

Gypsy

Hi Boys and Girls,

I hope you are enjoying the race this year.  Several of you have asked about food for both the dogs and humans along the trail.  We’ve talked a lot about what the dogs eat but not about what the humans eat.  Mary Calore contacted me and said she was Matt’s mom and she had prepared all his food the last year when he ran the Iditarod.  She wanted to know if I would be interested in doing a story about it.  I gave her a big howling “YES”.

Matt Calore has run the Iditarod twice, once in 2007 as a rookie and again last year in 2008.  He didn’t run this year but is preparing to race again next year.  The first year, Matt froze mostly pizza and sent it in his drop bags.  Last year, his mom Mary, made his food for the trail.  I was able to interview Mary about the types of food she made and the process she went through to make sure the meals would be easy to prepare and eat.  One of the biggest issues was that Mary lives in Massachusetts and Matt lives in Alaska.  So not only did the food need to stay frozen and safe in the drop bags, it had to make it from Massachusetts to Alaska first.

How did you plan the meals? 

“Matt and I spend several long phone conversations discussing the number of meals he would need, the food he wanted, and the types of meals he needed.  He felt that he would finish the race between 12-15 days, and so needed food for 16 days.  He also figured that he would receive about 5-6 meals at the different checkpoints along the route.   This meant that I made him 15 breakfasts, 14 lunches, and 14 dinners.  I also included snacks and “special Mom treats”.

“We discussed his need to have really substantial food that would give him lasting energy, something to look forward to when he was tired, cold and hungry, but most important, something that was easy to prepare in the cold, in a pot containing dog food and melted snow, and when you are exhausted and starving.  We decided that he needed fats, carbs and meat – so much for too many vegetables!  We also thought about food that would be tasty even if he didn’t get it hot, but had to settle for warm.  This was not the time to try out new recipes!”

What kinds of food did you make for Matt?  Were you able to make his favorite foods?

“For breakfast, I made burrito wraps with scrambled egg, cheese, Canadian bacon, salsa, and flour wraps.  These were favorites of his on the trail because he enjoys salsa and spicy things.  I sent one in each package, but figured that he would eat two in a meal.  I also made egg, cheese, and sausage English muffins – yup- MacMuffins.  These were easier for him to eat without utensils.  I wanted to send cereal, but couldn’t figure out how to send milk without having it freeze, and knew that dry would only make him very thirsty.

The rest of the meals were for dinner or lunch – or a midnight stop along the trail.  These were more difficult.

I made him lasagna, but I did not have cheese on the top.  I had the cheese inside as I was afraid that it would stick to the bag in which it was frozen and then cooked.  The lasagna had hamburger and sausage meat in it, some spinach – yes, as a Mom I wanted him to have vegetables! – and a thick tomato sauce.  The pieces were about 4 inches by 6 inches and one was a meal.  He had about 8 lasagna meals.

Matt also likes rice, so I made him his favorite rice, sausage, green pepper, onion, tomato and cheese casserole.  He said that he liked this for any meal – even breakfast!  I had to make two big pans (6 quarts) of rice!  I think he had about 10 of these.

I also made him cheeseburgers.  In addition to plenty of cheddar cheese, I put salsa on the burgers and used whole wheat rolls.  I had to drain the salsa so that the rolls would not get too soggy.

Matt also like shrimp fried rice, so I sent him two meals of homemade fried rice.  I found a tasty chicken fried rice at the store that I mailed him and he said that it was good, but mine was better!

He loves Italian sausages with sautéed onions, mushrooms and green peppers in sub rolls.  I decided that this would not work too well, so I put the sausage, mushroom, onion and pepper in one bag and froze the rolls separately.  I think this worked OK.  He had five of these.

I also made beef stew with mostly meat and potato, but I included some onions, carrots and peas too.

He wanted some homemade pizza, so I included slices of my own pizza with pepperoni, mushroom, pepper, and extra cheese.  Matt loves cold pizza for breakfast, so I knew that this would be one of the meals that he would heat until it was warm, but not so warm the cheese would melt and make a mess.”

Did you make any special treats for Matt?

I made him about 30 of my special brownies.  They are double batches to make them thick and I put a bag of chocolate chips in each batch to make them really chocolately and moist.  These I froze in twos after cutting them into about 2inches by 3 inches.  I also made some oatmeal caramel bars which can be gooey, so I added extra oatmeal bar part.

I also made up a lot of bags of trail mix as it has protein and oil in nuts, carbs in the pretzels and cereal, and energy in the chocolate and peanut butter candies.  I also found some really good, but not too salty, jerky – beef, turkey and buffalo which he has always liked.  I tried to get as many ingredients without salt as he did not carry too much water to drink for himself.

Matt’s dad bought him some of the special army meals and granola bars – the bars had over 2,000 calories in each one!  He said they were pretty good, but there were some left over and none of my food left.

How did you package the food?

As I made the food, I would cut it into meal size portions, put it into plastic containers and freeze it.  Once frozen, I popped it out of the container into a vacuum, food sealer bag, and using the food sealer machine I bought, sealed each one separately.  Now Matt could put the bag into the water and dog food mix that he was heating on his butane stove, and it would not be spoiled by the dog food.  When he was at a checkpoint that did not feed the mushers, but provided a microwave, he could heat his food inside too.  I made sure that he had a sharp knife to cut the bag as they are very strong and the seal is melted together.  I had to be sure to freeze the meals first, because the sealer pulls out all air, and usually most of the liquid put into the bag.  When it was frozen, the liquid could not be pulled out!  I now had a very full freezer.

How did you get the food from Massachusetts to Alaska?

I vacuum sealed ice cubes, froze the ice packs we got from fish stores, and collected heavy Styrofoam containers – like those the Omaha steaks come in.  We filled them to the top with all of the food, put them into cardboard boxes layered with newspaper and sealed them.  We mailed them US Mail special delivery – next day  delivery – to Anchorage from Massachusetts.  This was very expensive!  A friend of Matt’s picked them up and brought them to him where he kept them in the snow outside.

How did Matt pack his drop bags?

When he packed his drop bags, he put in snacks and a treat bag or two.  Matt had planned the places where he would stop to snack the dogs and himself, where he would camp and cook food, and where he might just need something to chew on.  He then had separated the meals by breakfast and “other” and put whatever he grabbed into the bag.  He was careful to include only the number that he needed so he would have enough for the whole race.  Matt said that the ice was still in the boxes when he unpacked to put the food into the drop bags.

Are there any problems with the food in the drop bags for long periods of time?

Once in the drop bags, the food stays frozen as long as it is cold outside where the bags are kept.  I heard that there has been some trouble this year with ravens getting at the bags!  Last year it was warm and some of the bags got too warm and the food started to thaw!  Matt was lucky and none of his thawed.

Is there anything you would do differently next time?

Matt said that I put too much of the stew and rice in the bags which made them fat and very hard to thaw in the middle. Oh, the rolls for the sausage and peppers shriveled up and looked really funny when I tried them in the vacuum bags, so I just wrapped them in plastic, put them in zip lock bags (good for trash!), and froze them that way.  I did the same with the brownies and bars, who wants shriveled, mangled brownies?  I did not freeze the trail mix, which I had packaged in single serving vacuum bags, but it was packed in with the frozen food when we mailed the packages.

Thanks to Mary Calore for telling me about preparing human food for the trail.  It sounds like a lot of work and Matt is sure lucky to have a mom to do this for him.  Mary said she and her husband are planning to go to Alaska for the 2011 Iditarod and hopes to be an Idita-rider. Have a great time!

And Matt, I’ll be watching for you next year!

Happy Trails,

Gypsy

Click here to view this PDF File.

Click here to view this PDF File.

Click here to view this PDF file

Hi Boys and Girls,

Well the final preparations are being made for the Last Great Race.  Have you ever wondered how mushers carry enough supplies to last them over a thousand miles?

The simple answer is they can’t.  So what can they do to make sure that there is enough food and supplies for both the dogs and the musher to reach Nome?  They prepare drop bags to be flown to the checkpoints.

The ITC supplies mushers with drop bags to pack up and take to the Airland Transport in Anchorage to be weighed, sorted by checkpoint and then flown to the checkpoint.  Each drop bag must have the mushers name and destination clearly written on it.  Food and supplies are sent to all checkpoints except Yetna and Finger Lake.  Sending food or gear to Safety is optional.  The food drop takes place about 2-3 weeks prior to the start of the race.

So…. What’s in the drop bags?  Dog food, human food, dog supplies such as extra booties are packed in the bags.  All mandatory food must be shipped through the drop bags.  All perishable food (food that could rot or go bad) must be prefrozen. The bags cannot weigh more than 60 pounds each.  Mushers can also send extra sleds and equipment to checkpoints of their choosing.  This extra equipment may include extra dog dishes, buckets, runners for the sled, etc. This extra equipment must go with the sled and not with the food drops.

Now you may be asking how a musher knows what, how much, and where to send various supplies.  All mushers make a race plan.  Before they start the race, they know where they want to take breaks, do their 24 hour rest, and about when they will get to those places. A Musher will look at the plan and decide where would be good places for extra food, a sled, supplies etc.  Once the race starts, the mushers may have to change their plan for various reasons.  When they do that, they may also have to rethink where to pick up their supplies and may have to carry those supplies with them.

Not all supplies are used.  There is always extra. Extra dog food that is left behind may be used at the discretion of the officials.  No food, dog or human, is shipped back in the return bags.  Sleds, return bags, gear etc. may be picked up at ITC headquarters after the race has finished.

Remember a race plan is part of achieving a goal that the mushers have set for themselves.  This is one part of the plan to achieve that goal.

Only a week left before race time.  Hope you’ve picked your musher and are ready to set out on a great adventure.

Happy trails,

Gypsy

Click here to view this PDF File.