MORE snow

We have about three inches of more new snow. It is melting though and makes it tough walking. The gates were just chopped out and now they're plugged up again with the new stuff. This is called Spring preview, I think. We are not done with snow yet.

We had fun with the Fantasy Iditarod and won first place with our five luck of the draw teams:
Lance Mackey (winner) , Martin Buser, William Kleedehn (rookie of the year), John Baker and Kjetil Backen.

This is our last post from this blog for Iditarod 2008.

Iditarod and Back

Well, with the Iditarod coming to a close, the Red Lantern looking to belong to Deborah Bicknell, age 62, we will move back to our Windy Pups blog for daily kennel journaling. http://windypups.blogspot.com/

I see that Molly Yazwinski has scratched in White Mountain , only 77 miles from the finish, but don't know the reason.

And, our Fantasy Iditarod team still holds the lead out of 30 players out of Elim. Since we have Lance on our team, we will get mega points for his win as well as good points for William Kleedehn's rookie of the year. Maybe we'll win!

What an interesting year! We watched the first hour of the Versus coverage last night. There will be two more Sundays of coverage on Versus of Iditarod 2008. Here's to next year then!
We will be watching the All Alaska Sweepstakes beginning March 26th from Nome.

Chop Chop

Yesterday three gates were frozen solid when I went out to feed in the early a.m. There are a couple of choices with that dilemma... climb over, chop it out or melt it. I fed the dogs thru the fences , poured salt on the gate openings and waited. I use table salt as the other packaged stuff for sidewalks can be toxic.

So late day I was out shoveling the meltdown to prevent freezing this morning's gates. Yet to find out, but this Spring season will be long with the great snow we've had having to meltdown.

I chopped trenches yesterday, but we're expecting more snow and then more warm temps.

Spring ahead! Definitely a season of mixed emotions... snow, love us or leave us!!

Sue Morgan and Trent Herbst into Nome

Sue got there about 2:31 and Trent not too far along after her, looks like they'll both make it to the banquet! Congratulations, Sue and Trent!

The Best Thing about This Race

Hm, what is the one best thing about the Iditarod? Well, one best thing is that the SPK dog log says Allen is feeling better... that is huge. We just got our issue of MUSHING and there is great coverage of his CB 300 win and many other races.

Tonight is the banquet in Nome, with the GREAT food! The awards will be given and the mushers will tell some entertaining and hairraising stories about this year's race.

I think if there is only ONE best thing about the race, it is the opportunity it provides for friendships with humans and dogs... we meet such great humans and great dogs through this race.

We are watching now for Sue Morgan and Trent Herbst to come into Nome... looks like they might make the first banquet.

Golden Nome

There is gold mining equipment (old) all around the town. And I imagine a lot more now that they are mining again. This photo was taken at sunrise.

Nome

This is a photo of Nome at pre-dawn in March, 2003. It's a great town... with time between mushers you can roam the streets to learn a lot about the history.

Aliy's in Nome

Aliy arrived in Nome, in under three hours from Safety, with ten dogs, 21st position. Great job, Aliy and dogs! Her whole family was there to greet her .

And Allen had to scratch with a persistent illness that plagued him along the trail. He had a great run prior to that, too.

Standings

Well, the official standings show Aliy in 14th at the moment. Somehow Mackey and King are erased off the board, so I think that will change once Mackey and King are put back on, but still doing well.

Update: There was a glitch in that standings' report, about ten or so mushers not on it.
All back to normal now.

Yahoo Link

Yahoo has the win for Lance up, along with 111 photos of the race .

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Iditarod-Trail-Sled-Dog-Race/ss/events/sp/030308iditarod/s:/ap/20080312/ap_on_sp_ot/iditarod;_ylt=Amt6IsIm4HwHqQyCYTW_3Y2l24cA#photoViewer=/080312/483/8881832f4275444d88115cc41b99f120

Lance Mackey, Winner, Iditarod 2008

Wow, that is some record for Lance Mackey. Arriving Nome, 2:46:48 with eleven dogs, three hours from Safety.

Two Iditarod wins, back to back, along with, two Quest wins, back to back. Great dogs!

GPS

Per GPS, Lance is at 902, at 8 mph and Jeff is at 894 at 7 mph. Have to say this GPS has made race watching a whole new game this year.

Chute filling up

The chute is filling up with people; GPS shows Lance at 900 mile mark, what is the Nome GPS mileage? Will be soon. Jeff is 7 miles behind him.

Lance Mackey out of Safety

Lance is out of Safety and moving along toward Nome. Jeff King is not yet out of Safety .

Aliy is a mile 814 and moving along. Looks like a winner will land in Nome about 3AM Alaska time.

Back to our top ten picks, difficult to predict year

These are our original top ten picks for Windy Pups:

Top Ten Picks from Windy Pups: (on Feb 29th)
Looking like we have nine for ten, but we'll have to wait . As Martin Buser said, " It ain't over until the fat lady sings."
FINISH POSITION
Aliy Zirkle 21
Mitch Seavey 7
Lance Mackey 1
Kjetil Backen 9
Paul Gebhardt 8
John Baker 23
Jeff King 2
Martin Buser 5
Ed Iten 17
Zack Steer 11
Ken Anderson should be in there, too, but ten is ten. (His finish was 4)

Rookie of the Year Pick: Molly Yazwinski Looking like William Kleedehn or Melissa Owens will take this spot. William Kleedehn , Rookie of the Year

Allen Moore (scratched due to illness) would be in my top ten if he were running an A team, but he is running a training team, but we still expect him to have a great race. Go puppies!
Posted by Julie at 3:30 AM 0 comments
Friday, February 29, 2008

Alaskan Aircraft

Another small plane crashed, word has it that it was a film crew from Versus, the channel that will show us the race on March 16th, but sounds like they walked away ok. Hm, an $800,000 helicopter with the Discovery crew; two planes. I've always felt invincible when I fly in small planes up there, but perhaps my head is in the sand. Glad to hear all are ok.

Lance has left White Mountain, enroute to Safety and then on to Nome. Jeff is still waiting.

Guessing

OK, so we're guessing: 3AM, Lance Mackey, with Jeff King on his coattails, flying a sail or something innovative :)

Bering Strait School District

More BSSD info, this is the link to their live discussion in the class room, of the Iditarod, times, etc.
http://sbt.bssd.org/blog/live-broadcast/

Nome and Web Cam

This is the link to the Nome webcam: http://www.guilliam.com/alaska.htm

Now adn.com says it will be early Wednesday morning and calls it the closest race since 1979, a real shootout.

Keep an eye on the web cam.

Lance Mackey, 1st to White Mountain

Lance is first into White Mtn. He'll rest the mandatory 8 hours and can leave by 4:53 AK time.
Jeff isn't too far behind but not there yet and he'll have to rest 8 as well. Still room for mistakes, but Lance has the strategic advantage right now.

Winner's Night Ahead?

Predictions are that there will be a winner tonight, but there can always be surprises. Both leaders still need to stop in White Mountain. Aliy is at mile 742, and minus thirty feet altitude
(on the frozen Bering Sea) and going at 6mph.

And jumping ahead a bit, beginning March 26th in Nome, the All Alaska Sweepstakes. Familiar faces in that crowd will also be Jeff King and Lance Mackey, as well as Ramy Brooks, Mitch Seavey. They will race 408 miles from Nome to Candle and back to Nome. The pot is $100,000. http://www.allalaskasweepstakes.org/Mushers.html

Snowmachine Dog Death

Jennifer Freking's team of dogs was hit by a snowmachine traveling 40mph in the dark. She and Blake were stopped with their teams, giving snacks. The dog killed was Lorne and another dog, Aries, was injured. They were able to get care for their teams and stay overnight to rethink.
With great courage and deeply saddened hearts, they are traveling on in the race, knowing, they said, they have to deal with the loss whether racing or not.

We are so saddened to hear this and realize each time we share a trail with snowmachines that we are at their mercy. They drive too fast for visibility, period.

Tracking

Aliy is at mile 647 with 12 dogs, going 6mph, 21 degrees F.

The leaders, Mackey and King, are at mile 713, just a 66 mile difference. King has 16 dogs, pretty amazing in these warm temps.

Mackey leading, temps falling

Aliy is at mile 556, temps is 19 degrees F, 12 dogs, a little over half way and she has had her mandatory rests. Looks like Allen is resting young dogs well along these warm routes.

Mackey is about 66 miles ahead of Aliy with 14 dogs, leading, and temp is 8 degrees F., so ahead of the pack the trails will be a bit faster.

Still lots of time in the race but King and Mackey are holding their own in front.

Talking to Myself

Combining all factors, the leading ten (although not in the stats that way), I think the leading ten, at the moment are: Lance Mackey, King, Gatt, Baker, Swenson, M. Buser, Zack Steer, Seavey, Royer and Steer.

But, the unknowns are skill, weather, dog issues, strategies, mistakes, luck, etc.

Photos

Gwen Rodman, friend from CA , and her friend, Martha Ethridge, Anchorage, caught some nice photos. This is one of Sue Morgan's team out of Willow. Happy dogs, happy musher.

Gwen and I have traveled to various checkpoints together, including Rainy Pass, McGrath,

Takotna, and Nome.

Gwen's daughter, Karin, and husband, Varan, were married on dogsleds. They race out of their kennel in Chugiak, AK. I met Karin on her first trip to Iditarod.

Racing and Resting

Whew, Mackey is pouring it on and King is taunting him with a close second chase into Galena.

Aliy is into Ruby with 13 dogs and resting. The GPS shows 8 mushers ahead of the people in Ruby. The mushers must be running in their underwear, certainly not their big parkas in these temps. Now the real chase is on as mushers begin to complete their 8 hour mandatories. The frontrunners have their 8's and 24's. Wonder if Aliy will get her 8 in Ruby?

Allen is into Cripple with 13 dogs.

Now they're racing

Lance Mackey and Jeff King are into Ruby and resting. Aliy finished her 24 and is out of Cripple; Allen finished his 24 and is into and out of Ophir. GPS says it is 41 degrees where Aliy travels at this time. (compare to our expected minus twenty tonight in Wisconsin).

Sue Morgan and Trent Herbst have been 24'ing in McGrath.

And in the Fantasy Iditarod, Julie is in firstplace, moving up from 2nd after the McGrath tallies were done. Betsy is in 6th, how 'bout that?

Quietly Moving Along

Louis Nelson, Sr., age 65, is quietly moving along. And Rick Swenson, only five time champion, is , at this moment, in third place (age 55). Some of the frontrunners are headed for Ruby, having completed their 24's and looks like Aliy will be out of Cripple midday, while Allen is already out, following his 24.

There is a great update on both Aliy/Allen at their blog: http://spkenneldoglog.blogspot.com/

Temps maybe just a bit cooler, but we saw 44 degrees at one spot.

Upcoming Ruby, old photo; dog named Ruby

Thanks to Phillip Albert sending this great photo of Ruby in the 1900's.

We have a great dog named Albert's Ruby, after Phillip and family. She was born during Iditarod 2002, sister to Buffy who was named after Aliy's buffalo encounter that year.

Cripple Checkpoint

Aliy is into Cripple and in the stats is in 9th position. There are fourteen teams behind her who have finished their 24's, so I imagine she'll be taking hers in Ruby, just guessing. Looks like Allen might be taking his 24 in Takotna and he has 13 dogs. * Aliy's kennel blog reports she'll probably 24 in Cripple and they don't know which dog she dropped yet.

Sue Morgan is in 83rd out of Nikolai. Trent is 89 into Nikolai.

Dee Dee Jonrowe was first into Cripple, and reports are that Gebhardt got lost enroute to Cripple, but he is in 2nd. Last year he had the help of some buffalo hunters in catching a lost team.

Takotna 24's

To date, Takotna is our favorite checkpoint. We spent some time there a few years ago.

It's nestled into a hillside, the mushers were sleeping in the church. Dogs slept peacefully on the hillside, tucked away.

The villagers kept a huge pot of water boiling on the river bank for all mushers. The children were out of school and running errands on the snowmachines. A villager told me her husband had shot the black wolf in this photo. They depend on the moose population for their food.

The small shelter offered my first taste of mooseburgers. We shared picnic tables with the mushers and it was a great day.

Warm Trails, Wind and Helicopter; 24's

Looks like Aliy is at Mile 350, traveling at 6mph, 38 degrees F, out of Ophir, officially reported as in 9th place, on these warm and wet trails.
And she dropped one dog, so has 15, don't know which dog until posted at her blog.

The Discovery Channel helicopter crashed while filming Rachael and Joe R in the Dalzell Gorge, pretty scary place to crash. http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=7972747
But the pilot and DC staff walked away. Also a small plane with a photographer crashed and both walked away. Word was that winds caused the problems.

Sounds like a tough year to chase the race as a tour group is socked in , I believe, in Rainy Pass, not expecting to get out until Friday.

See a few are 24ing in Takotna. Allen is into Takotna having camped along the way. Sue Morgan and Trent are out of Roh

Mandatory Rests

Looks like some of them in Takotna might be taking their 24's. It's a nice place to do that.

Yes!

Yes, just after I posted that the stats have Aliy in 8th position, in and out of Takotna. Two are in Ophir.

Moving Along

Mitch Seavey is listed in first position, resting at 0 mph, while Aliy is on GPS only 21 miles behind him, moving at 9mph and listed in 22nd position. The official stats are not accurate indicators and that is the beauty of the race strategies. My guess is she will show up in and out of Takotna in a short bit. Some without GPS are ahead of her, I think, but Aliy, Ed Iten and Martin Buser are ahead of Royer, Mackey, King, Ekran and Backen (I think and UN officially)

McGrath, shows the river bank for ascend/descend

Stats show Aliy , number 12, into McGrath. Backen and Mackey into Takotna (beyond McGrath). Many mushers take their mandatory 24 in McGrath, a larger checkpoint. Takotna is also popular. Both communities are very musher friendly. Takotna children are out of school for Iditarod.

Don't know if locations have changed in McGrath, but in 2001 they came in up this river bank and left with fresh dogs (happy/fast) going down this river bank. Gal running in front is a checkpoint volunteer.

Trail Photos, Old

This is a photo of the airstrip for landing in Takotna... cropping cutout is supposed to be a dog's foot. It highlights how short your chances are to stop , ha ha! From there you take the winding trail down the mountain (on foot or hitch hiking). Hopefully weather will cooperate so support planes can move on to McGrath/Takotna.

Weather Socks 'Em In

Guess there are some folks socked in in Rainy Pass and support crew/planes not getting to fly in to Finger Lake or Rainy. Hm, it's raining in Anchorage and 39 degrees, rain in Willow and warm nearly up to McGrath. Maybe this was a good year to watch it on the computer. The GPS has momentarily given up, too.

Tough Going

This story explains what the back of the pack mushers met out of Finger Lake. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

http://iditarodblogs.com/news/2008/03/04/trench-warfare-on-the-way-to-rainy-pass/

Glad to know Sue Morgan is OK.

Links for Iditarod

Hope this pastes as it has many good sites to check for not only official standings, but commentary by musher kennels.

http://mushing.bssd.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=121

Aliy appears to be in the top group even though the stats show her to be in the twenties.
Sorry to hear that Mouse had to drop in Finger Lake with Allen. Warm temps for hearty huskies. Thankfully night time will help a bit.

Temperatures

We see that temps are as high as 38 degrees around where Aliy is camped, even beyond her, and it's not yet or just daylight. Allen should be into Rohn now or soon?

Sue Morgan left Finger Lake just after Runyan and Scdoris. Trent Herbst , with his yearlings,

is at Finger Lake. Looks like Ed Stielstra is having a nice steady run.

Photo: Rainy Pass, another year.

GPS Stats, Example

OK, here's an example of GPS stat comparisons:

TIME: 2:21 AM, Alaska ; 3.04.08

Miles 184, 180 and 170(plus/minus) : Mackey, King , Smyth, Seavy and Backen.

MILE 165
TEMP ALTITUDE SPEED
Anderson 35F 1453 0mph
Ekran 35F 1375 0mph
Baker 33F 1368 0mph

Zirkle 34F 1365 0mph

Buser 36F 1355 0mph
Royer 37F 1266 0mph

Resting temperatures for sure.

Somewhere Out There

Looks like Aliy might be moving out of Rohn, but will recheck. Shows her at Mile 165 at 1MPH.

Others at 165 are at 0 mph, but Jessie Royer is at 10mph, so she must be moving out. Wonder if just jiggling the sled while feeding, etc. will show the 1mph or if Aliy is actually moving? Backen and King and Seavey are further out (as may be others). Per Kaz at SPdoglog, watch the elevations and the slower speeds can be uphill climbs, where the faster speeds are descents (or fast trails).

Per Aliy's website, Allen dropped a female dog for mild dehydration. Those temps have been warm for cold weather dogs. Good to hear that some of the tougher sections (into Finger Lake) have more snow this year and sounds like Rainy Pass is not the nightmare it was last year.

Photo: Team below, driver wearing the white windbreaker, sometimes used for low visibility, but also to cut wind. Some teams have white wind coats for dogs as well.

GPS and Official Standings

I'm sure this is just slow reporting as official standings show Aliy out of Skwentna, but the GPS shows her at 109 , which I believe is in and out of Finger Lake. Think I'll check the GPS first from now on.

(It was slow reporting). Looking good, the whole batch!

GPS

Watching the GPS positions is interesting. Looks like Kjetil Backen is in or near Finger Lake.
The GPS positions give a different view than the official standings. Wonder how confusing that will get (not officially but for us).

Photo: Enroute to Finger Lake via air (07)

Into Skwentna and Out

Aliy is out of Skwentna, and Allen has 'zoomed' into Skwenta. Looks like Aliy may have rested enroute(by her speed) and in checkpoint for 5 minutes.

Hm, the GPS... I kinda like watching where they are, but understand the misgivings of some about it impacting strategy.

Iditarod GPS Trackers

This is the link to the GPS tracker page for some of the mushers willing to take them along on their sleds. Aliy is one of them . At this moment is reports that Aliy is at mile 82 and Kjetil Backen is at mile 80.

http://www.iditarod.com/race/ionearth.html

Very interesting, you can read their mile location on the trail, the temperature, wind, etc. and their location relative to the other mushers carrying the GPS devices. It will be interesting to see how this impacts strategies this year.

Real Iditarod, Top Ten Picks

Each year we choose our own top ten, real choices vs fantasy choices. So here goes my hat in the ring for later rehashing:

Top Ten Picks from Windy Pups:

Aliy Zirkle

Mitch Seavey

Lance Mackey

Kjetil Backen

Paul Gebhardt

John Baker

Jeff King

Martin Buser

Ed Iten

Zack Steer

Ken Anderson should be in there, too, but ten is ten.

Rookie of the Year Pick: Molly Yazwinski

Allen Moore would be in my top ten if he were running an A team, but he is running a training team, but we still expect him to have a great race. Go puppies!