Iditarod

[texasmom]

George Attla ("Spirit of the Wind" from above is about him)
*edit* I think that is who you're talking about

Originally posted by Holden McGroin
I was watching an interview with Butcher when she took her dogs up to Denali...  yes, to the peak of...

Somebody asked her if she ever got lonely racing sled dogs, being 200 miles+ from anyone else, and she said, "Lonely?  I'm here with a dozen of my closest friends!"

She was pretty special.
It was summer of 2005 that I was there ~ soon after I got back, I lost my camera (before having transferred any of the photos). TxDad found the camera last Spring ~ I was so very happy to have all of those pictures that I took from the trip that I thought I'd lost. You could really see that she was telling the truth when she said something like in the quotes above.

[Xargos]

Damn Mom, you're always surprising me.

[Jackal1]

Top 10 standings.

1     Lance Mackey     OUT OF Rohn     03/03 20:36
2    Hugh Neff    OUT OF Rohn    03/03 20:38
3    Jeff King    OUT OF Rohn    03/03 21:59
4    Mitch Seavey    OUT OF Rohn    03/03 22:01
5    Cim Smyth    OUT OF Rohn    03/03 23:49
6    Ramey Smyth    OUT OF Rohn    03/04 00:19
7    Kjetil Backen    OUT OF Rohn    03/04 01:11
8    Paul Gebhardt    IN TO Rohn    03/03 19:49
9    Gerry Willomitzer    IN TO Rohn    03/03 19:54
10    Aaron Burmeister    IN TO Rohn    03/03 20:10

[Obie303]

Another great read about the iditarod is "Winterdance" by Gary Paulsen.  Although he was never in the top 10 (or the top 25 either), it really added a nice personal touch to the hardships of dog sledding.

On a personal note, I named my Malamute "Niko" after one of the checkpoints, Nikolia.  I don't sled any more since he passed away, but I do miss the sport every winter.

Obie

[texasmom]

Originally posted by Obie303
Another great read about the iditarod is "Winterdance" by Gary Paulsen.  Although he was never in the top 10 (or the top 25 either), it really added a nice personal touch to the hardships of dog sledding.

On a personal note, I named my Malamute "Niko" after one of the checkpoints, Nikolia.  I don't sled any more since he passed away, but I do miss the sport every winter.

Obie

Nice Obie!

I'll look for that book.
I have a book called "The Cruelest Miles." I think there's some in there about it also (haven't read it yet, and actually, I bought it to read about one particular account ~ of sled dogs being brought to France to help rescue some snowed in soldiers in the early 1900's).

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by texasmom
Jackal, when you look at that interactive map ~ see White Mountain? Go north from there & when you get to the water again, that's where my family lives.

Sorry Mom. I missed this earlier.
In the red X area I am assuming.
Cool.
Am I having browser spasms or what? I can`t find the interactive map now that the race has started. Had it loaded the other day.

[texasmom]

Yep ~ that's it
I think there are two roads in their village... airport road and landfill road... or something like that.

[eskimo2]

I am so digging the Iditarod coverage this year.  http://www.iditarod.com/ has a very cool GPS tracking map for many of the mushers.  The stories are great on The Anchorage daily News site http://www.adn.com/iditarod/ as well.  If you watch anything, check out this movie:
http://www.iditarod.com/flashmap/free/video_E0F3AADA-3FFF-1FD7-BFD5A61EDB31B795.html

[texasmom]

eskimo, that was a great video ~ thanks

rpm, I was thinking about Attla when you asked about him ~ and how important the dogs were to the livelihood in the past. How George's father (as described in that book "Spirit of the Wind") was able to still provide food for their family even after he'd gone blind, as a result of the dogs. The trap line he ran was on a set route, which he traveled on with his sled dogs.  Even after he had gone blind, he was able to make the trap line run with the dogs, because they knew the route.  It's a great story.

[eskimo2]

King passed Mackey and he's about 25 miles from Unalakleet.  Mackey's about 10 miles behind him.  Three others are also on that stretch and 12 are resting in Kaltag, only about 50 miles behind King. 

The weather is very warm which is overheating the dogs who love below zero temperatures.  The trail is very soft with some fresh snow which is contributing to slow speeds.

Every Iditarod champion since 1995 has finished in less than 10 days; it's day 9 now and the leader has yet to hit Norton Sound.  There's over 250 miles to go!

[texasmom]

Did you see the trailbreaker?  I'm surprised & disappointed to see that there's a trailbreaker. I though that breaking the trail was always appropriately a burdon of the person up front.

[eskimo2]

I think they've always had a trail breaker.  It seems to keep about 50 miles ahead of the leader.  I think the leader still has a burden and the trail gets more packed down with each team.  Historically, the trail was always in use and was somewhat packed.  They have snowmachine races along the Iditarod trail.  The biggest one is 2,000 miles and Nome is only the halfway point.  There's also a foot race, bike race and ski race.  The fastest bikers have done it in 15 days!

[eskimo2]

King has 11 chasing him to Unalakleet now!  Nine are resting in Kaltag.  That's 21 mushers within 60 miles of each other.

[rpm]

eskimo, that was a great video ~ thanks

rpm, I was thinking about Attla when you asked about him ~ and how important the dogs were to the livelihood in the past. How George's father (as described in that book "Spirit of the Wind") was able to still provide food for their family even after he'd gone blind, as a result of the dogs. The trap line he ran was on a set route, which he traveled on with his sled dogs.  Even after he had gone blind, he was able to make the trap line run with the dogs, because they knew the route.  It's a great story.

Yeah, that was a great story. I guess that's why it stuck with me all these years.

[texasmom]

I reckon they won't be able to catch Mackey now.
He's at mile 851, with the next two guys more than 10 miles back. I suppose 10 miles may still be close enough that they could catch him if Mackey snags on anything.