Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: texasmom on February 27, 2008, 08:10:18 AM
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I'm excited about the Iditarod. :)
Supposed to be able to log on to track the progress of the racers this year.
The summer before Susan Butcher died I was in Fairbanks & got some nice pictures of her at her training site. Was something else. :)
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I have never really figured out why, but I love this event.
You have a link Mom?
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not yet. was planning on looking at http://www.iditarod.com later to find it though.
this year I was supposed to contact one of our little local elementary schools to give them the whole "alaska" talk. Each year they run their own mini-iditarod through their school. I forgot to contact them though ~ been busy since Sept/Oct... and let time slip away from me. I realized it this morning. :( I'm disappointed about that. I'll have to try to contact her again for next year I guess. Oh well.
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Thanks. Loading the interactive trail map now.
I remember when Curt Gowdy used to do the coverage on this a long time ago. The man could nearly put you there.
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A super book: Spirit of the Wind. :)
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Originally posted by texasmom
A super book: Spirit of the Wind. :)
:eek: :eek:
Nearly dropped my coffee.
On Amazon starting at $69.95 , to $133.34.
I`m still looking. lol
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Try ebay. If you can't find a reasonable price send a PM. I'll send you my copy. :)
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Originally posted by texasmom
Try ebay. If you can't find a reasonable price send a PM. I'll send you my copy. :)
eBay was a blank.
Found a couple of different places to get it at the original $14.95. (jonvanzyle and Epicenter press) I`ll get one from one of these.
Wow! What a generous offer though.
Was sort of a pain to find I think due to the Dragonlance series of the same name.
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Theres a gay dude from Ft. Lauderdale who tried running 58 miniature poodles in this grueling race. There were many problems.... tangled harness and lines due to so many dogs, and he also had to carry heavy canned dog food because his poodles wouldn't eat frozen fish... and the poodles were too easily distracted by constantly trying to lick each other's balls.... it was a mess. He didn't get too far. I think he took some sort of prize for the best groomed dogs tho.
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The summer before Susan Butcher died
I had no idea she died. :(
I was still stationed in Alaska in '85 when she was setting records to virtually all checkpoints before a moose got into her dog team and killed several and injured several more. She's the second 4 time winner of the Iditarod.
Before I left Alaska she won 2 Iditarods, 86 and 87. Then she won 2 more in 88 and 90.
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Yep, sorry to say that she sure did.
http://www.susanbutcher.com/
There's this little riverboat tour that Ms. Butcher was "part" of. One of the stops along the route for the riverboat was at her home/training camp. She stood out on the ground w/her mic; broadcast into the speakers of the boat... she talked some about her training facility, showed off some of the dogs, and let them pull her around the lake (she was on a 4-wheeler)... then later along the riverboat tour ~ you get stop & walk around at another site where some of her dogs were out (along with some other touristy attractions).
I was so pleased & excited to have been able to see her... and so very disappointed to hear that she'd died.
p.s. sounds like the guy from FL was a total retard.
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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. :)
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The Anchorage Daily News has a lot of great stuff on the Iditarod:
http://www.adn.com/iditarod/
They have a great memorial on Butcher
(http://media.adn.com/smedia/2008/01/31/13/927-butch.thumb.prod_affiliate.7.jpg)
You can also read about the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, which is one of the biggest wackiest winter festivals anywhere.
I've been reading about the Iron Dog, which is a 2,000 mile snowmachine/snowmobile race (the biggest in the world).
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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!"
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I became aware of the Iditarod when I was in Jr. High during the 70's. I read a biography about a kid that had a bum leg, but developed a unique kicking style to mush. He set a bunch of records, but for the life of me I can't remember his name. Mom?
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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. :)
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Damn Mom, you're always surprising me.
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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
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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
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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).
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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.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh194/fastblastus/route_northern.jpg)
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Yep ~ that's it :)
I think there are two roads in their village... airport road and landfill road... or something like that.
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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
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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. :)
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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!
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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.
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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!
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King has 11 chasing him to Unalakleet now! Nine are resting in Kaltag. That's 21 mushers within 60 miles of each other.
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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.
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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.