Iditarod 2006

The start of the annual Alaskan Iditarod Dog Sled Race started last Saturday in Anchorage on 4th Avenue. This year there were 83 mushers attempting to make the trek from Anchorage to Nome 1,100 miles away. This adventure through the Alaskan wilderness over mountains, along frozen rivers, and in harsh winter conditions reaching minus 50 below zero temperatures.















The world's longest sled-dog race thrives on the mystique of mushers and their canine companions braving the vicious cold of faraway Alaska. But only rarely can anyone see firsthand what's happening along the trail.

From the helicopters clattering over downtown Anchorage on Saturday morning to the crowds swarming the streets, it was clear Iditarod has become the new Anchorage Fur Rendezvous World Championships.













Who could have imagined that a 1,100-mile ultra-marathon waged across the vast emptiness of the 49th state could someday spark a show like this: gawking tourists from around the globe filling downtown with a babble of tongues, hot dog carts and food vendors saturating the winter air with the smell of money, T-shirt and Iditarod program vendors hawking merchandise behind snow fences needed to keep roaming multitudes safely corralled, photographers snapping pictures everywhere, and, of course, dogs, dogs and more dogs.








They run night and day, too, on a rest-run schedule dictated by the dogs with little consideration for the mushers. By the time the people get done caring for the animals in the checkpoints and fixing broken gear, there is often little -- if any -- time for sleep. By the time the lead teams reach Nome, 10 or 11 days from now, many of the front-running mushers will be stumbling, bumbling zombies, which is what sleep deprivation tends to do to humans.








It is this competition, along with the inevitable and sometimes heartbreaking struggles of the people who try to simply finish the Iditarod, only to fail, that have built the event from almost
nothing to the biggest thing in the Alaska winter and a growing international sports attraction.









As with good movies, it's all about the story. Story needs characters, plot lines, subtext and drama. The Iditarod has it all. Not to mention a little humor.

Here are a few pictures from Saturday’s start.

Enjoy!

Ice

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morrison Springs - Ponce de Leon, Florida

Image
Morrison Springs Ponce de Leon, Florida County road 181 Morrison Springs was one of our favorite dive spots on many of our Florida trips but it also had the most danger to it.  One of Northwest Florida’s best-kept secrets was known to more Georgia and Alabama folks than Floridians.  And they weren’t talking.  It had to do with the jewel of a Panhandle spring, a turquoise pool surrounded by stately cypress trees whose aerial roots stand taller than a man. Below the surface, clear, 68-degree water wells up from a spring cave source over 90 feet deep. Morrison Springs is just far enough off the beaten path in this sunny pine and cypress country to be special for any diver lucky enough to find and dive the site. The shallow pool reflects the overhead blue sky and if the water is clear and the bottom clean of silt, it resembles a giant sapphire.  Unlike some springs with a deep, black hole source, this one takes visitors gradually into its shallows from a gol...
Read more

Are Showing Your Nipples Appropriate Work Attire?

Image
Let me first say that personally, I have no problem with it at all. This has been kind of a weird week here in the north land with the first of many winter snowfalls’s to come and the landscape once again beautifully covered in the white stuff. It looks like the kids will have to put their Halloween costume on over a snowsuit again this year as the cold snowy stuff is here again. That is not what I wanted to write about tonight but was necessary to set up what I did want to write about. “Frosty nipples” are quite common here during most of the year and when things cool down on the cusp of winter probably more so. Work attire with tight shirts or low cut blouses that ‘make a statement’ during colder weather could be taken several ways by co-workers or visitors to your place of business. While you may not always be taken seriously by others in the office and some may have trouble looking you in the face, I say it's a freedom of rights issue. If you want to show o...
Read more

Biscuits and Whores

Image
Some of the best things about life I learned from Lonesome Dove. Great movie, excellent characters, and tells a story about how to live life. Augustus McCrae “It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living.   I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” I'm just tryin' to keep everything in balance, Woodrow. You do more work than you got to, so it's my obligation to do less. “Yesterday’s gone and we can’t get it back.” “I'm sure partial to the evening,' Augustus said. 'The evening and the morning.   If we just didn't have to have the rest of the dern day I'd be a lot happier.” Hat Creek Cattle Company Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is . . . he's hard to stop. Biscuits “I never knew you to get excited about anything except biscuits maybe . . . and whores!”    Captain Woodrow Call to Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. Whores L...
Read more