Aliy Zirkle’s Home stretch into Nome Iditarod 38 - Part 5

I finish this series of Iditarod 38 with SP Kennel’s musher’s view of the last legs during the run along the coast to the burled archway finish line in Nome.  It has been a long trail, cold this year but the weather and winds of the last few years subsided for an almost record pace.

We begin these last few video’s “On the Coast” with evening setting over the frozen Ocean as nightfall takes over Aliy’s run and transition the next morning to daybreak between Unalakleet to Shaktoolik.  It gives us another massive expanse of Western Alaska and the isolation of the trail. 

This next video is pretty incredible as the trail this year cut out across the middle of Norton Sound where in years past it ran closer to the shoreline from Unalakleet to Koyuk.  Looking at this with the GPS tracker on the sleds the other night around midnight it looked like Lance Mackey and Jeff King had gone way off course running during the night as they veered out across the middle of the Sound from past years runs backtracking to the right to get the Koyuk checkpoint.

Aliy runs this during the daylight which shows the awesome footage of desolation and ice.

Upon the Frozen Ocean

There will be an eight hour mandatory rest stop in White Mountain before heading up along the coast line for the 77 mile run into Nome to the finish line under the burled archway on Front Street.

Nearing Nome

Here’s Aliy’s finish coming up from the barrenness of the sea into town and up the chute to the finish line.  This is nine o’clock in the morning (Wednesday) after starting her final run around ten pm the night before making for one long last day on the trail.  The leaders finished at 2 pm (Tuesday).  Gone are the huge crowds, the live television cameras but there still are people waiting to greet the mushers and their dog teams.

Aliy Zirkle’s Iditarod Finish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoR-jpSJqsk&feature=player_embedded

The mushers do not do this for the fanfare or the glory but for the love of their dogs, the nature, and the experience of “The Last Great Race on Earth”.

I hope you enjoyed these vignettes of Alaska’s favorite sporting event.

Thanks once again for to SP Kennel for giving us this moving experience of what it is to mush over a thousand miles across the wilds of Alaska and sharing the love of dogs, our land, and this unique insight into such a noble adventure.

Ice