Crazy Monday on the Iditarod Trail


The Race restarted Sunday afternoon at 2 PM Alaska Standard Time (AST) in Willow on the frozen lakebed with another throng of people waving, hollering, and wishing well their favorite musher on to Nome.

They ran through the night and into the bright sun of an Alaskan spring morning as the leaders headed into the Alaska Range and climbed their way to Rainy Pass. 

Several of the mushers are on a blistering pace to Rohn checkpoint an abandoned cabin which is about 200 miles into the 1,150 mile race to Nome.  Robert Bundtzen with his 16 dogs arrived in Rohn at 5:17 PM with defending champion Lance Mackey arriving just 18 minutes later but after his time check was off again and back on the trail headed to the Farewell Burn.

Other events of the day . . . 5 time Iditarod champion Rick Swenson crashed on the Happy Valley River steps leading into Rainy Pass and is considering his options after it was confirmed he appears to have a broken collarbone.  He should decide shortly if he will continue or scratch from the race.

Martin Buser arrived in Rainy Pass with only 11 dogs after five got loose on the trail from Finger Lake.  He and Jamaican musher Newton Marshall tangled on a narrow portion of the trail and when they stopped to untangle the dogs Buser’s ran off.  Officials could not check Buser into the check point until his missing dogs arrived and when they did a little later, Buser checked in and out in a hurry heading back out into the wilderness.

Earlier this morning Dee Dee Jonrowe’s team veered off the trail after leaving the Finger Lake checkpoint at 6:29 AM and ran some extra miles as she turned her team around and returned to the checkpoint to rest her dogs and left the second time at 10:55 AM.

Crazy day on the trail under clear skies and mild temperatures around 27 degrees after a start on Saturday at minus 5 and Sunday’s start at zero.  There is high pressure over the state so it will be interesting to see how the rest cycles play out and if most of the mushers will run during the night times as much as possible to keep the dogs cooler resting in the high sun of the day.

Tomorrow should see the leaders passing through Nikolai, McGrath, Takotna, Ophir and into Iditarod close to the halfway point in the race.

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 golden-sand beach. Div
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