Yesterday I gave you a “detailed” view of some of what goes into an Iditarod Checkpoint Drop Bag. Today I want to give you a bit of a “bigger picture” view.
After several days cutting about 900 pounds of meat — fish, beef, horse, turkey skins, lamb, beaver, etc. — and several more days packing almost 1,500 pounds of dry dog food into meal-sized bags, we had some huge piles of dog food and it was time to start packing them into the Drop Bags. So, we laid the empty bags out around the yard in sequence and distributed the various packages of food as appropriate for each checkpoint.
In this video, I take you on a “fly-over” of Allen’s Iditarod race via his sequence of Drop Bags. As you watch, keep in mind that everything you will see is just the dog food for Allen’s team. Not only is there is a similar set of bags for Aliy’s team’s dog food, but both teams will have yet another set of bags for all their gear and other supplies. In other words, the staggering amount of “stuff” you are about to see is only about a quarter of the total amount that will eventually be shipped out in the Drop Bags!
As I’ve said before, just the “Logistics” — not to mention “Training” — for the Iditarod is an immense undertaking!
