Howdy!… I’m back at my HQ in Glennallen from Wolverine, where Allen and Aliy were getting ready to depart for Sourdough. Both teams look fantastic and are right on — or ahead of — their schedules. They made a “full stop” — giving the dogs snacks, straw to rest on and a hot meal — but kept it to only two hours. So, the dogs had a nice break, but after taking care of them the mushers only had a few minutes to pop into the lodge and take care of themselves. Both Aliy and Allen are in very positive spirits about their teams, the trail and themselves.
Bridgett came in right on time behind them, with a team that also looks great. She is ecstatic and it was really fun to see all three teams at the checkpoint at the same time, even if only for a little while. Bridgett will stay at Wolverine a bit longer than Aliy and Allen did. She has a somewhat more conservative race plan, but I wouldn’t put anything out of the question for her!
I’ve got a TON of video from the starts this morning, from Tolsona and from Wolverine. I will edit it and post it just as fast as I can. Meanwhile, here’s a “teaser” of the Red Team coming into Tolsona. Stand by and stay tuned!
The dogs are all so frosty I had a hard time picking out Happy from the crowd…then I saw the only dog with their ears up…and figured that would be Happy 🙂
Keeps those update coming!!
Go Happy Go! 🙂
AWWW! Happy makes herself stand out from the rest! She must really like all of the attention she has been getting!
Thanks, thanks and more thanks for the updates and all the great photos Macgellan! I really appreciate your efforts and I'm sure all the rest of the SPK fans do too. Be careful "racing" around on the roads up there while you try to speed information to us.
I'm only counting 10 dogs in this latest picture of Aliy but the CB300 site lists her as having 12 dogs in & out of Tolsona and also having 12 dogs into Wolverine. Is it just the angle of the photograph?
Just wanted to clarify – please don't think I'm complaining about the photo of Aliy into Tolsona – I just wondered about her canine lineup. I know I sure couldn't stand in the icy cold and get such great pictures.
Howdy! I've got a second while a new video uploads to YouTube… By golly it does look like Aliy only has 10 dogs!… Fear not, it's just that I've got the camera zoomed out to 20x… All 12 dogs are in there somewhere and are still going strong!… Re. Happy — truth is, I'm pretty sure she saw me… She loves me!… We have "history"!… and when she saw me she perked her ears right up… I'm pretty sure Dingle has seen me too… This is why we have to be VERY careful near the end of the race to "hide" from the dogs… When they are tired and see us, they can get distracted and coming running over for fun… NOT what the mushers want!..
Hi
Aliy left Wolverine with 11 dogs. Who was dropped?