Aliy Cam Iditarod 2020: Episode 11

These Aliy Cams are a fun and interactive way I try to share my team’s experiences on the Iditarod Trail. In the 10 days, 7 hours, 28 minutes and 30 seconds that we traveled the trail I tried to capture the real images from the wilderness, the weather and the trail.

My dogs are the center of the videos. The race revolves around them. Their individual positioning in the team varies throughout the race. I moved them around depending upon their moods and energy. Their positioning also depended upon the trail and weather conditions or other random influences. The dogs on the team are: Amber, Bruno, Chevie, Cloud, Dutch, Decaf, Five, Jefe, Junior, Kodiak, QT, Rodney, Spark, and Violet. If you watch closely, you’ll get to know their gaits or their ear “bobs” or their little quirks.

On this portion of the trail, the team was content to trot along at 6 or 7 mph. They were literally “slow and steady”. In the video, Spark and QT are in lead, followed by Dutch and Junior, Decaf and Cloud, Five and Rodney, Jefe and Chevie and, in the rear, Amber and Violet.

Old Woman Mountain is a spectacular sight. It sits on the horizon and stares at dog teams for miles before we actually reach the base. She is not an enormous or majestic mountain. I don’t even know the exact height… 1,000 feet? Less? She is really just a hill. But, she has an incredibly strong, stand-alone attitude.

As we mushed closer, the mountain consumed the entire skyline. From a distance I could see that the summit has a flat, treeless top. As I got closer, I could see that trees were desperately clinging to the sides of the mountain… trying to climb up. None seemed able to reach her summit. I wondered how many hundreds, thousands, millions? of years this mighty mountain had battled and resisted foliage conquering her. As I came even closer I could see the scars across her peak from the constant battle with the wind. She was a tough old gal. As we passed just under her left flank, I felt like she was a living power. I looked straight up at her and felt like I was just trying to “sneak past her”. I did not feel that she was overwhelmingly welcoming.

After we camped for a few hours in her shadow – literally –  I didn’t feel the same. I felt like we had earned a right to camp beside her. The mountain was truly powerful but, she was also just one of the many incredible highlights along our long journey. We would soon leave her behind. She would remain there… forever. We would forge ahead.

This is the first time that my thoughts drifted to the end of the race. Honestly, it seemed very far away.

Crazy thoughts at Mile 650, huh?

This was Chevie’s rookie Iditarod. She is just as talented as her siblings: QT Jefe and Bruno – who were all racing their second Iditarod. She has a tendency to get a ‘muscle cramp’ once in a while. Allen and I haven’t determined why this happens to her and not her siblings, but it does. Chevie got a cramp on Allen’s 2019 CB team and both my 2018 and 2020 CB team. Bum luck, eh? That was the reason that she hadn’t been on any previous Iditarod races. Her cramp issues seem to be deep in her shoulder muscle. We never seem to gauge when they will come. But she hadn’t shown any signs of a cramp for the first 600 miles of Iditarod. Then about 10 miles before we reached Old Woman Cabin she popped her tail in the air and ran with a peculiar gait. I even took the pulling line off of her harness and attached it to her collar. I thought if she didn’t pull for a while maybe she could work out any muscle issue. If you look closely at the video you’ll see that Chevie isn’t pulling much while her line is on her collar. I had also taken her booties off of her front paws so that she had less weight and constriction on her front legs. We arrived at the cabin and she rested well, all dressed up in a neoprene t-shirt, covered in a puff jacket and curled up in a straw bed. I had placed chemical heat warmers in t-shirt pockets so that her shoulder muscles would loosen up and not get chilled. This seemed to help her tremendously and she left the cabin, happily trotting along. As I would learn later, Chevie was probably not 100% after this point.

The race took my dogs and I over 10 days to complete. In total, I recorded only one hour of video. So these Aliy Cams are only a tiny segment of that experience. I also did not video during the most challenging trail or the worst blizzard conditions. I was too busy clinging my handlebars or navigating hazards. I also never recorded a video when I felt like it would intrude in our personal space.

Here is a map so that you can follow along.