SPK Dog Log

Time 11pm Race Mile: 772

Tonight I am thankful this race is still on and we can follow the teams to Nome. All the rest of the world news is unsettling and stressful so to have this to focus on is a blessing.

It’s late Monday night, apologies for radio silence for a few hours. Aliy and her team are currently travelling from Shaktoolik towards Koyuk. When I last wrote the team had just pulled into Unalakleet so they’ve had a busy day of resting and running.

The team spent just under five hours in Unalakleet before mushing out of town and turning right to following the coast line, up and over the Blueberry Hills and down to the sea. They ran this during the daylight so Aliy and the dogs would have enjoyed the views around them. I like to think that the dogs enjoy the view as much as Aliy. Especially the rookies.

Because Shaktoolik became an unofficial checkpoint we have no official in and out times for there but the GPS tracker does ping a ‘Musher Alert’ when your favourited teams’ GPS hits certain mile markers. We have an indication therefore that they arrived there about 15:48 and left again at 20:04 – so had just over four hours rest at the pop-up checkpoint.

Not so long ago Aliy and the team passed over the peninsula to the north of Shaktoolik. The trail then takes them right on the frozen ocean of the Norton Sound. In recent years the trail has had to follow the coastline due to unstable ice conditions but this year it has frozen enough for the teams to safely cross. This also means the route is reportedly 10 miles shorter than it has been.

Here’s an Aliy Cam from 2017 showing that very area

Next stop is Koyuk and we would expect the team to stop there for some hours before pushing on towards Elim. The team right now is 32 miles from Koyuk and appear to be travelling this section with or near Kelly Maxiner and Jeff Deeter.

Our skeleton handler crew have arrived into Nome and will be socially distancing themselves as they wait for the teams to arrive. They took food and books and will have internet and good conversation to keep them busy.

Returned Dog Update

Kodiak is still waiting his turn to hop a plane back to Linda’s house. He will be fat and happy by the time he gets there! I did stop by Linda’s place today – does someone want to tell her she picked up the wrong returned dog…?

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Time 4.55am Race Mile 714

Aliy and her team of Amber, Chevie, Cloud, Decaf, Dutch, Five, Jefe, Junior, QT, Rodney, Spark and Violet (in alphabetical order because I have no idea of her running order right now) have hit the western coast of Alaska. 260 miles to Nome!

After spending around four hours at Old Woman Cabin, they pulled into Unalakleet at just a few minutes ago at 4.45am. They will soon be on their way towards the luxury-makeshift checkpoint of Shaktoolik. That sounds like a contradictory description but I feel like it fits in this instance due to the work the community did to make the pop-up checkpoint homely.

It is a huge psychological milestone to hit the coast, and after Unalakleet they ‘hang a right’, or more appropriately: GEE, and head up the coastline towards Shaktoolik then Koyuk and beyond. From ‘Unk’ to ‘Shak’ the teams travel the Blueberry Hills, a favourite section of many mushers for its spectacular views. They climb up to 1000 feet and then drop sharply down to the frozen ocean. The primary concern in this section is the weather so we’ll be keeping an eye on the forecast.

Here are a couple of “Aliy Cam” videos from this coming section of trail.

There are many more Aliy Cam videos so scroll up to our ‘search’ box at the top right of the page and type in ‘Blueberry Hills’, ‘Shaktoolik’, ‘Unalakleet’ or ‘Aliy Cam’ and you’ll find lots more.

The SPK Crew are relocating over the next couple days but we’ll continue with coverage right here. Keep an eye on the tracker as the teams work their way up the coast.

Time 7.30pm Race Mile 676

Aliy and her 12-strong team left Kaltag at 12:24pm after their mandatory eight hour rest. The dogs will have had a couple of good big meals and plenty of rest while Aliy will have gotten some rest herself. There won’t be much more rest to be had in this race for the mushers.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the team leave Kaltag on the live stream, we got to watch some of Thomas Waerner’s sleeping dogs in Unalakleet, which is pretty relaxing and mesmerising I must admit. Perhaps everyone should stop and watch a peacefully sleeping animal for at least 10 minutes a day for their own wellbeing.

The team are currently resting at Old Woman cabin, a BLM cabin 38 miles before Unalakleet. The cabin is at the base of Old Woman Mountain. They arrived there around 7.15pm – 6.75 hours after leaving Kaltag so we expect her to rest the team here for a few hours (I actually have no idea how many hours – we will just have to wait and see like everyone else). You can see from this screen shot below that to get to the cabin the teams leave the main trail and take the right hand fork. Allen described it as a short wooded trail up to the cabin and a really pretty spot to stop. You can see the top of Old Woman mountain from there.

At the time of writing, Mille, Pete, Richie and Nic were also at the cabin.

Waiting for in Unalakleet is not just her drop bags of supplies sent two weeks prior to the race, but also her spare sled with dry boots, some fresh red beanie hats, runner plastics should she need it and other supplies. The sled was shipped on the Monday after race start.

We’ve been seeing stories about how the local communities along the trail are going above and beyond for the race. Due to public health concerns Nulato and Shaktoolik checkpoint are been moved outside the villages, but locals have stepped in to make the temporary checkpoints as comfortable for dogs, mushers and race personnel by readying nearby cabins, shovelling tonnes of snow, opening up a water hole and bringing home-made food for mushers to enjoy. Check out this inspiring Facebook video from Shaktoolik and this ADN article.

Returned Dog Update

Bruno is back at the kennel and is playing with neighbours Cayenne and Scooby. Linda sent through these pics of Bruno and Midnight just before he left to come home.

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No word yet on when Kodiak will make it back to Anchorage. He’s still at the checkpoint being well cared for by the vets and race personnel and will be hamming it up large eliciting lots of pets and kisses from anyone that goes by. As much as he would have wished to continue on the race, he is such a social dog he’ll be enjoying the attention of his adoring fans, which in Kodiak’s mind is everyone.

Time 8.00am Race Mile 629

After spending a fraction under five hours at Nulato, Aliy and her 12-strong team continued down the Yukon to the checkpoint at Kaltag where they arrived at 4.21am this morning They will see out their eight hour mandatory rest here to collect their second ‘green tick’ next to their name on the Current Standings. The earliest they can leave is 12.21pm. Expect a bunch of teams to pass them as they see our their eight hours but remember they will be well rested so hopefully can make up some places once they are back on the trail.

We’ve been somewhat starved for pictures of the team so we were happy to see Sebastian’s updates from Nulato last night. He posted this pic of Princess QT asleep at the checkpoint. It appears she has her own special royal bed and has pink precautionary wrist wraps on. She looks comfortable and the warmth of the afternoon meant she didn’t need a blanket. Thanks Sebastian!

His words about Aliy: “Nicolas Petit and Jessie Holmes were grabbing a bunk, right when Aliy Zirkle got up from her nap. She had not really planned on stopping here, but did so due to the slow conditions. Finding this nice and cozy cabin, definitely lifted her mood a bit.”

I found some video from 2017 of the team coming in to Kaltag at around the same time of day.

After Kaltag, teams travel the Portage trail from Interior Alaska to Coastal Alaska. Don Bowers Jnr describes it thus: “This leg follows the ancient Kaltag portage, a relatively straight valley angling southwest through the coastal mountains; the route has been used for millennia by Natives. It is normally a well-used snowmachine highway. It marks the major transition from the inland river environment to the Bering Sea coast. Conditions can be vastly different at opposite ends of the portage, and wind is a constant threat on the western half.”

This video from 2018 shows the team travelling a section of that trail:

Normally I might suggest taking a break from the tracker this morning but it is such a fascinating race up front I’m not sure I’m able to resist.

Time 7.40pm Race Mile 582

Aliy and her 12 teammates checked into Nulato checkpoint at around 5:20pm this afternoon (official time tbc). Having spent 4 hours, 38 in Galena and only 12 minutes in Ruby, she will have needed to declare an eight hour stop either here in Nulato or at Kaltag. We will know in a few hours if she chose Nulato.

Nulato checkpoint is not based in the village as it is normally, but by the looks of the videos from there the dog teams are camped out on the river. Mushers have their drop bags and supplies and race personnel are present so it is still a functioning checkpoint. We can see from the current standings that communications from there are a bit slow as they may be relying on satellite phones to transfer the information. Check out the latest post by Sebastian Schnuelle about the checkpoint – and see a couple of pics of Aliy!

This last stretch into the checkpoint was the closest we have watched the tracker all race and we were very happy to see that Mille was just ahead of the team and Ramey was immediately behind. This is a significant stretch of trail for Aliy since 2016 and that she ran it during the daytime was also a blessing.

The weather there is very snowy at the moment. And warm, with temperatures hovering around freezing. When Aliy phoned before Galena it was snowing but so not hard. It was closed in, however, and she couldn’t see the tops of the trees. The light was flat so no shadows and difficulty perceiving depth and distance. Seeing the Insider videos and interviews from Nulato and Kaltag the snow looks to be really coming down. The trail over from Nulato to Kaltag and beyond is a slow slog for everyone with many inches of snow already and more to come. Trail speeds will be low!

Time 6:50am Race mile 545

Returned Dog Update

Last night as Aliy took the team through the checkpoint of Ruby she had to bench Kodiak and leave him with the vet and volunteer crew there. He developed a sore wrist before Ruby and with snow back in the forecast she thought it too much to ask him to continue. He will likely need rest, massage and a few days of anti-inflammatory meds before he is back to himself again, just like we would with a sore ankle or wrist.

It could be a few days before he gets back to Linda at our SPK Anchorage HQ due to the incoming weather. He has spent time with Linda and Midnight before so should remember how the TV remote works. Bruno is on his way back to the kennel today. He’s enjoyed his stay with Linda and Midnight but was ready to come home to tell his mates all about his adventures.

Race update

Aliy and her 12 team mates have pulled into Galena this morning at 4:59am. They ran through the night pretty much maintaining their aft-24 hour break speeds so that’s exciting. Aliy rang Allen from Ruby to say, apart from having to leave Kodiak behind, everyone else is looking great and things going well. She is feeling great and she singled out QT and Decaf as her current rockstars! QT has been running in lead and Decaf has been moved up nearer the front of the team to take advantage of his contagious enthusiasm. At this time we are unsure if she has declared an eight hour rest here and we won’t know for a few hours as they will rest here for a while regardless.

So far, looking at the Insider videos from overnight, the forecast storm had not yet arrived. But it will. Ned Stark had a saying for that… (that’s a Game of Thrones reference for those who haven’t seen it).

In other race news we have heard that Shaktoolik is no longer an official ‘checkpoint’ on the race and is not based in the village, it will be two miles short of the village in ‘Old Shaktoolik’. The mushers will have their drop bags, straw and HEET (fuel for cookers) but no race personnel will be there. Evidently the checkpoint at Nulato will also not be based in the village but will have race personnel present so will still be ‘official’. This story is still unfolding so we don’t have too many answers yet but the Iditarod continues to take advice from State of Alaska’s chief medical officer regarding what is the best course of action to keep the race going.

Check out the Matson in Alaska’s Facebook page for an album from the 2020 Iditarod. Why not give them a ‘like’ while you are there to thank them for their continued support of SP Kennel.

Time: 6.00pm Race Mile 483

Aliy and her team are camped about 12 miles short of the Ruby checkpoint, right at Thirteenmile Creek on the Ruby to Portman Road. They are currently in 24th position.

Camping here means we expect she will move through the checkpoint, pick up supplies and continue on towards Galena, breaking the 120 miles between Cripple and Galena into two more evenly spread runs.

Teams must take an eight hour mandatory break at a checkpoint somewhere on the Yukon River so if she moves through Ruby she will have to decide on Galena, Nulato or Kaltag for that rest.

Their speeds on this run have been pretty good and consistently above what they were before the 24 hour break, which you would expect. The trail is described by Don Bowers Jnr as – “The terrain is generally wooded rolling hills for the entire route, with black-spruce taiga (Russian for “land of little sticks”) interspersed with heavier forests on better-drained slopes and in river bottoms, as well as the inevitable open swamp and muskeg areas. The road from Sulatna Crossing to Ruby has some moderate hills with long but relatively easy grades, with a few excursions to timberline.”

After Galena the trail is entirely on the Yukon River for 130 miles.

There is a winter storm warning for the area at this time. Temperatures are warm with highs of around +30F during the day and often times with that, comes snow. Check out the NOAA website for details.