SPK Dog Log

Here’s a quick video of the Red Team finishing the Two Rivers 200. You’ll see the team as they head under Jenny M Creek road bridge – about 12 miles from home. Then, just as Aliy is about to cross the line you can see a glimpse of Matt Hall’s headlamp behind and see just how very close it was!

Aliy and the Red Team crossed the line in second place, 14 minutes behind winner Will Rhodes and merely seconds in front of Matt Hall. Congratulations to Dutch, Izzy, Spark, Commando, Lydia, Mac, Sissy, Nomex, Chipper, Iron, Champ and Sandy on a super race! And it’s a 1, 2, 3 for Two Rivers mushers!

Nomex and Lydia were the two dogs that Aliy left behind at Angel Creek. She said they were both very conservative drops and both should recover very quickly with a little rest and some massage. Lydia had a slight wrist issue and Nomex got a little stiff.

The whole team is now at home, have had a lovely kibble and meat dinner and all are peacefully snoozing in their houses.

We expect Chris and the R&B200s home between around 8 or 9pm and can’t wait to see them!! (Edit – changed estimated time of finish for Chris based on other teams’ run times)

We have some great video and photo footage that I will edit tonight and get to you asap. More soon…

Aliy and the Red Team have just left Angel Creek Lodge checkpoint (at 10.27am) and are on the final 60 miles to the finish line at Pleasant Valley Store. They had only 1.5 hours mandatory rest to see out there while Will Rhodes and Matt Hall had to stop for two hours. Aliy left the checkpoint in third position just 5 minutes and 1 minute behind them respectively. It will be a very close finish (we LOVE them!) with the three local mushers duking it out; with the next mushers not very far behind!!

The leaderboard has her leaving with ten team mates. At this stage we are unsure who she has left with the handler team to do the final leg in the truck. We appreciate your patience as we get this information and we will let you know as soon as we find out.

For the first 25 miles of this leg they are on the same trail as those coming from PVS so there will be some head on passing for that stretch. This is where good leaders and swing dogs come in to play and if she still has Izzy and Dutch in lead they are both relatively inexperienced up there so it will be a very good test for them.

This trail has some big climbs and they are trails our teams know well. Of course, Will and Matt’s teams know them well also! So… LETS’S GO TEAM!!

Chris and the R&B200s are resting at Angel Creek and have three hours to see out before they can leave for the finish line. He’s expected to leave at 12.34pm. There is limited communication out there so we haven’t been able to catch up with the handler team to find out any details. We’ll update you when we can.

Please keep an eye on the TRDMA Facebook Page and their website leaderboard for updates as we won’t be able to post for a while. Pics and hopefully video to follow.

Aliy and the Red Team are on the trail towards Angel Creek Lodge for their final mandatory rest before the final leg back to the Pleasant Valley Store. They posted a run time from Two Rivers Lodge to Pleasant Valley Store of 4 hours, 25 minutes and rested there 4.5 hours plus their time differential. It’s difficult to say what position they are currently in until after the last checkpoint as mushers will take differing amounts of time rest there but they are right in contention.

Chris and the R&B200 Team are also on their way to Angel Creek after spending four hours plus differential at the Store. Their run time for Leg Two was 5 hours, 14 minutes.

#8 and #27 at the race start yesterday

You’ll see some pics on the TRDMA Facebook page of Chris’ team and, to answer some queries, the green “collar” Lester is wearing is illuminated so people can see the team coming at night – snow machiners, vehicles etc – and it also makes it easy for the handler team to spot them coming. Mac is also wearing one on Aliy’s team.

The handler team is working very hard to keep track of, and clean up after, three teams so they will deserve a huge pat on the back by the end. When you are sleep deprived it can be difficult to calculate time differentials, estimated arrival times, leaving times etc so WELL DONE TEAM!

Congratulations to Wes and his team of Quito, Olivia, Chica, Boondocks, Biscuit, Ernie, Five, Rodney, Ginger and Scooby! They crossed the line at 3.38 this morning to finish 4th! The whole team, including Nacho, is happy at home now after a warm meal and are all curled up in their boxes sleeping.

We are so excited and proud of him and the team, and to be honest a little emotional about the yearlings becoming “proper” race dogs. Those of you who have followed SP Kennel for a while will know that these five had a pretty difficult start to life (click here for some background) so to see them grown-up to be fit, healthy racing dogs brings tears to our eyes.

R&B100s at the race start

Their run time from the Lodge to the Store was a quick 5 hours 10 minutes!

The finish line was dark so unfortunately we were unable to get any footage. But, head over the the TRDAM Facebook page where Julien Schroder has posted some fantastic pics of all our teams.

We will get Wes to do a dog by dog wrap-up in the next few days so you can hear how everyone fared. But, for right now, everyone is enjoying a good night sleep!

Congrats to neighbors Tom, Judy and Maliko for their fantastic races!

Currently both Aliy and the Red Team and Chris and the R&B200 teams are on the trail to Pleasant Valley Store, some 55 miles away. Wes and the R&B100s are still resting and will see out their mandatory four hours plus time differential (an extra four minutes).

Tonight all trails really do lead to Pleasant Valley Store!

The Red Team took four hours rest at the Lodge so were back out on the trail at 8.36pm. Aliy had all 12 team mates with her. She said her run from Chatanika was really good apart from the tangle on the road where she lost a few minutes trying to sort it out. Dutch and Izzy are doing really well in lead and she intends to keep them there as long as they are happy. Spark was working on his goal for the race – to lay down at the checkpoints without assistance – and so far he wasn’t really reaching it BUT there are two checkpoints to go! Oh Sparky, you have to rest, young man!

They had the 3rd fastest run time for the leg.

Chris and his R&B200 team arrived into the checkpoint at 6.01pm with a run time of 5 hours and 9 minutes. He said his run was smooth and the dogs are doing well. He rested at the Lodge for three hours so was back on the trail at 9.01pm with all 12 team mates. Chris’ pre-race plan had him staying only three hours at the checkpoint (as opposed to Aliy’s four) as he has a lot of youngsters who, as expected, didn’t rest that well at the first checkpoint. He will catch up that hour at one of the later checkpoints when they are more ready for the rest. Chena and Lester were still leading the team when they left the checkpoint.

Wes and his R&B100 team had a great run. They all had fun and had a very good run time of 5 hours 8 minutes over the 50 miles. Evidently Rodney got a bit over excited when they were checking in and having the mandatory gear check – he spun round and round and wound his tug like in such a knot that he managed to break free! Luckily Ryne Olson who was officiating at the checkpoint was there to catch him before he started socialising with the other teams.

We expect this next leg to take around 5-6 hours so Aliy and Chris will be in during the wee small hours. We can expect Wes and his team to finish around 3.30-4.30am and everyone will go straight to bed so I will get some details from him tomorrow.

We also have more pics from the start to share when we get a chance to catch up. Two Rivers Lodge and Pleasant Valley Store checkpoints are all during darkness hours so we have limited photo ops.

EDIT: DROPPED DOG UPDATE – The team has just let me know that Wes has just officially dropped Nacho from the team so he won’t be leaving with them for the final leg. He has a bit of a sore shoulder and just needs some rest and massage (which he will enjoy!!). It’s not a major injury but Wes didn’t want him to injure it further on this 55 mile run.

Chatanika Lodge car park was alive with dogs and people this morning from about 9am as mushers arrived for pre-race vet checks, mushers meeting and their pre-race routines.

Chatanika Lodge

We got all three teams off on time and looking great. Aliy was keen to get going and excited to see some new trails as well as the familiar trails closer to home.

Aliy chats to Race Manager Sebastian Schnuelle

Red team their way

Chris was very clam and well organised and set off with no fuss.

Chris getting ready

R&B200 Team are on the trail!

Wes was asked if he was nervous and he paraphrased comedian Tracey Morgan when he said “Nervous is when you can’t wait for it to end, excited is when you can’t wait for it to start. I am more at the excited end than the nervous end“

Wes has his mandatory gear checked by a race official

And they’re off!

Here is the start video of all three teams.

Aliy and the Red Team are in to Two Rivers Lodge at 4.36pm making her run time over the 50 mile leg 4 hours 22 minutes. She said all is okay; she had a major tangle along the way that took some time to untangle. She was on an icy stretch of road at the time to add a complication! But they carried on none the worse for wear.

The race rules have each musher in the two hundred mile race taking 10 hours spread out over the three checkpoints (in half hour increments) so you will see different run/rest strategies emerge throughout the race. Teams that take less rest here may look to be way ahead but they will need to make up that rest later in the race. The time differential, that makes up for the difference in starting times, is served at the Pleasant Valley Store checkpoint.

At this point we are unsure how long Aliy and her team will stay at Two Rivers. We’ll keep you updated

Two Rivers Lodge

We are awaiting Chris and Wes – they will be a wee way off yet as Chris started as the last musher in the 200 and Wes was 3rd last of the 100s.

The TRDMA website has a leaderboard with checkpoint in and out times so you can follow along.

I am working on some videos and photos from the start so watch this space! More updates soon as we get information.