SPK Dog Log

Time 7.15pm Race Mile 265

Aliy and her team mates have just left Nikolai and are headed towards McGrath. She rested the team at the checkpoint for 4.5 hours where the dogs enjoyed a sleep in the sun and Aliy also got a good nap. The mushers are getting very low on sleep at this point in the race and even a short nap can feel amazing.

Aliy came into the checkpoint with Chevie and QT in lead, Cloud and Dutch in swing, Decaf and Violet next, Rodney and Five, Jefe was running on his own since his mate Bruno went home early, Junior and Kodiak were one up from wheel and Amber and Spark took the wheel position. We would never have predicted that line-up so she has obviously decided to mix up the running order just to jazz it up a bit for everyone and try out some new lead combinations.

The standings are not updated as yet to tell us if she still has all 13 athletes with her. Unlike the Quest, mushers only need to sign-in at a checkpoint and do not need to sign-out, unless it is at one of the three mandatory stops. Sometimes the officials and volunteers don’t necessarily know what time a musher has left. This is not through lack of attention.

Aliy is currently in 20th place. This is not necessarily where she would have liked to be at this stage of the race. She phoned us from the checkpoint and is very upbeat. She said the dogs are great, they are a really good dog team. They are healthy and happy but… just slower than everyone else right now. She said Dutch and Spark are amazing, they led her through a blizzard in Rainy Pass and are as good as ever but again… just slower than everyone else right now. She’s philosophical about it – it is what it is and anything can happen.  She will stick to her plan as much as she can. If she’s upbeat then we’re upbeat and, of course still cheering the team proudly. There are still 700 miles left of this race!

McGrath is 48 miles away with Takotna a further 18 miles after that. We will continue to see variations in strategy here when the teams will start to take their mandatory 24 hour rests at differing checkpoints and the leaderboard will become irrelevant for a while until everyone is back to a level playing field. Note also that that time differential to make up for the staggered start is added to the 24 hour rest so teams that started earlier have a longer rest than those that started towards the back of the pack.

Bruno Update

Bruno is doing just fine. He is ready to run to Nome and catch up with all the other teams. Linda sent through these pics today – I suggested she get on a skateboard. Pics or it didn’t happen!

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Time: 7.30am Race mile: 211

When I last wrote Aliy and team had left Rainy Pass. Since then they have travelled through the checkpoint of Rohn and have just left their camp spot near Tin Creek. She checked in to Rohn at 11.45pm and out again just after midnight and stopped at her camp spot roughly about 2.30am. They rested close to five hours there and she’s has broken the run from Rainy Pass to Nikolai roughly into two rather than stop at Rohn which is unevenly placed in between. They have around 50 miles till Nikolai.

During her planning for the race Aliy will have packed a “to go” bag in all the checkpoints where she had an inkling she might go though, to save time going through all her bags to get the supplies she needs for camping. She will have stopped in Rohn long enough to grab her bag, stuff some straw for camping into her straw sack, grab fuel for her cooker and allow the vet team to have eyes and hands on the dog team. There are vet crews at every checkpoint on the trail and they will have eyes and hands on the teams as they stop or go through and sight the vet book to ensure ongoing fitness of the dogs.

You can see the team’s run/rest pattern on the analytics of the GPS tracker

The trail from Rohn to Nikolai pass through such places as Egypt Mountain, the Buffalo Chutes and the Farewell Burn. On low snow years this area can be hazardous but one can only assume, like the rest of the trail, there is some snow cover potentially making it more benign this year. Let’s hope. Read in more detail on the Don Bowers Jnr trail notes.

Check out the latest ‘Run Dogs Run‘ by the insider featuring the Red Team at about 40 seconds in.

Identification Guide

We are conscious we have three look-alike sisters on the team so thought it might be useful to give you an identification guide to distinguish Junior from her younger sisters Amber and Violet. In short, all are beautiful tri-coloured, blue-eyed bombshells but that is not helpful when all three are on the team and all three are near the front end! A little more detail is that Junior has a slightly ‘roman’ nose, Violet has floppy ears and is a little cross-eyed and Amber has a wider ear-set. Junior is more likely to be in lead than her sisters. Violet used to run a lot in wheel which made it easier but her promotion this year has thrown a spanner in the works. Amber is likely to be the crazy one leaping about when the team is standing, waiting.

Junior and Amber both have white front left legs, Violet has two white socks. Still, not that helpful if you can’t see them side-by-side or if they are wearing leggings. The genes are strong in these three!

If we are really struggling we will look at the dark freckles around their noses. Sometimes even we have difficulty at certain angles so don’t worry if you can’t tell them apart.

Time: 9.15pm Race mile: 167

Returned Dog Update

We have just received word from Linda – our returned dog coordinator in Anchorage, that she has picked up Bruno from the vet crew at Race HQ. Aliy unfortunately had to leave him in Rainy Pass. From what I can gather, he got a bit dehydrated during the leg from Finger Lake to Rainy. He was given some fluids from the vet crew at the checkpoint as a precaution, and now he’s home, had a good meal and a little rest, he is ready to rejoin the team. Unfortunately, that’s not allowed Bruno – sorry buddy. Linda and Midnight will take good care of him and may even teach him to use the TV remote to distract him from the fact he’s not still out on the trail. Aliy must have had the vet team at Rainy Pass take him right away so he could catch a flight back this afternoon rather than wait till tomorrow. He has been rock solid all season and Aliy will really be disappointed to have benched him so early.

Linda just sent through a few pics – he does not look that happy about the situation! He’ll get to chill outdoors for a while and will head into his house at bedtime.

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When I last wrote, Aliy and the team were 23 miles from Finger Lake checkpoint. They checked into there at 12.26pm and rested for almost 3.5 hours before hitting the trail towards Rainy Pass. Speaking with Allen he said normally the Happy River Steps area is one of the most technical parts of the trail but with this much snow it can make the going a lot easier. Reports in from Rainy Pass from the mushers say it was a fantastic trail from Skwentna, once they got through the deep snow section.  Lance Mackey evidently said it was so good through the Steps you could almost go down them without holding on. Well, I guess if you are Lance Mackey that might be possible but for mere mortals: don’t try that at home.

Unfortunately we just missed watching Aliy and her 13-strong team leave Rainy Pass on the Insider Live Stream – but check out these pics from the feed showing the spectacular location with the alpen glow over the Alaska Range as the sun went down. The Lodge on Puntilla Lake is set within the Range with mountains around 270 degrees – just gorgeous!

The wind started to pick up in the area and the Pass acts as a wind tunnel between the north and south sides of the Alaska Range. They will be running into a headwind as they climb up then down through the technical Dalzell Gorge.

Describing the trail ahead of Aliy, Allen said it was a gorgeous time of day to travel it while it was still a little bit light. The views are spectacular as they are above the tree line and teams run up and down some rolling hills before they get to the Pass proper. Tonight the mushers will have the ‘Super Moon’ to help guide their way.

If you zoom into the tracker map on ‘Outdoor’ view you’ll see the contour lines of the peaks either side of them.

Today we shipped the spare sled out to Unalakleet. Rule 15 in the race rules allows mushers to use three sleds during the course of the race without penalty so Aliy has one shipped to the hub at ‘Unk’ in case something unforseen occurs and she needs parts off the spare, or to swap it out completely. Thanks to race sponsor Northern Air Cargo for shipping it for us.

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Time: 6am

So, what happened over night?

After leaving the chute in Willow, Aliy and the team passed through Yentna checkpoint just after 8pm. Yentna is not a resupply point so mushers needed to pack everything they needed to get their teams to Skwnetna, 83 miles into the race, including meals and snacks for their dogs. They will have passed thousands of spectators and fans that made the journey out to the lakes and rivers along the way to cheer their favourites.

After passing through Yentna checkpoint, they camped just a couple miles around the bend on the Yentna River at race mile 55, about 5.5 hours from the start. Aliy packed straw with her from the start so the dogs could bed down for their two hour rest. Straw is a good signal for the dogs to lay down, and they love to arrange their own beds according to their individual specifications.

After their break they then made their way to Skwentna checkpoint where they stayed two and a bit hours.

As I write, the team is 100 miles into the race, 23 miles from Finger Lake checkpoint. At this stage of the race the teams are all still fairly bunched up with 30 miles between the first and last musher and all on the same leg, between Skwentna and Finger Lake. Don Bowers Jnr wrote this about this leg of the race:

“It’s uphill most of the way to Finger Lake, but the trail isn’t overly tough. The trail leaves Skwentna southbound on the Skwentna River, cuts off the left bank to parallel the river in a swamp for eight miles, then swings west to cross the river at the site of the old Skwentna Roadhouse about ten miles out. It then climbs up into the heavily wooded Shell Hills for a mile and a half, down through open swamps and wooded areas to cross Shell Creek after another mile and a half, then on for another three miles across small lakes, swamps, and woods to Onestone Lake, where you’re about 25 miles from Finger Lake. After two-mile-long Onestone Lake, the trail works west along open swamps and meadows, through occasional treelines, and across a few lakes, steadily climbing to Finger Lake.”

You can find detailed trail descriptions at this link on the Iditarod website and click on the race leg you are interested in.

After Finger Lake the teams start towards Rainy Pass where they will travel down the infamous Happy River Steps.

Because we miss them so much already – here are a few more pics from yesterday of the parings as they left the starting chute.

Written coverage by the Iditarod this year is by Sebastian Schnuelle as the Armchair Musher, Terry Hanke with an Eye on The Trail and the Teacher on the Trail Kelly Villar. All three have interesting and different takes on the race so make sure to check them out throughout.

It snowed all day out in Willow! It was warm and wet and a bit yuck but it was Iditarod Sunday and there’s no where we would have rather been.

After an early breakfast for both canines and humans we headed in convoy up the Parks Highway to Willow Lake. We had plenty of time to get everything all lined out and ready for Aliy to complete her final gear check and sled pack. We had the dogs out of the truck early so they could enjoy the snow and a meat soup, before we took our time dressing in harness, booties and some leggings. ‘No jacket required’ as it was warm. Aliy packed all the jackets in her sled so she has them ready when they settle down to sleep or for when it gets cooler.

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Aliy’s line up for the first leg was Dutch and Junior in lead, Spark and Amber in swing, then Kodiak and Violet, Rodney and Five, Jefe and Bruno, QT and Chevie with Decaf and Cloud in wheel. I spoke with Aliy on the way up to Willow and she talked us through her line up:

We got the team relatively calmly (ahem *Rodney*) to the starting chute thanks to the well organised staging crew.

Dutch and Junior were the old pros – calm and focused at the front end of the team. Spark was looking around finding old and new friends in the crowd while Amber was bouncing and barking and revving up the whole team. Kodiak was so pleased to be back in the ‘big time’ – he was barking, smiling and excited, and we were so happy to see him back to his best. Violet was matching his excitement and seemed pleased to be near the front. Rodney was circling as usual and Five was putting up with him like only a brother can do. Jefe was barking and ready and Bruno was a cool banana. QT and Chevie had plenty of energy and Cloud and Decaf were ready to leave! Now!

It was with mixed emotions we watched the team head down the start chute and disappear around the corner – relief that we got them to the start line safely, excitement for the race ahead and a little sad we don’t see them again until Nome.

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After agonising over the decision, Aliy has settled on her final 14 dogs to travel with her to Nome. They are (in alphabetical order): Amber (4), Bruno (2), Chevie (R), Cloud (R), Decaf (2), Dutch (5), Five (3), Jefe (2), Junior (4), Kodiak (4), QT (2), Rodney (3), Spark (4) and Violet (4). The number in brackets is how many Iditarod starts they have.

Rockstar Dutch is her most experienced having run in five Iditarods and this will be his ninth 1000 mile race. His siblings Amber, Junior, Kodiak, Spark and Violet have all run in four Iditarods. Brothers Rodney and Five have each run in three, with Decaf and siblings Bruno, Jefe and QT running in two. Rookies are Chevie and Cloud to add some youthful enthusiasm and spunk.

We are very excited about this team! Strong, enthusiastic, with a mix of fun and focus. Congratulations Chevie and Cloud on making the big time!

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Unlucky dogs that didn’t make the truck ride down were Chipper, Iron and Scooby. Chipper and Scooby came off the Yukon Quest looking strong but both had lost a little of their enthusiasm and spunk. Chipper was not chipper. Aliy thought they could probably make the run to Nome but felt they didn’t need to prove anything to anyone and that they might enjoy doing fun runs around the local trails in the spring weather. Iron had a sore wrist earlier in the season and instead of risking anything more serious on 1000 miles, he stayed behind also and will do some short fun runs.

The unluckiest of all are the two that made the truck ride but not the final team although both ran in the Ceremonial Start yesterday. Razz and Perky will drive back up the Parks Highway and return to the kennel. The forecast deep snow helped Aliy make the very difficult decision. Razz hurt her leg earlier in the season during the Copper Basin 300 and Perky hurt his shoulder during the Yukon Quest. Even though both dogs trained well since then and both finished the Ceremonial run with no soreness, are now fit and healthy, and both passed the vet inspections, Aliy decided she didn’t want to risk either dog in the deeper than expected snow. They will get lots of extra treats when they are home. It was Razz’s first time in Anchorage so she might just think it was a long drive for an 11 mile race.

We know there are a bunch of disappointed dog sponsors and fans of the dogs that haven’t made the team this year. Each one of your dogs helped get the team to the start line and their contribution was just as big as those that made the team. Thank you for your ongoing support for your favourites, even if they aren’t in the “A” Team.

You can become a fan of any dog by joining our Dog Fan Club. We will be doing multiple draws throughout the race for prizes such as signed posters and race guides, Iditarod merchandise and other kennel goodies.

Here’s our video from today including some from the trail.

I decided not to put music over so you can get a sense of the noise and excitement even when setting up.

Dutch, Junior, Amber, Spark, QT, Violet, Razz, Cloud, Rodney, Jefe, Decaf and Perky ran through the streets and trails of Anchorage enjoying the fun and adoration of the 10s of 1000s of spectators and fans. (Obviously not all the of fans were there for them but we aren’t telling them that.)

Here are a bunch of pictures from the Ceremonial Start today in downtown Anchorage. Firstly, some of the dogs!

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And, some people

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