SPK Dog Log

The Black Team pulled the hook and left Unalakleet at 9.15pm after just under eight hours rest. Allen still has 14 team members with him as he heads to Shaktoolik. That’s a lot of booties, jackets, leggings, dinners, massages, etc etc. He’s doing a grand job with a big team of youngsters (and some elders).

It appears he’s still travelling with Rick Casillo from Battle Dawgs Racing.

Drop Dog Update: We have verified that Driver, one of the yahoos, is the dog that was dropped from the Black Team in Koyukuk. He was tired and a bit sore, but having spent a couple of days resting at the checkpoint he is probably rearing to go.

This pic is one of my favorites from the re-start in Fairbanks – it really illustrates the nature of the yahoos. Trying to capture them all in one frame is near impossible without a wide angle lens.

We’re excited that Aliy and the Red Team have pulled into White Mountain in 5th position at 7.09pm. Their run time over from Elim was 8 hours, 38 minutes and they now settle in for their mandatory eight hour rest.

During an eight hour rest Aliy will feed the dogs a couple of kibble and meat meals and ensure they are well hydrated, feed them extra meat and fat snacks, give them all a massage and let them get as much rest as possible. Before they take off she’ll also rub them down and walk them around a little to loosen up their muscles (and let them empty their bladders and bowels). In between this, she will eat and catch a nap herself. Her nap may be just an hour or two but it’s likely it will be the most she has had all-in-one-go since her 24 hour stop, back in Galena.

As a surprise, on the packaging for the human meals and snacks we sent to White Mountain for both teams, we scrawled in sharpie “Woohoo! See you soon!” and “We love you!” instead of “Chicken Pesto” or “Moose Lasagna”. Ryne, Bridgett, Scotty and a bunch of other supporters have taken snow machines out to White Mountain and were planning to be there when the team pulled in. I popped a video camera in Ryne’s pocket so we might get some footage.

Check out these fantastic pics by Sebastian Schnuelle of our team on Golovin Bay! The line-up she’s running at that time looks to be: Scruggs and Scout in lead, Nacho in single swing, Scooter and Quito, Willie and Chica, Mac and Mismo, Waylon and Izzy, with happy Schmoe and Clyde in wheel. Looks like Scruggs wanted to visit with Sebastian – he is a very close neighbor of ours in Two Rivers so perhaps Scruggs just wanted to invite him for a barbecue.

Another fabulous Sebastian Schnuelle photo of the team on Golovin Bay

The earliest they can leave the checkpoint is 3.09am. It’s then a final 77 mile push to the finish and, boy, we can’t wait to see them, hug them and tell them how proud we are!

Allen and his 14 Black Team mates are currently resting in Unalakleet and we’re keeping an eye on the weather in the area as he prepares to leave in the next few hours. Check this out by Terrie Hanke! Finally a mention and picture of the Black Team! This is Beemer and Kodiak resting in Unalakleet.

Beemer (big spoon) and Kodiak (little spoon) in Unk – photo Terrie Hanke

Drop Dog Update

Here’s a photo of Outlaw with kennel friend Barbara Swenson. He looks like he’s having a great time. Perhaps he’s singing to some song on the radio? What do you think? Maybe Hobo Jim’s “I did, I did, I did the Iditarod Trail!”

So far we haven’t heard about Nelson, Sissy and our Black Team member. There has been some bad flying weather out there in some of the checkpoints so until now they have been unable to fly some of the dogs back to Anchorage. We believe there are a number of dogs arriving into Iditarod HQ at the Millennium Hotel today so we’ll update you as soon as we know more. We are very keen to find out who Allen dropped in Koyukuk!

If you haven’t already, check out Kennel Mom’s post about dropped dogs. Don’t worry; Nelson, Sissy and “Wearestillnotsurewhoyet” will be well taken care of by the veterinarians and volunteers out at the checkpoints. They are well equipped to keep dogs there for as long as they need.

All 14 Red Team athletes are on the move and left Elim at 10.31am after resting 4 hours, 21 minutes. They are now heading for Golovin then onto White Mountain. At White Mountain all teams have a mandatory eight hour rest before the final 77 miles to Nome.

“This is one of the more interesting legs on the race, with quite a variety of trail and terrain in a very short distance” according to Donald Bowers Jnr so it will be nice for them to see some different scenery. It should perk the dogs up to see different vistas out in front of them.

Allen and the Black Team are on the move again towards Unalakleet and are currently about 20 miles from the checkpoint.

At 6.10am the Red Team pulled into Elim in fifth position! We are unsure how long she will stay there as she is running and resting as much as the team needs at this point.

At the time of writing there are no written or video updates about the run to Elim checkpoint by the front runners so I don’t have much to tell you, but I’m sure they will be up soon so we can update you.

Allen, the Black Team and their running mates Chuck, Yvonne and Rick appear to be at Old Woman Cabin another of the BLM cabins between Kaltag and Unalakleet. I found this image (right) from google so if it’s not the actual cabin, it will look something like this!

They are about 35 miles from Unalakleet. We see this from time to time, groups of mushers travelling together for a section of trail enjoying their dogs and each others company. This is also especially true if there is any kind of weather event as it is safer to travel in groups as they can support and help each other if needed.

The weather forecast for the Unalakleet area is for warm 32F with some snow showers – this fresh snow will make the trails slow and you might find teams travelling together will share the trail breaking duties.

At 9.11pm the Red Team left Koyuk in fourth position heading towards Elim some 48 miles away. She is currently about 30 miles behind Dallas Seavey, about 15 miles behind Aaron Burmeister and 5 or so miles behind Mitch Seavey. They are all breaking the trail in front of her. Jessie Royer left one minute after her.

Aliy left with all 13 team mates.

I want to point you in the direction of this story by Emily Schwing and a quote by Aliy “You can only race as hard as your dog team can go and then you can’t race any harder, so that is a pill that everyone has to swallow and swallow with a smile on your face.” She knows each member of her team well; she’s known them since the day they were born and has personally raised and trained them all. She knows how hard she can push and what the limit is. Rest assured, she will be racing as hard as she can to catch these three guys in front of her and to stay in front of Jessie, Joar, Jeff and the others behind her.

In an interview with the Insider in Koyuk, Mitch Seavey spoke about how he and Aliy got caught in some weather coming into Shaktoolik that blew them off the trail and maybe lost them both about half an hour. It’s a good interview, check it out if you can. He talks about the importance of having a rested team if weather becomes a factor and what a difficult call it is to make; whether to let other teams get ahead or to rest and make up time on them during the runs if their dogs tire.

To find out more about the leg she has just embarked on click here for Donald Bowers Jnr’s write-up.

Here is a screen shot (sorry for poor quality) from the Insider video of the Red Team coming into Koyuk. Look at all those happy faces!

Allen plus 14 Black Team have left Kaltag at 8.58pm after just under eight hours break. They are heading for the coast and Unalakleet checkpoint and seem to be travelling with Chuck Schaeffer, Yvonne Dabakk and Rick Casillo at the moment.

Woohoo! Aliy and the Red Team have arrived into Koyuk and are currently sitting in third position, less than three hours behind the leaders. Remember folks, there’s a bit of racing left to go! There is roughly 170 miles until Nome.

Seeing the video of her team coming in, she has Quito up front in single lead. She’s switching leaders around depending on what’s going on and Quito and Scout have been sharing the duties lately. Bruce Lee explained that the reason they are travelling at a lower speed than earlier in the race is there has been new snow and it hasn’t “set up” yet. He likened it to running through loose sand. All the front teams will be experiencing the same conditions.

We can’t tell how long she will rest the team in Koyuk but it will be whatever she feels the team needs.

In the meantime, the Black Team pulled into Kaltag at 1.08pm, making the run over from Nulato in 4 hours, 52 minutes. Once rested, they leave the Yukon River and head over the portage towards to coast and Unalakleet checkpoint.

Want to know what it’s like to be mushing with the Red Team? Aliy took Doug (her Dad) out with them for their final stretch out run on the Sunday before the Fairbanks Re-Start. He took along a video camera!

Good morning!

After a short 1 hour 13 minute stop in Shaktoolik, Aliy and 13 canine Red Team athletes left the checkpoint at 6.55am and are now giving chase to Aaron Burmeister and Dallas Seavey ahead of them, and very mindful of Jessie Royer, Mitch Seavey and the other the teams behind. They are each running quite a different run/rest schedule which makes it difficult to give a clear picture of what’s happening. Who is due a rest? Who can go on through to Koyuk some 50-odd miles away?

It’s certainly an exciting phase of the race so, if you aren’t already, now’s the time to send all good vibes and wishes down the trail to them. There’s still a lot of racing and a lot of strategy to unfold.

There is a very short video of the team pulling in to ‘Shak’ and we see Aly is wearing her wind gear but upon leaving she is not so we assume the wind has died down a little this morning. A few of us have poured over the video of the team leaving and it looks to us like it could be Sissy that is not on the line. We will find out for certain over the next day or so and at this stage we are not sure if she will fly back to Anchorage and be with our drop dog crew there or forwards to Nome, where we are. We’ll let you know asap.

It looks like Aliy is running Quito in single lead, backed up by Nacho and Schmoe in swing, Scruggs and Scooter, Chica and Waylon, Mismo and Mac, Scout and Izzy and Willie and Clyde in wheel.

Here’s a story from KTUU after a quick interview with Aliy in Unalakleet.

Overnight, at 1.43am the Black Team arrived into Nulato checkpoint. Allen left one of his team mates with the veterinarians and volunteers in Koyukuk. As mentioned earlier, it could be some time before we learn who it is so we appreciate your patience as we find out that information. We are just as eager to find out as you.