SPK Dog Log

Aliy and the Red Team are through the Huslia checkpoint, spending just 12 minutes there restocking supplies and having vet checks done on the dogs.

She left there at 8.20pm with all 16 team mates and we’re very excited about that!

Aliy and the Red Team are on the move towards Huslia after what appears to be about three to four hours rest on the trail, roughly 13 miles outside of Huslia. This means they will likely go through the checkpoint and on towards Koyukuk.

As she goes through she will need to resupply her sled so will spend a few minutes at the checkpoint going through her drop bags gathering kibble and snacks for the dogs, new booties, leggings and other supplies, and human food and supplies ready for the next leg. As well as packing bags for potential 24 hour stops, we also packed bags for potential pick-up so she doesn’t have to spend too much time going through every bag to find what she wants.

Stopping, even if only briefly, gives the veterinarians a chance to look over the dogs and confirm with Aliy if she has any worries. The vets are very good at their jobs and can pick up on issues quickly.

Allen and the Black Team are due to check out of Galena after their 24 hour mandatory stop, plus time differential, any time after (by my calculation) 10.29pm. The team will be fresh and ready to get back on the trail but expect them to camp before they get to the next checkpoint as the Red Team did, but perhaps for longer. The youngsters will be getting in the swing of camping by now so will be getting good rest at the camp spots.

More later!

Congratulations to Jan Andersson from Canada! Jan is a fan of Olivia – super-model, super-leader and super-mom!

Olivia is known to us as “Big O”; like how you might call someone who is 6ft, 5in “Tiny”, but she is big in personality and talent.

Olivia ran as far as Manley in the Iditarod before returning to the kennel with us in the truck. I snapped this pic of her (right) as she started the race in Fairbanks. She’s running with Sandy in the wheel position.

Olivia is always one of the most enthusiastic dogs on the starting line. Many a picture of the team lined up ready to go has her on her hind legs, screaming to go. Check out the great pic below from the start of the 2013 Iditarod by Donna Dewhurst Photography!

And yes, the draw is random, it is just a happy co-incidence the algorithm chose Olivia!

Jan wins an Iditarod goodie pack including a fridge magnet, pencil, car decal sticker, bookmark signed by Aliy and Allen and a couple of patches, along with a winner’s certificate.

We’d never really describe Big O as “laid back” (picture: Donna Dewhurst); the Iditarod goodie-pack

Thanks to all our Dog Fan Club members! We have another scheduled draw next Friday, March 20th and everyone who hasn’t already won and all new members will be in the draw to win. Note: those of you who have already won but are fan club members of multiple dogs are still in the draw for the dogs you have not won with.

Click the button below for instructions on how to join:

Click this button below to take you directly to the Dog Fan Page.

Aliy and the Red Team are on their way to Huslia after completing their mandatory 24 hour break in Galena.

A few of you might have worried that they didn’t start moving right at the 24 hour mark. In an earlier post I talked about how the teams make up their time differential at their 24 hour rest. This means that, because Aliy started bib #32 she had to stay (by my estimate) at least 25 hours, 34 minutes to put her on equal footing with musher #79 who stops for exactly 24 hours.

If you have the Iditarod Insider GPS package you can see the team is on the move and already clear of the checkpoint.

Screen shot from GPS tracker at 8.25am

At the time of writing the current standings have not updated with her official exit time or how many team mates she still has with her. I will update more once that information is available.

The Black Team is still resting in Galena and we are presuming they will complete their 24 hour mandatory stop there.

Manly is about 170 miles by road from Fairbanks so our drive from Nenana was around 210 miles compared to about 90 miles for the dog teams. We did manage to beat Aliy in so were there to greet the team. It was cold! The gauge on the truck read -33F for much of the night and the mushers looked frosted as they pulled in. Hear Emily Schwing’s report to hear Aliy and Martin Buser talking about the cold out on the river.

As the Red Team pulled into the checkpoint they were pretty keen to continue down the trail, they were barking and yelling, letting everyone know they had arrived. Scooter, Outlaw and Schmoe are the loudest trio out there and Mac has a pretty good voice also. They settled down quickly, however, once the straw was down and, as not too many teams were there yet, got a good rest.

Aliy starts her arrival routine in Manley while a veterinarian checks over the team

The vet team was quickly onto task and very thoroughly checked ever dog. I watched for a while and saw them checking hydration levels, mobility of joints, feet, general overall condition and, I’m sure many other things not discernible to a layman watching from afar. They also make sure to check in with the musher if they have any concerns and give advice as necessary.

Aliy said everyone was doing great! They camped well and the trail was hard and fast. She will stick to her race plan regardless of what others around her are doing. It’s a plan that suits SPK dogs and could be quite different to what other teams are doing.

After completing her routine which includes snacking the dogs with poultry skins and meat, removing booties, making a dog meal, covering everyone with fleece jackets/throws and piling straw on top of them, Aliy trekked to the school hall to get a nap and warm up herself. She said she felt much more refreshed after a quick nap. We got a nap also and when we woke the sun was just coming up. It was a gorgeous sight!

The sun rises over Manley as Aliy feeds her team mates

The sounds of Manley checkpoint were interesting also. Small bush planes taking off from the runway not far from the checkpoint, Martin Buser whistling a merry tune, dog teams arriving and leaving… it slowly came more alive as the sun got higher.

Once it was daylight we could get a better look around the checkpoint. The parking spots for the teams were spacious and well laid out with ready access to the exit trail for all teams. Warm water from the Manley Hot Springs was available to the mushers for dog food water. It was clear a lot of work had gone into setting it up and it was noticed and much appreciated.

The Black Team

The Black Team resting in Manley

Allen arrived as Aliy was completing her exit routine so he was able to see her off. This time the yahoos settled into their straw very quickly so will have their routine down soon. That is one of the big lessons for youngsters is to learn how important it is to rest and to take the opportunity seriously. They had a snack, got their booties removed and settled into a sleep in the warmth of the day – it had warmed up considerably since the overnight lows. They looked so blissful stretched out on their straw beds in the sun.

Boondocks and Beemer cuddle in for a nap, Lester and Viper cozy sleeping

Allen said that on the hard and fast trail he had to keep is foot on the drag mat and/or brake for much of the run to keep the speed down. On a cold night that makes it difficult for a musher to stay warm as they are not ski-poling, “pedalling” (kicking, like you would on a scooter) or running, which keeps the blood pumping.

Allen stopped into the checkpoint at the Manley Hot Springs Hall for three bowls of chunky chicken soup before heading to the school hall for a couple hour nap. When he returned he fed the team their big meal, packed his sled and dressed and bootied his team. He said goodbye to Olivia then and jumped on the runners to head for Tanana. He was carrying straw and I saw from the tracker that they stopped about half-way for a couple hours break.

Commando: “Hey Driver, dude, check out that team over there… What? We weren’t doing anything…

I asked Allen about his overall race plan was in terms of rest for the team and he said they will rest frequently in the early stages with the idea of being able to test them a little further into the race. He has a wonderful way with young teams and knows how far to push before backing off and making it too hard on them.

Once the Black Team left Manley we then high-tailed back to the kennel and will now follow the teams by tracker, Insider videos and media reports. It will be hard for us to not see them in person (in dog?) for a while.

Both teams are currently in Galena! It will be nice for Aliy and Allen to see each other, even if it’s only briefly.

The Red Team has been resting in Galena since 5.54am so it is pretty safe to assume Aliy has declared her mandatory 24 hour stop there. We won’t know for sure until they pull out of the checkpoint and she gets an official green tick next to her name on the standings list but it has been over 16 hours already, so I’d probably put money on it.

During the 24 hour layover the routine will include at least three or maybe four meals for the dogs supplemented with meat and fat. Aliy will give each dog thorough body, leg and foot massages with Algyval and apply “pink ointment” foot salve on all 64 feet. Aliy will also walk each dog after their first long sleep to loosen them up, as keeping them immobile for the whole time will only serve to stiffen them up a bit just like it would with us. Of course, sleep is also a priority for the dogs and musher.

When we packed the drop bags for the checkpoints where a 24 hour stop was a possibility (we packed several to give both of them options), we put in all sorts of goodies for the humans also. Allen was on the Quest at the time we finished off his bags so he will have some surprises when he opens them up. We packed bags of his favorite popcorn, some breakfast burritos and special home-made meals frozen in seam-sealed packages, along with all the stuff he planned and is expecting. Aliy put in packets of dried plantains and some different snack mixes to give her a change from her regular trail food – freeze dried meals and nuts.

Inside all the drop bags along the trail are pounds and pounds of home made oatmeal/peanut butter bars.

They don’t freeze solid, even at -40F and both Aliy and Allen are so fond of them that they often steal them out of the freezer at home before we get a chance to put them in the drop bags.

They blame Bullet (one of the retired house dogs) but I know it’s not her – she doesn’t have opposable thumbs so would find using a knife difficult. She does have a long nose though so I could totally see her opening the freezer door! Oh poor Bullet, I’m just kidding.

The Black Team pulled in to Galena at 9.45pm after running the 55 miles from Ruby in 6 hours, 55 mins. They are moving at a good pace on the river – the tracker reports they have a moving average speed of 9.1 mph! He still has 15 team mates with him. We’re unsure whether he will 24 there, we will just have to wait and see.

Drop Dog Update

Today we took Olivia into Fairbanks to our vet T Rose Veterinary Service for some laser therapy.

Don’t ask my how it works, it’s like magic, but it has reportedly excellent results on her type of pectoral muscle issue as well as wounds and other soft tissue injuries.

Olivia enjoyed the ride and curled up and slept in the back seat of the car as we stopped for some groceries and ran some other errands.

She will have another session of laser treatment later in the week then she is on strict rest for a while as we assess how she’s healing.

Thanks T Rose!

Here is some footage of both teams in Nenana checkpoint back on Monday afternoon.

Aliy and the Red Team went through the checkpoint so there is not much to see but I spent a few minutes watching Allen do his arrival routine and I thought you’d be interested in seeing it too!

Sorry about the wind noise, it was breezy but it really wasn’t THAT windy. It was just hitting my fairly unsophisticated video camera directly into the microphone and it sounds like it’s howling.

Take a look back at the Black Team getting ready to head to Nome!