SPK Dog Log

Aliy and the Red Team pulled into Galena at 5.54am Thursday. She’s still running with all 16 of her team mates and they are moving at a pretty good clip.

The Insider video showed them coming in to the checkpoint with Waylon and Scout in lead, Nacho and Scooter in swing, followed by Scruggs and Izzy, Quito and Chica, Mac and Outlaw, Mismo and Nelson, Sissy and Schmoe, then Clyde and Willie in wheel. They’re all still dressed in fleece coats so it must be still very cold out on the river.

In a video she was talking about camping at Bible Camp (between Tanana and Ruby) and how she had to put Quito in lead to find her way out of the checkpoint as there were lots of confusing snow machine trails. Seems Quito got loose, went on a reconnaissance mission and found the exit trail. One smart dog!

Now is when the race becomes interesting and a little confusing in that you can’t take the current standings at face value. Teams must complete a 24 hour mandatory break at any checkpoint along the route and an eight hour stop at any checkpoint from Tanana to Kaltag. Mushers are starting to take their mandatory 24 hour stops and some have already taken their eight. Teams leap frog each other in the official standings so this is where the green ticks, showing the completion of their rests, become a good indicator of where each musher is in the standings.

The 24 hour layover is also the time where the difference in starting position is equalised. Teams started two minutes apart and the team that started in bib 79 takes 24 hours. Teams that started earlier than that add two minutes to their rest break for each bib lower than 79. If my math is correct Aliy will take 25 hours 34 mins and Allen 24 hours 44 mins (disclaimer: I count on my fingers so this could be incorrect).

At this point we’re not sure when either of them will take their 24 but I notice some mushers have “declared” theirs, so the leader board will look different for the next few days.

Teams also take a mandatory eight hour break at White Mountain but by then the playing field is levelled and the current standings are a true reflection of who is in which position.

The Black Team has arrived in Ruby after camping what looks to me like twice along the trail for about 4-5 hours each. Allen split the 116 mile run into three in order to give the youngsters more rest along the way. Once Allen’s eight Iditarod rookies (Kodiak, Junior, Dutch, Commando, Driver, Chipper, Pepe and Sandy) hit the 300 mile mark they will be like Samwise in Lord of the Rings when he and Frodo leave the Shire. Sam stops in the middle of the field because it was the furtherest he’d been from home. It is all new territory for them so it’s important for Allen right now to keep them excited and happy about continuing.

As we don’t get to see much from the middle of the pack, here is a picture from the Black Team’s final training run on Sunday – just so you don’t forget what they look like.

Remember back on Monday when the teams left Fairbanks? Seems so long ago!

Watch the Red Team as they prepare to head for Nome.

Aliy and her Red Team mates pulled into Ruby at 7.17 this evening in 5th position. The Analytics View of the tracker shows that they stopped to camp for about 5.5 hours along the way.

There is an Insider video (Jeff on the Trail to Ruby) of the team passing a resting Jeff King and you can see the team “on by”, it’s cool to see them just run past the sleeping team and neither team trying to interfere with the other.

Screen shots from Insider video

Aliy was interviewed before leaving Tanana and she was talking about the need to be cautious in the cold weather combined with the long runs between checkpoints. She described how her dogs are “cold wary” as they had just been through the cold Quest so she was not going to push them at this early stage of the race.

Meanwhile, Allen and the Black Team are about 50 miles outside Ruby. They camped for about four hours on the trail. On the Analytics View you can see the run/rest pattern so far for the Black Team – all the small “blips” you see are when he stops to snack the dogs.

Beemer and Dutch dressed and ready; Pepe in a rare stationary moment

Felix and Sandy waiting; Biscuit contemplates Iditarod number eight

The Black Team ready to leave the truck

They’re off

The front end

The middle of the pack

The back end

The Black Team on the Chena River (photo Liz Wood)

Doug helps Aliy with her bib; the all important GPS tracker is attached to the sled

Lined up ready to leave the truck; walking up the chute towards the start line

Ready to go

They’re off

The middle pack

The back end

Wheel dogs Clyde and Willie

In the first of our retrospective “catch-up” posts here’s the report from Nenana.

After we got both teams off the start line in Fairbanks, Doug, Spencer, Meghan and I went out to Nenana to await their arrival. Unusually for the Iditarod, handlers were able to supply drop bags from the truck and take them, along with a bale of straw to the team. Normally we are not even at a checkpoint and if we were, we would be completely hands off and the drop bags have already been shipped to the checkpoints ahead of time. The change in route meant we were able to drive to the checkpoint very easily and help with bags and straw on this occasion.

Welcome to Nenana

Aliy and the Red Team came into the checkpoint and pulled to the side of the trail to quickly grab some dog food, supplies and some straw. The stop was really efficient so they spent only a few minutes in the busy checkpoint before heading off down the trail. The veternarians did a check of the team while she packed her sled and confirmed with Aliy she had no concerns.

The Red Team arrives in Nenana

On their way!

Those of you with the tracker will have noticed they then camped for a few hours on the trail between Nenana and Manley. Aliy and Allen are both comfortable camping on the trail so you will see them do that frequently throughout this race. They plan a run/rest schedule that suits the dogs, whether there is a checkpoint or cabin handy or not. Often times it is much quieter for the dog team outside of a checkpoint and they can get a better rest, especially at the early checkpoints where there are many energetic dog teams coming and going.

Allen and the Black Team arrived less than an hour later and stayed in Nenana for about three hours. The official standings show they had just a two minute rest there but that is because he left the main checkpoint area and he found a park just off the trail further away from the checkpoint building. It might have looked to everyone there like he had gone through the checkpoint.

The Black Team arrives in Nenana

Allen gives Junior and Kodiak their straw; the yahoos (Driver, Commando, Chipper and Pepe) taking it all in while Olivia and Sandy are already settling in for a sleep

It is very obvious when you see the team come into a checkpoint who are the experienced dogs and who are the newbies. Even before the straw went down the more experienced front end (Junior, Kodiak, Beemer, Boondocks, Lester and Viper, Chemo and Felix and Biscuit) and back end (Sandy and Olivia) were settling down for a nap while the yahoos in the middle/back, were still wide-awake; interested in what was going on with the teams next door. The last three to go down were Commando, who found a girlfriend in DeeDee Jenrowe’s team parked next door, and gazed longingly at her, Chipper who sat up for most of the time, nodding off now and again and waking herself up, and Driver who was just too excited about having new friends to meet. Pepe circled for a while taking all the excitement in and Dutch finally flopped himself down off his straw and made himself a great pillow in the snow.

Commando’s the last man standing (sitting); Dutch’s snow pillow

After completing his exit ‘chores’ and some expert manoeuvring to get out of the parking spot the team headed down the trail. Allen took straw with him as he left Nenana and the team camped on the way to Manley for about four hours.

Good morning!

Currently Aliy and the Red Team are on the trail towards Ruby having left Tanana at 10.17pm with all 17 athletes. Right now they are resting about half way with what looks like a whole bunch of other mushers. The run from Tanana to Ruby is reported as 119 miles so Aliy will have planned the stop rather than make the run in one go.

I watched the Insider video of her getting ready to leave Tanana and they were expecting -40F overnight. She was dressing the dogs as she and Allen did for the Yukon Quest with fleece jackets – and for those with a thinner coat (Waylon!!) both a wind jacket and fleece over the top. The males will be wearing the fox ruffs around their “personal areas” to avoid frost nip and Nelson is running in a neck gaiter to protect the rub he received on his neck in the YQ300. The rub itself healed well but she doesn’t want to take a chance if nipping it at these temperatures so he’s running in a bright purple gaiter!

Waylon get dressing in Tanana; the team howls as they ready to leave (screen pics from Insider video)

Aliy is wearing her cold weather mushing gear with wind protection over the top. This is the white jacket and pants you will see her in. This suit serves two purposes: keeping the wind out and keeping the warmth in.

According to the tracker the Black Team are on the move from Tanana having taken what looks to be about an eight hour rest. At the time of writing I am unsure how many of the team left Tanana with him. In the Iditarod, teams do not have to check out with an official so leaving times and dog numbers are not always captured. We’ll catch up with that once the team checks in at the next checkpoint or, if a dog has been dropped, once we are notified. The volunteers and officials do the best they can to record the leaving information but sometimes, because the teams can leave whenever they want (expect on mandatory stops, which must be timed), it’s not always possible.

Sorry for the radio silence! We’ve only just come back to the kennel after being in the Nenana and Manley Hot Springs checkpoints. I have plenty of photos and video from the start and both checkpoints that I’ll edit and bring to you over the next few days.

Right now Aliy and the Red Team are resting in Tanana. They arrived third into the checkpoint at 4.55pm AST. Sebastian Schnuelle saw the team come in and said “Aliy pulled in with a very energetic team. They were barking for more… or because they knew some nice straw and a warm meal was coming.” She’s running Scruggs and Scout in lead currently and you’ll see from some of Seb’s pics and the Insider video that she’s running Quito a little further back in the line-up with Chica – she’s fine; Aliy is just keeping her out of the fray on the hard and fast trails.

Another thing you can also tell from the video that the temperature has increased dramatically from the -35F of last night as there are bare heads and hands on the spectators!

The Red Team arrives in Nenana; The Black Team arrives in Manley

Allen and the Black Team are on their way to Tanana and are currently resting about half way and have been stopped for about two hours as I write this. Allen left the Manley checkpoint with straw so it is not a surprise to us that they camped.

Allen is running an extremely conservative race plan with this team in an effort to get as many of the youngsters to Nome as possible and teach them what it is to run 1000 miles. It is quite a shift of focus for him from the competitive Yukon Quest, where the stays at checkpoints and camp stops are very specifically timed and planned. Allen and the team will get more rest along the way and stop frequently between checkpoints, especially on the first few runs that have big mileages between them. He has a rough plan laid out but will alter as they go to suit how the team is doing. We packed his drop bags accordingly so he has lots of options.

I have a Tanana and Manley retrospective posts for you tomorrow. Right now the crew is going to bed! It’s been a long “day” since the teams left from Fairbanks on Monday morning!