SPK Dog Log

Thank you again for your messages and love.

Aliy is now home at the kennel and is resting. She has more Doctor appointments set in the next little while but she is being well taken care of. She appreciates all the love being sent her way. Thank you for giving her time and space to heal.

The Iditarod race officials have been keeping us up to date with the dogs’ progress home. As I understand it they were flown to the checkpoint hub of McGrath today and get to hang out with the vets and volunteers there overnight before catching a flight back to Anchorage hopefully tomorrow. There is plenty of food and supplies for them and they are receiving excellent care. Karolyn and Mark will drive the dog truck down to meet them and bring them home.

Well, this is certainly not the ending we were hoping for, but it’s the ending we have. As Aliy said in her Open Letter –

We each have battles we’re fighting. We all face difficult challenges. And it’s at the point where it all seems too much, when the fight seems impossible to win, that we inevitably ask, “Do I have what it takes to do this?”

 

The answer is yes. Yes, you do. No matter how dark and cold your trail may seem. The only way to finish the race you’re in is to simply not quit. So after finishing 30,000 miles of sled dog races, that’s my parting advice:

 

Keep moving forward.

Aliy will keep moving forward.

Tonight we’ve heard the devastating news that Aliy has been injured on the trail and is out of the Iditarod. She is in a stable condition and being medevac-ed back to Anchorage from Rohn. The dogs are well and will catch a flight to Anchorage asap. They are being cared for by volunteers at the checkpoint.

We don’t know much else yet, other than it happened on the trail between Rainy Pass and Rohn. Communications out of Rohn are not great at the best of times due to the terrain.

Allen and Bridgett are on their way down to Anchorage now to meet them and Kaz will fly down tomorrow.

We will update you when we know more. We are utterly devastated for Aliy and the dogs. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we process this information and find out more. This may take some time but we’ll keep you in touch.

Here is the statement from the Iditarod Race Marshall Mark Nordman

At approximately 8 p.m. today, Iditarod veteran musher Aliy Zirkle (bib #32) of Two Rivers, Alaska, was injured while coming in to the Rohn checkpoint. Aliy is in stable condition but based on information provided by a volunteer with medical training, I notified the Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center for assistance. The Alaska RCC is airborne and en route to the checkpoint to pick up Aliy and will transport her to Anchorage for further evaluation. Her dog team is in Rohn and being well cared for by volunteers at the checkpoint. ### An update will be provided as more information becomes available.

Its 9.00pm Monday evening, Alaska Time

Race Mile: 188

Next checkpoint: Nikolai

When we last caught up, Aliy and team were camping ten miles (about one hour) before Finger Lake checkpoint. They stayed at their camp spot four hours then continued on for 4.5 hours, passing through Finger Lake at 8.36am only stopping to grab supplies. They then travelled to Rainy Pass where they stopped for around four hours, resting in the sun. After climbing to Rainy Pass summit then descending through the Dalzell Gorge, the team arrived into the checkpoint of Rohn just after 8pm.

Earlier in the day the Insider crew caught up with Aliy at her camp spot before Finger Lake and asked her about the trail. She said it was hard and fast and that she found it interesting to be looking at the trail in a different way – imagining coming back over it from the other direction, which she won’t have had to think about before. In the video we saw her with her big insulated jacket on, showing the temperatures certainly dropped overnight as expected.

It would have been getting light as they negotiated the technical Happy River Steps and they arrived into Rainy Pass around noon – perfectly timed to give the dogs a rejuvenating rest for four hours in the heat of the day. We all know that sled dogs prefer to run when it’s colder, but the other advantage of resting in the heat of the day is the dogs can really stretch out and relax their muscles when they sleep, without having to curl up and keep themselves warm. I would have loved to have been able to watch the dog teams up close, sleeping as they were likely all sprawled out, blissfully relaxed in the sun.

I was able to watch much of the live feed from Rainy Pass while the team was there and I watched Aliy work through her checkpoint routine that I’ve seen a hundred times. After securing the team, the first thing Aliy did was offer them plain, cool water, proving it must have been quite warm during the later hours of the morning. She also shed layers of clothing herself so she could do her chores comfortably. It’s unknown what facilities for drying clothing there will be along the trail so Aliy wouldn’t have wanted to get sweaty without being able to dry off.

Next, it looked to me like Aliy was giving the team an antacid tablet – omeprazole – which has to be given three hours after the last food and half an hour before the next. Most mushers will use omeprazole or similar to guard against ulcers.

Omeprazole/Prilosec is an approved medication for the prevention of gastric ulcers. Dr Mike Davis and his team, did extensive research into this and it is now very common, and strongly advised, that mushers give omeprazole or pepcid to their teams every day they race. The tablet must be given three hours after food and half an hour before food so becomes a major consideration for mushers when planning their feeding routines.

Aliy then distributed the straw bale among the team and I think it’s always fun to see the dogs shaping their own custom-made straw mattresses. Next was removing booties, also giving her the opportunity to give a hands-on checkover of each dog. The vet team was able to move in and also do their once-over of every dog and check-in with Aliy if she had any issues. I couldn’t help but smile as one poor vet had to gently wrestle with Mismo to look at his feet – he really doesn’t like his feet being touched and today was no different.

After half an hour, Aliy gave out several different meat snacks to the dogs before they settled in for their sleep. While they rested, Aliy was warming some water to make the dogs’ meal ready for when they woke. Warm water helps soak the kibble and thaw some meat, and enables more important hydration. As the water was warming, Aliy repacked her sled and replenished supplies from her drop bags.

At the other end of their rest, Aliy added some crunchy kibble to the meal and proceeded to feed everyone, around an hour before leaving. She completed packing her sled then dressed and readied everyone to head back down the trail. I noticed she swapped some dogs around on the line but the live feed decided to go ghostly right at the wrong moment and it was really difficult to see who was in what position when they left.

The Trail Notes tell us: “The trail runs in the open on the tundra of Ptarmigan Pass from Rainy Pass Lodge to the mouth of Pass Creek, which it then follows northwest up to the summit of Rainy Pass itself. Then there are several miles of sometimes steep downhills and often tight, twisting trail through scrub willow southwest along Pass Fork to Dalzell Creek. The trail then drops into the infamous Dalzell Gorge for a few miles and finally onto the Tatina River for the last five miles to Rohn.”

In the past, Aliy has taken many “Aliy Cam” videos in this area – type ‘Rainy Pass’ or ‘Dalzell Gorge’ into the search box on the top right of our website and you will find them all. Here’s one from 2018:

If you are after some good reads, make sure you check out Terrie Hanke’s Eye on the Trail series. You can find out some history, behind the scenes details and see some great pictures!

Its 5.45am Monday morning, AK time

Race mile: 113

Next checkpoint: Finger Lake

Just a quick update. After camping for just over three hours at Race Mile 73, Aliy and her team moved through Skwentna checkpoint around midnight, stopping for nine minutes to grab some supplies and be on their way. They are now camping at race mile 113, ten miles before Finger Lake checkpoint, stopping there around 3.30am.

The supplies she picked up would have included bags of dog kibble and ‘snickers’ sized frozen meat snacks, dog booties, fresh dry gloves and socks and human food. She would also need to replenish her cooker fuel and grab some straw for the dogs to camp.

Pretty sure she did not pick up Ziptie on the way through the checkpoint.

Trail notes from Don Bowers Jr from this section tell us: “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 read more detail and about other sections by finding the Race Map under the ‘Race Centre’ tab on Iditarod.com then clicking on the blue links for each section of trail.

After Finger Lake comes the infamous Happy River Steps and I recommend reading the ‘Detailed Description’ section of the trail notes. Makes for alarming reading in parts!

Check out this great picture from Marc Lester of ADN. Click here for original pic and other great shots from the start yesterday.

It’s 8.45pm Sunday evening AK time

Race Mile: 73

Next Checkpoint: Skwentna

As the support crew packed up and headed north, back to Two Rivers, Aliy, Commando and Dutch, Sparkie and QT, Amber and Decaf, Mismo and Driver, Rodney and Bruno, Peach and Jefe, Violet and Perky headed onto the trail along the Susitna River.

Kaz sent through some more pics from the start this afternoon.

Lisa sent through a couple of amazing aerial shots of the start chute and staging area to give you an idea of how it was all laid out.

Like many of you, I have spent the afternoon reacquainting myself with the GPS tracker and trying to glean as much information as I can from it. So far… not too much to tell you. After leaving Deshka Landing the team travelled South West along the Susitna River for about 30 miles then hung a right onto the Yentna River. They didn’t stop at Yentna Checkpoint, rather travelled through and are now camping at mile 73 between Yentna and Skwentna. The team ran for about 5.5 hours so are due a rest.

The Analytics view of Aliy’s tracker shows a few snack breaks (the short dips in speed) and the start of her rest break. It also shows them going 75 miles per hour at one point! Not so sure that’s legit.

As you may have read or heard elsewhere, mushers will need to be prepared to camp out this year as none of the traditional indoor checkpoint facilities are available for mushers. Tents are the alternative except for McGrath where the mushers have an aircraft hangar they can visit. This will not bother Aliy one bit, she is prepared to camp outside with her dogs, and often times prefers it. This also won’t bother any of the Yukon Quest mushers who are well accustomed to camping. Expect to see Aliy and her team resting outside of checkpoints along the way. If a checkpoint fits with their run/rest schedule, they’ll stop but if not, they’ll keep going, grabbing resupplies from the drop bags on the way through. What I’m saying is: don’t be alarmed to see mushers stopping on the trail outside of checkpoints.

Edit: my apologies to Dutch in the earlier post. Turns out it was Dutch and Commando in lead with Sparkie and QT in swing. On my little-bit-fuzzy live feed he looked just like his younger brother.

Aliy and her elite team, led by Commando and Dutch, are on the trail for the 49th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Prior to leaving the start chute Aliy said she was feeling great, she was ready, and her team was ready to “get ‘er done”.

Here’s a few fairly fuzzy screen shots from the Iditarod Insider coverage of the start. From what we can ascertain her line up was: Commando and Dutch in lead, Sparkie and QT in swing, Amber and Decaf, Mismo and Driver, Rodney and Bruno, Peach and Jefe with Violet and Perky in wheel.

Dutch and Aliy

GO!

Earlier today the crew made their way up to Deshka Landing from Anchorage in plenty of time. Aliy had one more COVID-19 test to ‘pass’ then it was a quiet few hours getting the sled packed, lines laid out, harnesses and booties ready. Officials completed the gear check for mandatory items and fixed the GPS trackers to the sled. Thanks Kaz for the pics!

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It was warm out at Deshka Landing this afternoon with temperatures in the mid to late 20F but it is expected to cool down during the night. Snow is in the forecast for Tuesday.

Stay right here for SPK updates for the duration. I aim to do a morning and evening update every day and maybe more towards the end of the race. We’ll do Dog Fan Club draws with a few Iditarod themed prizes and I have some fun questions to throw at you along the way.

GO TEAM!

Remember: you can sign Aliy’s retirement card at Aliy’s Last Great Race.

(Edit: My apologies to Dutch as it was he and Commando that led the team out of the chute. He looked so like his little brother Spark in my little-bit-fuzzy live feed).