SPK Dog Log

We have another race to follow!

The Two Rivers Dog Mushers Association is hosting the Two Rivers 100/200 this weekend. Earlier in the season the race was postponed due to a lack of snow but the trails are ready and it will start tomorrow – Friday, March 8th. Karolyn will be racing a team of superstars in the 100 mile event.

The race kicks off at the Chatanika Lodge at noon. The competitors in the TR200 will leave the chute first followed by the 100. Tonight Karolyn drew bib 29 – the 9th team in the 100 field.

From Chatanika the teams travel 50 miles to the Two Rivers Lodge for their mandatory four hour rest. They then follow our local trails for 50 miles to finish at the Pleasant Valley Store.

This is Karolyn’s first ever race so she is excited to get this team out onto the trail – she will be taking a couple other race rookies on the race with her. Bridgett will be handling for the team and we will bring you what coverage we can. The TRDMA website and Facebook page will be updated where possible but a reminder it is a small club and most of the volunteers will be out on the trail, helping in checkpoints or road crossings so we might not get instant results.

The team is a fun bunch of 11 enthusiastic dogs that will enjoy a spin around the trails. Karolyn has Quest champs and yearlings – a real mixture. She will lead out with Kodiak and Lydia, Cayenne and Chipper in swing, Habibi and Razz, Chevie and Perky, Champ on his own and Gold and Scooby in wheel.

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You’ll see a new name and face – Habibi. Habibi is Karolyn’s dog. She’s 2.5 years old and she was a free puppy from Robert Redington. She’s super smart and sassy – nicknamed “DooDoo” because Robert couldn’t pronounce Habibi correctly and kept calling her Hadoodoo. Habibi is an affectionate term in Arabic which could mean “sweetheart” between a couple or the equivalent of “bro” between friends.

Good luck Karolyn – and have fun!

It’s 11pm. Feeling: refreshed from avoiding the tracker all day!

Those with the Insider package have been treated to a number of videos today featuring Aliy. I guess she was Johnny on the Spot for interviews as she spent all day there. In the first video we got to see the dogs very animated, coming in to the checkpoint. She had Spark and Dutch in lead, Five and Driver in swing, Commando and QT, Amber and Nomex, Mismo and Rodney, Jefe on his own and Decaf and Violet in wheel. Wait… that’s only 13! Turns out Bruno hitched a lift for the last half a mile.

Evidently the last 10 miles into Iditarod were awful. There was very low snow and significant tussocks that made for a terrible section. She could not find the way easily as the markers were in trees around the trail, not right on the trail as it was obviously difficult for the markers to stay in the ground. She wasted some time circling around for a while before finding the way in.

In other interviews she was pretty philosophical about her gamble and said, yes, the trail was bad for her but was bad for those behind also. Through the magic of technology we were able to watch LIVE the presentation of the GCI Dorothy G Page award of $2k of Gold and a beautiful trophy. These will be represented at the Finish Banquet in Nome. Aliy was pretty happy about her gold!

What’s happening next?

The earliest Aliy and the team can exit Iditarod checkpoint is at 2:46am – that’s about four hours from now (disclaimer on my maths, I’m counting on my fingers and I’m quite tired!) Between now and then the whole team, including Aliy will be having one last nap. Over the 25 hours Aliy will have fed her team probably four times, mainly to get as many calories into them as possible to replace those they expended on the trail over. The final meal at around hours 23-24 will, however, be mostly meaty water to ensure they are fully hydrated before hitting the trail. Soaking kibble in the other meals also ensures dogs get fluids into their system. In these temperatures it is essential to keep the dogs fully hydrated as they will be feeling the heat.

Around this meal time, Aliy will get the dogs up and walk them around to stretch their legs, empty bowels and shake out any final kinks. She will be critically appraising each dog to ensure they are still good to go down the trail.

Check out this wonderful picture by Julien Schroder in Iditarod Of Rodney and Jefe. Two things here – Jefe just can’t stop kissing Aliy! And, is it just me or does Rodney look a little porky? That is a great sign halfway through a race – he always has been an eater but honestly, Rodney.

When they pull out of the checkpoint, many of the front runners will have passed them so don’t be alarmed – that’s just what happens when teams rest in different places. All of the teams that have passed her did the run down from Ophir significantly faster – that was the gamble – would the trail get better or worse in the heat of the day? Would the weather get better or worse? Remembering also that all those teams came off their 24 to run that stretch so always should theoretically have been going faster.

Once they leave Iditarod, the trail heads to Shageluk, considered the first checkpoint on the Yukon River. Teams must take an eight hour break at any of the river checkpoints: Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling, Eagle Island or Kaltag. As many strategies as there are mushers will come into play again here as the leap-frogging continues up the river.

The weather forecast for the trail for the next 48 hours is pretty dire – NOAA says:

Snow and blowing snow with areas of low visibility. 
Plan on difficult travel conditions. Storm total snow accumulations of 4 to 7 inches are expected. Visibility one half mile or less at times.

It’s going to get nasty but Aliy has a fully rested team and she’s the toughest person I know.

It’s 1:45am. Feeling: Exhausted by proxy.

Aliy and the team have pulled in to Iditarod checkpoint. They will take their mandatory 24 hour rest there. It will actually be 25 hours, 8 minutes before they are able to leave the checkpoint as the differential time from the staggered start is added to their time.

The 24 hour break is for refuelling and regenerating both dogs and musher. Aliy will give the dogs a few meat snacks immediately on arrival then quickly bed the dogs down into straw, remove their booties and put sleeping coats and/or fleece blankets on to aid a muscle-relaxing sleep. She’ll start soaking the kibble and meat for their first of three or four meals over the break. She’ll then start the dogs on a regular and well-honed routine of high calorie meals, hydration, massage, walking around to stretch out, and eating. She will get some good rest herself, no doubt she was working just as hard physically as the dogs during the last 18 hours.

Her drop bags are full of all good things for the dogs. Two types of kibble, one for soaking and one with a higher fat/protein content to add as crunchy calories. She’ll have and several different meat snack options including poultry skins, beef, chicken, tripe (the dogs LOVE tripe) and salmon. She will cater to their every whim and feed them a combination and portion size especially suited to each dog.

The dogs will also receive all-over body massages with hand-warmed liniment to sooth muscles and foot ointment will sooth tired paws. They will be at a doggy day spa for the next 25 hours.

Aliy has packed some treats for herself also, as a change from the freeze-dried meals and granola bars she packed for most other checkpoints. Breakfast sandwiches, burritos, dried plantains… things that will tempt her to eat.

As an added bonus for getting to Iditarod first (but not the incentive for making the move), Aliy will be awarded the GCI Halfway Award.

Aliy will lose the top position on the leaderboard during the next 24 hours as those teams that took their long stop earlier will catch and overtake them. Such leapfrogging is the upshot of teams taking breaks at any checkpoint they choose.

I don’t know about you but I’m taking a break from the tracker for a while. I could drive myself mad looking at the speeds of the following mushers so I am best to not even look.

It’s 8.30pm. Feeling: Impatient to see the team arrive into Iditarod.

Aliy has taken a gamble! And, like any gamble in life it might work or it might not and we won’t find out until much later down the trail. A 24 hour stop in Iditarod was Aliy’s Plan A – the plan she would follow if the dogs looked great, if she felt good and if she’d set the team up with appropriate rests earlier in the race to put them in the best position to succeed. Whatever the outcome I doubt Aliy will regret making this decision as it takes away those “what ifs” when she sits and reflects after the race.

Ophir to Iditarod is a notoriously slow piece of trail with a number of hills. The Trail Notes say “This is one of the emptiest legs on the entire race, a full 90 miles of lonely country and endless trail. The trail crosses a mix of terrain and vegetation, ranging from taiga (black spruce) to barren upland tundra to thick river-bottom forests to brushy ravines and hillsides to swamps and lakes. This leg has no major problems, although are always patches of minor overflow, plenty of hills, and some potentially rough trail across the uplands. Its biggest feature is, as somebody once said of driving through Texas, miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.”

Aliy will be gambling that it is just as slow or, hopefully, slower for those behind her. Weather, trail, snow machine traffic… all will have an impact and whether it is in Aliy’s favour or not, I guess we will find out in the next 24 hours.

Takotna has been the favoured venue for her 24 for many years. As she wrote at the beginning of the season, things were going to be different this year so why not mix it up and stay somewhere else? In an Insider interview in Nikolai she signed off with “It’s a new Aliy, it a new race, with the blue jacket”. The make-up of her team (only eight of the Quest finishers), running only one team, the pre-race build up (fewer events), and her race plan have all been new this season. And, yes, she is wearing a new blue Matson coat down the trail (left).

Earlier today

At 8:09am the team of 15 left Ophir after a two hour mini-break. Aliy will have used that time to pack her sled for the 80 miles ahead and any contingency the weather might demand. She might have caught a micro-nap between her checkpoint chores. From there they all slogged through fresh sugary snow for about six hours to Don’s Cabin where they rested three(ish) hours. I asked Allen about Don’s Cabin – its about 12’x12′ and was done up in the last couple of years. There is a wood stove, two bunks and as Aliy was the only human there, plenty of space to hang gear to dry and to stretch out for a cozy nap. Allen said last year when he stopped there were at least 12 other mushers in there so it wasn’t quite so spacious. There are not a lot of trees in the area and the cabin is right on the trail.

Aliy would have enjoyed the solitude today’s run has given her. She loves nothing more than running her dogs and never feels ‘alone’ even when she’s miles from anyone else, as long as she is with her team. They are her heart and the challenge of pulling this off will be fuelling her.

As for us, it is excruciating watching, especially during that 45 minutes when her tracker wasn’t updating. We won’t sleep until she is in Iditarod.

That answers that! They are on their way to Iditarod.

Ophir-Awesome!

It’s 8am Alaska time. Feeling: energised despite a lack of sleep. What’s going to happen next?

Aliy and the team are in Ophir, having arrived there just after 6am. Overnight they ran through the Takotna checkpoint, spending just three minutes to check-in and out. Whether the team takes their 24 hour break in Ophir remains to be seen, we won’t know for a few hours yet.

She still has all 14 team mates with her, 350 miles into the race.

Last night was a classic example of how teams can leapfrog each other and how, at this stage of the race when teams are taking their 24 hour rest at different checkpoints, the Current Standings don’t tell the story. When many of us went to bed Aliy was in McGrath and listed in 11th position, now she is at the same race mile as Nic in front just a few hours later. But, then when she stops the team for their 24 hour break, teams will pass her again. It’s a complicated picture that doesn’t get clearer until everyone has taken their long break, and then is never really resolved until all teams converge on White Mountain – the second-last checkpoint before Nome.

Refresh, refresh, refresh.

It’s 8.30pm Alaska time. Feeling: Curious where the team will take their 24.

Right now the team is stopped at McGrath checkpoint. They ran the 48 miles over from Nikolai in roughly seven hours (at the time of writing the Current Standings have not been updated with her run time)

What’s happened through the day? Aliy and team pulled in to Nikolai checkpoint at 8.58am and stayed for almost four hours, before pulling the hook at 12:54pm.

The video of the team pulling in to Nikolai showed them all looking great, Aliy included. Her team line-up was Mismo and Five in lead, QT and Dutch in swing, Commando and Amber, Spark and Nomex, Rodney and Driver, Bruno and Jefe with Decaf and Violet in wheel.

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A short interview with Aliy had her almost chastising herself for “dilly-dallying” but she’s doing pretty well so far we reckon!

The weather in the area is around 24F currently and it is snowing. This will slow the race down as the trail become sloppy and sugary – it will be a slog from here. Strategy is everything right now.

Teams will be starting to take their 24 hour rest breaks soon. Aliy packed her drop bags with a few contingencies in mind so can take the long break at a number of different checkpoints. She is going to see how the dogs are looking and consider the weather forecasts and trail reports before she decides where to stop them. There is a fine balance – you don’t want to push them too far and have 24 hours rest not be enough to replenish their energy but you don’t want to stop too early and wish you had gone just that bit further – especially if the snow keeps falling. We will really only know for sure when she is stopping if, after about five or six hours she is still there, we might assume she is staying long.

Next checkpoint after McGrath is Takotna, 18 miles away – famous for delicious pies and a real pull for mushers! The trail is well travelled by local village snow machine traffic that would normally hard-pack the trail but obviously the snow will make a huge difference. By staying in McGrath it is unlikely she will stop the team in Takotna. Beyond that is Ophir, 23 miles away.

Turns out Allen and Doug were unable to fly today with the weather rolling in. They may get out later in the week.