SPK Dog Log

Right on time, Aliy, Dutch, Chipper, Kodiak, Spark, Clyde, Rodney, Five, Nomex, Driver and Violet have left White Mountain and are headed for Nome!

The weather here in Nome is clear and cool. In White Mountain and Safety right now is cloudy with light winds. We all know that this run along the coast and up over Cape Nome can be brutal at times so we are crossing fingers that the weather stays cool and calm for them.

The trail continues up the Fish River for a while then teams will climb up over Topkok Mountain before dropping down onto the beach. They will pass through the checkpoint of Safety then climb their last hill, Cape Nome where they will see the lights of Nome. We are expecting them sometime around 11pm tonight and we are about to bursting to see them all.

We’re getting the dog yard ready today with straw beds, fleece jackets and blankets laid out. We’ll start preparing a meal for them and thaw some snacks for the finish line. We’ll also be watching the tracker rather obsessively for the rest of the day.

Allen is on his way to Nome and should be here for when Aliy arrives.

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I visited the museum yesterday and got a few pics I think you would enjoy:

It’s 4am Wednesday

Aliy and her 10 team mates have arrived into White Mountain! Just one more run before we get to kiss those sweet doggie faces and hug Aliy.

They made great time over from Elim on a trail that did not follow the regular shore-line route. They had to climb some extra hills and run overland due to insufficient ice on the sea. She travelled much of night with a bunch of friends: Jessie Royer, Matt Failor, Ketil Reitan and Kelly Maxiner.

The village of Golovin can be a stumbling block for tired teams but they went right on through and continued onto the lagoon, then crossing the delta of the Fish River into White Mountain.

Here’s what Aliy said about Golovin when she visited in August:

From several miles out on the sea ice, during the day, the colorful village houses stand as contrast to the white winter landscape. During the night, the welcoming glow of “city” lights spreads across the horizon. A dog team gets excited day or night. 

Upon reaching Golovin, the race route climbs up off the bay and enters the center of the small town. More often than not, children stand at the spot that Mushers come of the sea ice and greet them. Some Mushers stop, some Mushers don’t. Aliy and Allen always stop. They enjoy the welcome and sign posters, jackets, give hugs and say “Howdy!” 

Usually, only minutes later, the teams are ready to go. The route follows the main street through the middle of town. Often there are people, dogs, travellers or perhaps… no one. A few hundred yards later the route turns sharply left, off the street and zigs across a clearing then drops back down onto the sea ice. Golovin is now behind. 

Iditarod Mushers do not generally spend any more than the few minutes it takes to travel down Main Street.

You can read more in this post “Golovin is a Special Place”

Aliy also visited White Mountain on her tour in August. This is what she said:

From a Musher’s perspective:

It is a long, challenging run across Golovin Bay no matter what. The flat terrain (because it is the frozen ocean) has very few reference points to judge distance or depth. There are often no distractions for the dogs or Mushers. At this point in the race, distractions are nice.

Finally, the route comes off the ocean, overland and onto the Fish River. The teams generally gain enthusiasm from the terrain change, the windy river and veteran dogs know that just around the next corner… is White Mountain!

The final 1/4 mile into the Checkpoint, both dogs and Mushers can see dozens of village houses along the bluff above the river. Day or night, this is an exciting moment. Village dogs bark and spectators will yell and whistle. 

Read more in the post “White Mountain is a Cheerful Spot”

At White Mountain all teams have a mandatory eight hour rest. Aliy will feed her team a couple of times, walk them around a little and let them get a good rest for the 77 miles to the finish line. She will also get an opportunity to sleep, something I suspect she hasn’t done for a few days.

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CONGRATULATIONS to Joar Leifseth Ulsom on his commanding win! We are very excited for him, Mille and their whole kennel.

It’s 10.30pm Tuesday evening

The latest news about Allen is that he IS okay. He has seen a doctor in Unalakleet and will spend the night there then will be making his way to Nome tomorrow via airplane

The dogs are spending the night in Kaltag and are being well cared for by the volunteers there. We are still awaiting confirmation about whether they will be flown forward to Nome or back to Anchorage but that won’t be till tomorrow at the earliest.

Allen’s rookie dogs don’t know that they haven’t completed the race and that Kaltag wasn’t the finish line so they are all winners! None of the experiences these dogs have gone through will be wasted. They will have the experience of 700 challenging miles of Iditarod trail, varying weather conditions and an airplane ride or two under their harness, and this will only benefit them in the years to come.

Aliy was informed of the situation and will continue on the trail to meet Allen in Nome. With the weather as it is it might be quicker by dog sled than airplane! She rested her team four hours in Elim before starting out for White Mountain. You can be sure she will be whistling up the team and ski-poling like crazy to get here as fast as she can.

Bridgett has spoken to Allen and although he’s disappointed he couldn’t get his dogs to Nome he knows it was the right decision.

Here are a few pics of Aliy speaking with some fans and signing autographs in Elim earlier this afternoon.

In the meantime we are going to go down to the Burled Arch and see the new Iditarod Champion arrive!

We have received word that Allen has decided to scratch from the race.

Allen made the decision to scratch due to his own health and his ability to care for the team going forward. The infection he was battling back in Grayling flared up again during his run up the river and once in Kaltag he realised that he needed further medical treatment.

We have spoken to him and although he is okay, sadly this is where his 2018 Iditarod journey ends.

Aliy will be advised once she gets to Elim.

The dogs are great, he has been able to care for them all the way up the river and in Kaltag. We are awaiting notification about where they will be flown, either up here to Nome or back to Anchorage.

Please give us some time to figure out what comes next. We will advise when we can.

Thanks for your support.

It’s 2:45pm Tuesday afternoon.

RED TEAM

Aliy left Koyuk with all 10 team mates at 9:14am this morning after resting six hours in the checkpoint. They are now on the way to Elim and currently they have about 10 miles to go.

Koyuk was a busy place over night with several teams resting there. I like to zoom in to the maps at checkpoint to see how the teams are parked, especially when they are in a village or town, to see how they utilise the space available.

The trail to Elim is 48 miles over well used snow machine trails. From Koyuk, the trail runs just offshore on the sea ice for about 12 miles and then cuts inland across the wooded peninsula behind “Bald Head”, a prominent cape.

Ten miles later the trail crosses the mouth of the Kwik River, makes an overland run along the dune line, and then jumps across Kwiniuk Inlet to Moses Point. It then runs along a narrow spit and across some tidelands. From there, the trail usually follows an unplowed state highway up and over the heavily forested bluffs and down into Elim.

Here’s an interesting satellite image of the area showing the coastline and mentioned forested areas.

The weather forecast for the Elim area today is for pretty good visibility but with snow in the forecast it may warm up and close in, resulting in potential white-out conditions.

Back in August, Aliy visited Elim on her tour of three Iditarod Trail villages. This is what she wrote about Elim:

From a Musher’s perspective:

An Iditarod dog team is nearing the village of Elim after it reaches Moses Point. Moses Point is a summer fish camp along the ocean that is completely abandoned in March. After the trail passes by fish nets decorated with icicles and boats upturned to the weather, it gets on an unplowed road leading to Elim.

The road is very protected and there are even trees and bushes that add a sense of security if windy conditions arise. But there are also many hills along the trail between Moses Point and Elim. For a tired dog team these hills are huge mountains, for energetic teams this are just small mounds. At the crest of the last hill driveways appear on both sides of the road and the teams are usually greeted, day or night, by barking dogs. “Who is in my neighborhood?”

You can read more about Aliy’s visit in this post “Elim is Wonderful”

BLACK TEAM

They have arrived into Kaltag! Allen rested his team a second time along the way to Kaltag and they arrived at the checkpoint around 2.30pm. We expect he will stay there a while also before hitting the portage trail to the coastal town of Unalakleet. They’ve been travelling on their own much of the time from Grayling so they will be pleased to see other teams and volunteers in Kaltag.

We are having fun imagining the combinations Allen is running. He had a tendency of giving his JV team opportunities to run in positions and next to other dogs they might not have done before. Is McCaw having a turn in lead? Do QT and Perky make a good combination? Will Willie lead the team over the finish line? What do you think?

It’s 3:15am Tuesday morning.

RED TEAM UPDATE

We are very pleased and relieved to see the Red Team, and all those teams around them, pulling into Koyuk. The speeds the teams were travelling told us that it was pretty hard going out there. It was great to see them in a bunch travelling together; whether by plan or accident, it sure makes those of us watching feel better.

We expect after a challenging nine hour run like that, they will rest a while, perhaps five or six hours, before heading for Elim. They are within 170 miles of the finish line now with just a few more runs before our “party in Nome”.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen and his team are moving again after resting six hours at Eagle Island Hospitality Stop. Currently they are 35 miles from Kaltag. They still have around 400 miles to travel to Nome but with Allen feeling much better and the dogs with so much rest under their harness we are hoping they can cover that distance in double quick time.

RETURNED DOG UPDATE

Linda has readied her back yard for the three from Unk. Commando was checking out the outside house and Cayenne was fluffing up the straw beds.

They will rotate between the kennel inside, the outside dog house, the straw beds and the truck depending on how they are feeling. They will also get lots of walks along the Coastal Trail and Scooby might even get to see his Mom Chica again!

We’ll let you know once the plane from Unk arrives and Linda has Junior, Scooby and Champ. They should hopefully arrive sometime on Tuesday.

It’s 4pm Monday afternoon

Goodness, it looks like it was pretty brutal out there. A ground storm hit the leading pack on their way from Shaktoolik and Koyuk which slowed the teams down, made the trail difficult to find and seemingly made for challenging mushing. Once teams hit the coast the weather really can play a huge part in the outcome, as we well know, and it has once again caused a shake up in the standings.

All the mushers will be watching the weather forecast closely and making a decision of how long to rest their dogs before heading up the coast. The moving speeds of those on the trail currently look pretty good so I presume that particular storm passed. I also noticed some were travelling in pairs; never a silly idea along this stretch.

Before the race, mushers were told that because of insufficient freezing on Norton Bay, the trail would follow closer to the coastline, rather than head directly over the pack ice from Shak to Koyuk, as in previous years. I’m not sure the tracker line is accurately reflecting the new trail as sometimes they have to reroute the trail as the last minute due to conditions. If that is the case the trail team do their best to mark it and advise mushers of changes. Remember they are also battling Mother Nature and she can be fickle.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and team pulled into Shaktoolik at 12:41pm with Jessie Royer hot on their heels. Their run time from Unk of 6 hours 27 is certainly not the fastest, but also not the slowest in the top 20, so that’s something. The team just keeps on keeping on and that is all we could want. Good dogs!

Here’s an Aliy Cam from last year as the team mushed the trail from Shak to Koyuk.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen is camping his team at Eagle Island Hospitality Stop. He told us he would stop there as there are volunteers and a vet stationed there, and he thought we would all feel happier about that.

They have moved along nicely since leaving Grayling which is not surprising having banked 29 hours of rest at the checkpoint. We are really happy to see them progressing down the trail.

NOME UPDATE

Nome is starting to gear up for the arrival of mushers and teams. Today we picked up the kennels for the dogs. We will use these, in halves, in the dog yard for straw beds then we put them together to ship the dogs home.

The Dog Yard is starting to get prepared with all the drop bags stored in shipping containers ready for handler crews to claim them. We can’t set up our teams’ spots until they arrive in White Mountain so we have stored our kennels and supply bags until then.

Front Street is also getting ready. The arch has been moved into place over the weekend and today the finish banners were erected and the chute cordorned off. We’re ready and waiting! Come on little doggies!