SPK Dog Log

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!

It’s 8am Monday morning

RED TEAM UPDATE

Insiders will have seen a video where Aliy talks about having to “bench” three dogs in Unalakleet “due to circumstances out of our control”. Two of them, Junior and Scooby, stepped into deep snow and hurt their wrists. This trail has been hard on wrists and shoulders!

Champ was the third dog. He didn’t eat well in the checkpoint which is unlike him, and he wasn’t feeling 100%. Turns out he had developed a fever and is being well cared for by the vets in the checkpoint.

Unk is well set up to receive returned dogs. They have individual kennels for the dogs, an army of vets and volunteers, and it is a hub airport to get the dogs back to Anchorage. Hopefully they will all head back to Linda’s in the next day or two and be reunited with their team mates.

She said she had a great run over from Kaltag but is disappointed to have to leave three team mates behind. They’ve all had a stellar season.

She spent about five hours in Unk and during that time was able to speak to Allen on the phone about his health. Of course she is worried but knows Allen better than anyone so trusts his judgement.

Her 10-strong team of Dutch, Chipper, Spark, Kodiak, Clyde, Rodney, Five, Driver, Nomex and Violet and left Unk at 6.14am ready for a sunrise run up to Shaktoolik.

The run is 40 miles up a well-travelled snow machine route. It is relatively sheltered for much of the run except the last 12 miles where it is on open and barren coastline. The forecast for today for Shak is scattered showers, a high of 19F and winds up to 24 miles an hour so not a perfect dog mushing day.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

The Black team is moving! (Yes, I have been obsessively hitting refresh for the last hour!)

Allen is feeling much better after several doses of antibiotics and sleep. When he spoke with Aliy in Unk they agreed he wouldn’t go unless he felt he could. This morning he has no fever and assured us he is okay to go and that he and the team are ready. They will camp along the way and he is going to take a cautious, sensible approach today.

He and his 13 team mates left for Eagle Island Hospitality Stop around 8am this morning. We will be watching the tracker closely all day.

It’s 11.30pm Sunday night.

The handler crew has arrived into Nome after a day of travelling. Front Street is all lit up and ready for the mushers to arrive!

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and team are on their way to Unalakleet (Unk). After spending 5 hours 20 in Kaltag they ran to their camp spot just before Old Woman Cabin where they spent around 3.5-4 hours resting. They are now 15 miles out so we expect them to arrive roughly around 2am.

Aliy will be updated about Allen when she arrives into the checkpoint.

She will be pleased to hit the coast. The trail from Unk to Shaktoolik (Shak) includes one of Aliy’s favourite parts of the trail – the Blueberry Hills. There are several “Aliy Cams” from the area… here’s just one of them from 2016. This is what she said about it:

“I look forward to the Blueberry Hills because it really grabs me with the realization that we have crossed the entire state of Alaska by dog team. It’s the first time that I can see the Bering Sea from my sled runners. That’s a far distance from the downtown streets of Anchorage. Thus, this spot is often a ‘Holy Cow’ moment.

This spot is also special because I stopped here – on the highest hill – in the year 2002. Back then, I left a small memento of a deceased friend who had introduced me to long distance racing. So every year since then, I speak to him when we mush by. I usually tell him how it’s going: great, good, poor, so/so, etc. Over the years, I have told him a lot of different things!”

To view more go to the top right and hit the search icon – type “Aliy Cam” to find them all.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Bridgett has spoken to Allen a few times today. He is feeling pretty good and his temperature is coming down.

He said the dogs are going crazy – they really want to be back on the trail and are getting annoyed at having to stay put. They are busting a gut to get moving so we expect their run times to be pretty good once they start.

Allen will get more sleep through the night and make a plan in the morning.

RETURNED DOG UPDATE

Cayenne and Commando are enjoying “Midnight’s Returned Dog Hotel” (Midnight is Linda’s poodle). And, do you recognise the dog on the left on the walking picture? That’s Chica! Rodney, Five, Scooby, Ginger and Ernie’s Mom. Leslie and Don helped walk Cayenne and Commando today.

We have just had word from Allen in Grayling. Firstly, the dogs are great. It is Allen himself that is not well.

Allen woke up from his nap with a high fever and turns out he has picked up an infection. He has been in contact with his daughters Bridgett and Jennifer who are both a nurses and they, in turn, have been in contact with the health aides and veterinarians in Grayling. He has been given appropriate antibiotics to treat it and he is going to wait around 24 hours in Grayling to allow the medicine to kick in before he makes any further moves.

He is physically able to care for the dogs and has said he has plenty of food and supplies to stay that long. He will feed them every six hours while they are there and they will be just fine.

He said he’s feeling okay but this is a really sensible call to stay put for a while as things can quickly head south with infections. We will keep in touch with him and see how he’s feeling and what the next steps are. We’ll update you when there is something to share.

Aliy will be appraised of the situation as soon as possible.

Some pics we received from Grayling to show you he’s okay:

Allen also said that Willie is a rockstar! Good ole’ Willie!

You know how we keep saying “Anything can happen”? Well, yeah, anything can happen.

Its 8.30am Sunday morning

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and the Red Team pulled into Kaltag just after 5am this morning. They split the run from Grayling into three, camping twice for three hours each and covered the 120 miles in 22 hours, 33 minutes (including rest time). Their second camp was at mile 607 which they left at around 11pm. We expect she will rest the team here some hours before heading towards Unalakleet (Unk).

Kaltag to Unk is around 85 miles and, as mentioned previously, there are two cabins along the way. Tripod Flats, 35 miles from Kaltag and Old Woman, another 15 miles further. It follows an ancient portage route which is more recently a major snow machine route. “Conditions can be vastly different at opposite ends of the portage, and wind is a constant threat on the western half“. You can read more about it on the Trail Notes.

I know Aliy is always fascinated about the history of this trail. She marvels that she is following the footsteps of so many from thousands of years ago when the inland folk would meet with the coastal folk for trade.

I found a couple of recent Aliy Cams from the area. The first is is from 2017 as the team is nearing Kaltag at possibly around the same time of day as she did this morning:

The second is from 2016 as she camped her team on the portage trail.

Dorothy Olmstead has written a wonderful piece about the history of this area of the Yukon River and the importance to those that live near it.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen and his team mates arrived into Grayling at 1:18am and it looks very likely they will complete their mandatory Yukon River eight hour rest there. If so, remember the clock has changed for daylight savings so they could leave there no early than 10:18am, but he could decide to stay longer.

The next section of 120 miles unsupported trail will not cause Allen any angst or concern. He is well used to packing his sled for such runs and camping his team. It will be a first for his rookies but it is all fantastic experience, and every new experience for this team is a good thing.

RETURNED DOG UPDATE

Cayenne and Commando made it back to Anchorage late last night and are at Linda’s place after an interesting couple of days. Cayenne had a sore wrist and got to spend time in Iditarod before flying home. Commando wasn’t feeling 100% and got tired, which is unlike him, so Aliy didn’t want to push him any further. He came home from Grayling.

Both were happy to see Linda, have eaten well and are now resting.

CREW UPDATE

We are travelling to Nome today so you won’t hear from me until later tonight.The best way to keep up with all the action is via the GPS Tracker and Insider Videos. They are also currently broadcasting live from Kaltag. Watching the live feed is a fun way to while away a few hours! I will update when I get a chance.

It’s 7pm Saturday night

Susan A Smith, a teacher at Takotna, got some great pics of our teams (and others) at the checkpoint a few days ago. She has generously agreed to let me use some to share with you below – thanks Susan.

RED TEAM UPDATE

After resting six hours in Grayling, the team continued 40 miles along the trail where Aliy stopped the team for a two hour break.

A two hour break is enough to give the dogs a sleep, a meal and change booties. It does not afford any time for the musher to sleep so I expect about now Aliy is getting bleary eyed, although that is probably a perpetual state for mushers in 1000 mile races.

As I write this she is travelling with Pete Kaiser, Richie Diehl and Ray Reddington Jnr towards Kaltag. It is difficult to tell with the trackers updating at different times but it appears they could possibly be taking turns breaking the trail after it is blown in by the wind.

They are still about 50 miles from the checkpoint and there are several strategy options ahead for Aliy. She could run her team all the way to Kaltag, rest there and move along the trail to Unalakleet, 85 miles away,  or she could stop at one of the two cabins along the way: Tripod Flat or Old Woman. Another option is to take another rest before Kaltag then “blow through” the checkpoint, stopping instead at Tripod Flat or on the trail. 50 miles at their speed is around seven hours of running so I speculate she will stop again before Kaltag as it has been already about five hours since they left their camp.

I am just guessing what strategy she will chose, it’s quite difficult from my seat here in Two Rivers so I guess we will all just have to watch the tracker and extrapolate from there.

The Insider video from Heister and Lee at Kaltag this afternoon shows the checkpoint bathed in sunshine and they mentioned this afternoon was the first break in the weather since race start. Pictures of the teams travelling on the Yukon from earlier today, however, shows winds and limited visability so they will be pleased to get off the river. The forecast for the next 36 hours towards the coast is for “nice” weather but the coast is notorious for winds and storms and, as we know, ANYTHING can happen.

Photos Susan A Smith – Takotna

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen is resting his team often and long which is contributing to their good speeds along the trail. They rested eight hours in Iditarod and another three along the trail before getting to Shageluk at 1:42pm this afternoon.

Photos Susan A Smith – Takotna

RETURNED DOG UPDATE

We’ve had word that Commando was the dog Aliy left in Grayling. She will be disappointed to leave him behind because he is a rockstar, but never fear, she has lots of other choices of lead dogs including his Yukon Quest Golden Harness partner-in-crime Dutch, Kodiak, Spark, Junior and Chipper with back up by sometimes-leaders Five, Clyde and Nomex.

No word yet about Cayenne but Linda, our coordinator in Anchorage, will keep us updated as soon as she hears more.

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Note: At 2am Sunday morning we go into daylight savings time so just a heads up if you notice something weird going on with the times.

Its 8:30am Saturday.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Since my previous post, Aliy and her team passed through Anvik and moved on to the checkpoint of Grayling right around midnight.The team stayed almost six hours in Grayling and are now moving nicely along the Yukon River.

We are aware she has left one of her team mates with the team in Grayling, at this stage we have no idea who that might be so thanks for your patience as we find out more. We will, as always, let you know once we get some information. It is likely to take some time to get whoever it is back to Anchorage due to logistics but they will be well taken care of by the team in Grayling.

By all accounts this is not a very interesting leg of the race. Don Bowers Jnr described it as such: “This stretch has absolutely no terrain—nothing but wide-open river and bend after bend, island after island, bluff after bluff. The west bank is always the high bank, with ridges sometimes rising more than 1,500 feet within a few miles of the river (which is less than a hundred feet above sea level). The east bank is low and wooded, punctuated by sloughs and creeks and islands. The trail stays mostly close to the west bank, but can run anywhere on the river depending on conditions.”

I found an Aliy Cam from 2013 where the team was travelling on the river coming into Kaltag. It was above freezing with wet snow and water at that time. This will give you an idea of the terrain and scenery in the area.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen rested his team just over eight hours at the Iditarod checkpoint. The trail is difficult for everyone at the moment so he is doing what he can to keep the team happy and enjoying themselves. For most of them this is the hardest thing they have ever done so a good rest will rejuvenate them to continue down the hilly trail towards Shageluk.

Right now he is giving them a break half way to Shageluk along with Jeff Deeter, Brett Bruggerman and Monica Zappa. It’s possible they are at the “Big Yentna Crossing”cabin (I am not certain of that, I am just going by the cabin map – right).

The supply bags we packed for Allen have plenty of contingency options within them. Although he starts the race with a Plan A his run/rest schedule becomes very fluid as the race progresses, so he has food and supplies to stay long at each checkpoint if need be.

An interesting historical note about the trail: The original Iditarod Trail never ran on the Yukon. It went directly from Iditarod to Kaltag across the marshy maze of the Innoko Valley (see red line on map). Old-time mushers on the way to Nome only saw the Yukon when they crossed it to Kaltag.

Its 9pm Friday evening.

Well, I guess a lot happened while I was driving home! I love to immerse myself in the tracker while the race is going on but sometimes it is good to step away – but what a day to step away!

For those that haven’t heard: Eagle Island checkpoint is not open for business as usual. The winter weather meant that the Iditarod Airforce was not able to get the mushers’ resupply bags there so they have been delivered to Grayling instead. Teams will need to take all their supplies with them to get to Kaltag. They have reclassified Eagle Island as a “Hospitality stop” and there will be a vet there (so they able to drop a dog if need be) and there will be fuel to make water. Otherwise, there is not an actual checkpoint.

This means essentially they will have 120 miles of unsupported trail.

For those of you that follow the Yukon Quest with us will know that 120 miles of unsupported trail sounds quite familiar… our teams are well used to carrying supplies for that long (and, indeed, longer) and enjoy camping out where there is no checkpoint, so I don’t expect Aliy or Allen will be phased by this change at all. It might even work in their favour.

Insiders, make sure you watch the video from Greg Heister and Bruce Lee as they discuss the implications of this change.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Since I last posted, Aliy and her 14 team mates completed their eight hour Yukon River mandatory rest in Shageluk. They now have two green ticks next to their name. Once all the mushers have two ticks we can really see the lay of the land. They are currently sitting 11th on the leaderboard.

In a recent Insider video Aliy says that her dogs look great, they are healthy and happy, but they are just lacking a bit of “zip”. She doesn’t want to “nag them” or “rally them up” for nine days because that doesn’t sound fun, for her or the dogs. She is going to let them run their race and see where it all ends up. We are really proud of that call. At the end of the day, if they dogs are not having fun and Aliy is not having fun then why would they even do it?

She left Shageluk with Kodiak and Commando in lead, Chipper and Dutch in swing, Spark and Five, Junior and Champ, Rodney and Clyde, Driver and Nomex with Violet and Scooby in wheel. She is mixing it up a bit with the line up to make it interesting and different for the dogs. Sometimes having someone new beside them or in front of them can spark a dog up a bit.

As I write this they have hit the Yukon River and moved through the checkpoint of Anvik (actually, I only presume they have, the standings are not updated but the tracker seems to show them out the other side). They will go straight to Grayling checkpoint where Aliy will take time to resupply, pack her sled and rest her team mates.

The weather forecasts for the area call for winds of 10-20 miles/hr which could, coupled with snow, blow a trail in somewhat. We will all just have to wait and see what happens at the other end.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen and his 13 team mates are currently resting in Iditarod checkpoint. It is about this time of the race where none of us actually have any clue about how long Allen will stay at a checkpoint. He has figured out what his team is capable of and his race plan is very fluid. Honestly, your guess is as good as mine but I would suggest any rest stop would be at least four hours and could be as much as eight or more.

One thing I know Allen loves about doing both the Quest and the Iditarod is to travel the trails and visit the villages that have an interesting story. Iditarod has such a colourful history from the gold rush times and Allen will be picturing and honouring those that went before. There is a really wonderful article by Dorothy Olmstead on the Iditarod website that tells all about it.

RETURNED DOG UPDATE

The weather that is causing issues down the trail is also slowing down the return of dogs from the trail. Cayenne is still enjoying the hospitality of the vets and volunteers at Iditarod. She may find her way back to Anchorage tomorrow or they may deem it safer to leave them where they are, with plenty of food, shelter and attention.

The other four are home at the kennel. Everyone, except Ginger, is happy to be back at their house after a tremendous adventure. Ginger is wondering why she is back at her house and not laying on Barbara’s couch.