SPK Dog Log

It’s 9am Wednesday.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Aliy and the Red Team stayed 5.5 hours in Tanana checkpoint and left there at 2.25am. They are now on their way towards Ruby.

In an Insider interview she said she will most likely do the run in two 60 mile hops with a rest in between so will probably go another 10-15 miles before camping. She did mention that the dogs have a touch of the gastro bug similar to the Quest so she is hoping she is on top of it early enough to get them over it quickly. She will ensure they are well fed and hydrated and will rest them when they need. (Edit: once the dogs got over their Quest illness they showed no more signs of it between races, they all passed thorough vet examinations and blood panels, were eating well and had great weight on them)

It’s been another cold night here in the interior but it is forecast to start warming up from here. The trail conditions between Tanana and Ruby are reported to be “good” so the teams will hopefully move along nicely. Aliy says of camping in such cold that it’s fine, just challenging. But, we all know how much she likes things to be challenging and she believes she thrives the harder it is.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

The Black Team pulled in to Tanana at 2.05am and maybe saw the Red Team briefly as they were about to leave. They have been resting about 6.5 hours and will likely leave in the next hour or so. He may be seeing out his mandatory eight hour stop here, in which case they would leave at around 10.05 this morning. There are a bunch of other teams also in Tanana but from here the field will start to spread out over several checkpoints as the front runners start to pull away from the bunch.

It’s 10pm on Tuesday, Alaska time.

RED TEAM UPDATE

After staying at their camp spot at mile 175 for just over four hours, Aliy and the Red Team continued along the river to the Tanana checkpoint, a run of around six hours – about 50 miles, where they are currently stopped for a rest.

Tanana is the first checkpoint on the Yukon River and teams can take an eight hour mandatory rest here, Ruby, Galena, Huslia, Koyukuk, Nulato or Kaltag. Getting back onto the Yukon River will be a big deal for Aliy so we are sending all good vibes to her now.

You can see from the map below that the next checkpoint of Ruby is 119 miles from Tanana. It seems unlikely that the team will make that run on one go and is more likely to break it and camp on the trail.

Map courtesy of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources

Photos from the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer in manley show that she moved Dutch up in lead with his sister Junior, and Kodiak put back into swing with Izzy. She has a lot of leaders to choose from and will likely mix up the team line-up to keep things interesting for the dogs and to take advantage of different moods and attitudes.

The next checkpoint for the Red Team is Ruby

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Allen and the Black Team stayed just half an hour in Manley as Allen restocked his sled ready for the trail ahead. He stopped his team around the same place as Aliy and they rested for five hours. They are now back on the trail heading towards Tanana are are currently about 40 miles out. It is forecast to be cold again tonight on the river.

The next checkpoint for the Black Team is Tanana

Another thing to keep an eye on, as if you don’t have enough screens open already, is the daily photos from Jeff Schultz and his team along the trail. We can’t use them on the blog but make sure you check back often for more amazing shots of the teams. There are a couple of great pics today of the Red Team at Manley checkpoint.

Chemo and Outlaw

Scooby and Willie

The Black Team travelling the trail in Allen’s sled bag; Very important job – Alex fixes the GPS tracker to the sled!

Allen with daughters Jennifer and Bridgett; Half the team enjoying the sun waiting for the start

Allen with Chemo and Waylon – all three looking cool

Waylon and nephew Chemo

Fire litter siblings Tinder and Chena

Scout and niece Lydia

Chipper and Scooter (not closely related at all)

Willie and Olivia (siblings but a year apart in age)

Fire siblings Nomex and Hotshot

Outlaw and his nephew Five

Clyde and his son Scooby

It’s 12.30pm Tuesday Alaska time.

RED TEAM UPDATE

Since we last saw the Red Team pulling out of Nenana and mushing into the cold night they continued along the Tanana River for another five hours and stopped at what we presume was Tolovana Lodge for around four hours. Tolovana is not an official checkpoint but a cabin that has been opened up for mushers. I heard reports that mushers said it was down to -50F on the river overnight! While we were driving home last night we watched the temperature gauge rise in the hills and drop dramatically when we went back down to river level.

Red Team leaving Nenana (wearing their Head-lites collars)

Aliy and Allen talked a lot about strategy for the early part of the race and, as for all races, they came up with several contingencies and plans b, c and d depending on trail conditions, dog speed and weather. Incidentally the strategies did not take into account what other teams are doing at this early point in the race.

There is a great Insider interview with Aliy at the Musher Banquet in Anchorage where she talks about how you have to be flexible with your strategy on this unfamiliar section of trail, depending on run times and trail conditions and how important it is to run your own team. When challenged about that, about saying only “run my own team” she retorts “Oh no, I want to beat Dallas, I want to beat everyone! I want to run my own team but I want to beat them. Without a doubt, I’ll be honest, I want to win this race, and I’m going to try really hard to win it“.

Stopping at Tolovana enabled them to “blow through” the Manley checkpoint, stopping only to restock and supply Aliy’s sled with essentials to camp along the way to the next checkpoint. The vet team will also have gotten hands-on with the dogs and they ask mushers as soon as they arrive if there are any issues or if they need to drop any dogs.

As I write this the team is currently resting 15 miles outside of Manley and will be enjoying some warmth of the sunshine for the dogs to stretch the muscles out and get a good rest.

Aliy and Allen often choose to rest outside of checkpoints. They will make a schedule of run and rest to suit the dogs’ rhythms and if the rest coincides with a checkpoint then they will stop there, if not they will go through and camp when they believe the dogs need to stop. They both enjoy camping out on the trail and say that often the dogs will get a better rest away from the hubbub of a checkpoint.

There are several mandatory checkpoints rests along the way: one 24 hour break at any checkpoint between Manley and Safety, an eight hour stop at any checkpoint between Tanana and Kaltag and one eight hour mandatory stop in White Mountain before the final run home to Nome. Other than those stops, mushers can choose to rest in or out of a checkpoint.

The next checkpoint for the Red Team is Tanana.

BLACK TEAM UPDATE

Currently Allen and the Black Team are enroute to Manley. They stopped at Tolovana for a five hour rest are are 15 miles away from the checkpoint. They are moving along at a good clip around 9.5 m/hr so the trail must be pretty good. Last night both Aliy and Allen reported the trial was “as they expected” – a few faster sections and mostly deep snow and “punchy” trail (where the dogs punch through deep snow). We’ve had a lot of snow around our home trails so the dogs are accustomed to it.

In an Insider interview with Allen in Nenana he describes the conditions right then as “perfect” and the warmer it gets the slower the dogs will go. He said to combat that he might have to run more at night but it all depends on where they are and what’s happening. As with Aliy, he said there are a lot of factors to consider.

If you are an Insider with GPS function, the “Analytics View” is where to go to get run/rest information and speed trends. I am refamiliarising myself with all the functionality available now so that towards the end of the race I know exactly where to go to get the info I need!

Below you can see clearly the rest times, and all the little “blips” down are when the tracker captures snack breaks.

Next checkpoint for the Black Team is Manley

Amber and Driver

Iron and Kodiak

Spark and Violet

Woody; Aliy is interviewed by Greg Heister for the Insider

Kaz helps Aliy with her bib; Aliy with her parents Mickey and Doug

The Red Team members travel the trail in Aliy’s sled bag; In the start chute

Kodiak and Junior lead them off

Dutch and Izzy

Commando and Violet

Woody and Mismo

Amber and Spark

Schmoe and Rodney

Champ and Driver

Felix and Iron

Here are a couple of very quick videos of the teams leaving the start chute in Fairbanks yesterday.

You will see in a late change to the line-up Tinder was moved forwards to run beside Chena in swing while Chipper started beside Scooter. Chipper was getting a little bit over excited and annoying to Chena so he paired the two cheerleading gals together for the start.

Phew, it’s been a long day for everyone!

We started early and loaded two trucks with 32 dogs and headed in to Fairbanks ready for the ReStart. It was a typically cold Fairbanks morning, around -25F but clear blue skies.

Red Team hit the trail

Once at the staging area we dropped the dogs and gave them some meaty water for breakfast while the vet team came around to do some pee tests. Mismo was not impressed and held out until the plastic bag was removed from around his waist and the vet team had gone before peeing. We popped them all back up into the trucks again for an hour or so to rest and especially so the youngsters didn’t get too overexcited by all the activity, people and dogs.

With about an hour till “go-time” we dressed the dogs in their harnesses, booties, puff jackets, leggings and T-shirts. They all looked ready to get out of here. The staging area was quite a distance from the start chute but it was well organised and with lots of help from friends and family we got the teams safely to the line.

3-2-1-GO! Off they went towards the first checkpoint in Nenana while the crew went for breakfast and to ready ourselves to head to Nenana also.

Black Team on their way

The first checkpoint on this route is different to all the rest in that handlers take food, water, straw and whatever else we please to the checkpoint and are able to give our mushers a hot meal for the dogs and themselves. We can not touch the dogs or provide any kind of dog care but it was nice to be a little bit hands-on and able to help haul things and fix things.

Both Aliy and Allen stayed a while – Aliy about three hours, Allen about five – so we watched them complete their arrival chores while the vet teams checked out each athlete. Then they went up to the checkpoint building which is the local community centre. There was an amazing spread put on by the local community with chilli, spaghetti, soups, brownie, cookies and water. Aliy didn’t “dilly-dally” and headed back out to bootie up her team shortly after but Allen found a comfy spot for a quick nap. We are already seeing the difference in race schedules of the two teams.

Once the sun went down it got even colder out there on the river with the truck temperature gauge reading -30F. The stars were out in abundance and we had a wisp of auroras. Beautiful but cold.

Aliy left with a few of her dogs wearing their brand new reflective and battery-lit collars. Thanks to the team at Head-lites, they are fantastic!!

After his nap Allen left a howl and we watched until they were out of sight. We don’t see them again until Nome.

I have a heap of photos and video to edit and post and will do the over the next few days so there is something for you to look at other than the tracker. I hope you were able to follow along with our Instagram, Facebook or Twitter pages as I was able to post some pictures directly there throughout the day.

More soon.

Here they are! The race rosters for the Iditarod.

Aliy will lead out with Junior and Kodiak, Izzy and Dutch in swing, Violet and Commando, Woody and Mismo, Amber and Spark, Rodney and Schmoe, Champ and Driver with Iron and Felix in wheel. She has two Iditarod rookies in Woody and Rodney. This is a climax to a stellar season for Woody.

Rodney and Woody are Iditarod rookies

Allen will take Chemo and Waylon, Chipper and Chena in swing, Scout and Lydia, Scooter and Tinder, Olivia and Willie, Hotshot and Nomex, Five and Outlaw with Scooby and Clyde in wheel. Allen has three rookies in Scooby, Five and Hotshot and his most Iditarod experienced team members are “Big O” – Olivia and Willie having both raced in six each. Scout has raced eleven 1000 mile races and Waylon nine.

Rookies Five, Hotshot and Scooby

Click here to see more information about each athlete.

This ended up being a very difficult decision, especially for Allen who was still tossing up between two dogs until this morning. Experience vs enthusiasm… he went with enthusiasm.

There are a lot of great dogs back at the kennel and for various reasons they are not on one of the teams for the race. Either they have not recovered 100% from a previous injury, don’t have enough miles to complete 1000 miles of racing, are not quite ready or maybe just weren’t up for it this time. We appreciate a number of dog sponsors and fan club members will be disappointed but we want you to know “your dogs” have contributed to the success of the teams throughout the season and are being well cared for back at the kennel. They will enjoy spring mushing around the trails of Two Rivers and maybe even get to sleep on the bed (shhh don’t tell).

Friday was a busy day for Aliy with local media spots to promote the “Lead On!” initiative she is involved in with Matson and the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (ANDVSA).

In the morning Aliy visited local TV station KTVA for a couple of spots to talk about the initiative. First up was a live segment with Carmen Lowry, Executive Director, ANDVSA on KTVA’s morning show Daybreak.

Mickey and I stayed in the Green Room to watch as it aired; a first for both of us.

View from the Green Room

Aliy with Carmen Lowry and Daybreak hosts James Gaddis and Sierra Starks

After that, Aliy recorded an interview with Rhonda McBride for the Frontiers show that airs Sunday afternoon and evening (click on picture below to link).

Then, later in the afternoon she and Kenny Gill, Matson Vice President – Alaska were live on the Dave Stieren Radio Show on KFQD to discuss the initiative.

Back at the hotel KTUU caught up with her (click photo below for link) and I understand the ADN have a story coming up.

It has been a great opportunity for Aliy to talk about the Lead On partnership she has developed with Matson and ANDVSA. To find out more and how to donate go to andvsa.org. All moneys donated during March, April and May will go towards helping children from the villages along the Iditarod Trail attend the Lead On! Conference in November.

Thanks to Mary-Beth Schreck and Barbara Swenson for photos of the Black Team Ceremonial Start.

Bean and Chemo

Ernie and Lydia

Chris with Cayenne and Ruth with Ernie

Allen getting ready; with Iditarider Jaci Owen

Lydia: “Chris, I’m going on the Iditarod”; “Chris, did I tell you I’m going on the Iditarod?”

Videos coming soon!