timistravels

First Pit Stop: Nenana, Alaska

Monday, March 9, 2015

all Vets had these armbands

all the helpers/handlers had these arm bands

the town of Nenana welcomed the teams!

Along the route there are mandatory check in points, mushers have 3 MANDATORY layovers, 2 for 8 hours and 1 for 24 hours. It is up to the musher to decide where to stop for these layovers and the layovers cannot be combined. This year with the alternative route, Nenana was the first stop. Nenana is 58 miles South of Fairbanks along the Tanana River.

Mushers need to stop, sign in, have their dogs checked by vets and gather supplies that were flown (or in this case driven) to these sites ahead of time, typically 1800 pounds is sent out in total. These (mostly mandatory) supplies include:

• food for both the dogs and their humans,
• straw for bedding once the teams stop to sleep,
• back up headlamps and batteries,
• an ax,
• sleeping bag,
• snowshoes,
• stove and fuel,
• 2 sets of booties for EACH dog,
• arctic parka,
• a vet log where the status of each dog is logged at each stop by a VET,
• mail to be delivered in Nome,
• parts to repair the sleds if needed

supplies that were sent ahead of time

food, straws etc all sent ahead of time

food, supplies, and HEET to cook the food with!

I hopped in the car and drove  58 miles south from Fairbanks to Nenana.  It was fun to see the town of Nenana come out to welcome in the teams. There was food inside the Chief Mitch Demientieff Tribal Hall, and fires going for those visitors to come in and warm up. T-shirts were for sale, and the atmosphere was one of excitement and fun.   Outside each musher had supplies that had been sent /dropped off for them to pick up on their stop in Nenana. I wondered what the pallet of “HEET” was for and asked one of the organizers, they indicated that the Heet was used for cooking along the trail.

The day was cold but full of sunshine so if you waited in the sun it did not feel so cold. Nenana Schools offer a Residential component where students from rural Alaska can come and live in the Living Center and attend the public school. I befriended a few of the girls from the LC and enjoyed chatting with them as we awaited the teams.

students from Nenana’s Living Center cheering on their favorite racers

Martin Buser the first to cross the line in Nenana

vets doing the mandatory check on each dog

a vet checking one dogs legs, paws etc.

I was so excited to watch about 6 teams cross the check in point line and watch the handlers take care of the dogs, the vets do mandatory checks on each dog and watch the mushers grab the gear they would need for the next legs of the race.  I know some people think it is cruel and ‘animal abuse’ but I also think these dogs are bre d to do this work, with other breeds it might be cruel and abuse but not with these, they are so thrilled to be running.  It reminded me of how our lab was bred to hunt and swim, he loved those more than anything.  AND I have a friend that is a VET on the race this year and she is one of the biggest pet advocates I know, so I trust her opinion.

my favorite picture of the race. Look at this handler giving love to the lead dog, this made me teary eyed

I named this dog” Jumpy” because he was like this for about 15 minutes during the ‘rest’ period. He just wanted to run, run, run

Fairbanks, Alaska

Monday, March 9, 2015

Since moving to Alaska I have learned a lot about the Iditarod, and was blessed to get a chance to go to the start and first check point this year! The start was moved to Fairbanks for only the 2^nd time in history because there was not enough snow, basically NO snow in Anchorage.  The Iditarod is probably the most famous sporting event in Alaska, though there are many other races each winter, the Iditarod is the ‘grandfather’ of the others.

Some history on the Iditarod:

• In 1925 the residents of Nome, Alaska were in need of some medicine as there were many residents infected with diphtheria.
• There were 1400 residents at that time and the only Dr. in town was worried the entire population may die off if medicine did not come to Nome quickly.
• Anchorage was the only place in Alaska that had the medicine but because it was winter getting the medicine to Nome would be challenging, no boats, no trains etc. could get to Nome.
• Dog teams became the best solution to save the citizens of Nome by delivering the medicine, as dog teams were the way that mail was taken to rural Alaska.
• On Jan. 27, 1925 a musher named Wild Bill Shannon wrapped 20 #’s of medicine and took off with the help of his nine dogs.
• They traveled 674 miles to get the package to Nome.
• The weather was very nasty and cold getting lower the -60 degrees during the run. (ironically a lot like the bitter cold this winter is proving to be for the racers).
• Wild Bill became hypothermic along the way and passed the medicine onto another musher and team of dogs.
• The cold weather continued and the musher Seppala left Shaktoolik but decided to take a short cut over Norton Sound where the winds were so strong it reached -85 degrees, and the dogs had trouble because the trail was icy.
• The next leg was run by musher Olson and finally passed to Gunnar Kaasen who left in a blizzard.
• His lead dog was actually from Seppala’s kennel but was a great leader and famous with Alaskan’s “Blato” .
• An 80 MPH gust of wind tossed the sleigh over and the medicine became buried in the snow, Kaasen was eventually able to retrieve it
• Blato as the team leader pulled into Nome on Feb. 2^nd at 5:30 a.m.
• It took these teams 5 ½ days to get the serum to Nome, and sadly 5 dogs lost their lives in the attempt to save humans.
• Over 150 dogs and 20 mushers helped get the meds to Nome saving the lives of the residents of the town.
• In 1973 the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Sled Race was started.
• The race was started in part to commemorate history BUT also to save the ‘sled dog’ culture that was being overtaken by snow machines.
• The first winner was Dick Wilmarth and it took him 3 weeks to arrive in Nome
• This years race will stop in 18 communities (not counting the day in Anchorage) include 77 racers and over 1000 dogs!
• Dogs drop 6,000-10,000 calories a day so it is important for them to eat about 4-5 #’s of food each day. Usually it is dry food mixed with some meat.
• Teams can start with no more than 16 dogs, but no fewer than 12, the MUST end the race with at least 5 dogs as some dogs drop out along the race and are flown back to anchorage, typically because of an injury of some sort or simply exhaustion.
• Teams  this year will travel over 968 miles.
  

  handlers bring the teams to the start line. Every 2 minutes a new team leaves from the start line.

  

  watched about 25 teams take off from this spot…. freezing, freezing, freezing…

  

  DeeDee Janrowe is racing for the 33rd time in the Iditarod. She is known as the PINK team in support of breast cancer awareness. She is a survivor and ran the race just weeks after chemo one year.

  

  being that Fairbanks is the Ice Sculpting Capital it was only appropriate that there was one of a dog team!