Not the Iditarod

But we have plenty of winter. Some folks and their dogs make the best of it.

Mackey Leading out of Safety

I thought that the Iditarod would probably be over when I got up this morning. It is not, but it won't be long now. Mackey is still in the lead going away from the Safety checkpoint, but Jeff King is hot on his heels. King has kept his team intact at 16 dogs through most of the race up until now, which is quite a handling feat, but now that they are on the ice he dropped two. Probably by the time we are done milking it will be history....a very exciting race this year and we much enjoyed it.


A few complaints about the new website though. Someone was looking to make money off race followers and if you were a non-paying customer the site was frustratingly hard to navigate. Lots of fascinating anecdotes to be read on the blogs, but when you wanted standings you had to click all over the place. In the end I missed the old stand-alone Cabela's site. The official site when it was stand alone was a pain in the neck and the new one seems to fit that description as well. I expect by next year they will work the bugs out, but if they don't I will use the newspapers for info.

Good Iditarod information

The Apple Doesn't Fall Farm From the Tree has several pieces on mushers in the great race that are new to me and very interesting! She has a cousin in the race so she really knows what is happening! She also tells about a woman musher from upstate NY who is in the race as well. Jeff King has been my long time favorite, but I guess I will be rooting for some other folks as well.

As far as I can see leadership in the race is fluctuating faster than I can keep up with it. A lot of earlier leaders are in McGrath. Looks like right now Mitch Seavey is in the lead with Hugh Neff and Zack Steer next in line.

Snow for the mushers

The new Cabela's official Iditarod site says that the trail this year is quite snowy so far. (Take a look at the photo of Jeff King's team in 2006...amazing.) I like the new combined site so far. You can find profiles of dogs, blogs about the upcoming race, videos and discussion. I am not sure if they will follow the same format once the race starts, but so far it has been an interesting way to read the pre-race news. The Dennis Ranch offered this link to an article that says that the snow cover isn't just better in Alaska either. Could it be that global cooling looms right around the corner? (Around the corner, heck, see yesterday's hawk picture for the Northview version of global cooling.)

Doug Swingley retires

One of my favorite mushers called it quits this year as far as the Iditarod goes, although he will still continue to raise dogs for the great race and still races in other venues. Swingley blamed his age for not running in the Iditarod any more saying on the official race news site, “I’m just too old to compete at the level I want to compete at,” he said. “It’s an awesome group of dogs, and I don’t have the ability to keep up with them anymore without getting hurt.” He sustained some serious hurting last year and is almost as old as I am so I can't really blame him. As a four time winner he has sure got the tee shirt.

He is also taking up horse endurance racing.

Iditarod

The start of the race is fast approaching, so here is a link to Cabela's Iditarod site. It is the one I use to keep track of things. I will put it in the blogroll until the race is done so it will be right here handy.

My personal favorite is Jeff King. He is an amazing innovator and this year is no exception. He will take to the trail with a cooker in his sled handlebars so he can have warm food on the trail. Cool...er, hot.... (BTW, to whom it may concern...King is 50).

Looks as if at this point there are 111 mushers entered, which will be a mighty large field.

Mackey wins

Come Back Kennels came back in a big way as Lance Mackey won the 2007 Iditarod and became the first musher ever to win back to back Yukon Quest and Iditarod sled dog races.

Jeff King, my own favorite musher, had class enough to cheer Mackey on when it became clear that he himself was out of the running. Jeff is running in fifth place right now. Zack Steer, who will likely come in third is in Safety.


***I see by reading his profile that I should be including Paul Gebhardt, this year's second place musher, in my list of favorites....he grew up on a Minnesota dairy farm, which makes him A-okay in my book!

What a dog race..Iditarod 2007

Day 10. As the leaders pass towns and check points with names like Shaktoolik and Unalakleet, this years race has turned into a dash for Nome with several top racers within a few hours of one another. Right now Lance Mackey has a decent lead, but Paul Gebhart is making him work for it. Martin Buser, Jeff King, and Zack Steer round out the top five. Other high caliber mushers are also within striking distance.

Mackey has an interesting thing going with the fact that he is running the race for the sixth time wearing bib number 13. His father and brother both won it under those circumstances and it looks like those numbers might be the charm for him too.

Jonrowe and Swingley scratch from Iditarod Race

Both 53-year old Doug Swingley and Dee Dee Jonrowe, same age, have scratched their teams from this year's race. Swingley is said to have possibly broken some ribs and dislocated his thumb in an accident. Jonrowe broke at least one finger in a fall and may have further damage to her hand. It is a shame to see these two respected veterans forced to stop, but I am in awe that they can run at all. I only have one year on them and I am sure not up for running over a thousand miles in weather colder even than it is here (and trust me, it is plenty cold. The transmission on the work truck is frozen, making it impossible to get any hay).

Here is the official site for the race. Here is Susan Butcher's family website, which supports the families and children of cancer patients.

Iditarod Starts

My favorite sporting event of the year and the last great race has begun in Anchorage, Alaska.
82 teams, 1000 dogs, what could be more exciting? It kicked off yesterday with the ceremonial start downtown and will continue for over a thousand miles over frozen snow, hard bare ground and some of the roughest conditions on earth. To the winner $69,000 and a truck. to everyone, even those of us who follow from afar, a huge dose of pioneer-style adventure and excitement.
For the best coverage I have found visit Cabela's Iditarod site.


Jeff King is always a favorite of mine, but it is easy to get behind almost anyone brave and determined enough to get behind a team of dogs and head out into the wilderness. Included among them is the husband of the late Susan Butcher and their daughter, Tekla, who will ride the trail later this season in her honor.

There is much excitement over this year's event, as there is the potential for another five time winner if any of several mushers including King and Martin Buser or Doug Swingley should win.

Susan Butcher

How could it be? How could Susan Butcher, athlete enough to have won the Iditarod four times, probably one of the toughest people in the world, be gone? Susan was one of my greatest heroines for as long as I have followed and loved sled dog racing. Her name was synonymous with everything that the Iditarod represented. You know, bravery, determination, heart and a spirit of adventure.

She died from complications from a bone marrow transplant undertaken to combat polycythemia vera, a rare disease of bone marrow and blood..

Born in 1954, she had two young daughters and was married to lawyer and fellow musher, David Monson.


You can leave a message for Susan's family and friends at theStatus.
(Type in butcher for the ID and butcher1 for the password.)
Trail Breaker Kennels
Susan's bio

King wins his fourth Iditarod

While we snuggled last night, safe in our beds, listening to a really nasty wind howling outside, Jeff King was racing under the burled arches in Nome, his fourth Iditarod win under his belt. He ran the race in 9 Days, 11 Hours, 11 Min., 36 Secs. The veteran musher, besides being an able dog handler and race strategist, has made some innovations in his equipment that have made a real difference to his team. Check out the way he has made a seat, a better way to haul dogs that need a rest, heated handlebars and a better harness. He even keeps his dogs fit by swimming them during the warm weather in summer.

Congratulations to Jeff and his team and to all the hardworking people and dogs who make the great race possible.

Jeff King
Iditarod

Iditarod

Jeff King has the lead right now, having reached Shaktoolik, according to Cabela's, with Doug Swingley, Paul Gebhardt and Dee Dee Jonrowe next in line. Jeff is my favorite musher, but I would love to see Dee Dee win. She has been trying for a long time, through a lot of personal challenges. She is also only two years younger than I am (and I am older than dirt). I sure couldn't climb on a sled behind a bunch of dogs and go over a thousand miles in a few days.
She gets my vote as a real fighter.

Iditarod

Iditarod Update

One of my favorite mushers has long been Jeff King. This is partly because he seems like a fine man who runs outstanding dogs. (In 2003 he won the coveted Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for excellent dog care .) However, I especially like him because he also gave a local boy, CJ Kolby a ride on his sled, under the IditaRider program. (See that link for more on CJ's story.) CJ was suffering from a cancer, which later proved terminal. Jeff even visited CJ's family when he was speaking in the area. We followed the race even more intently than usual that year, because of CJ.

Jeff is currently in 7th place, with another favorite of mine, Doug Swingley, in first. The race has currently reached Ophir.

Iditarod

Sled dogs and Jersey calves all in one

Ramey Smyth is currently in the lead in the 2006 Iditarod sled dog race. Lance Mackey, now in 33rd place, set a blazing pace to Finger Lake, with very little time to rest or camp, according to Cabela’s website. The 2006 Yukon Quest winner is said to have exceptionally fast, strong dogs. His lead dogs, Hobo Jim and Larry, won the Golden Harness award in the Quest this year.

Much to my surprise, one of my favorite authors, Gary Paulsen, tried running again this year. However, the 66 yr.-old scratched in Skwentna. He managed to complete the race in 1983 with a team led by a trap line dog, and went on to write the account in the children’s book, Woodsong. Woodsong is one of my great favorites especially the story about the "seven skunk run" I guess sled dogs are sometimes hard to steer and they LIKE skunks.

Here at Northview, Rumpleteaser, an aging Jersey/Holstein cross cow, kept Liz up literally all night nursing her through the birth of a large bull calf. He was quite a disappointment, as not only was he not a heifer, but he was black, instead of the lovely honey brown that her ¾ bred calves usually are. Oh, well, he is still cute as you can see in his picture. This is looking like a big year for bulls, payback for all those heifers we got last year.
Dog sled racing
farming

Iditarod

My favorite sporting event of the year kicks off this weekend. More exciting than the Superbowl and World Series combined, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race is romance, drama and wonderful working dogs all thrown into one phenomenal event. I have followed the mushers for years, like kids follow pitchers, catchers and quarterbacks. From Susan Butcher in earlier days to today’s Seavey family, Jeff King and Martin Buser, they all fascinate me.

Since the first time I froze my feet trailside, watching a team of sled dogs explode down the snow at a local race, (back when there were races around here, back when we had snow), I have been hooked on the thrill. We used to tie our pet dogs to a plastic toboggan with whatever came to hand when I was a kid. Later when we bought the first Border Collies, Mike Canaday’s team of sheepdog trial dogs ran away with his son on the runners and my kids on the sled. (That was a whole nother kind of exciting.) Then a local musher gave us a couple of harnesses and we were really in business. We loved to drag the kids around on a Border Collie powered hand sleigh when they were little. They were the envy of a lot of town kids with their three dog team. Instead of gee and haw we hollered "away to me" and "come bye." Sometimes the dogs even listened.

There is just nothing like the eagerness of the dogs to run. They are bred to run, born to run, trained to run, conditioned to run and they truly love it-even the Border Collies, which are not exactly huskies. They twist in their harnesses on the way to the gang line, and yelp and moan with delight. Then they leap against the line, desperate to start the fun. Hitching up at a race is loud, with dozens of dogs screaming their desire to get going. It is like a canine Mardi Gras. When the brake is released and a team takes off the energy is staggering.

Once they are out on the trail all is silent. There is only the faint grating sound of the sled runners in the snow and the susurrus of dog paws to be heard. It is eerie to find a trailside standing place and watch them go by almost soundlessly.

These days we always seem to be too busy to hook up the mutts. The harnesses and gang line are stuffed under the hutch in a tangled ball of nylon line, flat straps and fluffy padding. However I will certainly be finding time to click on Cabela’s excellent coverage every day for the vicarious thrill of the race. Hope you can join me.
sled dog racing
Iditarod