March 7, 2005
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Iditarod
Karen Ramstead’s team leaving Willow yesterday. Photo credit: Jeff SchultzThe race re-started, really started, yesterday in Willow, about 20 miles
from here. First out of the chute was Jessie Royer, who is
running her third Iditarod this year. She was first because
that’s the position she drew at the musher banquet last Thursday.
She grew up on a ranch in Montana where, she said, her first team was her
border collie and a billy goat.Seventy-nine teams started the race. Twenty-two mushers who had
registered to race dropped out before the start, including two of the
local Willow mushers I know.http://www.iditarod.com/
is having problems this morning. The site was redesigned in the
last weeks before the race started. I wasn’t thrilled with the
new design, but I don’t know if it’s the source of the problems, or if
their server is just overwhelmed. The only page that gave me
anything more informative than error messages was the current leader page. That didn’t stop me, however.The leader out of Skwentna last night was Ramy Brooks. Ramy’s mom
Roxy is on the trail again this year, sending reports and updates back
to the dogyard on ramybrooks.com.
Roxy, a musher herself, knows just about everyone out there and her
reports (especially later on in the race when she and everyone else run
short of sleep) are chatty, personal and informative. Her
Skwentna update said that “DeeDee Jonrowe, Robert Sorlie (2003 Iditarod
Champ), Hans Gatt (3x Yukon Quest Champion) and Martin Buser (4x
Iditarod Champ) were some of the fastest run times.”Check back here for more of my view of the Iditarod. I’m working
up an Iditarod trivia contest for you Xangans, and the prize will be a
collectable “button” pin/badge thingie from the 1985 Iditarod, when
Libby Riddles became the first woman ever to win the Last Great Race.
UPDATE:
(8:23 AM AK time)This morning, about an hour and a half ago, Dee Dee Jonrowe was first
into the Finger Lake checkpoint. When the update was posted, she
was still there.
Comments (3)
So what happened to that legally blind girl who wanted to race. Did they let her in?
As of 10:10 AM today, Rachael Scdoris, the blind girl, was in 79th place, running last, in Skwentna, the second checkpoint, and had been there in the checkpoint for two and a half hours.
Yeah, the blind girl is running. I hope she scratches, badly. But not fatally. I’m not quite THAT mean.
Hi, sweety. Thanks for the news on the Iditrod page, I won’t waste time on it.
Silky went missing. She went out with the kittens at ten last night, the kittens came back in around midnight when I got up but still no sign of her. Frankie was in this morning, looking painfully preggars. I am thinking about putting some carpeting and clean t-shirts in a box under the cabin for her, she might like that as a nesting spot. Or she might nest somewhere in that white thingie next door, she hangs out there.
Oh, and when we were talking about why I’d come up there–we both forgot the DLPA which is in my glove compartment for you. I hope you can get by w/o it until you get in town. I intend to go shopping tomorrow, before or after the meeting and get some more for me.
Remind me to give you a financial update tonight if I forget. Later.