March 11, 2005
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The other side of the wolf pack story:
Coke Wallace is the hunting guide and trapper who (legally and by chance) trapped the
alpha female of the Toklat/East Fork pack. The wolves of that
pack are celebrities because they range near the roads in Denali
National Park and are seen by thousands of visitors. Now, Wallace is a
celebrity. He has gotten threatening calls and
emails. But the fame has an upside, too. Getting his name
in the news has also led to his booking three new hunting parties for
the coming season.This story by Tim Mowry, the Outdoors Editor for the Fairbanks
News-Miner, gives an alternative view of Gordon Haber, the airborne
biologist working for Friends of Animals. Mowry contends that
Haber’s flyovers disturb the wolves, which has the ring of truth to
me. The story also reveals that the current publicity about the
pack has brought poachers on snowmachines into the buffer zone around
the park, and that the alpha male has mated with a female from another pack.The Toklat wolves are not The Waltons — Fairbanks News-Miner
Thanks to Google News Alerts for keeping me up with the latest.
Dropped dogs get loving care in McGrath while waiting to be airlifted out.
Race UpdatePaul Gebhardt is leading now, in Anvik with 16 dogs, but he is the only
musher of the top ten who hasn’t completed his 24-hour layover, and his
average speed throughout the race has only been 5.8 MPH.The rest of the top ten, with number of dogs and average speed are:
Robert Sorlie –16 –6.7
Martin Buser — 14 — 6.6
Aliy Zirkle — 16 — 5.3
Ramy Brooks — 14 –6.6
Dee Dee Jonrowe –13 — 6.5
Jeff King — 16 — 6.3
Doug Swingley — 13 — 5.4
Lance Mackey –12 –5.3
Mitch Seavey — 13 — 6.4
Farther back, Paul Ellering must have stopped last night just before
midnight to let Rachael Scdoris precede him into the Takotna
checkpoint. Both of them checked in at 00:00:00, with the blind
girl in 63rd place and her minder in 64th.The Next Trivial Question:
Takotna is a favorite spot, for two reasons, among some experienced
mushers for their 24-hour layovers. One of those reasons is
the location, providing serenity and beautiful surroundings. What
is the other main attaction at Takotna?
Comments (7)
Gadzooks, Buser is SO amazing. Maybe next year, he’ll break a leg, and be a shoo-in! (No pun intended.)
No news, except last night, the kittens were playing with the empty soda box I had stuffed with trash, so I put it outside, got distracted by a cat on the proch and closed the door on my thumb. Not real hard, but it got my attention.
Winds are high in town, the car was rocking as I was parked outside the library.
Oh and RIP, Teresa Outhouse, 48, of Talkeetna.
Oh, and I actually knew one of your trivia question answers. Figures, it would be the one involving drugs.
Hi again–gee, my forgetter is working well today. Forgot to get salad at Carrs–forgot to go to Freds (out of bread); I had my shopping list with me, forgot to look at it. Sigh. . . .
Went to Wells Fargo, got the on-line thing taken care of, saw Peggy and made an appointment for 11:00 Monday to get the other stuff taken care of.
I seem to think there was something else, I may well leave a third note before I leave the lib. (Just got here.)
Jan Newton’s home-baked pies and all the steak you can eat.
Clearly Jan Newton, but this was all I could find on her specialities. Sorry, I’m not focussing well today. Back to bed
i think mr wallace has more respect for the wolves than gordie does … herding them by aircraft … how absurd … it’s not like we’re running out of wolves … in fact, they’re showing back up in the u p of michigan …
Been out all day, so now it’s time to answer #4: Couldn’t find a thing about the stop in Takotna on the official Iditarod page, so off to Google to see what comes up when I enter “Takotna”. Seems the mushers highly recommend Takotna Lodge and Jan’s home cooking. Guess they could all use a good home cooked meal by the time they get there.
) (now on to #5…this may be a problem)
jans home cookin. just scrolled up to se hoe to spell takotna & relized it’s already been answered:(
^^^Sorry about the spelling but the letters were not appearing as I typed, the curser moved so I posted it.