A few days ago, I wrote of a dream I’d had:

That was the condensed version of the dream.  Within it, I felt as
if I had spent many years enmeshed in wars, conquests, the panicked
flight of refugees, and the systems where a few have wasteful luxury
while many have not even what they need to survive.

That morning, before I crawled out of bed, I had asked Doug to create
the graphic above, inspired by the dream.  If you like it and
agree with it, copy it, pass it on.  Just don’t try to copyright
it or sell it.  It’s a freebie.

And now for something completely different:

Your Seduction Style: Ideal Lover

You seduce people by tapping into their dreams and desires.And because of this sensitivity, you can be the ideal lover for anyone you seek.You are a shapeshifter – bringing romance, adventure, spirituality to relationships.It all depends on who your with, and what their vision of a perfect relationship is.

You scored as alternative. You’re partially respected for being an individual in a conformist world yet others take you as a radical. You have no place in society because you choose not to belong there – you’re the luckiest of them all, even if your parents are completely ashamed of you. Just don’t take drugs ok? alternative 92% Upper middle Class 38% Middle Class 25% Lower Class 25% Luxurious Upper Class 8% What Social Status are you? created with QuizFarm.com

 

English Genius You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced,  and 83% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even Ican’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommonintelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. Youhave an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly!Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 1% on Beginner You scored higher than 99% on Intermediate You scored higher than 50% on Advanced You scored higher than 50% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

The Sensual Thinker You scored 31 Emotions, 53 Logic,  and 38 Sensuality!

You rely more on logic and physical desires when making decisions, though not terribly so. Are your results surprising? Did you score highest and lowest inunexpected catagories? If so, this is a good opportunity to think abouthow you might be able to enhance your emotional decision-making skills.Maybe you could tell people how you feel about them more often. Don’t be afraid to cry during a movie, or laugh at a lame joke ifyou think it’s funny. When someone gives you a gift and you can’tfigure out if their intentions are honerable or not, try to appreciateit anyway. And when your favorite ice cream is calling to you frombehind the foggy glass in the frozen food section, maybe you should”just say no” this time. Always remember, your heart, mind, and body make up who youare. Each aspect needs a little bit of extra attention at times, or itwill end up being neglected, resulting in stress and poor judgment.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Emotions You scored higher than 99% on Logic You scored higher than 99% on Sensuality

Link: The Heart, Mind, and Body Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

You scored as Artistic. Congratulations, you scored Artistic.  You’re looking for the unique movie in the bunch.  You’ve probably watched a lot of movies that nobody has ever heard of, and good for you.  You also know good filmmaking when you see it.  You just get it, no questions asked.  Check out:  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Amelie, Garden State, Lost in Translation. Artistic 90% Drama/Suspense 75% Mindfuck 70% Sci-Fi/Fantasy 30% Sadistic Humour 25% Romantic Comedy 20% Mindless Action Flick 0% Movie Recommendation. created with QuizFarm.com

You are a Panther. You’re somewhat distant and
mysterious to everyone – they just can’t suss
you out! Your emotions are probably very mixed
about a lot of issues in your life…and as
much as you feel you can handle life on your
own – you will need some help! Try making new
friends and getting to know your family and
they will support you in the majority of your
decisions.

What type of cat would you be? GIRLS ONLY
brought to you by Quizilla

The race is almost won.

Norwegian
Robert Sorlie checked into White Mountain at 12:59 PM AKST.  All mushers have a mandatory 8 hour rest there.

Here’s how Don Bowers’s trail description for the stretch from White Mountain to Safety begins:

Sorlie’s closest competition, five mushers, left Elim three to
four-and-a-half hours behind him.  They are:  John Baker,
Mitch Seavey, Ed Iten, Ramy Brooks, and Bjornar Andersen.

The NomeCam isn’t showing any sunshine now (I’m writing this at almost
3 PM), but it doesn’t look stormy, either — just gloomy, cloudy. 
I watched the guys put up the fence on Front Street yesterday. 
Nome is ready.  If you care to watch the finish tonight [It will be early morning across the Lower 48], seven to
ten hours after Sorlie leaves White Mountain, just keep refreshing this
page or go to http://nomecam.iditarod.com/netcam/nomecam.jpg.

Maggie_mcfrenzie was speculating on the cascade effect that dropped
dogs could have on a team.  Actually, it can go either way. 
Dropping weak dogs that have been slowing the team down can raise their
speed and improve their times.  But it is often the strong pullers
who wear themselves out and have to be dropped.  In that case,
their loss slows the team.

The stats don’t tell us why dogs are being dropped, but sometimes we
get verbal reports from checkpoints that explain.  The worst case
is illness, a sick team.  The best case is some strategic
selection near the end of the race when the driver is paring the team
down to the fastest, healthiest, most vigorous members for a fast
finish.

Right now six women are running in the money, in the first thirty
places.  If Harmony Barron can pass her husband or her
father-in-law without losing place to anyone coming from behind, she
will make it seven.  GO GIRLS!

I will keep checking iditarod.com, APRN, and my email box for updates
from Roxy.  Then I’ll probably sit up half the
night with the radio on, watching the webcam.

Prize money ranges
from 72,066.67 for first place, to $1,880.00 for 30th. The rest of the
finishers share a purse of $45,107.00. If everyone still on the trail
finishes, that will be 1,252.97 for each of them.

Update at 3:30 — Ed Iten and Mitch Seavey both pulled into White Mountain just before 3 PM.

5:00 – Leaders are still in
White Mountain.  Into Elim,  Dee Dee Jonrowe is in 8th place,
Jessie Royer in 12th, and Aliy Zirkle in 13th.

7:00 – Six mushers are now in
White Mountain:  Robert Sorley, Ed Iten, Mitch Seavey, Ramy
Brooks, John Baker, and Bjornar Andersen.  It’s snowing in Nome,
temperature in the teens Fahrenheit.

9:00 – No changes indicated at
the front, same six leaders in White Mountain. 
Strange goings on at the back of the pack:  Ellering and Scdoris
have spent 12 hours in Grayling so far.  Sandy McKee checked in
there about 3:30 this afternoon.  Could Rachael want that Red
Lantern Award so much she’ll wait for Sandy to mush on before she
follows, or what?  Any speculation, gang?

9:30 – A reader reminded me of
the mandatory 8 hour layover in White Mountain, and I’ve edited my copy
above to reflect that information.  Sorlie left there at 8:59,
exactly 8 hours after he checked in.  He could reach Nome sometime
around 4 AM our time, give or take a bit.  Paul Gebhardt checked
into White Mountain at 8:27 PM, and Lance Mackey at 9:17.

11:00 – Sandy McKee, who had
been in last place, scratched at Grayling.  After an 11 hour rest,
Rachael Scdoris pulled out of there ahead of her seeing-eye musher Paul
Ellering, once again proving that she doesn’t really need
him.   Dee Dee Jonrowe, the leading woman in this race, could
be checking into White Mountain any time now, or could already be there
– the standings on the website don’t update instantly.

1:00 — The first six mushers
are out of White Mountain.  Paul Gebhardt, Lance Mackey, Jessie
Royer, Jeff King, Dee Dee Jonrowe, Martin Buser, Aliy Zirkle, and Doug
Swingley checked into White Mountain between 8:27 and 11:48.  This
puts the first three women in ninth, eleventh and thirteenth
places.  Jessica Hendricks is out of Elim in sixteenth, Melanie
Gould is out of Koyuk in 24th, and Harmony Barron is still running
behind her husband and father-in-law in 31st place.

My dilemma is this:  I
probably can’t stay awake until 4 AM and once I get to sleep I won’t
want to get up that early.  Ah, well….  It’s only a game
and I’m not in it.  I don’t even have any wagers riding on it.

Another Iditablog

(photo credit:  Al Grillo, The Associated Press) Sorlie and team outside Unalakleet
Robert Sorlie, the Norwegian musher who won two years ago, is about
three hours ahead of his closest competition out of Koyuk and Elim
checkpoints.  He dropped a dog in Elim and is now down to
eight.  John Baker and Mitch Seavey moved up into second and third
place since the last time I checked the standings last night.

(Photo credit:  Bob Hallinen, Anchorage Daily News)  Oh,
yes, there’s a story to this one.  Dallas Seavey (youngest musher
ever to run the Idiatarod, only one to run both Jr. Iditarod and
Iditarod in the same year [this year]) turned eighteen the day before
the race started.  His grandmother Shirley gave him the teddy bear
for his birthday.  Teddy turned pirate on the trail.  Doesn’t
the dog look like it just can’t believe it?

Martin
Buser dropped back into ninth place and left two more dogs in
Koyuk.  He’s now down to seven, less than half the team he started
with, and was almost seven hours behind Sorlie out of Koyuk.

(photo credit:  Gabriel Spitzer, Alaska Public Radio Network)  Tyrell Seavey (Dallas’s older brother) checks into Grayling with his father Mitch’s “second
string” team. [In latest standings, 10:23 AM AK Standard Time, Mitch is
in third place with 11 dogs, Tyrell in thirteenth with nine dogs, and
Dallas in 53rd with 14.  Running and training the puppy team,
Dallas’s first priority is not speed but getting some experience on as
many pups as possible.)

This is the part of the race where some people’s strategies begin to
come together and be evident and others fall apart.  Ramy Brooks
had been pushing his team hard when he got to the Bering Sea coast,
breezing through several checkpoints without rest.  Late last
night he stopped for six hours in Koyuk and dropped a dog.  His
team is now down to eleven and he is in fourth place.

vets transporting dropped dogs from Unalakleet checkpoint to the airport

Aliy Zirkle has moved into tenth place and Dee Dee Jonrow dropped back
to twelfth.  Eighth place Doug Swingley’s time from Shaktoolik to
Koyuk was faster than any of the other leaders’: just under five hours,
averaging 11.8 MPH.  The two men of the Barron family are both
running in the money now.  Jason is still in 30th place, with his
father John in 29th and his wife Harmony in 31st in Shaktoolik.

Paul Gebhardt and team between Unalakleet and Shaktoolik on the Bering Sea
Gebhardt
has the saddest story of this year’s race (so far).  One of his
dogs, Rita, a 3-year-old female died Saturday of anemia associated with
gastric ulcers.  Paul was in tears as he turned her body over to
vet Bill Daly in Grayling.  He had rushed to her side when she
fell and did CPR on her to no avail.  He is now out of Elim in
seventh place.

Nine-and-a-half-fingered Martin Buser opening a jar of paw-ointment for his dogs.

Sandy McKee is still bringing up the rear, left Shageluk a couple of
hours ago after spending 10 1/2 hours there.  About an hour and a
half ago, Scdoris and her seeing-eye musher Ellering pulled into
Grayling in 66th and 67th place.   For comparison, Sorlie
passed through there about four days ago.

(Note:  if you
notice any conflicts in the standings listed here, such as more than
one musher holding the same position, I’ve been working on this for
more than three hours, checking standings frequently and changing my
text where there have been changes, but I may have missed something.)

Torn

I’m not tired of blogging Iditarod updates, trivia, and
significa.  That won’t happen at this time of year.  Causes
of this seasonal obsession of mine may relate to my empathy, my psychic
attunement to my environment.  Among the dozen or so leaders in
the race at this time are four of my neighbors, four valley residents
known and liked by many others in this big valley with a small-town
feel to it.  Along with the rest of the valley and to perhaps a
lesser extent the whole state. I’m Iditarod obsessed, caught up in a
wave of enthusiasm and swept away.

But I’m torn.  I have other things on my mind to blog about,
too.  I have a personal life and an inner life.  Those things
don’t stop for a sporting event, natural disaster, or any other
thing.  Life goes on, and for the last few years I’ve been in the
habit of blogging my life, the present part of it and my memories of
the past.  Several times recently I have seated myself here and
thought about writing down what’s on my mind.  I try to sort it
out and organize it and decide which of many threads to pick up on the
keyboard.  Then, torn between and among so many different thought
threads, I take the easy way out and do another Iditablog.  Now it
is time to attempt to bring my journal up to date.

Home Life


There is a new cat in the house.  I call her a kitten, in contrast
to the two “old ladies” whose home this is and was before we moved in
to be their caretakers.  Doug insists that Hillary is not a
kitten, but a small cat.  Born last November, kittenish in
behavior and still eating kitten kibble, she probably qualifies as
“kitten” in veterinary terms, but I understand Doug’s
perspective.  She is long, sleek and slender, lacking any trace of
baby fat.

Named for a famous mountaineer, Hillary is a climber.  Several
times a day she will scale the highest shelves to the uppermost perch
in the front room, the top of a stereo speaker, where she surveys her
territory briefly before descending, knocking down books, incense,
rocks, rubber stamps, postage stamps, trinkets, and/or the thermometer
along the way.  Why and how she makes the climb noiselessly
without apparent impact on the terrain and then bumbles and tumbles
down bringing down everything in her path, I don’t understand.

The Weather

We had several
periods of extreme cold weather this winter.  Cold weather isn’t
over for the year.  We still need heat, and even though we bought
about 30% more firewood this year than last year, we are almost out of
fuel again.

Outside now, on a sunny day, it feels like spring.  Last week, we
had a hailstorm.  Hail at any time here is unusual because of the
intense warm updrafts needed to form hailstones.  This time of
year, it is unheard-of.  But weird weather is becoming
common.  Still, taking the long view it looks like Alaskan winter
now.

Up close, in places like the base of this tree, you can see that breakup is beginning.

This winter’s snowfall was greater than usual.  It is piled really
deep in the places where it landed when Doug shoveled the roof. 
The path to the outhouse, between the trailer and the little cabin
beside it, is still frozen hard enough to support our weight, but soon it will
turn to neck-deep slush.  Then what?

My Past

I think the next phase of memoir writing is going to be some revision
and expansion of episodes already written, unless of course that proves
to be too tedious and toilsome.  If that’s the case, then I’ll start
scanning more photos and proceed with the adolescence and/or the 1970s
where that end of the tale leaves off now — unless and until the
scanning gets too tedious and toilsome.

Inside SuSu

I’ve alluded briefly in passing to some of my recent dreams. 
There was another one I haven’t mentioned.  I woke one morning
with a sense of awe.  I’d dreamt that I was floating over the
planet.  The atmosphere was dark and gloomy and the air was foul
and smoky.  I glided over bloody battlefields and villages where
mothers cried as their children starved.  Then it was as if I
burst through a door into light and life.  Everything was clean,
green and beautiful.

I described the dream to Greyfox and he interpreted it as
prophetic.  How wonderful it would be if that were true prophecy
and I would see the planet burst through that portal into the Age of
Light and Life.

I see another possible interpretation, that it symbolizes death, my
death when I transcend the horrors and hardships of this world. 
Doug says that makes sense to him in light of my belief system.

And I also see another reasonable interpretation, that it is nothing
but a wish-fulfillment fantasy.  It’s easy enough for me to wrap
my mind around the idea that the dream is all three:  a prophecy
for the earth, a promise for me personally and an expression of my
deepest desires.  Why not have it all?

Race Update (updated)

The leading twelve mushers are all out on the Bering Sea coast now,
most of them still in Unalakleet.   The latest posted update
at iditarod.com shows Robert Sorlie out of Unalakleet after a four-hour
rest. 

Martin Buser arrived in Unalakleet two hours after Sorlie and left two
hours after the leader, following a four-hour rest.  A few minutes
before Buser left the checkpoint, Ramy Brooks breezed through, spending
only three minutes in Unalakleet. 

An hour or so later, John Baker came through, spending about three
quarters of an hour there.  By that time Jeff King, Mitch Seavey,
Ed Iten, Doug Swingley, Bjornar Andersen, Dee Dee Jonrowe, Lance Mackey
and Aliy Zirkle were in Unalakleet, resting and caring for their dogs.

In a radio interview from Unalakleet, Sorlie was questioned about Ramy
Brooks who had been in second place through several checkpoints. 
Sorlie said he felt less threatened by Brooks, who has been running
with little rest, than by Martin Buser.  In a facetious reference
to Martin’s table-saw accident shortly before the race, Sorlie said,
“Give him a finger, and he’ll take the whole hand.”

Someone at the checkpoint asked Martin if he could still count on his
fingers and he answered that he can count to four and a half.  He
also spoke at some length about dog breeding and the major difference
between Robert Sorlie’s dogs and his own.  He said that the
fastest dog might not be the best in a long-distance race if there was
another dog almost as fast that could sustain its speed with less
rest.  “We need to slow down the rabbits or speed up the
tortoises.”

Martin Buser had lost two hours out on the trail when one of his dogs
got loose and had to be retrieved.  Now he’s placing his hopes for
a win on Sorlie’s somehow similarly losing some time.  Buser is
now down to ten dogs, and the teams of the other eleven leaders in and
beyond Unalakleet are between 11 and 13 dogs.

Prize money in descending amounts goes to the first thirty
finishers.  The first place finisher wins over $72,000 plus a new
pickup truck.  Thirtieth place pays less than $2,000.  In
thirtieth place, Jason Barron got into Kaltag just before 4 AM
today.  He was one minute ahead of his father John and three
minutes ahead of his wife Harmony.

Something strange is going on back near the tail of the pack. 
Around 11 AM yesterday, Paul Ellering preceded his charge Rachael
Scdoris into Iditarod by an interval of about five minutes.  Both
of them were there for over twelve hours.  Scdoris left the
checkpoint with 13 dogs at 11:20 PM, apparently proceeding without the
“visual interpreter” she has insisted she needs to inform her of trail
conditions ahead.

After dropping a dog (bringing his team down to 11), Ellering left the
checkpoint half an hour after Rachael, five minutes after the current
Red Lantern, Sandy McKee, pulled in.  Is the little blind bird
trying her wings, is her minder becoming disenchanted with Rachael or
enchanted with Sandy, or is he having trouble keeping up, or
what?  Will we ever know?  Do I care?

I am curious.

In case any of my readers is curious about how others in Alaska feel about
the little blind girl, I mentioned in the previous blog that top musher
Doug Swingley (not an Alaskan, but a man in a position to know) says
she can see as well as he can.  Today, the following letter was
printed in the Anchorage Daily News.

Update, 10 AM

Robert Sorlie checked in at Shaktoolik at 7:00; Ramy Brooks
checked in at 8:47, and Martin Buser at 9:00, exactly 2 hours behind
the leader.  None of them had left the checkpoint when the latest
standings were posted at 9:29.

---

The End of the Trivia

Dragging herself from her sickbed, maggie_mcfrenzie
searched out and posted correct answers to the last two questions.  She
is undoubtedly the grand prize winner.  A very close second place
goes  wixer.  Ladies, please use my email link to send me your postal addresses and I will mail your prizes.

For the curious, I identified the mystery man in my first Iditarod blog a couple of years ago.

Regarding Herbie Nayokpuk’s sled runners, Dee Dee Jonrowe said, when
talking about the many technological advances in sled design and dog
breeding, that when she started running the Iditarod Herbie was using
ivory sled runners.  It was presumably walrus ivory.

No Shortage of Sidebars
UPDATED


Earlier this evening, Greyfox and I were sharing what we had heard,
seen and read about the Iditarod.  I get most of my news from the web
and public radio, and his comes from TV, newspapers and the people he
talks to around Wasilla.  He said that this year’s race has “no
shortage of sidebars.”

There’s
Dallas Seavey, here.  He turned 18 the day before the start of
this year’s race, making him the youngest person ever to run the
Iditarod.  He ran the Jr. Iditarod the weekend before the big race
started, making him the only person ever to have run the Jr. Iditarod
and Iditarod in the same year.

He’s a high school athlete, too, a wrestler.  His wrestling coach
wasn’t at all happy about his decision to run the Iditarod this
year.  Dallas being out on the trail means he’s missing an
important wrestling tournament.

Dallas comes from a dog driving family.  His grandfather Dan ran
the 1973 Iditarod (Iditarod #1).  Dallas’s father Mitch is the
current reigning Iditarod champion, having won last year in his
eleventh Iditarod.  This year, older brother Tyrell, who won the
2001 Jr. Iditarod, is running the Iditarod, too.

The latest update shows Mitch in fifth place with 13 dogs, Tyrell in
20th place with 12 dogs, and Dallas, still with all 16 of his dogs, in
64th place.  I think I heard somewhere that he’s running a puppy team.

---

Lance Mackey comes from another Iditarod family.  His father Dick
is a former Iditarod champion and his brother Rick has won both the
Iditarod and the Yukon Quest.  Lance won this year’s Yukon Quest.

As a kid, Lance bred and trained dogs and raced in Jr. Iditarod. 
Then at age 18, he quit and worked on fishing boats for 13 years. 
He came back to dog driving in 2001.

He has had another important comeback, too.  Like Dee Dee Jonrowe and Charlie Boulding, Lance is a cancer survivor.

In the latest standings, he’s out of Eagle Island in second place with
12
dogs.  The word from Roxy Brooks is that the leader, Robert Sorlie
seems to be slowing down, so Lance might pick up a second big win this
year.  He passed six other teams in the last few hours, coming up
from ninth place, moving fast.

---

Doug
Swingley upset a lot of Alaskans when he became the first “Outsider” to
win the Iditarod.  He has won it four times and won a lot of
hearts since then.  He has contributed some innovations to the
design of racing sleds.

I love seeing him with his dogs.  Close, obviously affectionate
bonds between dogs and their drivers are common.  What I see when
I see Swingley with his dogs is an uncommonly close bond.  One of
my all-time favorite Iditarod pictures shows him napping in a
checkpoint, curled up on the ground with his arm around a dog. 
This year, his wife Melanie Shirilla is out there, too, running and
training their puppy team.

Last year, Doug had to scratch after losing his goggles and getting a
case of frostbite on his corneas.  This year, talking about the
(legally) “blind” non-competitive, just here for the ride and the
attention, Scdoris girl, he said, “She can see as well as I can.”

He’s in seventh place now, averaging 4.944 MPH

---

Nine-fingered
Martin Buser had a mishap with his table saw a week before the start of
this year’s race, and lost half of his right middle finger.  His
surgeon wasn’t thrilled about his running the race, but that didn’t
stop Marty.

This guy — ya gotta love him.  During a big forest fire a decade
or so ago, he noticed the fireboat just sitting there on Big Lake with
no crew, so he and a few of his neighbors commandeered it and fought
the fire.  I think someone suggested taking legal action against
him for that, but if they did it was done kinda small and quiet. 
The general consensus was you don’t bust somebody for being a hero.

He’s from Switzerland, came here in 1979.  When he won the 2002
Iditarod, he got more than a trophy at the end.  There was another
little ceremony in Nome and he was presented with his US citizenship
papers.

I see him around more than most mushers, either shopping or at some
personal appearances in the valley, usually with a dog or two. 
This is another one who shares obvious mutual affection with his
dogs.  They’re great, healthy-looking dogs, too.  Marty has
gotten a lot of recognition for the quality of his kennel and the care
and training he gives his dogs.

He’s in third place, eleven dogs, averaging a little over 5 MPH.

---

TRIVIA

Answers:  #4, Takotna checkpoint is popular mostly for Jan Newton’s fresh homemade pies and all the steak you can eat.

#5:  The knife that has gained popularity with many mushers is a
“rescue” or “emergency” type.  It’s a folding knife with a belt
clip or pouch, generally used by paramedics and rescue workers. 
It has a hook and a sturdy serrated blade (used to cut seat belts to
free people from wrecked cars), plus a heavy spike on one end, designed
to break car windows.  Mushers use the serrated blade to free dogs
from tangled harness lines and save them from injury.  The glass
breaker can also be used to chip ice.

This race could end soon, so let’s bring the trivia game to an end,
too.  The last two questions will be about the old timers.

Question #6
Who is this man?  I want more than just his name.  Tell something about his place in history, and his significance to the Iditarod.

Question #7 is about the Shishmaref Cannonball, Herbie Nayokpuk. 
Herbie finished in fifth place in the first Iditarod (1973).  His
best finish ever was second place in 1980.  In 1983, at age 53, he
finished fourth despite having had open heart surgery five months
earlier.

He never won the race, but he won everyone’s respect.  He had beautiful dogs and kept them in prime condition.

He ran 11 races in fifteen years, finishing in the top ten eight
times.  Through that time, he learned some new tactics and got
some new equipment, but when he was starting out, in those earliest years, what material were his sled runners made of?

---

Race Update — Sunday midday

Robert Sorlie of Norway left Kaltag about three hours ago after resting
for five hours and dropping one dog.  This leaves him with twelve
dogs.  An hour after Sorlie left, Ramy Brooks breezed through
Kaltag, staying only six minutes.  He has thirteen dogs.

Between 6:20 and 10:05 this morning ten more mushers checked into Kaltag.  They are, in order:
Martin Buser
Dee Dee Jonrowe
Doug Swingley
Mitch Seavey
Bjornar Andersen
Jeff King
Lance Mackey
Ed Iten
John Baker
Aliy Zirkle

When the standings on iditarod.com were last updated, none of them had yet left Kaltag.

There’s more than one race going on out there now.  Between Kaltag
and Unalakeet, it’s a race for first place.    Back
around Eagle Island, it’s a race for a finishing place “in the
money.”   Between Ophir and Iditarod, where the trailing end
of the pack is, there may even be some reverse competition for last
place and the coveted Red Lantern Award.

It is not unheard-of for three or four mushers at the tail of the pack
to confer, conspire, negotiate or cast lots to decide who will finish
last.  There’s no prize for next-to-last.  Right now, the
next to last position is held by “blind” Rachael Scdoris, right behind
her guide Paul Ellering.  One wonders which of them is holding the
other back, and whether they might slow down and let the current Red
Lantern, Sandy McKee, go by so Rachael will have something besides her
book deal and global fame to show for this “race”.

If you’ve been reading my updates, you probably can infer my attitude
of indifference verging on contempt toward Rachael.  It’s nothing
personal (not personal toward her, although of course it can only
be personal from my perspective).  I’d feel the same way toward
anyone who got out there and tried to turn a competitive event into a
camping trip for her own selfish reasons.  The woman has displayed
NPD (narcissistic personality disorder) from the moment she stepped
into the spotlight.  Greyfox, who has good cause to recognize NPD
when he sees it, was radiating disgust last night as he reported seeing
her raise her parka and lower her pants to display a banana-shaped
bruise to the TV cameras.   Bananas.  How appropriate!

Infra dig, Rachael!  But, of course, when have you ever displayed any
dignity, eh?  Dignified behavior doesn’t attract attention, does
it?  I can’t help seeing the parallels at this moment in time
between Scdoris and Michael Jackson.

---

Another
quiet little sidebar I neglected to mention last night:  Charlie
Boulding, the “duct-tape musher” who raced last year fresh from
chemotherapy for colon cancer, scratched yesterday. 

From Finger Lake to Shageluk he dropped a dog at almost every
checkpoint.  Finally, down to nine dogs at Anvik, he quit. 
He had already quit, in a way.  This year at the pre-race musher’s
banquet he announced that this will be his final Iditarod.

He’s bought a boat.  He and Robin and their new baby plan to cruise the Caribbean.

Bon voyage, Charlie.  Stay warm. 

We will miss you.

This is getting OLD!

Yesterday, my browser crashed twice, each time losing a substantial
amount of work on a blog that I felt was worth trying to
reconstruct.  I sorta needed to get at least part of it on here,
because it involves the answers to questions in the trivial
contest.  A few minutes ago, I had substantially reconstructed
that twice-lost blog again when a momentary power outage wiped it
out.  Here I go again, but first I gotta vent.

It’s not just the repeated frustration of losing the cumulative work of
hours of effort that’s getting under my skin.   I’m still
experiencing the effects of the concussion and whiplash injury. 
Such acute symptoms sometimes take my mind off the chronic crap, but
more often they just compound my debility.  In other words, I’m
still a gimp and it ain’t gettin’ any better.  Bah!  Feh…
and meh.  Puh!  Phbbbbtttt.  *whimper*

…and then there are the dreams.  Interesting dreams, the whole
spectrum from those so scary and disturbing they make me glad I finally
woke up to those so beautiful and inspiring I keep going back and
daydreaming about them.  The one last night was much like the
general run of the crop lately, containing transparent symbolism that
gives me useful insight into my twisted psyche.  There was this
guy who really wanted me, or
wanted something I have.  Persistently he kept turning up wherever
I went and wanted to know why I wouldn’t give him a tumble.

He was a scruffy, grody biker, big and so scary that I wasn’t
comfortable telling him how grody, scary and repugnant he is.  I
just kept moving away, trying to ignore and subtly discourage him, but
he’d follow me.  Astoundingly, nobody else around here seemed to
object to him at all.  I was the only one who felt any
threat.  Yeah, Dr. Jung, I know, I know… everyone in the dream
is me.  *sigh*

For a couple of weeks, I suspected that a bear or bears in the
neighborhood had come out of hibernation already.  I no longer
suspect it; I’m virtually certain of it.  A couple of decades ago,
I’d already paid enough attention to what went on in this neighborhood
that I could distinguish among the sounds made by our dogs to moose,
bears, and stray dogs or foxes, etc.  It’s defiintely bears now,
and not just Koji but all the dogs in the neighborhood are telling us
about it.  Last night, Koji’s growling woke me and I told Doug to
bunji the door shut.  This morning when I got up, Brunhilda, the
.44 mag., was on the coffee table at his elbow.  He said after
he’d secured the door, he couldn’t tell whether the sounds he was
hearing outside were the wind or….

---

TRIVIAL STUFF

Answer #2 — two items on the list are not mandatory for mushers to
carry:  a gun and water.  The committee doesn’t formally
require mushers to carry firearms, but many experienced mushers carry
them and informally recommend that rookies do.  Moose, bison and
bears can do a lot of damage to a sled, a musher or a dog team if their
paths happen to cross.

While at first glance it might seem logical to carry water for your
dogs, this is the arctic and it is winter.  A block of ice is not
going to do the dogs much good.  The committee does require
mushers to carry a cooker, a pot with a capacity of at least 3 gallons
for melting snow, and gas line antifreeze (alcohol) for fuel.

This has brought to mind a topic for trivial question #5: 

The trail committee does not require mushers to carry a knife, but most
of them do.  In recent years, the word has gotten around and more
and more mushers are choosing to carry a specific type of knife
suitable for a specific type of emergency situation in which they are
likely to need a knife.  What type of knife is it, and/or for what kind of job/worker was the knife designed?  (FORGET IT, Greyfox.  You’re disqualified.)

Answer #3 — FALSE.  The drug testing mentioned in the question is
mandatory for dogs, but not for the mushers.  Mushers are subject
to state and federal drug laws and may be subjected to urine tests for
illegal drugs at the discretion of race officials.  
Similarly, a musher might be disqualified or suspended for being
intoxicated on alcohol.

Thus far, on questions 1 through 3, wixer and maggie_mcfrenzie are tied for first place.  If
you haven’t entered yet or have answered one or more of the questions
incorrectly, don’t let that discourage you from competition. 
Answers to the first three questions were readily accessible on
iditarod.com.  From here on out, I’m working a little harder to
come up with harder questions, so everyone still has a chance to win –
especially since there will be multiple winners.

---

Historic Iditarod Event

Photo credits:  Bob Hallinen, Anchorage Daily News

Yesterday, Rick Swenson scratched from the race.  It’s his first
incomplete Iditarod in 3 decades of mushing.  Until now, every
time he started the race he finished it, and usually in the
money.  This time, he had dropped some
sick dogs in McGrath and mushed on past Takotna, then returned to
McGrath to sign the official scratch form.  In case you can’t make
out the writing on the form above, it gives the reason for withdrawing
as, “concerns for the well-being of his team.”

Rick Swenson is the only person thus far to have won the Iditarod five
times.  Up until the late 1980s he gradually built a reputation as
a tough competitor, the man to beat.  Then Libby Riddles won and
Susan Butcher followed that with a streak of wins.  Half the women
in Alaska and more than a few men wore t-shirts or displayed bumper
stickers saying, “Alaska, where men are men and women win the Iditarod
again and again and again.”

Rick began to present the image of a sore loser, a disgruntled and
disillusioned male chauvinist.  Maybe his public statements were
calculated to rattle Susan and give him an edge.  That’s not the
impression I got, especially after rumors started getting around about
some private statements he’d made.  He just seemed sour, bitter
and nasty.  But he kept competing.

Time passed.  Susan retired.  The Trail Committee imposed
some new rules that some of the more independent, individualistic and
cantankerous old mushers didn’t like.  Swenson announced his
retirement.  He stayed away a while.  Then he came back, won
some more money and set that record of five wins.  Through it all,
there’s one lasting impression of Rick Swenson that has stayed with me
– dog-lover.

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 Update

Paul 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?

*sigh*

second try

second failure

maybe tomorrow

Grrr….

I had a new entry with dog pics, Iditarod updates, and the new trivia
question, nearly finished when my browser froze.  Maybe later….