IDITAROD 2005
For previous year's stories, click here
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and the first step begins with a dream. Iditarod-many may dream of it but only a few hearty souls will take on the challenge of running it. Eleven hundred sixty miles of you don't want to know. It's the ultimate challenge for both man and dogs - a race of limits. A harsh environment of howling winds, ice, storms, rain, deep snow, mountain passes, and even bare ground. Some run to win the race and others run to finish and prove that they can. Miles of frozen tundra and ice, hours of trotting down the trail, and days of little to no sleep. Sometimes I think that this is the hardest and worst thing I have ever done-what am I doing out here?! Then I see a beautiful sunset over the ocean or maybe the Northern Lights dancing across the sky and all from the back of a sled being pulled by 16 of my best friends-then I know that there is no better place to be then right here running "The Last Great Race".
Iditarod 2005 will be my fourth time to run in this great race to Nome. I was very excited and could not wait to get out on the trail. This year I did a big part of my training for the race in Montana. The warm temperatures, tough hills, and good trails made it ideal for training. I drove my team from Montana to Alaska just about one week before the race was to start. The week before the start is always a busy one with vet checks, EKGs and blood work to be done on all the dogs. There are always those last few runs that I want to put on the dogs along with drivers meetings, banquets, and the ceremonial start. Seventy-nine teams and a total of 1264 dogs were to start this year's race. I had an excellent crew of outstanding people to help me get out of the starting line this year. The last few years I have stayed with a wonderful family in Anchorage that is pretty much my adopted family now. Eric, Lois, Alea and Andrew are always ready to lend a helping hand. Also there to help me out this year was a very good friend of mine, Ric Peterson. I don't know what I would have done without all of these wonderful people there to give me a hand. Just a couple days before the race started, I pulled my lower back muscles really bad. I had a hard time walking or bending over much less doing all my normal daily chores. They all pitched in and made life a lot easier for me. I don't think I have ever started an Iditarod so well rested before and that is so important.
Saturday morning dawned and it was time to get ready for the ceremonial start. All seventy-nine teams lined up on 4th Avenue in downtown Anchorage. Thousands of fans lined the streets cheering on their favorite teams. There is an excitement in the air that is electric. I had drawn the number 2 bib which means that I was the first team out of the starting chute--number 1 is always an honorary musher. Being the first team out was really kind of nice. The ceremonial start is not timed and is more for fun and show. Every team has one handler and one Iditarider along on the 11 mile run. This year I had Ric go along as my handler and my Iditarider was Greg McCloskey from South Dakota. My 12 dogs pulled us easily over the course and we all thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It is always such a fun day and one of the last that I can relax and enjoy. Being the first team out I was able to get done early and go home to pack my sled and get ready for the real start the next afternoon.
Having run three Iditarod's I was getting better at knowing what to pack in my sled. Of course there are always the mandatory items like axe, snowshoes, sleeping bag, cooker & fuel, booties, promotional materials, vet book, and 8lbs extra food for the dogs. Added to that I always carry 2 headlamps, vet supplies, sled fixing kit, extra dry clothes (socks, gloves, boot liners, etc.), 16 dog coats, shoulder and wrist warmers for the dogs, a cooler to carry dog food and water in, 16 dog bowls and a dipper, extra harnesses and neck lines in case one gets chewed, my snacks, my parka and wind shell, any extra dog food and snacks that I need for the dogs, and of course sun glasses and a mini disk player. All the basic supplies that I need to take care of me and the dogs out on the trail needs to be in the sled. Two weeks before the race started I prepared all my food drops for each checkpoint. About 2100 pounds of extra dog food and supplies was put into big poly bags and flown out to the 18 different checkpoints. Once the race starts we are not allowed any outside assistance. What we have in our sleds and our food drop bags is all we can use to get us to Nome.
The restart was to take place in Willow, a little town about 60 miles outside of Anchorage. The new day dawned clear, sunny and beautiful. This year the start of the race was at 2 in the afternoon so it was really starting to warm up from the afternoon sun, a little too warm for the dogs to run comfortably. I made sure all the dogs drank extra water so everyone would be well hydrated. My start time was drawing closer and I had some excellent help getting the dogs all harnessed, bootied, and hooked up. The dogs were pretty excited-barking and jumping and impatient to get on the trail. Once at the starting line it was time to say final goodbyes to all my dear friends, walk around and give each dog another rub down and words of encouragement. Then the count down began. Five, four, three, two, one, GO! We were on our way to Nome! It felt good to be on the trail. No more details to worry about--just taking care of the 16 dogs in front of me.
Kuling and Sawyer were in lead with Spider and Dottie in swing, behind them was Leo, Slurp, Judd, Maya, Turtle, Jango, Dusty, Bower, Peanut, Nibbles, and in wheel position were the two brothers Sioux and Aztec. I was quite excited about this team. All had previous race experience and with the exception of Jango, the rest of the team was in their prime ages-between 3 and 6 years old. Jango was 2yrs old and a last minute addition to the team. One of my main dogs Kate, who had finished several Iditarods with me in the past, pulled a muscle in her shoulder on one of our last runs before the race. I was really bummed to not have her on the team but was very fortunate to be able to lease Jango from a good friend and fellow musher Ken Anderson. Being able to get a dog of such high quality at the last minute to fill the extra spot on my team was pretty nice.
For the first several miles on the trail there were people all along cheering teams on. There were some that had lawn chairs and big fires going, some were on snowmachines and one place had even set up about 200+ flamingos along the trail. They had a big sign that read "Camp Flamingo". There was definitely a festive air about the whole day. I waved to all the fans along the way chatting to some as I went by. The dogs were running well and had settled into a nice pace. With the warm weather I kept them down to a nice easy, slow trot. I didn't want anyone to over heat and besides, we still had a long way to go to Nome. Yentna was our first checkpoint about 35 miles away. The trail mostly followed the lakes for the first few miles then dropped down onto the Susitna River which ran into the Yentna River. In other words, the trail was completely out in the open in the bright sunshine. I was glad my dogs were used to the warmer temperatures and bright sunshine from training in Montana. They didn't seem to mind and were still setting a good pace. I knew I would have an advantage over some of the teams that were not used to the heat. Only one team caught me on the way to Yentna-- Ramey Brooks always sets a fast pace. Seeing only one team did surprise me though. Last year I took it slow too and several teams passed me on the way to Yentna. As I pulled into the checkpoint I signed in, grabbed a bale of straw for the dogs and left as quickly as I could. The run to Yentna had only taken 3 hours and 37 minutes so I wanted to continue down the trail for another 45 minutes to an hour before stopping for our first break. As the team ran along I kept a sharp eye out for a good camping spot. About 45 minutes out I found a really nice spot along the bank of the river that had some open water running by it and was about 30 yards off the trail. I had brought food and water for the dogs with me but having extra water available is always nice so I don't have to get out my cooker and melt snow. I fed the dogs and bedded them down on straw. All the dogs ate really well so I had to be careful not to feed them too much so they would still want to eat the next time I fed them. By this time it was getting dark and several other teams were passing me by. I sat beside my sled and watched each team as it trotted by. At first you could just see the headlamp of the musher coming around the bend in the river. Then you could start to make out the string of dogs in front lit up by the headlamp. As they came closer I could hear the panting of the dogs and the jingle of the gangline as they passed by and trotted out of sight. It was so cool getting to watch all those teams come by. I recognized a few friends' teams and said hi as they went past. It felt so good to be out on the trail again. Camping with the dogs out in the wilderness is so much fun!
I had a schedule in my head of how I wanted to run the dogs, but of course you mostly just have to see how things go and be very flexible. The most important thing I can do is just watch my dogs very carefully and run them according to how they look and feel. A 50/50 run rest schedule is a pretty good rule to follow. Since I had run for about 4 hours and 25 minutes to get to my camping spot, I got the dogs bootied and ready to go after a 4 hour and 15 minute break. It was dark so I pulled out my headlamp and turned it on for the run into Skwentna. It took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach the checkpoint from our camping spot. As we were running along, I thought of all the things I would need to grab out of my food drop bags for our next camping spot down the trail. Just before 1 in the morning we pulled into Skwentna. I signed in, quickly grabbed extra food and snacks for the dogs, straw, fuel for my cooker, and some hot water for my cooler. We were in and out in 6 minutes. I was pretty happy with that as I was determined to not waste any extra minutes. My sled was pretty loaded with all the gear. I had the bale of straw tied down on top of the sled which made it a little bit harder to handle.
Leaving Skwentna, we traveled down the river for a couple of miles before we climbed the bank and left the river for good. Now the trail went over land through a series of swamps and lakes. It was pretty twisting in some areas so it was a nice change from the wide open rivers we had been traveling on. Skwentna to the next checkpoint, Finger Lake, was about 45 miles. Since I had already been traveling for a couple of hours before Skwentna, I wanted to go another 3 hours or so before stopping again. As we trotted along it was now my turn to pass other teams stopped and camping along the trail. This game of leap frog would be the norm for the rest of the race. Every musher has a different idea of what they think their team can do. Everyone trains differently and in different conditions. That is what makes this race so interesting and fun.
The snow was pretty deep in this area so getting very far off the trail to camp was not an easy thing to do. I think it is so important to get a ways off the trail so the dogs can rest better and not be disturbed by passing teams. Three hours and ten minutes later at about 4 in the morning, I found a snowmachine track that took off from the trail so I told my leaders to "haw" and away we went. I stopped next to a tree that I could tie my sled off to and then began the chores that would become the routine for the next 10 days on the trail. The first thing I did was pull out my snacks and feed the dogs. Liver ice snacks-yum! Then I took everyone's booties off, gave them all straw to lie down on and got my cooker out to start melting snow to heat water for the dogs' next meal. As the cooker was going, I went through and checked each dog out for any soreness. I found a few slightly sore wrists from all the soft trail we had been traveling on. I rubbed muscle liniment (traumed and algyval) on them then wrapped their wrist in a sweat wrap for the rest of our stop. By that time the snow I had been melting was now pretty hot water. I poured it on the frozen turkey skins and dry dog food that I was going to feed the dogs. In just minutes it was ready to feed so I put all the bowls out and began feeding each dog. Most of the dogs ate pretty well with the exception of Dusty, Sioux and Aztec. Dusty never eats very well so I was not too concerned about him but Sioux and Aztec are usually some of my better eaters. I was going to definitely keep a closer eye on those two. Some times the younger dogs can get a little stressed out by the start of the race and might take a couple of days to settle into a routine. After I was satisfied that I had done everything that I needed to with the dogs, I laid down for about a half hour nap myself. The alarm clock went off all too soon and it was time to get up and start fixing another meal for the dogs. This time it was lamb and beef. I repacked my sled, rubbed the dogs down again, rebootied and we were ready to get back on the trail. Five hours and twenty minutes after we had stopped I was pulling the snowhook and back on the trail we went.
Morning had dawned and it was another beautiful day. Kuling and Sawyer were still in the lead and the whole team was running really well. Only 1 hour and 25 minutes after we left our camping spot we pulled into the Finger Lake checkpoint. As we crossed the lake I could see planes all lined up on one side ready to fly people, gear, and dogs to different checkpoints. There were race officials and checkers ready to sign me in. There were a few dog teams already resting in the straw off to the side. I signed in and back out again as quickly as I could. Two minutes later we were off-- winding our way through the checkpoint and on the trail to Rainy Pass. It was 35 miles to Rainy Pass from Finger Lake and most definitely some of the hardest trail conditions that we would have to go through. The trail was very windy with a lot of ups and downs with some very big trees to negotiate around. I really had to be on my toes traveling down this trail. With a full 16 dog team my leaders were about 70 feet out in front of me. At times it was so windy that I think my team was going in three different directions at the same time. The well known Happy River steps were coming up on this section of trail also. The "steps" consist of 4 different drops down onto the Happy River. They are pretty steep - the first step was so steep that as my team went over the edge I could only see the back 4 dogs of my team - the other 12 were straight down over the edge. I always take throw-away cameras on the trail with me so being the crazy person that I am I decided to take pictures as I was going down each step. I would snap a shot then stick the camera in my teeth and hang on for dear life as we went over the edge to the next step. It was kind of like a really fun roller coaster ride. Once at the bottom we passed several teams camped out resting their dogs along the trail. Of course, what goes down must also come back up so after about a half mile on the river the trail went straight up a big hill on the other side. It was a warm day so the trail was very soft. In fact after a few teams went over the trail it started to break up and get big holes in it. It was hard for the dogs to keep from falling in them. Sioux was running in the wheel position and was having a hard time negotiating around all the holes and trees in the trail. He was starting to look pretty tired and definitely not doing too well. I decided to drop him in Rainy Pass and send him home. This was a real bummer as Sioux was also the first dog that I dropped in last years Iditarod. I was really hoping he would do better now that he was a year older. It was 2:30 in the afternoon when we pulled into Rainy Pass. The temperature was very warm for the dogs but we still made good traveling time. It took us 3 hours and 40 minutes to run the 35 miles from Finger Lake.
Rainy Pass is a beautiful checkpoint that sits on the shore of Puntilla Lake in the heart of the Alaska Range. It is a very busy place with airplanes taking off and landing right on the lake with lots of spectators and race officials running around. I stopped and camped here last year and really regretted it. There was so much noise that no one got any sleep. This year I decided to grab the supplies I needed, and continue on through the checkpoint and camp down the trail somewhere. I made mental notes as to all the supplies I would need for our camp out. When my team pulled into Rainy Pass the checkers signed me in and the vets were right there asking if I had any dogs to be looked at. I told them I wanted to drop Sioux because he was tired. As they filled out the paper work, I rushed around collecting all the things that I needed like straw, heet for my cooker, the dogs' food, booties, and some snacks for myself. I shoved everything into my sled and was ready to take off when I noticed that Bower was holding a back leg up. He had been running really well coming into Rainy so I was surprised to see him favoring his back leg. I immediately checked him out and could see that he had pulled a muscle during that last run. Even though he had run into the checkpoint fine, he had stiffened up while sitting there. I had the vets look at him and signed the papers for him to go home too. I was really bummed when I pulled out of Rainy Pass with the 14 remaining dogs. Bower was a really good dog. One that I had hoped would go a long way. He now was going to get a plane ride back to Anchorage with Sioux where Alea would take excellent care of them until I got back from Nome. Both dogs were good pullers so their power would be missed.
I only ran the team about a mile out of the checkpoint when I found a nice spot beside the trail to camp. Cim Smyth, another racer, also thought it was a good spot to rest his team so he parked just behind my team. We chatted a little bit as we both worked at taking care of our teams. I began the usual routine of getting my cooker out to melt snow and make a hot meal for the dogs. Next, I went around and took everyone's booties off and laid straw out for them to sleep on. I also continued to do my normal massage routine, muscle liniments, heat packs, shoulder and wrist warmers, and any physical therapy I needed to do. It was such a beautiful spot. The mountains towered above us - glistening white from the heavy snow. It was still very warm out so it was perfect for an afternoon nap for the dogs. Rainy Pass is always one of the more beautiful spots on the trail so I took this opportunity to spread some ashes of a friend that I had been carrying in my sled. He was an older gentleman that had sled dogs too but never got to fulfill his dream of running in the Iditarod himself. I saved some of the ashes and put them back in my sled so I could carry them all the way to Nome under the burled arch. I know he would have been happy to know he did cross the finish line by dog team.
After we had been camped there awhile, several other teams passed by heading to the next checkpoint of Rohn 35 miles away. When it was time for us to go too, I packed my sled and rebootied the dogs. We pulled out after 5 hours and 35 minutes of rest. The sun had already set for the evening but it was still pretty bright out from the moon reflecting off of the snow. I had to pull out my headlamp anyway and put it on so I could see the reflective trail markers. The trail to Rohn climbs over Rainy Pass through the Alaska Range. As we headed towards the pass the trail began to climb up some very big completely open hills. The tall peaks surrounded us and made a breathtaking sight. The wind, as usual, was howling pretty good through this section. As the dogs worked their way down the trail, I could see other musher's headlamps bouncing both in front of me and coming up behind me. The trail was very soft and deep with alot of big holes in it so we were definitely not making good time. Despite that fact, we still caught and passed a couple other teams on the trail. I tried to be extra careful as the dogs were starting to have a hard time. The snow was deep and was like running through two feet of sugar; then, all of a sudden there would be a huge deep trench from the sleds and teams in front of us. My dogs would try to go around but some were still pulled into it. The more teams that traveled over this trail the worse it was getting. The trail went from the open hills, then dropped down onto Pass Creek where it continued to wind its way to the top of the pass. As we followed the creek upstream we traveled through the tall peaks of the Alaska Range. It is hard to describe in words how awesome the view was with the peaks now going straight up on both sides of us. The last little bit to the top was pretty steep but the dogs did great and never missed a beat. Once at the top, things started to get really interesting on the way down. We dropped very fast and the trail followed another creek that was so windy that I could not see my whole team at one time. The willows were so thick on both sides of the trail I had to continually duck to keep from getting hit. There were holes in the ice that the dogs had to jump around and I had to work hard at keeping the sled from falling into them. There were trenches in the trail caused from the teams in front of me using their brakes to slow down. My team could not go around these because the willows were so thick on each side that there was nowhere for them to go but through the trench. I tried keeping the dogs as slow as I could but it wasn't always easy. It was pretty dark now and my headlamp even got knocked off a couple of times by some willow branches. Several times I would come around a corner only to see my leaders or swing dogs wrapped around a willow with the rest of the team looking like an accordion behind them. I was forever untangling dogs. One time Nibbles, who was running in the back of the team, got wrapped around a willow and broke both her neckline and tugline off. She just continued to run down the trail ahead of us. I had a hard time getting the team stopped on that steep icy trail, but when I did, I was able to catch Nibbles, fix the gangline, and get on the way again. I was worried about teams coming up behind me stopping so much. I knew there was at least one team close behind and they would not be able to see me stopped on the dark, windy, steep trail and run into my sled. I guess they probably had as much trouble as I did because I never did see them even with all the time we were stopped getting untangled. It was quite the hair-raising ride down the mountain. I know the dogs were getting as frustrated as I was. Once we got out of the narrow draw and continued down the pass things got alittle bit calmer for a few miles--just long enough for us to catch our breath and stop shaking so bad. We were about to descend the Dalzell Gorge. The trail followed Dalzell Creek down through a very narrow windy gorge where the mountains on both sides went straight up. The trail has to either run down the ice or right on the edge where it can be a bad side hill. You know you are in the gorge when the team drops down a very steep hill and you almost end up in a pile at the bottom directly on the icy creek bottom. Again, there are willows all around and you have to keep ducking and stepping quick to maneuver the sled around all the holes in the ice. It can be quite the roller coaster ride. I honestly do not think that this section is as bad as that first windy creek just before the gorge, but it can still be a heart thumper. After a few fast paced miles, the trail then comes out on the Tatina River where we are home free for the last couple miles into Rohn. There is never much snow in this whole area so we are still traveling on ice, but at least it is wide open and fairly flat. The last 35 miles had really taken a toll on the team-it had taken us 4 hours and 40 minutes. I had not planned to stay in Rohn, just pick up my supplies and continue on, but a couple of my dogs were not looking too good. Judd and Peanut were two of the better dogs on my team and were starting to show signs of having trouble coming through the last gorge. I was pretty worried about them and started to think that if they were having trouble maybe the rest of my team needed a break too. So after less than 5 hours of traveling, I pulled into Rohn deciding to stop and rest again. Part of running this race is being able to read your team and knowing what they need when they need it.
Rohn is just a little cabin in the woods with an airstrip beside it and nothing more. As I pulled up to the cabin Jasper, who is the checker there, signed me in and directed me to a place I could park my team. Several other teams were already resting scattered out through the trees. I quickly got my team bedded down and started melting snow to make their hot meal. The vets came over and we went through all the dogs. Nothing stood out as to what was wrong with Judd and Peanut. I suspected that they were just sore from the bad trail and hoped a good rest would cure that. A couple of the dogs had some sore wrists from the soft snow so I put some liniment on them and covered them with a sweat wrap. This was the first checkpoint that I had stopped at to rest instead of camping out on the trail so it was also the first place the vets could do a complete exam on the dogs. I found out that Slurpy does not like the vets. He has always been a one person dog and he sure didn't like those strange people messing with him so he actually tried to bite one of the vets. I had to hold him so they could check him out. The vets do not know the dogs as well as I do but it is always nice to get a second opinion on things. I can usually tell if there is something different about a dog before the vets can. All the dogs checked out great so I decided that after a 5 hour rest I would continue on with all 14 dogs still on the team. So far in this race I had been doing fairly short runs with short rests. This is a good schedule for the dogs but it also meant that I was getting very little sleep. We had only run a couple hundred miles so far but over some of the toughest trail of the race. I think I had gotten maybe two or three hours of sleep in the last three days. Needless to say I was starting to get tired.
Rohn to Nikolai was a 90 mile stretch of trail. It traveled through the Buffalo Tunnels past Egypt Mountain, across the Farewell Lakes and the Farewell Burn, and finally crossed over several miles of seemingly endless swamps. Leaving Rohn, the trail immediately drops down onto the glare ice of the South Fork of the Kuskokwim River. We only stay on the river for a couple of miles but that is enough when you are out of control and unable to slow the dogs down across the ice all the while trying to keep your sled from falling into a hole in the ice. The Buffalo Tunnels are just a series of hills that hardly ever have any snow on them. And as the name implies, the buffalo hang out here and make a mess of the trail. I sure saw alot of buffalo droppings but thankfully I didn't run into one of them. This section of trail is the hardest on a sled. The dogs have no problem pulling the sled over the frozen bare ground, but with all the trees we are winding around it is hard to keep the sled from crashing into them. After that comes the Farewell Lakes. They are a chain of lakes where the wind blows all the snow off so it is just bare ice when we cross. It looks pretty cool because you can see the stress cracks in the ice as we cross. With all the bare ground and ice out of Rohn, I do not usually bootie the dogs in this section of the trail. In fact, it was so warm out and I was doing so much running across the frozen tundra that I was getting pretty hot myself. I was wearing a pair of Lobens that are sort of like wool tennis shoes. Over the top of these I had a pair of Neos which are waterproof overshoes. I decided to take off the overshoe part and just wear my Lobens so I could run easier in them. I hadn't gone one minute down the trail after taking them off when I came around a corner and there was a big stretch of overflow. Talk about bad timing! I was able to lay over the top of the handlebars on my sled to keep my feet somewhat dry but then a few miles farther down the trail we came to another stretch of overflow. Aztec was running in the wheel position of the team and decided to go on the wrong side of a tree right in the middle of the overflow. I had to get off my sled and wade through the water to untangle him. My wool shoes got completely soaked! My feet were bricks of ice in no time. It would be another day and a half before I would be able to dry them back out.
The last half of the trail to Nikolai crosses over some huge wide open swamps. The wind is usually blowing pretty hard through this stretch and can be a miserable cold trip. I was not going to run the whole 90 miles in one stretch so I had brought some extra supplies with me so I could take a short break and feed the dogs. We had run for six hours before I found a place somewhat out of the wind to pull the dogs off the trail for a rest. The snow was very deep and as I pulled the dogs off the trail, we kept breaking through the hard crust on top. It was very hard to walk around and take care of the dogs so I eventually found that it was easier to crawl on my hands and knees to keep from falling through. The dogs definitely looked at me funny. I had been carrying Peanut for several hours in the sled. He is such a tough dog but was not doing well again and I decided that it was his back that was bothering him. He must have pulled a muscle during that terrible stretch from Rainy Pass to Rohn. We only rested for about 2 ½ hours before resuming our run onto Nikolai. The last leg of that really long run took us 2 hours and 45 minutes from our resting spot to reach the checkpoint.
Nikolai is always a welcome sight after being out on the trail for such a long wind blown stretch. On the run, I passed several other teams camping out along the trail and a few passed me while we were resting. Once in Nikolai, I rested the team for a little over six hours. I had sent my second sled here also so I switched everything in my current sled over to the new sled. The new sled was lighter and had a seat on the back for me to use when I was in a lot of wind. Because the trail can be kind of rough up to this point I always take my heavy duty sled to start with then switch once the trail gets better. I made arrangements for my old sled to be taken back to McGrath by snowmachine where it could be flown back to Anchorage. The school in Nikolai has hot water available and a place for the musher themselves to sleep on a mat on the floor. That was pretty nice after having to melt snow for several days out on the trail and sleeping on the straw with the dogs. I was only able to get about 45 minutes to an hour of sleep though. My shoes were still bricks of ice. They started to thaw alittle bit but were far from dry yet. I had decided to drop both Judd and Peanut here at Nikolai and they both seemed to have the same problem. The muscles on their lower backs were sore and it was affecting their back legs. I had never seen or had this problem in any other race before so I am assuming it was due to the extremely bad trail earlier in the race. Both dogs were sent back to Anchorage where Alea would take care of them for the remainder of the race. I on the other hand would really miss these two key dogs. Judd was one of my main leaders and had finished the race last year. Peanut was my biggest dog on the team and a real powerhouse puller. A little extra rest and both dogs would be fine. For now though, their race was over for this year. I continued on to McGrath 50 miles away with the remaining 12 dogs now on my team. Every year is so different; you can just never tell what will happen along the way. Last year I made it all the way to Nikolai with all 16 dogs and this year I was leaving Nikolai with only 12. Like I always say though, "it's not how many you have it is how good the ones you have are". I had full confidence in the dogs I had left. They were an awesome bunch!
It was midnight when I left Nikolai heading for McGrath. Traveling at such early morning hours is always tough to stay awake, especially on the Kuskokwim River which can be quite boring. I used my seat to sit on, pulled out my ski poles, and started pushing to help the dogs and to give me something to do. I know I dozed off for a few seconds at a time only to wake up with the sled about to tip over from running off the trail. As I had been doing for the whole race, I stopped every couple of hours and gave the dogs a snack. The snacks that I carried in my cooler were mostly chicken breasts and fish steaks. Some dogs liked the fish and others liked the chicken better. I always soak the meat in water so that way the dogs can get some extra water along with it.
It took us what seemed like a long six hours to reach McGrath. I checked in and out as quickly as I could and kept heading down the trail to Takotna where I planned on taking my 24 hour layover. It was only 18 miles to Takotna from McGrath but took a long 2 ½ hours to get there. We did have to climb over a pretty good hill to reach Takotna but the biggest problem was that I could not stay awake! I kept falling asleep on the back of the sled while we were going. We had been on the trail for three days now and I had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep - maybe. The trail had been a challenging one and I had been doing a shorter run-rest schedule which hadn't left much time for me to sleep. I was so happy to finally reach Takotna and my long awaited 24 hour layover!
Takotna is a village with only about 40 people in it and sits on the bank of the Takotna River. It is one of my favorite checkpoints. The surrounding area is beautiful as it sits in the heart of the Kuskokwim Mountains. In my opinion, it is the best place to take a 24 hour layover because they always have hot water for the dogs, hot meals for the mushers, and a dry warm place to sleep without having to walk very far for any of it. After signing in, I parked my team by the local church which was used for the sleeping quarters. Right next to it was a big barrel of water with a fire under it to keep it hot. I was able to have a hot meal for my dogs in no time at all. I spent some extra time going over the dogs and massaging them. The vets came and did their checkup also. I had a few dogs that had some sore wrists and a couple that had a sore shoulder. Just like with human athletes they can get sore muscles but with some massage and physical therapy along with muscles liniments and heat packs most of the dogs warm right out of it. Sometimes I can feel a knot in the muscle that I can massage out. The dogs love the massaging and usually sleep through the whole thing. When you stop they wake up and say "Hey! What are you stopping for? Keep going." I was so tired when I finished taking care of the dogs I did not even go down to the community center to get anything to eat myself. There is a kitchen there and the local ladies will fix you anything you want including steak. They also have an awesome assortment of pies and cakes for the mushers too. As tempting as that was I wanted sleep more. I got a whole 4 hours before I had to get up and take care of the dogs again. Boy, was that ever nice! The dogs were all eating good so it did not take me long to feed them and recheck everyone's heat packs and make sure they were all comfortable and sleeping well. I then finally walked down and got something to eat myself. While I was waiting for my food to cook, I was able to call home and talk to my mom and also to a good friend in Arizona. It is a real treat to be able to talk to someone at home watching the race. Both my mom and Ric had good things to say which can always cheer a tired body up. When you are really tired out on the trail, it is so important to always keep a good attitude no matter how tough it can get. After I ate, I went back to the church to get more sleep. The rest of my 24 went much the same - take care of the dogs, get something to eat and get more sleep. I tried to be very focused and not spend too much time talking to other people at the checkpoint when I could be sleeping or taking care of my dogs. I would need all the sleep I could get because I knew I would not get much in the days to come either.
The 24 hour layover did its job and rejuvenated both me and the dogs. The vets thought my team looked great and I felt much better too. When it was almost time to go I repacked my sled, bootied the dogs, and rubbed everyone down again. I had taken all the dogs for a couple of short walks during our stay there to keep them from stiffening up. It was now time to get going. At 11 o'clock in the morning when my mandatory layover was complete, my 12 dogs and I headed back out on the trail. Ophir was the next checkpoint about 25 miles away. The trail climbed up a big hill and then descended down the other side towards Ganes Creek and the Innoko River. Ophir was an old gold mining town but now all that is left is one small cabin and a few sheds. The sun was getting high in the sky so it was really getting warm for the dogs. We made good time completing the 25 miles in just a few minutes over 2 hours. Even though we had just taken a 26 hour rest and had only run for 2 hours I still decided that I did not want to run the dogs in the heat of the afternoon. Arriving in Ophir at 1 pm, I figured I could stay for 3 hours and then leave at 4pm when it would start to cool off. Keeping the dogs on a schedule of running in the early morning and resting in the hot afternoon was the best way to go. There were several other teams also resting in Ophir so after taking care of the dogs, I enjoyed spending some time talking to them and seeing how their race was going. The next section of trail was going to be a long one--about 90 miles to the checkpoint of Iditarod. I wanted to be sure and not take any dog that was not 100% up to the task so I decided to drop Nibbles. She was a small female that ran in the back of my team and had a muscle in her shoulder that was bothering her. This was the first year that Nibbles had made my team and she had done a good job up to that point but it was now time to send her home too. I pulled out of Ophir with 11 dogs and a sled fully loaded with all the extra food and supplies I would need to camp out on the trail during this next stretch.
I had heard that it was going to be very slow and hard going with a lot of deep snow. The trail had barely been broke open before the front teams and was taking some of the top teams a long time to get to Iditarod. I wanted to be prepared for a long run. I was pleasantly surprised to find out as we traveled along that the trail was setting up so we were able to make good time. I figured it was a good pay back. The front runners had a good trail going through Rainy Pass and the back teams had a badly broken up trail. Now the front runners had a soft slow trail to Iditarod and it had set up and was a good trail for the back teams. Don's Cabin was an old trappers cabin about 35 miles from Ophir that a lot of mushers stop at but I passed right by and kept going for another 7 or 8 miles until I came to a nice sheltered creek bottom that had some open water in it. It was a nice spot for a break. It had taken us 5 hours and 40 minutes to travel over the rolling hills to get here. This last stretch of trail was so scenic and beautiful. I even got to watch an awesome sunset as we traveled along. There had been a few soft spots along the way that the dogs kept falling in, but it was not as bad as what we had been through before. Once I pulled the dogs off of the trail, I laid the straw out for them and was able to get a meal going fairly quickly since I could get water out of the creek. With the dog chores complete I turned off my headlamp and tried to get a few minutes of sleep myself. I always enjoy camping out on the trail and prefer it to staying at the checkpoints most of the time. I think I can get a few more minutes of sleep for myself and the dogs always rest really well too. A few teams passed by in the dark and one even stopped just down the trail from my team for a rest too. There is something so mystical about watching a dogteam pass by in the dark. All you hear are the sounds of the dogs panting and maybe a creak or two from the sled as it glides behind the dogs. The mushers' headlamp lights up the trail in front of the team as it trots along. I love watching the dogs run past only to have them disappear into the dark again.
It was about 2:30 in the morning when we pulled back out on the trail headed for Iditarod. We had rested there along the creek for 5 hours. The dogs were feeling good as it only took us another 4 ½ hours to reach the checkpoint. Iditarod! It was considered the halfway point of the race and we had finally made it. Arriving in Iditarod at 7 in the morning put me off my schedule again. I was finding it really hard to stay on a good schedule of not running in the heat of the afternoon. If I rested here for another 5 hours it would put us out of the checkpoint at exactly 12 noon--right when I did not want to be traveling.
The checkpoint of Iditarod is an old ghost town that sits right on the Iditarod River. Once a booming town of more than 10,000 people it now only has a few buildings still standing. The Iditarod Trail Committee built a new cabin there last summer so that mushers who wanted to take their mandatory 24 hour layover there would have a warm place to sleep. I was among the top 20 teams to sign into the checkpoint so I was pretty happy with how things were looking. I bedded my dogs down on their straw and began melting snow to make a hot meal for the dogs. Even though it was warm and sunny out, the wind was still blowing down the river pretty good. I had a hard time getting my cooker to melt snow fast enough. I just had a full pot of water before the cooker melted down into the snow and tipped over. I lost all the water that I had and had to start all over again. While I waited for more snow to melt I had lots of extra time to massage dogs. Dusty was one of my team dogs and he too had a shoulder muscle that was getting sore. I signed him over to the vets to be flown back to Anchorage. This left me with 10 great dogs still on my team. One bright side of getting down on the dog numbers was that it didn't take me as long to feed and massage them all--which in return means I can get a few extra minutes of sleep. Melanie Gould had her team parked next to mine so we enjoyed chatting as we both worked on our dogs. I was able to get about 30 minutes of sleep before it was time to go again. Boy, this running in the top of the field was getting to be very tiring not to mention a lot of work! Oh well, I wouldn't have it any other way.
It was very hot out when I pulled my team back out on the trail. Twelve noon--the sun was high in the sky. Melanie followed me out and we both just took it slow and easy. The trail was really soft and slow going not to mention traveling over some very big steep hills. Sawyer, Spider, and Leo had been taking turns leading with Kuling, Maya, Dottie, Slurp, Jango, and Turtle running in the team and Aztec running in the wheel position. I ran Aztec in single wheel so he would have plenty of room to maneuver on the windy trail. It was a long slow 65 miles to the next checkpoint of Shageluk. I was getting very frustrated with my sled during this stretch of trail. It was not steering very well and with the trail being narrow and windy with lots of ups and downs, I was really working to keep my sled on the trail. Truthfully, I wanted to make kindling out of it before I reached Shageluk. On one big down hill, my sled ran off the trail despite me pulling on it and tipped over. I could not stop the dogs so I drug all the way down the hill behind the sled, getting drug through the brush and trees as we went. I was getting frustrated not only because it was a lot of work for me but I felt bad about the way the sled was jerking the dogs around too. I was definitely finding it hard to keep a positive attitude. It was such a warm day out for the dogs that I only traveled about 3 hours and 45 minutes before I found a nice spot to camp. I gave the dogs a warm meal and lots of extra massages after bedding them down on straw. We only stopped for 3 hours before pulling out again. A couple of teams passed me while we were stopped, but then I saw most of them again down the trail farther camping out with their dogs for a rest too. Another 4 hours and 15 minutes after getting back on the trail we finally arrived in Shageluk. Shageluk is a village that sits on the banks of the Innoko River and as I pulled into the checkpoint they had a sign there that said 'Nome 550 miles to go'. Boy, did I let out a big sigh. That is not a very good sign to see when you are tired to the bone. I really did not need to know how much farther we had to go.
Trying to put how much farther we still had to go out of my mind, I got to work taking care of my dogs. There were alot of teams piling in to the checkpoint right behind me and I had to concentrate on how I was going to stay in front of them. It was dark out so I had to use my headlamp to feed and massage the team. After words, I walked around and looked at some of the other teams and talked to some of the other mushers. There were an awful lot of really good-looking dog teams behind me. I could not make any mistakes or several of them would catch me. One of the biggest ways to keep ahead was for me to be very efficient in the checkpoints and not give up any extra time. If I wanted to rest for 6 hours then I should be ready to go in 5 hours and 45 minutes not 6 hours and 15 minutes. By this point in the race, I had been doing short runs followed by short rests. This is a good schedule for the dogs but can be very hard on the musher as it means very little sleep. I was only going to stay in Shageluk for 5 hours so after all my dog chores were complete, I was able to get about a half hour of sleep before heading back out on the trail.
Shageluk to Anvik was 25 miles and it would be the first time that we would travel down the Yukon River. The mighty Yukon can be very easy traveling, but more often than not, it can be very windy and stormy. This year the weather was pretty nice other than being too warm and sunny. The dogs were traveling very well and seemed to be moving along nicely as we made our way up river. We came into Anvik and as quickly as I could sign in and out, we were down the trail again headed to Grayling about 20 miles up the river. Running on the river was a nice change compared to the hilly trails. I was able to sit on the seat on the back of the sled and use my ski poles to help the dogs out. Ski poling can really help make a big difference when you are down to 10 dogs on a soft mushy trail. At almost 40 degrees above zero, the trail was getting very punchy and hard for the dogs to run on. It took us about 2 ½ hours to cover the distance from Anvik to Grayling. That was a pretty good time considering the trail conditions. In fact, the dogs came into Grayling looking fantastic!
Once in Grayling, I decided to take my mandatory 8 hour layover. We arrived at 10:30 in the morning so an 8 hour stay would put us back on the trail at 6:30 at night. Perfect! It was a very warm sunny day and with no shade on the wide open river, I did not want to be traveling in the hot afternoon. I parked the team next to one of the village buildings and went to work taking care of the dogs. There were several vets there to look the team over and of course I did my usual routine of massaging and feeding. I bedded the dogs down on large beds of straw which they quickly burrowed into and fell asleep. I was pretty tired too. There were several reporters around that wanted interviews and I found it very hard to stay awake while talking to them. In fact a friend of mine (Greg McCloskey) who was following the race was there taking pictures. Later, when he sent copies to me I looked really tired in them. I enjoyed visiting with Greg. When you are really tired it is a big mental boost to see someone you know along the way and get to visit with them a bit. I saw him several more times along the way and it always cheered me up to see a smiling face I knew when I came into a check point. I was finally able to go to the local school, get a hot meal and found a mat on the gym floor to lay down on for a nap. It was not a very long nap, in fact it was way too short for as tired as I was at that point - maybe about 45 min. to an hour. It was time to take care of the dogs again.
Eight hours after pulling into Grayling, my 10 dogs and I were back on the trail heading to the next checkpoint--Eagle Island. It was suppose to be about a 70 mile run, so I took extra food for the dogs for a camp out. My idea was to run for about 6 ½ hours, stop for 5 or 6 hours along the trail, continue on to Eagle Island picking up more food and then on to Kaltag. I had looked at the time sheets before leaving Grayling and the first teams to reach Eagle Island had taken 10 to 11 hours to cover the 70 miles. I did not want to run that long in one stretch so that is why I planned to camp out. Little did I know that the trail had set up alot behind those front teams. We made alot better time than I would ever have thought. With 10 strong dogs and me ski poling the whole way we were moving right along. I had just looked at my watch and saw that we had been on the trail for about 6 ½ hours. I was looking for a good place to pull over and stop when I saw a cardboard sign that said Eagle Island 5 miles. I thought I must be hallucinating! It couldn't be just 5 miles away. That would mean we had covered the first 65 miles in just 6 ½ hours. I knew we were moving along well but I did not think we were traveling 10 miles an hour. I figured the only way to find out was to keep going. No sense in stopping if it was only 5 miles away to the checkpoint. Sure enough, in another half-hour I came around the corner and saw small lights along the river bank. I had just carried a whole sled full of extra food to feed for my camp out and ended up not needing it at all. I had been the fastest team to cover that stretch of trail up to that point!
Eagle Island is basically just a couple of tents set up along the river bank with an airstrip on the river ice for the planes to land. It was none the less a very welcome sight! A very good friend of mine was a checker there so that made it even more so. I soon found that having such a fast time did not come without a price. As I took care of the dogs and bedded them down on straw I found that Turtle, who had a flawless performance up to now, had a really sore shoulder. The trail had been really punchy and soft and as the dogs trotted along, they would fall through a soft spot every so often. Turtle must have pulled a muscle on one of those times. I had to send him home from here. I would really miss having Turtle on the team - he was such a strong dog! We rested for 6 hours--the remaining 9 dogs looking good and ready to go.
The trail to Kaltag was about 65 miles and was the last stretch on the Yukon River. I passed a few teams - one of which was Ken Anderson. He had not stopped in Eagle Island to rest but camped out on the trail. My 9 dog team after a good rest quickly caught up to him and passed his 12 dog team. As I went by he commented on the nice looking little black female I still had on the team. He of course was talking about Jango the 2 year old female that I had leased from him at the beginning of the race. Now here I was passing him with his own dog in my team! I thought that was rather funny. We were both sitting down on our seats ski poling away but my team eventually pulled away from him. The trail was still very soft and punchy so I was trying to be careful not to go too fast again and hurt another dog. The dogs were feeling pretty good though and we still averaged about 10 miles an hour covering the trail to Kaltag in about 6 ½ hours. It was another very hot day as we came into Kaltag at 2 in the afternoon in bright sunshine. I was very glad to get off the river where there was no shade and onto land again.
Kaltag is the last village that we go through on the Yukon River. I had not stopped here for the last couple of years that I have run in the Iditarod. This year I would stay about 6 hours. As I was going through and caring for the dogs I could see that the soft trail had taken yet another toll on one of my dogs. Slurpy had a sore shoulder just like Turtle had. When the dogs are running they look good, but just like with people, once you stop and the muscles begin to cool down, that is when you find ones that may be stiff or sore. Sometimes you can massage a stiff or knotted muscle but in Slurp and Turtle's case they just needed lots of rest. Slurp had done so great--I had really hoped he might finish. He has always been one of my favorite dogs. The only problem with Slurp though was that he had learned during this race he could buffalo the vets into thinking he was a mean dog. He has always been kind of a one person dog and likes only me. That is why I call him Slurp - all he wants to do is lick me. Anytime one of the vets wanted to look him over I would have to hold him or he would try to bite them. I usually just knew he was bluffing as I have never actually seen him bite anyone but he sure did a good job convincing them otherwise. My problem came when I dropped him - other people would have to handle him. I did not know how Slurpy would handle that and was pretty worried about him. I learned later that they had to tie his mouth shut which I was not happy about. Next year, I will just have to carry along a muzzle for him if I ever have to drop him again. He is quickly becoming one of my best dogs though, so I hope that next year he will finish.
I stayed at Kaltag just under 6 hours before hitting the trail again headed for Unalakleet. Unalakleet is about 90 miles away and is the first village that we come to on the coast. We have to climb a small pass about 20 miles out of Kaltag and then it is a long valley through the Nulato Hills the rest of the way. Several times as I have traveled through this valley, I have seen caribou along the trail. They are always fun to see and it certainly perks the dogs up. I have always thought that this is one of the prettiest stretches in the whole race. There are a couple cabins along the way that I have enjoyed staying at in the last few years. Tripod cabin is my favorite--about 27 miles out of Kaltag. Then Old Woman cabin is also really nice and it is just over half-way to Unalakleet. This year I stayed at Old Woman cabin for about 4 hours. The cabin is one of the last places in the shelter of the trees before you break out into the open and, of course, hit the wind. It is also the last place the dogs or I will get a decent rest before the finish line. All the remaining checkpoints from here on out are on the coast and usually very windy and cold - not to mention we really start to push to the finish line and Nome!
After resting at Old Woman cabin we ran the last 35 miles into Unalakleet. Part of the trail always goes down the Unalakleet River, but due to alot of overflow this year they had to reroute the last few miles into the village. We still had to go through one stretch of overflow though. The dogs were not too happy about that except for my leader Kuling--who wanted to stop and drink in the middle of it! The rerouting was kind of a bummer as the trail went over a pretty big hill that we don't normally have to go over. The dogs that had been through here before, including me, were not too happy about the extra work. But topping that hill and seeing the village of Unalakleet down below was a very welcome sight indeed.
With Kuling and Sawyer in lead, my 8 dog team came loping into Unalakleet looking very good. I was very proud of how all the dogs were doing. Nine hundred miles down and only 270 more miles to go! My eight remaining super dogs were Kuling, Sawyer, Leo, Spider, Maya, Jango, Dottie, and Aztec. Aztec and Jango were the only two dogs on the team that had not yet been to Nome so it was really nice to see them doing so well.
Stopping and resting in Unalakleet has never been a good experience for me. The villagers are very nice but it is always a very windy and cold place. Getting the cooker to heat water in the wind is never an easy task. I had only planned to stay for 4 hours but by the time I waited for hot water to make a hot meal for the dogs, massaged everyone (the dogs that is) and repacked my sled I only got 15 minutes of sleep myself. It was then time to rebootie the dogs and head back onto the trail. Next stop, Shaktoolik, about 45 miles away.
The trail to Shaktoolik climbs through the Blueberry Hills and is always a challenge for both the dogs and the musher this late in the race. With only 8 dogs, I did alot of running up all the hills. Those "hills" can seem like mountains when you are tired. One hill after another for 30 miles -just when you think you have reached the top you find there is another ridge to go up even higher. Finally, you come to the last ridge and you look over Norton Sound with the village of Shaktoolik way off in the distance. It is a beautiful sight! The first year I ran this race, I saw the most awesome sunset from high up that ridge. There is a pretty big steep hill to go down from there and then it is 14 miles across the open right along the ocean shore to Shaktoolik. It can be a terribly windy stretch too. This year though, as the dogs were trotting along and I was ski poling, the ocean was free of ice and the waves were crashing up on the bank, spraying water into the air. I really enjoyed watching the waves and the whole time kept thinking "how cool is this to be mushing dogs along the beach of the ocean"! Never mind the fact that it was below freezing and there was snow and ice everywhere! This certainly may not be the kind of "beach" most people would think of, but I could just pretend it was a different beach maybe someplace warmer. :
After 5 hours of being on the trail we reached the checkpoint. Shaktoolik can be a very cold, windy and miserable place at times, but I must say that the villagers there are definitely some of the nicest people along the whole trail! They always have a smile on their face and make you feel very welcome. The village sits along the ocean shore way out in the open and is subject to anything and everything the wind and weather has to throw at it. I think that the people who live there have to be some of the toughest people I know. They are amazing.
Resting at Shaktoolik can sometimes be a challenge. I would try to bed the dogs down on straw, but if they did not lay down on it quickly enough, it would just blow away. I even had dog coats on all the dogs to help protect them from the wind. By the time I did all my chores and massages for the dogs I again only got about 15 minutes of sleep. We stayed and rested just under 4 hours before pulling out on the trail again. Nome was getting closer and I sure wanted to get there soon. I had only been getting about 30 to 40 minutes of sleep a day recently and I was getting pretty tired. Well, OK, I will admit - I was really tired! I had been keeping track of how my team was doing and we were running in about 16th place. There were alot of teams really close behind me and if I made one wrong move I knew they would catch me. I couldn't believe how close the teams were this year. Even at 16th, I was not that far behind the leaders of the race and right behind me were several teams pushing hard to catch me.
The next stretch of trail traveled across Norton Sound about 50 to 60 miles depending on how open the sea ice was. Sometimes it is frozen so we can travel straight across the sound. Other times there is open water so the trail would have to stay closer to shore. In my first Iditarod, leaving the village of Shaktoolik was one of the most intimidating things I have ever done. It was dark and storming with head winds up to 60 mph - a complete white out. You are totally in the open and vulnerable to whatever the weather throws at you for 60 miles! I have since crossed the sound 4 times now so it is not as intimidating as it once was. This year, it was blowing pretty hard as usual and we traveled the whole way in the dark. Before I left Shaktoolik I was looking at the times for the first few teams across the sound into Koyuk and it was taking them anywhere from 8 hours to 6 ½ hours. As I was talking to the locals there, they challenged me to do it faster, so I said "OK, I'll do it in 5 hours". They just smiled and said they would be watching for my arrival time into Koyuk. Now maybe that was getting alittle bit cocky for me to say, but I knew I had a faster team than alot of the teams around me. Well, I am proud to say that it only took my team 5 hours and 3 minutes. What an amazing 8 dogs! The run actually went very well. It was blowing pretty hard but with Kuling and Leo in the lead and me ski poling, we made it the entire way across without stopping. In fact, just after we left Shaktoolik we passed Ken Anderson again. He had gone through Shaktoolik without stopping and still had 12 dogs. My 8, including his dog Jango, just trotted on by and left him behind. Boy, was that fun! Even though it only took us 5 hours it sure can be a very boring 5 hours. Some years you can see the lights of both Shaktoolik and Koyuk at the same time--there just happens to be about 50 miles of flat sea ice between them. It is a real mind game at this point. At night you can see the lights of Koyuk for hours and they never seem to get any closer. It is so important to keep a good attitude! I stay busy and awake by ski poling the whole way and also have a mini-disc player to play both music and books on tape. Music can sometimes put me to sleep so the books on tape work well to keep my interest up when I am tired. Sometimes I even sing to the dogs - maybe that's why they were so fast across the sound.....to get away from my singing! :
It is always nice to finally arrive in Koyuk. The people there are so nice but since I arrived at just before 4 in the morning, only the checker, race officials and a few volunteers were there to greet me. I bedded the dogs down on straw against a hill that was somewhat out of the wind. The villagers brought my food bags over to me along with a bucket of water. That was so nice to not have to carry everything over myself and especially nice not having to melt snow for water - all I had to do was heat it up. With only 8 dogs left, it didn't take me very long to take care of everyone. I was still spending some extra time massaging some sore muscles and putting liniment and heat packs on them but I was getting pretty efficient at it. Kulings' sore shoulders and wrists were getting better and the other dogs that had sore wrists like Spider, Maya, and Jango were fine now, but I was still doing preventative work on them. After feeding everyone I went inside to get a bite to eat myself and a few minutes of sleep. I was only going to stay for 4 hours again so I should have only gotten about 15 minutes of sleep, but at this point I was so tired that I over slept by 25 minutes. When I did wake up and saw that I had overslept, I really scrambling to get going. I had been traveling the whole coast with another musher named Jessica Hendricks. Both our teams were pretty evenly matched and traveling the same speeds even though she still had 11 dogs and I had 8. Anyway, her team was parked right next to mine and I was relieved to see that she was still there and getting ready to go too. At about 8am, we both pulled out headed for Elim - 48 miles away. I had stayed in Koyuk for 4 hours and 25 minutes. I really hoped that my mistake would not cost me too much later on in the race. Alot of teams were really stacked up behind me and losing 25 minutes could mean losing a couple of places. I guess only time would tell how everything would play out.
As we headed down the trail to Elim we followed the coastline for a few miles before climbing over a big set of hills and then dropping down to the shoreline again. The remaining stretch of trail went across a big open flat along the shore. It was totally exposed to all the elements and the wind was really howling. It was snowing and raining alittle bit but mostly the wind created white out conditions. I was getting soaked from the rain. All in all, it was pretty miserable going in those strong head winds. To keep a good attitude for both me and the dogs I started to sing to them. I know I got some pretty crazy looks from the dogs. I think they thought I had lost it for sure now! As we were going along I was sitting on my seat, ski poling to help the dogs out, when a couple of helicopters flew over us. One circled around a few times and then left. I recognized them as the Outdoor Life Channel crew. I had seen them throughout the whole race but was surprised to see them in this bad weather. Jessica Hendricks had been faster than my team going over the hills so she had pulled away from me, but I could tell she was not far ahead of me when I saw the helicopters circle over her too. At this point I was thinking that I would not be able to beat her because her team was alittle bit stronger and faster than mine. But as we got closer to Elim and came up over a small hill, I saw two very interesting things. First, one of the two helicopters had just crashed in the storm. It was trying to land in the white out and hit ground sooner than the pilot thought. Thankfully no one was hurt. The second sight was that I had just caught up to Jessica again. As I caught and passed her, I could tell that there was nothing wrong with her team but she was in a really down mood because of the storm and it was having a bad affect on her dogs. Through the wind I tried yelling at her to cheer up and pretend she was having fun for the dogs' sake, but she couldn't hear me it was blowing so badly. My mind started to race now. I had just caught her and I thought that if she was in such a bad mood, she would not go through Elim - the next checkpoint. Even though my team had just run 50 miles from Koyuk and it was another 50 miles from Elim to White Mountain, I figured that if I went through Elim just stopping long enough to water my dogs then maybe I could stay ahead of her. My original plan was to stay 3 hours there, but I knew that alot of mushers chose to go through Elim without stopping too. If they could do it, then I knew my team could do it too. With my new plan all figured out - or so I thought - I arrived in Elim after 5 hours and 10 minutes on the trail only to find a very big surprise!
As my team pulled into Elim, we traveled down the streets to the fire station where the checkpoint was. I was shocked to see several teams still resting there. These were teams that I had not seen the whole race as they had been so far in front of me--teams like past champions Jeff King, Doug Swingley, and Martin Buser. Several other top teams were also there like Dee Dee Jonrowe, Ali Zyrkle, Lance Mackey, and Tyrell Seavey. I was like a kid in a candy store I was so excited to see them. I had never dreamed of catching any teams ahead of me - I was too busy trying to stay ahead of the teams behind me. I pulled my dogs off to the side and scurried around getting straw for them and hot water to make a meal for them to eat. I did not take any booties off like I normally would. I wanted to scope things out and see why everyone was still there first. As I talked to Jasper the checker, he informed me that the trail ahead was snowed in plus it was storming and blowing hard on top of Little McKinley. That is a big hill we had to climb over on the way to White Mountain--the second to last checkpoint in the race. He said all the other mushers wanted to rest their dogs more and get dried out themselves before heading out into the storm again. While I agreed that it was wet and miserable out and even though I was soaked too, it was not that cold. I was so excited to be in this position that I didn't care about being wet and miserable. Since the trail ahead was snowed in and drifted, I was not in a big hurry to leave and break trail for everyone behind me, especially since they had just rested their dogs 4 to 6 hours and my dogs had just run 5 hours to get here. I could see the other mushers getting ready to go so I just waited for them to leave first. I knew my team was faster so now my dilemma was how long after they leave before I go? Jeff, Martin, Dee Dee, and Ali left first then about 20 minutes later Lance left. I decided to follow Lance out.
We had been in Elim for 54 minutes when we headed out on the trail again. The first 6 miles was on the flat sea ice before we hit the bottom of Little McKinley and climbed straight up - or so it felt. Even though we had left 20 minutes behind the other 4 teams, I sat on my seat and ski poled to help the dogs out and in no time at all we caught and passed them. That meant we would be breaking trail over Little McKinley anyway. Looking back now, I wish I would have just stuck to my plan and run through Elim anyway, regardless of how the trail was. Every year you learn something new. As we passed the other teams some of the mushers made comments about my endless ski poling. Dee Dee said "it just hurt watching you" and Martin said he wanted to see how big my arms were getting.
My 8 dogs pulled away from the others but then we hit the bottom of a long set of big hills. It was blowing so hard that it was a white out. I couldn't see much farther than my 8 dogs. The trail was drifted in so the dogs had a hard time finding it. Kuling and Sawyer were in the lead. They were both doing great but I soon took Sawyer out as Kuling could work better in single lead. Kuling did an amazing job of finding the trail. She worked her way back and forth over the deep drifts in the howling wind and pulled the team up some very steep hills. Because the going was so tough and we were breaking trail, the 5 teams behind me finally caught up and followed along behind. We made it about half-way when I decided to give Kuling a break and let someone else try breaking trail. Lance took the lead for awhile then passed it off to Ali, Dee Dee, and Martin. All of them had more trouble than I did finding the trail and staying on it. The dogs and I were getting so frustrated waiting for them that I was about ready to take the lead again when Jeff took his turn at leading and we finally started making progress again. I think I would have been faster if I had just left Elim like I had planned and not waited for the other teams to help break trail. Jeff had some good leaders though and he broke trail the rest of the way over the hills. Once we dropped out of the hills we hit Golovin Bay. It was now flat sea ice again the rest of the way to White Mountain. We did go right through the village of Golovin and that can always be tough on the dogs mentally. They see a village and think it is a checkpoint to stop and rest. Except this time, we ran right through and traveled another 18 miles of sea ice to reach White Mountain. As I've said before, it is really important to keep a very good attitude this late in the game. Your dogs will pick up on any tired feelings you have. As we traveled the remaining miles, we pulled away from all the other teams except for Lance Mackey. He was the only team that beat us into White Mountain.
White Mountain is a small village that sits on the banks of Fish River and is the last main checkpoint of the race. Every musher is required to take a mandatory 8 hour layover here before heading to the finish line 77 miles away. With all the bad weather I guess the Iditarod officials were having a hard time flying people in to man the checkpoint because I was surprised to find no one around to take my time into the checkpoint. I looked at my watch and timed myself in. This was important as we had to take our mandatory 8 hours here and I wanted to leave on time and not a minute later. I bedded the dogs down on big piles of straw and then walked up to see if I could find any officials at the main building. Martin Buser's wife, Kathy, had been flying along the trail watching the teams - and of course Martin - when her plane was grounded because of bad weather. She was stuck in White Mtn. so she jumped in and took over the checkpoint and became the checker, timer, and vet all in one. She was awesome! I don't know what the Iditarod would have done had she not been there to help them out. She took down the time I told her I came in and hurried down to the trail to take the times of the other teams that were coming in behind me.
Resting eight hours here was going to be soooo nice! I had not taken an eight hour break since Grayling about 4 days and 400 miles back. Most of my stops over the last two or three days had not been much longer than about 4 hours at a time. I did my normal routines for the last time in this race. The dogs were pretty tired from our last run. We had pretty much been on the go for the last 13½ hours. Some of them did not eat as well as I would have liked but I got everyone to eat something. I was alittle worried about Spider as he was not feeling well with some kind of flu bug. I wished a vet was there to help me look him over. The Iditarod vets had not made it there yet either due to the bad weather. I gave him some medication that I had and finished massaging all the other dogs before I walked up to the checkpoint building to get something to eat myself and even a little sleep. Ahh sleep! I had not had much of that for quite a long time and I was really tired especially after that last stretch of trail. In fact, I did not hear my alarm go off - I was in such a deep sleep. I should have learned from past experience that when I sleep over an hour, I get into a deeper sleep and don't hear my alarm. If it's under an hour, I do OK. Anyway, I could have made a very big mistake if it had not been for Kathy. She came looking for me, woke me up, and told me I was going to be late if I did not get going. Boy, did I bolt up when I realized I had overslept! I rushed around collecting all my gear that I had scattered around trying to get dried out, ran down to the dogs and quickly made another meal for them to eat, and packed my sled. I had already taken everything out that was not mandatory or that I did not need anymore to help lighten the load for the last stretch of trail. The dogs were looking better after an eight hour rest so when my time was up I left with all eight dogs still on the team.
Kuling and Sawyer were in the lead again. Of the eight dogs I had left on the team six had crossed the finish line in Nome before. We left a little slow at first but once the dogs got warmed up we started moving better. My biggest concern was to stay ahead of Jeff King who left only 9 minutes behind me with 11 dogs. The next section of trail was 55 miles to Safety - the last checkpoint. We had to cross over the Topkok Hills to get there though and that was no easy task. The Topkok Hills are another big stretch of hills that never seems to end. The more tired you are the bigger the hills seem to get. I ran up all the hills and helped the dogs out as much as I could. It was blowing pretty hard as usual and just added to the difficulty. Once we finally reached the top of the last hill I could see the ocean stretching before me. It was a pretty awesome sight! At the bottom, the trail then followed the shoreline for another 20 miles before reaching Safety. Now that it was flat again, I could start ski poling to help the dogs out more. I could see Cape Nome way off in the distance - about 30 to 35 miles away. Time just seemed to drag by as the cape never seemed to get any closer. I did my best to keep a good attitude by singing to the dogs again - not only to keep them happy but to help keep me awake. I was still worried about teams catching me from behind so I looked back every once in awhile only to be relieved that I did not spot any teams closing in on us.
We finally reached Safety and I quickly signed in and out stopping only long enough to drop Spider there with the vets. He had done a great job up to this point, but it was only 22 more miles to the finish line and he was starting to get pretty sick. I knew the vets would have some stronger meds that they could give him for his tummy ache. Leaving Safety I now had 7 dogs. I took Sawyer out of the lead and kept Kuling there in single lead.
Twenty-two more miles to go! As the dogs trotted out of the checkpoint, I continued to ski pole behind to help them out. The trail still followed the coastline and went through some summer fishing camps for the next 7 miles before reaching the bottom of Cape Nome. Cape Nome seems like huge mountain when you are at the end of an 1160 mile race. With me running behind, it was a good climb for about two miles before dropping down the other side. The view was great! I could see for several miles behind me and was relieved to see no teams anywhere in sight. The weather was really warm making the snow soft and sticky. I stopped on top and took all the dog's booties off so it would be easier for them to run. They immediately picked up the pace. I wished I had thought of it sooner. It was about a mile across the top of the cape and as we traveled along, I saw a snowmachine coming down the trail towards us. I was surprised to see that it was a friend of mine coming out to cheer us on. What a good mental boost! As we got to the far side of the cape and started down the hill, I could see Nome in the distance. Nome! What a welcome sight! About another 12 miles and we would be there.
Once we reached the bottom of the hill, I put my ski poles to work again. We had only gone a few miles when I noticed what looked like a dog team way out in front of me. It was still far enough ahead that I wasn't sure yet. I had been more concerned about teams catching me that I had not even given a thought about catching any teams ahead of me. The prospect of maybe catching a team was quite exciting. The only two teams ahead of me that I thought it could possibly be was either Lance Mackey or Paul Gebhardt. Lance had left White Mountain about 17 minutes ahead of me and Paul had left about 64 minutes ahead of me. The dogs picked up the excitement. As we got closer, I knew that it was Paul. Kuling saw him too and picked the whole team up into a lope. She had a big smile on her face and was chasing him down. It was really something to see that little dog go! I still get choked up when I think about how awesome that dog is and what she will do for me. Well, by now all the dogs on the team were pretty excited - loping and pulling hard. As we came up behind Paul, the adrenaline was pumping. We were now about 5 miles from the finish line and I was poling hard. Paul told me later that my ski poling looked like a big spider coming up behind him. I guess he thought the Mad Spider was after him. : It was very warm out and I was overdressed for the amount of work I was doing. If I had not been so excited, I may have had a heat stroke. I had never dreamed of making it into the top ten, much less about to be in 8th place 5 miles from the finish line. Paul is a good friend of mine so I kinda felt bad about passing him……..but not to bad. : My dogs just flew by Paul and his team. There are two road crossings in the last 5 miles and my stepdad, Jim, and another friend who lives in Nome, Mike Weber, were there at the first road crossing. They saw me pass Paul and were cheering me on. Seeing them got me even more excited - if that was possible. In the last 5 miles of the race, I pulled away from Paul and beat him and his team into Nome by 21 minutes! My dogs were great!
Coming into Nome, it is hard to keep so many feelings sorted out--happy to finally be there (and in the top 10 too!), being so extremely proud of your dogs that it brings you to tears, and at the same time being sad that this great adventure is about to end. As the dogs trotted up the bank from the sea ice onto the streets of Nome, there was quite a crowd of people and kids there cheering us on. I could hear the Nome fire siren going off. Every time a dog team reaches the streets of Nome, the siren goes off to let the town know a team is coming. Kuling kept the team in a lope all the way down the main street of Nome and right under Iditarod's burled arch finish line.
WOW! We had done it - eighth place in the 2005 Iditarod! 10 days, 1 hour, and 3 minutes! The first thing I did after crossing the finish line was to give all my dogs a big hug and alot of praise. It was well deserved! The second thing I did was give Jim a big hug. He is at the finish line every year with a big smile, and even bigger hug and of course a Mountain Dew. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Jim there at the finish line every year waiting for me. He definitely makes it a special ending. There were alot of other people I knew there too to congratulate us along with all the reporters and camera people. Iditarod officials did the last mandatory items check of my sled and then it was time to take care of and feed my 7 super dogs. In the Nome dog lot, all the dogs had little houses full of straw waiting for them along with a hot meal. Spider showed up too right after we arrived. He had gotten a snowmachine ride in from Safety. He was already looking better and pretty happy to see us again.
Kuling, Sawyer, Dottie, Leo, Maya, Aztec, Jango, and Spider - they were the real heroes of the race. Slurp, Turtle, Dusty, Nibbles, Judd, Peanut, Bower, and Sioux--although they did not finish--they too are heroes and we could not have done so well without them on the team. I am just proud to have gotten to go along on such an amazing journey with such awesome dogs! Thanks guys! You are the best dogs ever!
