Iditarod – Day 15
The Red Lantern is at White Mountain Nome so the three to four marathons a day the puppies have been running are about over.
Scott White stopped at Safety. That doesn’t normally happen, 22 miles from the end, so I hope he doesn’t have a problem this close to the end. He left White Mountain with only 7 dogs on his team, so he is on the edge. [Scott moved on, but the Scot, John Stewart felt he had to scratch at White Mountain in the best interests of his 7 dogs. 🙁 ]
While Jane Faulkner arrived a half hour before Celeste, I suspect she will wait until Celeste can leave to finish the race. [Jane waited, as I expected.]
There are light winds, scattered snow, and temperatures in the twenties, so it will be a pleasant spring day, for Nome, to finish the race.
At Nome
45 Wattie McDonald (4)R
46 Lachlan Clarke (63)
47 Newton Marshall (14)R
48 Billy Snodgrass (70)
49 Trent Herbst (60)
50 Chris Adkins (33)R
51 Dave DeCaro (52)R
52 Ross Adam (18)
53 Jane Faulkner (22)R
54 Scott White (13)R [16 hours to travel 22 miles]
55 Celeste Davis (58)R Φ 8:06PM local
At White Mountain
56 John Stewart (69)R [Scratched only 77 miles from his goal]
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.
Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
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2 comments
That sounds very worrying about Stewart. I would think it would be something very serious with the dogs for him to scratch this late in the game.
Looked around the web and finally found this article. Like you mentioned in an earlier post, apparently the dogs just weren’t having fun anymore, and the human was getting depressed, too. Stewart felt like he was forcing them.
For anyone interested in more details: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/projects/iditarod-2010/4509-scotsman-struggles-to-keep-dogs-happy
It really is all about the dogs. You have to love them to do it, because, like most working dogs, not all of their habits are endearing. Often you will have to leave behind the one dog who can inspire the others. It may not be one of the lead dogs, but is the dog that convinces the rest of the team that the effort is worth it.