Posts from — March 2010

Dallas Seavey won the $3K in gold for the Halfway Prize, but there is a horde on its way that have completed their 24-hour layover, who will soon whiz by. There has been a marked increase in the number of dogs being dropped, Lance Mackey is down to 13 dogs. That probably reflects the early relative warm temperatures and the lack of snow to cushion the trail.

The weather has gotten colder, but there have to be dogs who are not bouncing back from their earlier exertions and don’t want to run. People miss the point that teams are playing when they pull that sled, and if they decide they aren’t having fun, they stop playing and nothing will make them do it again until they are ready. In the old days mushers would whip dogs and they might move, but they wouldn’t put any more than the minimum effort into it. If the dog doesn’t want to do it, it won’t get done. Lead dogs are important, not just for following orders on direction, but for cheerleading. A musher in the Quest carried his primary lead dog on the sled for a couple of checkpoints, because that dog could keep the others charged up until the secondary lead dog got the hang of the job and the respect of the team. It really is all about the dogs.

At Cripple
1 Dallas Seavey (19)
2 John Baker (8)
3 Martin Buser (37)
4 Bruce Linton (65)
5 Michelle Phillips (36)^R
6 Robert Nelson (32)
7 Jeff King (15)
8 Hugh Neff (56)
9 Mitch Seavey (41)
10 Lance Mackey (49)
11 Sebastian Schnuelle (35)
12 Sven Haltmann (42)
13 Sonny Lindner (44)
14 Hans Gatt (20)
15 Rick Swenson (57)
16 Ray Redington, Jr (9)
17 Cim Smyth (3)

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March 11^th, 2004, Madrid

Nuestros profundos condolencias en vuestra perdida.

Todos somos Madrileños.

M-11

BBC In Depth

The field is smaller this morning. The Anchorage Daily News has reported on four more scratches at Rainy Pass, in addition to Pat Moon. Michael Suprenant and Zoya DeNure both have medical problems, Karin Hendrickson has a busted sled, and Kirk Barnum scratched because his dogs were too tired to race.

Zoya, along with Colleen Robertia, run “rescues, runts, and rejects” on their teams, and it’s a shame that the dogs can’t do what they have spent months training for.

Kirk is from Seeley Lake, Montana, and his dogs just didn’t like the trail. He had already dropped 4 dogs when he decided to scratch. It’s a long drive from Seeley Lake, and the dogs apparently didn’t acclimate to the new conditions.

The area around Rainy Pass eats sleds and mushers, especially without a lot of snow as a cushion. Generally the sleds don’t track well and slide into trees and boulders.

Jeff King took the Spirit Award for being the first into McGrath, but it is Hans Gatt, the current Quest winner, who is Ophir at the lead this morning.

The mass of teams at Takotna are taking their mandatory 24-hour stop.

Current standings [11:00PM CST] below the fold:

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The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that rookie musher Pat Moon (17) of Chicago had to be medevaced to Anchorage after crashing on the trail from Rainy Pass to Rohn in the notorious Dalzell Gorge.

The Iditarod site is reporting that Sam Deltour (66), a med student from Belgium when he isn’t running dogs, came upon Moon and provided assistance.

Moon’s team was uninjured and was also airlifted out.

This is an example of what happens when there isn’t enough snow on the trail for the sled to “bite” the trail and steer. Because you are going down, you need to be able to slow the team down, which also requires snow.

The official reporting will carry him at Rainy Pass, which is the last check point he made. Moon had delayed getting chemotherapy for a chronic condition to be in shape for the race.

I received a noticed that the Census Bureau will be sending out the forms in about a week. At the bottom of the notice they had instructions directing you to their ‘Net site, 2010census.gov, in six languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian.

While that is an odd choice for the nation in general, it does reflect the languages used in this area. I wonder if people in other areas get different choices, i.e. Greek in Central Florida, Portuguese in Massachusetts, French along the border with Quebec and in major East Coast cities?

BTW, I’m dealing with the health care establishment locally, and am out and about most days. I’m keeping up with the race, but have little time to respond on other blogs.

When things let up, I want to write about the joys of electronic medical records and how they are actually being used, rather than how we are told they are being used to save money.

The leading third are playing “pinball” on The Burn, second-growth forest from a major wildfire. The recent snow has helped to provide more cushions, but this is an area known for smashing sleds and mushers. The new growth also attracts moose, who are a danger to dogs and mushers as they will use the trail and often will rest on it. [Update 10:30PM CST]

Beyond Nikolai
1 Jeff King (15)
2 Sebastian Schnuelle (35)
3 John Baker (8)
4 Mitch Seavey (41)
5 Sven Haltmann (42)
6 Hugh Neff (56)
7 Gerry Willomitzer (55)
8 Lance Mackey (49)
9 Zack Steer (47)
10 Aliy Zirkle (50)
11 Dallas Seavey (19)
12 Paul Gebhardt (7)
13 Ray Redington, Jr (9)
14 Cim Smyth (3)
15 Sonny Lindner (44)
16 Ryan Redington (25)
17 Martin Buser (37)

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You could come down and get rowdy, and drink yourself stupid, or you could take advantage of an opportunity to make some money while helping the environment.

The state is just opened an invasive species hunt in the Everglades from today until to April 17.

For a $26 permit you get to take all of the Burmese, Indian, and African rock pythons, green anacondas, and Nile monitor lizards you can find. Local tanners pay between $5 to $10 per foot for the skins, so a single green anaconda could bring in up to $200 [or more in a few cases].

Just think, you could be supplying the leather for Paris Hilton’s next pair of Pradas.

Sure, some of the these reptiles can kill and eat you, but that’s why the state wants them gone.

The leaders are beyond Rainy Pass and everyone is beyond Skwentna. Next up is the descent to Rohn and then the stumps and moose on the Burn into Nikolai. The most current standings [11:30PM CST] are:

At Rohn
1 Sebastian Schnuelle (35)
2 John Baker (8)

Beyond Rainy Pass
3 Warren Palfrey (27)
4 Ray Redington, Jr (9)
5 Zack Steer (47)
6 Paul Gebhardt (7)
7 Sven Haltmann (42)
8 Hugh Neff (56)
9 Jeff King (15)
10 Mitch Seavey (41)
11 William “Middie” Johnson (16)^R
12 Hans Gatt (20)
13 Gerry Willomitzer (55)
14 Lance Mackey (49)
15 Cim Smyth (3)
16 Linwood Fiedler (2)
17 Aliy Zirkle (50)
18 Ryan Redington (25)
19 Martin Buser (37)
20 Dallas Seavey (19)
21 Jessie Royer (6)
22 Ken Anderson (51)
23 Sonny Lindner (44)
24 Thomas Lesatz (62)
25 Jim Lanier (43)

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I just realized I haven’t provided the trail distances between checkpoints.

Willow – Start
Yentna Station – 52 miles [84 km]
Skwentna – 34 miles [55 km]
Finger Lake – 45 miles [72 km]
Rainy Pass – 30 miles [48 km]
Rohn – 48 miles [77 km]
Nikolai – 75 miles [121 km]
McGrath – 54 miles [87 km]
Takotna – 18 miles [29 km]
Ophir – 25 miles [40 km]
Cripple – 59 miles [95 km]
Ruby – 112 miles [180 km]
Galena – 52 miles [84 km]
Nulato – 52 miles [84 km]
Kaltag – 42 miles [68 km]
Unalakleet – 90 miles [145 km]
Shaktoolik – 42 miles [68 km]
Koyuk – 48 miles [77 km]
Elim – 48 miles [77 km]
Golovin – 28 miles [45 km]
White Mountain – 18 miles [29 km]
Safety – 55 miles [88 km]
Nome – 22 miles [35 km]

The distance is from the previous checkpoint. Some teams in the early going will travel at 12 mph [20kph] or better with all 16 dogs eager to go.

Jo Becker and Ron Nixon have a nice little article in the New York Times about patriotic American corporations: U.S. enriches firms doing business with Iran

The federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran, despite Washington’s efforts to discourage investment there, records show.

That includes nearly $15 billion paid to companies that defied American sanctions law by making large investments that helped Iran develop its vast oil and gas reserves.

So, ACORN get a few million Federal bucks and is set up to look bad in a doctored video created by youthful offender, and Congress passes an unconstitutional bill of attainder to defund it, but US corporations are given billions in government business after having violated US trade sanction policies and laws.

Why don’t we send the board of Halliburton et al. to the same Federal prison as the people whose charities were supplying medical supplies to the Gaza Strip? The Supreme Court said they were people, and people go to prison for this sort of thing. If that’s too tough, why not just stop doing business with them?

The teams left Willow starting at 5:00PM CST [2PM local AKST] with Linwood Fiedler (2) and finishing at 7:20PM CST with Judy Currier (72). That means that Judy with have a mandatory 24-hour layover, while Linwood will have to stay 26 hours and 20 minutes.

The temperatures have been trending a bit lower, and there has been some light snow, but it still looks like a warmer than normal, rough course on both sides of Rainy Pass.

There will be a traffic jam on the trail to Yentna as the pace-setters move to the front and the rookies try to get out of the way. This something that has to take place early as the opportunities become limited once the teams encounter the mountains.

The first position changes won’t be official until the Yentna checkpoint.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Iditarod can be seen by selecting “Iditarod” from the Category box on the right sidebar.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports that a Democrat enters District 4 state House race

A Democrat has thrown her hat and a monkey wrench into the ring in the special election for the District 4 state House.

Navarre resident Jan Fernald paid her qualifying fee Friday to join the five Republican men campaigning for the job. Friday was the last day to qualify to run.

Because she is a Democrat, Fernald’s entry in the race closes the March 23 primary and extends the special election calendar to April 13, when a general election will be held.

Because of the way the district boundaries were created after the 2000 Census, the party primaries have become the de facto election in many areas of Florida, including the Panhandle. As a result of a lot of pressure the election law was changed so that if the primary will determine the seat, the primary is open, i.e. everyone can vote in it.

That happened in one election cycle following the introduction of the law. After that, magically someone appears to run for the office, so the primary can be closed. I have never heard of Ms Fernald, and so I don’t want anyone to assume that I’m saying that this is anything other than a coincidence that she should decide to run at the last possible date. It’s just another one of those strange coincidences that seems to occur in the Florida electoral system… in every election.

All 71 teams managed to stay in line for the 11 mile parade through Anchorage to the Campbell Airstrip, where dogs and sleds were loaded back onto trucks and taken the 50 miles to Willow, where the real racing begins.

The big news was apparently the Scots who were supporters of their laddies in the race showing up in kilts. Apparently few Alaskans know what the weather is like in the Highlands.

There has been light snow along the route, but nothing like the deep pack of last year.

Update: I forgot to mention that this year they are going to do drug testing of the mushers as well as the dogs. That should be interesting…

I don’t think so. As predictable as buzzards returning to Hinckley, Ohio, the
Florida House speaker promises no new taxes. He also promised no fee increases. This must mean they have found a new things to call fees.

They used the stimulus money that all good Florida Republican Congresscritters voted against to plug some of the gaping holes in this year’s budget, and that money is gone, so the new budget will be even deeper in the red.

The state depends on the sales tax and property taxes to fund government. They have cut the property tax at the same time the assessed valuation of property is in the tank, and sales tax revenue has fallen over the cliff. There is a real possibility that the population of the state has fallen for the first time anyone can remember, so the census will probably reduce Federal payments.

The state lost millions in its money market fund when Lehman Brothers crashed and burned, and they have been raiding other funds to cover the shortfalls cause by their ill-advised tax policies. All of their fiscal incompetence is going to be on display in this budget and the “free market fairy” is not going to wave a wand and make it better.