Conditions
Things should be nice on the trail as long as the freezing weather holds, because there has been a lot of new snow to cushion things, and the puppies are much happier with cold weather.
Like the Quest, the moon is cooperating with a waxing crescent going to full on March 8th for those who want to run at night. The day was 10 hours and 16 minutes in Anchorage, and 10 hours in Nome. It is lengthening by almost 6 minutes a day in the South, and nearly 7 minutes a day at the northern end of the trail.
Speaking of puppies, the Anchorage Daily News is posting a lot of articles on the dogs, mostly on lead dogs, past and present. The ‘Howl of Fame’ article covers some of the great lead dogs of the past. It takes a leader gets into what mushers look for in lead dogs.
Then they cover one of the great of the current dogs, Silver, who is running his last race and first Iditarod this year at 10 years old. The Yukon Quest named its award for heroic acts by a dog, for Silver, with very good reason.
There is another nice piece about Sadie, a leader on Zoya DeNure’s team. Keep in mind that Zoya and John run their kennel with “rescues, runts, and rejects”, dogs other people didn’t want.
These races are about the dogs. That’s why it is called ‘Sled Dog Racing’, not ‘Musher Racing’.
Updating an earlier post, Mike Williams is being replaced by his son, Mike Williams Jr. Mike caught pneumonia this winter, and was in no shape to run the Iditarod, so his son replaced him.
2 comments
Oh man, I love these dog stories! Thanks for the links, Bryan, they got my morning off to a nice start. Silver and Sadie, I’ll be watching for them for sure.
I always watch Zoya and Colleen Robertia because they both run ‘3Rs’, dogs no one else wants.
Aliy Zirkle is another one to watch as her team, with her husband, Allen Moore, on the sled, was second in the Quest, and led most of the way. She is much lighter than Allen, so they will be even faster.