Iditarod 2013 – Day 7

by Bryan

9 comments

1 Badtux { 03.10.13 at 3:05 am }

Warm weather and rain aren’t good for sleds either.

This is crazy weather. Hopefully it cools down, and soon, or they’ll need to fit the sleds with pontoons.

2 JuanitaM { 03.10.13 at 9:51 am }

I see that Aliy is out front still as of this a.m., and that both she and Martin have had an 8 and 24 layover. Still, am I correct in thinking that Martin has had more rest time, and that she’ll have to stop and rest some time soon?

Funny story. Travis Beals, a 21 year old rookie, traversed much of the Dalzell Gorge face down. According to him, he fell asleep listening to Kid Rock. When he woke up, his headlight was gone, it was pitch black, his sled was tipped over with him pinned between his tail dragger (?) and sled, but those lovely dogs just kept running. He just kept being dragged hitting step after step.

His thoughts to himself while it was happening? “Holy crap, this is not good.” Really. Finally, he was able to use his ipod light to find his back-up headlamp, and get himself upright.

His remarks to his mother? “It was pretty fun”. Only something a 21 year old would say.

Oh, to be 21 again…

3 JuanitaM { 03.10.13 at 10:02 am }

Correction on my description of “step after step” which isn’t exactly accurate since he was in the Gorge area, but you know what I mean 🙂

His description was “I was dragging. Boosh! Boosh! Boosh!” Yeah, lots of fun, that.

BTW, what in the world will they do if the river isn’t frozen? Click your heels together and say three times: “There is no global warming, there is no…”

4 Bryan { 03.10.13 at 8:19 pm }

Actually the trail to the bottom of the Gorge is a series of switchbacks that the dogs don’t necessarily approve of, preferring a faster, more direct route, which would definitely provide a stair-step descent.

Jeff King introduced the taildragger sled and it is a useful innovation. the ‘tail’ is like a trailer at the rear which makes it possible to sit down, and centers the musher’s weight, rather than having it act as a lever raising the front of the sled.

People using taildraggers can detach the ‘trailer’ if they want to make a sprint at the end of the Iditarod. The Quest won’t allow you to do that.

I would assume that the people in the area are waiting for a hard freeze before venturing out with a snowmobile. If it doesn’t come they will have to use their boats or make do.

The people who live in the Far North know that climate change is real. They have been watching it for years.

5 Bryan { 03.10.13 at 8:26 pm }

Oh, Badtux, almost everyone who doesn’t make their own, uses sleds made of aircraft aluminum tubing. Martin Buser is one of the few professionals who still uses a wooden sled, because wood handles flexing better than the tubing sleds and don’t break as easily, in his opinion.

Mikail Telpin also has a wooden sled as he makes his own, as well as making his own harnesses and outerwear.

6 JuanitaM { 03.11.13 at 12:09 pm }

Jeff King introduced the taildragger sled

An inventor on top of everything else? A man of many talents.

Switching gears a bit here. All last week, I kept spotting what appears to be a stray cat in the woods behind our house. I tried putting out a bit of food but couldn’t hang around to see what got it. Around here, something is ALWAYS going to eat free food. But the next day, I got a glimpse of him/her(?) at the bowl. While we have our share of strays in this area, the head of our local humane group told me that we’re also getting a lot of people taking their pets off and leaving them. And hoping someone can afford to take pity on them.

This one is straggly looking, but only somewhat underfed. He has a lot of fur, so it’s hard to tell, and when I tried to approach he took off like he was scalded. So, I wonder if it was someone’s pet or if it’s skilled at doing it’s own hunting. I don’t live a scheduled life, so I put food out on an irregular basis. Better than nothing, I hope.

7 Bryan { 03.11.13 at 1:12 pm }

It is the location, not timing that is really important. If it continues to return for an extended period, it is probably a female, as they establish territories. Cheap kibble is the best thing to put out as it all meets minimum requirements for health.

A lot of people are being forced to abandon pets as the economy refuses to grow. Most cats can become predators, but that isn’t a good thing if you like birds and small mammals. The other problem is that if they aren’t spayed, they will produce too many cats.

The benefit of an established feral cat family is that they are territorial and will prevent other cats from entering their territory. Trap, Neuter, Release, the program I use, holds the population down to around 10 cats, total. It started as a group of about 60 cats.

8 JuanitaM { 03.12.13 at 12:23 pm }

Thanks for the advice on kitties, Bryan. I admit to being somewhat at a loss when it comes to cats. My family had a beautiful cat when I was very young, but that’s the last time I’ve been around one. And my grandmother took care of her, so I just don’t remember.

This cat doesn’t really seem to stay in one place for long but does migrate through in the afternoon to see if anything is in the bowl. Then it’s immediately back through the woods to somewhere. Well, except sometimes she lingers a moment on the rock steps to clean up, but that’s it. I did put her bowl underneath a bench to maybe give her a feeling of more security.

I’ll wait to see if she continues to return before I think about capturing her, but if she stays in the area, I definitely don’t want MORE cats.

9 Bryan { 03.12.13 at 4:40 pm }

Be sure to handle the bowl with bare hands to leave your scent, because she is doing the same thing. It is a form of greeting. When cats rub cheeks they are transferring scents to each other.