Iditarod 2013 – Day 8
Aliy has a lead of just under 2 hours over Aaron, and Martin is a half hour behind them.
The Yukon was not a fun place for puppies. Jessie Royer had to leave 3 of her 12 dogs behind when she left Kaltag, but they have a lot of new dogs to meet at the dog clinic.
You don’t normally have to deal with the wet-dog-odor during the winter in Alaska because the sled dog coat is water repellant and the cold air provides freeze drying. If a dog happens to fall into a river and gets out fairly quickly, a roll in the snow to speed the freezing, and one good shake dries them out in the low humidity of extreme cold. The problem is that when a sled dog gets really soaked, it takes forever for their undercoats to dry out.
The other big problem is cut paws caused by the pads softening in the wet. The booties help to prevent a lot of cuts, but they can’t stop them all.
Mitch Seavey was First to the Coast by passing three other teams to get there. Aliy and Martin are keeping to their schedules, so I expect them both to be back and blow through Unalakleet.
Beyond Unalakleet
1 Mitch Seavey (36)
2 Aaron Burmeister (24)
3 Jeff King (18)
4 Aliy Zirkle (27)
5 Joar Leifseth Ulson (32)R
6 Ray Redington Jr (52)
At Unalakleet
7 Jake Berkowitz (44)
8 DeeDee Jonrowe (28)
9 Sonny Lindner (67)
10 Martin Buser (2)
11 Dallas Seavey (19)
12 Nicolas Petit (16)
13 John Baker (13)
14 Peter Kaiser (10) [Read more →]
March 10, 2013 Comments Off on Iditarod 2013 – Day 8
