Iditarod 2016 Parade

by Bryan

7 comments

1 JuanitaM { 03.06.16 at 6:40 pm }

Imported snow. Just seems to me that we’ve reached a pinnacle of monetary decadence when it seems like a good idea to import expensive snow for a “ceremonial” start.

Oh well, I guess they have their reasons. Their GPS tracker is supposed to require a paid subscription, but I noticed that it’s working for me without paying. At least for the moment. It’s probably shortlived – the IT people will figure out that freeloaders are watching it and cut us off.

It always amazes me how many rookies come out each year. Brave souls.

I was surprised to see Lance Mackey out for another year. I thought his poor health would keep him out, and not to be unkind, but he is beyond skinny. Cadaverous, really. Sadly, I heard that his former lead dog Larry died last year.

2 Bryan { 03.06.16 at 7:23 pm }

I think the painkillers are eliminating any possibility of body fat for Lance. Having to say good-bye is the price of owning dogs.

I’m amazed that there are more Norwegians than Canadians in the field. A lot of the rookies have won some races in their area, and decide to see if they can get the finisher’s belt buckle. Noah Pereira is from Brockport, New York, just west of Rochester on the shore of Lake Ontario. He’s 19, and three years ago he was the first non-Alaskan to win the Junior Iditarod. His Dad has been bringing him to Alaska for the mushing season.

If you have a sleddog kennel, participating in either the Quest or the Iditarod increases the price you can charge for puppies.

I assume they are probably checking cookies, or they don’t turn the checking on until the race gets interesting.

3 JuanitaM { 03.08.16 at 12:22 pm }

Yes, it’s certainly worth owning pets regardless of knowing the price!

Nineteen is really young for someone that hasn’t grown up in Alaska with dog-sledding as a part of their lifestyle. Apparently some people just fall in love with it and know that’s what they want to do. Sort of like Kim Franklin from the U.K., she just decided it was something she wanted to do and got into it in a big way as a “mature” woman. I came across her story here in case you have a moment: Kim Franklin story

The GPS is still working so far. When I figured out that the site was working, I just left the tab open hoping the original connection would continue. So far it has. Looks like Nicolas Petit made it into Nikolai first ahead of Lance. Lance made a comment that he was in the race for the last couple of years just to be there but knew his dogs weren’t ready to be competitive; however, he is really liking how his dogs look this year and thought it might be the first year in a while that they would show well.

4 Bryan { 03.08.16 at 1:05 pm }

Actually there are sleddog races in New York, and a lot of wilderness. There are places that are only accessible by dog sled or snowmobile in the winter. The Winter Olympics has been at Lake Placid twice that I’m aware of. Brockport gets a lot of lake-effect snow, so there are places to train, and Noah has New York dogs on his team, who would have certainly faired better that John Baker’s dogs from above the Arcrtic Circle.

Lance is further ahead that is apparent because of the start differential. With a 71 bib number he was two hours behind the people with bibs in the teens. Nic Petit, Aliy, and the Seaveys are going to be stuck somewhere for two hours while Lance is on the trail. The temps are getting colder, and his dogs like that.

5 Bryan { 03.08.16 at 8:57 pm }

I knew Kim Franklin’s name was familiar. In addition to her Iditarod attempt in 2008, she completed the Yukon Quest 300 last year which is one of the qualifiers for the Iditarod. She runs Malamutes on her farm, the dog equivalent of draft horses. They can pull a heavy load forever, but no one will confuse them with greyhounds. I noticed she leases a team from Dean Osmar’s kennel for the race.

6 JuanitaM { 03.09.16 at 10:25 am }

Now that you mention it, I can see that about New York. I traveled through the rural sections one year, and it surprised me how remote some of those areas were. I lived in Charlotte, NC for many years, and whenever I vacationed I just wanted to get as far away from people and strangled traffic as possible. And I liked to travel alone so I wouldn’t have to humor anyone else. LOL

I guess the temperatures would favor Noah’s dogs in this case. Good for him, but overall a shame this is going on. Of course, there is no climate change. Any Republican will set you straight on that one.

I had not thought about the time delay for Lance. Based on that, he’s still doing great. How he manages to do this with Raynauds (and all the other issues), I can’t imagine. I have a friend who has this problem, and it’s pretty rough on her in the relatively mild Greensboro winters!

7 Bryan { 03.09.16 at 7:32 pm }

It used to be that 95% of the people in New York lived on 5% of the land, which was a good deal for the 5% who didn’t like crowds.

Just being frostbitten as often as he has makes doing anything that requires bare hands a very painful thing. There are a lot of reasons I would have stopped before now, but a musher is who he is, and he can’t sell sleddogs if they don’t pull sleds. He spent all of his winnings in the Quest and the Iditarod long ago on medical bills.