Posts from — March 2016

Brent Sass is in the lead this morning, and while Mitch is starting 2nd he still needs an 8-hour, which Aliy has already completed. It is down to how fast is your team and how little rest can you and the team exist on…

Ellen left the Red Lantern in the care of Billy Snodgrass in Ophir. Alas, Billy returned the favor at 4:30PM.

There is some information that both Aliy and Jeff King were harassed by a snowmobile on the trail into Nulato. The Iditarod Trail Committee have made it nearly impossible to find out what’s going on without “donating” to their “non-profit” corporation. [Update in separate post]

Rick Casillo & Scott Janssen have both scratched. Rick lost his lead dog to an injury in a fight with another male. [Many of the females are in heat, a good reason to run the race at a different time.]

Standings at 8:30PM CST.

Beyond Kaltag
Brent Sass (32)
Aliy Zirkle (13)
Dallas Seavey (16)
Wade Marrs (33)
Mitch Seavey (19)
John Baker (66)
At Kaltag
7 Robert Sørlie (37)
8 Nicolas Petit (12)
9 Peter Kaiser (11)
10 Noah Burmeister (39)
11 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (31)
12 Jeff King (61)
[Read more →]

OK, so I uninstalled ESET, my anti-virus software, removed all of the software that was loaded at boot, clicked “try again” and learned that those clowns don’t store the update on the hard drive, you have to download it every time.

My next plan is to attempt to get the M$ media creator to burn an ISO DVD of this update so I can disconnect from the ‘Net while I’m doing this. I’ll let you know how it works out. If it is successful, it may be the best way of upgrading, and it will give you a recovery disk.

For the first time since the start of the race we have an undisputed leader – Brent Sass. Jeff King is the only one of the top 50 who hasn’t completed a 24-hour, Brent really is the leader without an asterisk.

Aliy beat Brent to Galena by an hour, but he blew through to re-take the lead.

It looks Aliy is taking her 8-hour. Dallas has already taken his at Ruby, so the real racing will begin.

Update at 9:00PM CST:

Beyond Galena
1 Brent Sass (32)
At Galena
2 Aliy Zirkle (13)
3 Mitch Seavey (19)
4 Noah Burmeister (39)
5 Robert Sørlie (37)
6 John Baker (66)
7 Dallas Seavey (16)
Beyond Ruby
8 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (31)
9 Wade Marrs (33)
10 Nicolas Petit (12)
11 Ray Redington Jr (18)
12 Jeff King (61)
13 Scott Smith (62)
14 Kelly Maixner (17)
[Read more →]

So I physically disconnected my Linux drive from the computer and Windows 10 finished downloading. I then started the install and the screen said this was going to take a while, so after watching the computer start a standard reboot I left.

A few hours later I returned to the Windows 10 blue screen of death – a blue version of the angled window frame. I had to do a hardware reset, Win 7 booted up and instead of Error 800703ED, I got “unknown error” C1900101-20017. People have been seeing this “unknown error” since at least 2015.

Before my next attempt, as I have downloaded the update, I will disable my virus software after disconnecting from the Internet and give it another go. I would note that the fact that they pointed out that the only form of dispute settlement was mediation, and you couldn’t be part of a class action lawsuit, tends to make me believe they have little trust in the worth of their software 😈

This morning Ellen Halverson is definitely not where she wants to be – at the tail end of the race. Ellen already has two Red Lanterns and definitely doesn’t want a third. OTOH, she is one of only about 750 people who have finished an Iditarod.

Kim Franklin has dropped well back in the rankings after her team got loose on the trail beyond Rohn. The Hertfordshire, UK musher had to walk to Nikolai. In her first attempt at the race her lead dogs chewed through their lines and escaped which led to her disqualification.

Jeff King is really putting off his 24-hour break.

Charley Bejna scratched at McGrath. He waited until after his 24-hour, but was down to no more than 11 puppies. The early warm weather can cause health problems for dogs as well as people.

Standings at 9:00PM CST:

At Ruby
1 Jeff King (61)
Beyond Cripple
2 Brent Sass (32)
3 Aliy Zirkle (13)
4 Ken Anderson (81)
At Cripple
5 Dallas Seavey (16)
6 Noah Burmeister (39)
7 Robert Sørlie (37)
8 John Baker (66)
9 Kelly Maixner (17)
10 Ralph Johannessen (77)
11 Nicolas Petit (12)
12 Mitch Seavey (19)
13 Hugh Neff (70)
14 Wade Marrs (33)
15 Peter Kaiser (11)
16 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (31)
17 Paul Gebhardt (55)
18 Scott Smith (62)
19 Michelle Phillips (30)
[Read more →]

This morning it looks like Dallas is going to take his 24-hour in Cripple, the halfway point on the race. Takotna is the most popular checkpoint for the 24-hour and they have developed the resources to deal with it.

Hans Gatt, veteran musher and well known sled builder has decided to scratch. He was one of the first builders advocating the sled with the ‘trailer’.

Updated at 8:30PM CST:

At Cripple
1 Dallas Seavey (16)
Beyond Ophir
2 Noah Burmeister (39)
3 John Baker (66)
4 Robert Sørlie (37)
5 Jeff King (61)
6 Lance Mackey (72)
7 Kelly Maixner (17)
8 Ralph Johannessen (77)
At Ophir
9 Brent Sass (32)
10 Nicolas Petit (12)
11 Ken Anderson (81)
12 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (31)
13 Ketil Reitan (6)
14 Scott Smith (62)
15 Sigrid Ekran (27)
16 Cim Smyth (10)
17 Martin Buser (48)
[Read more →]

Lance Mackey is the leader this morning as the teams head towards Nome in cooler weather beyond the Alaskan Range.

One of my favorite teams, Zoya Denure and her collection of ‘rescues, runts, and rejects’ has scratched at Rainy Pass. That first part in the heat wasn’t easy on puppies.

Updated at 9:30PM CST.

Beyond Nikolai
1 Brent Sass (32)
2 Noah Burmeister (39)
3 Dallas Seavey (16)
4 Mitch Seavey (19)
5 Wade Marrs (33)
6 Peter Kaiser (11)
7 Aliy Zirkle (13)
8 Robert Sørlie (37)
9 Nicolas Petit (12)
10 Ketil Reitan (6)
At Nikolai
11 Lance Mackey (72)
12 Hugh Neff (70)
13 Paul Gebhardt (55)
14 Jason Mackey (67)
15 Jeff King (61)
16 Rick Casillo (20)
17 Michelle Phillips (30)
18 Ralph Johannessen (77)
19 Cim Smyth (10)
20 Richie Diehl (38)
[Read more →]

So after all of the kvetching M$ has been doing about upgrading to Win10 and reading about all of the people who have upgraded with no problems, I decided to to go ahead and load it on the big box and ,,, it crashed and burned.

I should have known better. There is no way of telling why it generated the error code, actually the error code is fairly pointless as it doesn’t actually tell you what broke, only a list of what might be the problem, as in the utility that was supposed to check to be sure that the hardware was compatible with Win 10 may not have told the truth when it said “Of course it is!”

I’ll check later, because I have other things going on, but I won’t attempt to change this machine until I figure out what is going on.

This race has more checkpoints than I-5 [SoCal humor] and a lot of the action is going to take place at night because it has been in the 40s so far and that’s hot for the puppies.

Jan Steves (25) is the first musher to scratch. He left the race at Skwenta. Martin Koenig (86) joined Jan at Skwenta.

The standings as of 9:30PM CST:

At Rohn
1 Hugh Neff (70)
Beyond Rainy Pass
2 Noah Burmeister (39)
3 Paul Gebhardt (55)
4 Jason Mackey (67)
5 Nicolas Petit (12)
6 Lance Mackey (72)
7 Richie Diehl (38)
8 Kelly Maixner (17)
9 John Baker (66)
10 Brent Sass (32)
11 Peter Kaiser (11)
12 Dallas Seavey (16)
13 Aliy Zirkle (13)
14 Katherine Keith (85)
15 Wade Marrs (33)
16 Ralph Johannessen (77)
17 Mitch Seavey (19)
18 Ketil Reitan (6)
19 Joar Leifseth Ulsom (31)
20 Jeff King (61)
21 Sigrid Ekran (27)
22 Cim Smyth (10)
23 Rick Casillo (20)
[Read more →]

And they’re off at two minute intervals at 5PM CDT [2PM AKST].

Beyond Willow

1 Scott Janssen (2)
2 Jessie Royer (3)
3 Nathan Schroeder (4)
4 Allen Moore (5)
5 Ketil Reitan (6)
6 Lisbet Norris (7)
7 Monica Zappa (8)
8 Charley Bejna (9)
9 Cim Smyth (10)
10 Peter Kaiser (11)
11 Nicolas Petit (12)
12 Aliy Zirkle (13)
13 Jodi Bailey (14)
14 James Volek (15)
15 Dallas Seavey (16)
16 Kelly Maixner (17)
17 Ray Redington Jr (18)
18 Mitch Seavey (19)
[Read more →]

The shortened parade in Anchorage on the imported snow, Tanana Valley Spätlese 2016 [wine humor], begins at 1PM CST with 85 teams led out by Scott Janssen, “the Mushing Mortician” [funeral director humor].

1 Scott Janssen (2)
2 Jessie Royer (3)
3 Nathan Schroeder (4)
4 Allen Moore (5)
5 Ketil Reitan (6)
6 Lisbet Norris (7)
7 Monica Zappa (8)
8 Charley Bejna (9)
9 Cim Smyth (10)
10 Peter Kaiser (11)
11 Nicolas Petit (12)
12 Aliy Zirkle (13)
13 Jodi Bailey (14)
14 James Volek (15)
15 Dallas Seavey (16)
16 Kelly Maixner (17)
17 Ray Redington Jr (18)
18 Mitch Seavey (19)
19 Rick Casillo (20)
20 Noah Pereira (21)^R
[Read more →]

Despite getting the best speech time Drumpf harrumphed and dropped the CPAC gathering to attend some campaign events he just discovered this week.

The assumption is that whispers that some people at the conference might protest and he couldn’t have them thrown out because it was their event, made him sad and he decided to attend a couple of his pep rallies where never is heard a discouraging word… 😈

Dissing CPAC would have been a fatal move for another GOP candidate, but the Drumpf doesn’t have to follow any rules but his own.

Dining Out

Where’s the food?

[Editor: CC came marching into the kitchen expecting to find food and water bowls where my Mother had them when CC was a kitten.]

Friday Ark

The trail and 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] [Spirit of Alaska]
Takotna – 18 miles [29 km]
Ophir – 25 miles [40 km]
Cripple – 59 miles [95 km] [Halfway]
Ruby – 112 miles [180 km] [First to the Yukon]
Galena – 52 miles [84 km]
Nulato – 52 miles [84 km]
Kaltag – 42 miles [68 km]
Unalakleet – 90 miles [145 km] [Gold Coast]
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]

Note: The Saturday parade in Anchorage has been shortened to 3 miles from 11 so they wouldn’t have to import more snow from Fairbanks.

The items in italics after checkpoints are awards for being first to those points. 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. There are reasons not to do this.

[Read more →]