Iditarod – Day 10
Good news: Whitey, the 3-year-old dog of rookie Justin Savidis, was found late Sunday and the two are on their way home.
The news is not so good for Judy Currier (72), who had to scratch at Galena because she can’t take standing on the runners and taking care of her dogs with a back injury from earlier in the race.
Unalakleet is waiting to greet its mayor, William “Middie” Johnson (16), who is currently running 35th in his rookie race. Middie is a Native Alaskan and the grandson of Henry Ivanoff, a musher in the 1925 diphtheria serum relay to Nome which is considered the founding event for the Iditarod.
In the front, Lance wants to be the first to win 4 in a row; Jeff wants to be the second to win 5 overall; and Hans wants to be the second to win the Quest and Iditarod in the same year. Meanwhile, 69-year-old Jim Lanier (43) is consolidating his hold on being the oldest musher to finish the race is in 28th place.
Beyond Elim
1 Lance Mackey (49)
2 Hans Gatt (20)
3 Jeff King (15)
Beyond Koyuk
4 Ken Anderson (51)
5 Hugh Neff (56)
6 John Baker (8)
7 Mitch Seavey (41)
8 Ramey Smyth (21)
At Koyuk
9 Sebastian Schnuelle (35)
10 Dallas Seavey (19)
11 Aliy Zirkle (50)
12 Ray Redington, Jr (9)
Beyond Shaktoolik
13 Gerry Willomitzer (55)
14 Sonny Lindner (44)
15 Martin Buser (37)
16 Jessie Royer (6)
17 Zack Steer (47)
18 Sven Haltmann (42)
19 Rick Swenson (57)
20 Paul Gebhardt (7)
21 Robert Nelson (32)
At Shaktoolik
22 DeeDee Jonrowe (31)
23 Dan Kaduce (64)R
24 Cim Smyth (3)
Beyond Unalakleet
25 Bruce Linton (65)
26 Jim Lanier (43)
27 Gerald Sousa (48)
28 Michael Williams, Jr. (59)R
29 Michelle Phillips (36)R
30 Jason Barron (71)
At Unalakleet
31 Peter Kaiser (67)R
32 Thomas Lesatz (62)
Beyond Kaltag
33 Matt Hayashida (12)
34 William Pinkham (40)
35 William “Middie” Johnson (16)R
36 Allen Moore (54)
37 Quinn Iten (28)R
38 Colleen Robertia (61)R
39 Kristy Berington (38)R
40 Cindy Gallea (39)
41 Blake Freking (11)
At Kaltag
42 Lachlan Clarke (63)
43 Tamara Rose (26)R
44 Art Church, Jr (24)
45 Billy Snodgrass (70)
46 Wattie McDonald (4)R
Beyond Nulato
47 Dave DeCaro (52)R
48 Newton Marshall (14)R
49 Sam Deltour (66)
At Nulato
50 Scott White (13)R
51 Trent Herbst (60)
52 Chris Adkins (33)R
53 John Stewart (69)R
Beyond Galena
54 Ross Adam (18)
55 Jane Faulkner (22)R
56 Celeste Davis (58)R
At Galena
57 Ryan Redington (25)
58 Warren Palfrey (27)
59 Judy Currier (72)
Beyond Ruby
60 Hank Debruin (45)R
At Ruby
61 Emil Churchin (53)R
The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Iditarod, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, and the small “R” indicates a rookie.
Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.
All posts on the Iditarod can be seen by selecting “Iditarod” from the Category box on the right sidebar.
4 comments
The first several mushers have reached Elim, and I noticed on the checkpoint summary at Iditarod.com that this means they have gone 989 miles thus far. Now, this distance is so large, I can’t really wrap my mind around it. So, I took a look at a map, and this is comparable to leaving my home in Virginia and traveling to Miami, Florida, for heaven’s sake….except it’s done by dogs pulling a sled with musher, equipment, food, etc. !!!! This is just stunning to me every time I think of it in those terms.
You know, I just keep forgetting that Alaska is one enormous state. I’ll bet only a fraction of the people in the contiguous U.S. realize just how big it is. I tried this little map trick with myself last year, and I think I just forgot the utter vastness of it all. It just blows my mind. How in the world do these dogs do it? They are flat amazing, and the mushers are no slouches either.
AND, they’re not finished yet!
Not many people understand that I’m about 650 miles from Miami by road. It’s almost exactly a thousand miles from the Gulf to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Alaska is about the size in land area as the US East of the Mississippi. There are few roads, and limited rail. From Anchorage south, a boat is the best form of transportation.
There is a reason there are so many small aircraft in Alaska, but when things get really bad, a dog sled will get you to places that nothing else can reach. It’s been that way for thousands of years, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
At this point, the dogs are a good deal more lucid than the mushers. If you have dogs that know the trail, you can, and many do, sleep on the runners.
Sleep on the runners? For real? I’ll bet that’s made for some interesting stories when the dogs decide they’re bored with running the trail and head out for parts unknown.
If the dogs left the trail the musher would wake up quickly as they flew off the back of the sled. The problem would be if the dogs stopped and laid down on the trail, which is why you need a good lead dog who will ignore the silly human when necessary and get on with the job.