Upon arriving Nome on Bering Air this morning, I learned that three other mushers had joined Dallas Seavey in Nome as finishers. Dallas marched under the burled arch with 10 dogs at 0413 this morning. He covered the weather altered route from Fairbanks in 8 days, 18 hours and 4 minutes, five hours over his record from the 2014 race. Roughly four hours behind his son came Mitch Seavey.
Aaron Burmeister from Nome followed the two Seaveys as he earned his highest finish in his 16 year Iditarod career, 3rd place with a time of XXXX. Aaron has broken into the top ten on three previous occasions. In 2014 he came in on a bum knee in 10th place with a time of 9 days five hours and 46 minutes. After injuring his knee early in the race and gritting it out to the finish line many miles away, Burmeister’s fellow competitors voted him the most inspirational musher. In 2012 he finished in 4th place in 9 days 10 hours and 4 minutes. The Nome native sat out the years of 2010 and 2011. In 2009 Aaron broke into the top ten for the first time, placing 7th with a lapsed time of 10 days, 14 hours and 56 minutes. His rookie run was back in 1994. Aaron is the second generation of mushers in his family to compete in the Last great Race. His father Richard raced in 1979 and 1982 finishing in 47 place both years. I wasn’t in Nome when Aaron finished but I can imagine that many of his friends and all his family was at the burled arch to celebrate his third place finish.
Wasn’t here for Jessie Royer’s run down Front Street either but what a great accomplishment for her. Royer covered the trail in 9 days 1 hour and 51 minutes to claim 4th place. In her thirteen year Iditarod career Jessie has finished from 21st place to 4th place. She’s had 4 previous top ten finishes, 8th in 2005, 8th in 2009, 10th in 2011 and 7th in 2014. Her time in 2014 was 9 days 4 hours and 3 minutes. Royer splits her time between her home in Montana and her home in Fairbanks. She got her first sled dogs when she was 15 years old and began learning from a mushing master, Doug Swingley. She’s got an impressive list of mushing credentials including winning Montana’s Race to the Sky when she was only 17 and she’s won La Grande Odyssey Invitational in France. Jessie has a way with both dogs and horses, sort of the whisperer of both breeds.
Note the widow’s lamp that hangs from the the burled arch off tot he right. In the days when sled dogs were used for hauling supplies and mail from village to village, a kerosene lamp was lit and hung outside of each roadhouse. Roadhouses were about a day’s travel apart. It helped the dog driver find his destination at night and it signified that someone was on the trail. the lamp was extinguished when the musher made his destination. That tradition continues with the Iditarod today. The widow’s lamp is extinguished by the final musher to make Nome, the recipient of the Wells Fargo Red Lantern for Perseverance.
