Dear Friends,

Did you hear about Eddie Burke, Jr. back on Saturday?  He was getting pretty sleepy and fell off the back of his sled!  His dogs just kept going!  They call that a runaway team!  Thankfully, the dogs made it to the checkpoint and were held there.  

Two kind mushers found Burke walking to try to catch up with his team.  Hunter Keefe and Christian Turner each gave him a ride for a short while, but Eddie felt bad for slowing them down and got off.  He said he walked a long way.  Later, a snow machine picked him up and drove him to meet his dogs.  He saw his dogs and quipped, “Hey guys!  Did ya have fun without me?”

Some of you may have thought, “But I thought mushers couldn’t get help from anyone but another musher?”  

In the Iditarod rules, rule 19 states:

Driverless Team: A team and driver must complete the entire race trail including checking in at all required locations. A driverless team or loose dog may be stopped and secured by anyone. The driver may recover his/her team either on foot, with assistance from another musher or mechanized vehicle and continue the race. Motorized assistance must be reported to an official at the next checkpoint. If mechanized help is used and advantage has been gained, the Race Marshal may impose appropriate sanctions.

Driverless dog teams can just keep running!

Eddie Burke, Jr., has stayed in the race and looks to come into Nome possibly in the top ten!

Keep watching, and hang on, mushers!  We dogs love to run!

Until next time,

Gypsy