by Terrie Hanke
Anticipation, excitement, expectation, suspense, anxious or keyed up – all describe Iditarod fans and officials at checkpoints as they await the arrival of the first musher. The feelings span the entire race. It makes no difference if it’s Yentna Station for the Junior Iditarod, Skwentna on the opening night of the race, Puntilla after the mushers have descended the Happy River Steps, McGrath, Ophir, Unalakleet or Nome. Folks are waiting.
Some of the checkpoint personnel have been in McGrath since Sunday. They’ve completed the myriad of necessary tasks to open a checkpoint and receive mushers. Communication connections have to be established. Musher drop bags need to be counted and sorted. The checkpoint area has to be prepared. In the case of McGrath where many mushers take their 24-hour layover, parking for dog teams needs to planned and because of the heavy snow fall this year, it’s meant the use of heavy equipment to move snow – lots of snow. Hot water is made available for mushers. Areas are set aside for musher to sleep. The list can go on and on and it’s thanks to tireless volunteers that all is accomplished in time to support the mushers and share updates with fans around the world.
Within a few hours, PenAir representatives will present the PenAir Spirit of Alaska Award to the first musher into McGrath. The question that will be answered when the first musher climbs up the riverbank to the checkpoint – will it be a woman to claim the beautiful Spirit Mask? Aliy Zirkle and John Baker left Nikolai at 13:49. Baker’s average speed along the trail before Nikolai has been a little faster than Zirkles. Currently, GPS tracker indicates the two mushers are running about 3 miles apart with Zirkle just 18 miles out of McGrath and moving slightly faster than Baker.
It’s been a long time – 1990 – since a woman, Susan Butcher, claimed the Iditarod Championship. Will this be the year? Zirkle is the first woman to win the 1,000 mile Yukon Quest. Husband, Allen Moore, finished 26 seconds behind Hugh Neff in the Quest this year. Many of Moore’s dogs are running in Aliy’s Iditarod team.
