Justin High Wearing High Adventure Gear Prepares to Leave for the Blueberry Hills
Rookie Justin High arrived in Unalakleet just after the sun rose. High is brightly attired in gear sewn by his wife Jamiee. Together the Highs own High’s Adventure Gear. Justin is happy to be on the coast. He says it’s anything but down hill to Nome from here. Three hundred miles to go along the coast can bring all sorts of challenges including winds and coastal storms.
After resting and indulging in the fine Unalakleet checkpoint cuisine, High will be on his way toward Shaktoolik. The Blueberry Hills lie between here and there. The term “hills” is a bit deceiving. Those hills go up and up and just about the time you believe you’re at the top, they go up some more. What goes up eventually comes down. The trip down the Shaktoolik side of the hills can be a speedy, challenging drop back down to sea level. Further up the coast, mushers climb 1,000 feet up Little McKinley. Those are the known landmarks. What remains unknown are the elements of Mother Nature.
Justin is very pleased with the performance of his dogs. They are enjoying the wide-open spaces of the race as much as he is. High is realizing a dream that started way back in 2012 when he signed up for the race but withdrew ahead of time. Jamiee was going to run in 2014 but withdrew after they lost their house in a fire. Then as they were rebuilding, the Willow Sockeye Fire claimed their house again. Justin and Jamiee say they are getting their lives back in order and it’s time to get back to Iditarod.
Watching the tracker inside the checkpoint this morning, we saw there would be five teams arriving one right after the other between 13:30 and 14:00. Mike Kenney and I walked out with cameras to collect an SD card of great dog teams with incredibly scenic backgrounds. The sun, scenery and mushers all came together at the right time. If you’re going to hike out for the purpose of taking photos to share with the fans at home, having 5 mushers come through in half an hour is ideal!
Dave Delcourt Running into Unalakleet
Rookie Dave Delcourt came into Unalakleet early this afternoon. Delcourt is from New York. He gained his early mushing experience as a guide running sled dog tours. While working in Juneau during the summer he met up with Robert Redington who put him in touch with Ray Redington Jr. Delcourt has been working with Ray since 2014. He jumped at the chance to take a team to Nome when Ray offered the opportunity. Delcourt is currently running in 48th place.
Team Zappa Within a Mile of Unalakleet Checkpoint
Veteran Monica Zappa has a thing going with 47th place. In the three previous years she’s run the race, she’s finished in 47th place each time. The place may have been the same but she took 24 hours off her time during each race. Currently Zappa is running in 49th place. by roughly 4 hours. Monica dresses in high visibility colors. She’s easy to spot a far distance off. Zappa by birth is a Wisconsinite. She comes from a mushing family. Both her parents have participated in Minnesota’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. It was always her father’s dream to run Iditarod but he passed away before he could realize the dream. Having is daughter on the trail must be the next best thing.
Gier Idar Hjelvik Running Dallas Seavey’s Puppy Team
Geir Idar Hjelvik is back for his second Iditarod. He earned his finisher’s belt buckle in 2016. Geir didn’t stand on runners for his first experience with working dogs, he stood on skies behind a German shepherd. From there he began learning the sport of mushing and soon began his own kennel with dogs of Susan Butcher and Jerry Austin lineage. After being competitive in some of the Norwegian races, Geir began to think about doing the Iditarod. While Hjelvik has thirty of his own dogs, they are back home in Norway. He’s running a puppy team for Dallas Seavey. That’s easy knowledge to come by when looking at Geir’s team. They are wearing dog coats logoed by J.J. Keller, Seavey’s sponsor and the harnesses and gangline are set up with the typical Seavey spreader.
