10 AM in Takotna checkpoint—-The mushers retire for a respite from the rigors of the trail 

 

At 7am and with the suffused light of day, I attempt to survey the resting dog yard, now populated with teams parked in the designated “24 hour mandatory” section.

 

A group of Norwegian students, as part of an educational tour, have assumed ownership of the Takotna Parking Service and are standing by to receive the next musher.   They also follow the progress of countrywoman Sigrid Eklan with another group of Norwegian Eklan supporters.  Asked about Sigrid’s progress, a fan submits that Sigrid is only 15 minutes off her planned Schedule.  Sigrid’s  fans like her  empathetic relationship with her team. “she’s a dog whisperer,” one tells me.

 

Most mushers divide the race up into thirds while planning.   That is, the first third across the Alaska Range to the 24 hr point.   This is regarded as the toughest part of the trail in terms of obstacles that can injure mushers and dogs and break sleds.   The goal is to survive and arrive at the 24 hour with an intact team.

 

The second third is the run from the 24 hour to the Bering Sea Coast.  This can involve some serious racing, but the dog team must be maintained scrupulously to husband the power of the team.  Finally, the last third is the Bering Sea coast from Unalakleet to Nome where cold temperatures, a predictable wind, and treeless interminable landscapes leave the team and musher vulnerable.  The final leg commands respect.

 

Sigrid has been very conservative in the first third, my informant tells me, but her schedule will become more aggressive.

 

Dallas Seavey team continues to leave impression with fans

 

In the checkpoint, the rowdy arrival of Dallas Seavey’s team, a memorable display of whining, barking, unrestrained “Joie de vivre” (lets put a buoyant French phrase to it) continues to be a topic. 

 

Sitting down with Cym and Raymie Smyth, an anecdote about Dallas emerges.  “Well, Jake Burmeister went to Cantwell for a 90 mile  training run to McClaren.”    After a trip out and back (that makes 180 miles) he found it grueling enough to conclude the training session.  Dallas Seavey was also training.  After 180 miles, he decided, “What the heck , let’s do it again.”  So that’s 360 miles, and that’s early December.  He must be doing something right, “ comments Ramey.

 

Raymie and Cym Smyth

 

Raymie (last year 2^nd place) and Cym have a very refined sense of humor.  I really like talking to these guys and you are guaranteed to get a good laugh. “ I notice that you two were travelling together on the run in McGrath, “ I say as a way to start the conversation.  

 “Well,” says Cym, “we really don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.” 

 “It was entirely accidental, we actually wish it had never happened,” adds Raymie.

 

Asked about their race, both respond in different deliveries.  “It looks like a finishing race,” replies Ramey, after he goes through a quite humorous recounting of his leader Scott.

 

“Scott is ten years old—led every Iditarod I’ve run since he was three.  He has always been a hard driver—until this year.  I mean actually, he has become quite a slacker.

 

It’s like he’s looking back at the team saying “Is everybody Ok with my slack tug line?  Is everybody OK with that?  Does it bother anybody?  Who cares about the idiot on the back of the sled who keeps yelling at me to start working.”   Ramey has a very “global” outlook on life and realizes its just a dog race.

 

Cym finds all this quite amusing and adds that it could be one of those years when the sled runners are dragging hard. 

 

Hugh Neff

 

Hugh Neff, now taking his 24 hr in Takotna, finishes a steak and egg breakfast, and recounts that he has “carried a dog in the sled on every run of the race.  Just stupid stuff, sprained wrists, cramps and I have to give a dog a ride.  It’s disheartening and takes a little out of the team to haul one of their own guys.” Like Ramey, Hugh is good with it, takes another bite of steak and laughs at a comment down the table.

 

Dee Dee Jonrowe,  so petite and small that many wonder how she survives some of the dramatic obstacles, reports that she has already broken one sled, but the good news, “This is the first time that I have had all sixteen dogs  arrive in such perfect shape.  They are eating well and fired up, which is wonderful.” 

 

As the morning brightens, race judge Andy Anderson checks the GPS screen again, then suggests we walk outside to see Martin Buser.   Buser is uncharacteristically “off” the schedule of the leaders.   One surmises that he is racing to his own beat this year.  He arrives cheerful, dogs lunging, quickly signs in and out of the checkpoint, and leaves in direction Ophir.  Although well off the pace by hours, he does have a well preserved dog team.  He’s a dark horse, not withstanding being a 4x Champ, but he is poised to go racing in the last two thirds of the race.  As a note, Martin likes to take his 24 hour in Ophir.

 

Ophir is remote and not nearly as commodious as Takotna, but it is quiet, sparsely populated with mushers and an easy place to rest.  His Hawaiian shirt was covered by his blue parka.

 

Martha Dobson of N. Carolina chairs comm position Takotna, feels good about being juxtaposed

 

 

 

 

Accidentally I take a short course in English when I meet Martha Dobson at the Iditarod comm center.   Knowing that comm people are very analytic,  I innocently ask Martha  “The comm people are always very good with numbers, so what are you seeing?” , intending to remain focused on a concise report of the race.  How could I have know this woman with a southern accent was leading a linguistic expedition?

 

“Actually, nothing, “she honestly responds, and then discover she was the teacher on the trail last year. Interested to hear her observations about the race, I  was taken very far afield when she told me she had been looking for Juxtapositions.

 

“Oh, really?” 

 

“Well, for example, I saw a boy bundled in winter clothing riding a bicycle in McGrath on the snow and took a photo for my students.”   I looked at her with the most intelligence possible, and asked if Martin Buser’s Hawaaian shirt on a musher was an unusual juxtaposition, to which she added another image, that of a car painted with flames on the side parked near a snow bank—also in McGrath.

 

Now enlightened, is Martha Dobson of N. Carolina somewhat out of juxtaposition in Takotna?

 

Anjanette Steer

 

Like her mushing colleague Dee Jonrowe, Anjanette is petite and trying to stay in one piece so she can go back home to her husband, top ten finisher Zack Steer, and her two boys Glen and Clayton.  “ As a rookie, I was really amazed at the Burn. One wrong move on the hills and you be upside down.  Its hard for me to tip over a loaded sled.   Once I get on some easy trail, my size will be a huge advantage for the dogs.”

 

Across the table, Jeff King, the 4x champ with the snake skin pattern, arrives for a repast of eggs, bacon, and potatoes, packed with many toasted slices of bread.

 

Jeff tells me that he likes the pattern, but he really likes the feel of the soft and flexible fabric.

 

Anxious to hear the real nitty gritty on the team, King offers that his dogs are keeping their weight—“just exceptional this year.”  He also has a new leader named Burglar who is driving like mad.  He parenthesizes by saying, “Well, he’s really good, but I am not totally confident in him this year.”

 

King is a veteran, a champion, and very good at driving dogs.  He pulls out some folder scratch pages from his pocket, and tells me that the times are slow and the trail is slow—“just a few minutes faster than 2008.”  Commenting on the racers, he says that the Seaveys just amaze him.  “Their dogs don’t appear smooth, but they move really well.  I asked Mitch about it and he said maybe it was the way he trained them.”

 

Offering a trail anecdote, King said,” the run out of Rohn was out of control.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  I don’t know why they do it, but the dogs knew it, and they just drove harder.”

 

On the team, “my most experienced leader Cold Train is out of the race.  Physically he doesn’t have anything on my other leaders, but he had a lot of experience.”   On equipment, King commented on another of his well known innovations, the side pull harness,  “ this year we used a better fabric that is slicker, and I don’t have to worry about harness chaffing.”

 

Final Thoughts

 

 

 

 

The Iditarod pack, save for a few rebels,  rests in Takotna.   Mitch Seavey, after calculating times and adjustments, will be the first musher to depart from Takotna this evening in direction Ophir and Cripple.