4 am—Finger Lake—Nicholas Petit first in by Joe Runyan, 1989 Iditarod Champ

Nicholas Petit leads a tight pack of front runners into Finger Lake at about 4am (please check the wonderful resources for exact times and gps location at the Insider).   Temperatures hang around -11F with a slight breeze putting an accent on the cold.

The scene at the checkpoint

The checkpoint now has the luxury of gps information so the camp of dozing volunteers is forewarned, “musher five miles out” from the communication tent.   Finger Lake rustles to activity as checkers with headlights walk to the checkpoint chute.  It is the obligation of the musher to sign in, but is not obligatory for the exit.  Checkers, however, try to monitor exit times for the archival record.

The night is clear with a ¾ moon.  Bright enough to drown out half the stars in the sky, the bowl of peaks surrounding Finger Lake are stark in relief.  The Lake is surrounded by black spruce and only part way up the slopes a few spruce stand like sentinels.  On the upper slopes, all is black and white, barren with exposed rock precipice and cliff, and snow.  Small curtains of green northern lights shimmer on the horizon, not remarkeable for Alaskans, but worth talking about in Michigan.  One is reminded of the natural state of things.  Out on the lake,  the arctic silence is unusual—-at least for me—-listening for something

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Petit dogs in coats at -11F

Veterinarians appear bundled and prepared for a cold vigil.  They will examine every dog, in every team, that stops at Finger Lake and record observations in the musher’s vet book, a mandatory item.  Behind Petit advances a mob of mushers including Ray Redington, the predictable John Baker, imperturbable and trail hardened Hugh Neff,  the resolute Lance Mackey, rising star Pete Kaiser (only 23 but long on experience and success in pre season races), and perennial favorite Aliy Zirkle (I always panic, is her named spelled correctly?).  Questions in the comm tent complicate the analysis, “where is Jeff King, is Buser amongst the front runners?”

Nicholas Petit and Vets discuss the team and decide to exam all before they down to rest

In the night, we suddenly learn that Hugh Neff and Ray Redington have passed  the resting Petit and continued out of Finger Lake in direction The Happy Valley Steps.  The rhythmic patter of booted feet, the whine of the sled runners on the cold snow, a bobbing light, a checker yells to the volunteer parking crew “He’s going through!!!!” is all that records the passing of a front runner.

A note on dog coats

Use of dog coats is ubiquitous in the mushing world.  The principle reason for dog coats—in my view—-is to break the wind, especially when the wind is quartering on the vulnerable flanks of the dogs (the Bering Sea Coast , for example, can be vicious with wind) but others find it usefuly for keeping the core temperature of the dogs high enough to keep extremeties warm.  Skeptical, I asked a musher who was also an exercize physiologist, if it reallty was beneficial to blanket an animal that was habitualized to severe cold in alaska—to the tune of minus 50 below—if they really needed help to keep warm.  He replied that it could be useful because it is proven that canine muscles work best at 104F and a blanketing could put the dogs in the right body temperature zone.   Therefore, it looks like to me that judgement is an important call.

Nicholas led to parking spot

Here begins a familiar checkpoint ritual.  Nicholas is led to the first parking spot by the volunteer crew.  He plants his ice hook and begins to unclip his dogs from their tug lines.  While he unzips his sled bag and retrieves kibble and snacks, the veterinarians are already on site to examine dogs. “Yes, sure, we might as well look at the dogs while I am busy feeding.   Then they can get some rest.” One by one, the vets move to each dog, checking mobility, looking at each pad for possible abrations, and asking the musher for observations.

After snacking with dry kibble on the snow and long cut cubes of frozen beef, Nicholas busts open a bale of straw to make beds for the dogs.  In his protocol, the next step is to remove the booties, a signal to experienced sled dogs that it’s time to curl up on the straw bed and rest.  Petit’s cooker ignites, the blue flames of alcohol climbing up and down the pot of snow.  In an hour he will pour the hot water on a ration of kibble and meat, then offer another meal.  Universally, mushers regard the hot meal as a necessary step to keep the dogs hydrated.

Comment on the tight pack

Mushers into the checkpoint are confirming the trail hardened overnight and was a good traveling surface.  No surprises, we see all the front runners as they should appear.   On the fly and realizing the trail was better than expected, it seems the veteran mushers are trying to get to Rohn and three hops.  Even if they rest a few hours here, the game plan is to stop further up the trail for a rest in the afternoon.  By evening most of the front runners will be over the Alaska Range via the Dalzell Gorge and approaching the Rohn checkpoint.

I’ve seen it a hundred times, but I am still amazed at the capacity of the Alaskan husky to travel.  The front pack is over a hundred miles on the trail.

Mark Lindstrom, race judge, observes that the front pack is a predictable group of front runners this year.  “Sometimes we get someone in here that may be shouldn’t be at the front of the race.  Lance Mackey changed that when he was the first one to Finger Lake and actually won the race.”

Interestingly, the fan will note that Buser and King, the 4x champs, camped in Skwetna rather than blowing through and camping on the trail.  Could it be that deep snow makes it cumbersome to camp?  Usually the trail crew puts in a couple of side trails so that teams can pull off the main trail.  On a deep snow year, however, the musher is likely to flounder in deep snow on these side trail.  Thus, it does seem to make sense to stay in checkpoints where the snow is packed.

In an interesting exchange, a  veterinarian asked Lance Mackey if there was anything that could be done for him, of course, referring to any medical attention required by his dogs.  Lance, taking the statement at face value, said, “I would really like a cup of coffee,” not generally a service provided by the vet team.   But, it is a good sign for the Mackey team, because Lance was obviously happy with his outfit.   However, it can be reported that Lance did have an unscheduled delay exiting the checkpoint.  His female leader Maple, who is in heat, rendezvoused with a team member.  

Final thoughts

We expected a tight pack to the front. John Baker dropped a dog, always a disappointment but not an unusual event.

So far, the consensus from our panel of veteran volunteers is “no big moves” or wild departures from standard strategy. In fact, the strong teams are running conservatively, maybe an hour slower than expected.

Trail ahead is reported good, maybe excellent.