March 5 Fairbanks at Pike’s Landing Start  2:27PM

Joe Runyan

Our Insider Crew arrives Fairbanks after a 61/2 hour drive from Anchorage.   Sky’s clear and the mountains, particularly Denali, brilliant about mid-day as we pass over the Alaska Range in direction Fairbanks and the great Yukon drainage—known to Alaskans as the Interior.    

Kevin Burgess, Jeff Shelton, Bruce Lee, Ian Planchon, Phillip Townsend

Bruce Lee, supervising the four man crew, is seen in the middle of “BEfore” photo.  The two on the left, Kevin Burgess and Jeff Shelton, are the guides who lead on the trail, pull a commodious sled of survival gear and equipment, and are responsible for repairs, trail decisions, and keeping our two cameramen Ian Planchon and PHillip Townsend fed and supplied.   These machines are specially equiped to haul cameras in low temperatures.

Operating as two teams, one will lead ahead of the musher pack.  The other will set up behind, take care of scenic shots and document the following pack.   The clock never stops for these four guys.  Honestly, they may have the most physical job on the trail, including the mushers.

They are now doing last minute checks on their machines in a heated green house near the start area of Pike’s Landing.  Once they start logging images, other members of the crew in checkpoints will start logging and posting to the Insider.

TRAIL CHECK

Deep snow reports have been confirmed by Iditarod trail breakers already on the trail.  Ten minutes ago the crew was through Nenana and about 15 miles from Manley checkpoint.  While it is true that the snow is deep, these guys scoff at deep snow and are reporting that their double wides have put in a trail.  WE actually saw part of their work as we passed by Nenana on the Parks highway and saw a section of the trail f winding off the Tanana River rom the highway marked regularly with the iconic and unmistakeable Iditarod carrot topped rellective trail markers.   I also learn that the trail breakers are occassionally putting in parallel trails so that mushers can whoa their dogs for a rest and not interrupt the flow of the race.

MOre on the trail breakers when I catch up with them.  They are a very unique group of  machine heads.  they laugh in the face of a challenge so I am sure they are going to downplay any difficult encounters while breaking out trail.  I have seen them calmly bring out the tools, break down a machine, reassemble and head out into the night without losing their bizarre sense of trail humor.  Can you imagine a thousand miles of non-stop mehanical challenges.  It is reported that one of the trail breaker machines took a dunking in the Tanana River enroute from Fairbanks to Nenana—-a story to be confirmed when I catch up with the crew.  One could intimate from the fact that a snowmachine driver also took a bath, but no one will probably admit it unless its a really good story.  THe front five trail breakers to include JR Moline, Spencer Pape, JOhn Kindle, Jake Fletcher and Cameron Gray will continually play into the narrative.

Mark Nordman, Race Marshal, told me the crew was to stop in Manley tonight and then exit on Manley Slough and then on to the very braided Tanana River where the trail will intersect the Yukon River and cross north to the checkpoint village of Tanana.

More on their progress as I hear it, but I suspect they will be in direction Tanana and the Yukon by late afternoon.   Temperatures are about 4F and I think everyone would agree its perfect conditions for the trail to set and harden overnight.

Mushers

WE take a quick look around the parking lot and do not see any mushers, but then are reminded that they are probably lowing low, ensconced with friends in Fairbanks, away from the fans and media, and focusing on tomorrows real START—-which, finally, after all this pre-race posturing, is going to happen!

Just a thought for dog lovers.  I talked to Noah Burmeister and his brother  Aaron about feeding strategy prior to the race.  Obviously, the dogs are not burning calories as they would on the trail so how are they fed?   Since they have been trained to a very high metabolic level—somewhere in the 8 to 10 thousand calorie level—and fed a diet high in fat one wonders what to do at a  normal 1500 to 2000 cal level?   “No, we found the high fat diet is what they need, so we just reduce the size of the ration, but not the ratio of protein to fat.”