March 6 7:28am PIkes Landing
check out an early morning update on video from Heister, Bruce Lee, and myself.
Volunteers at Pikes include dog handlers and officials at 6:30Am
Volunteers milled in the PIkes lounge area, noting minus thirty outside. At my first cup of coffee, I asked a young guy about his mission. “I’m from Richardson (AFB) and saw the opportunity to help. I’ll be helping the teams to the start line.” By 7am the place was packed with a legion of officials, pilots, and additional handlers.
Why so many handlers, as many as a dozen and in some cases one human per dog,to bring the teams to the start line. First, the mushers want complete control as they bring sixteen chargers to the line and —–big issue—–they want to save their brake tines from abuse on the underlying gravel and pavement to the start. Additionally, its a great social event for friends and family who can feel the power of the team, jacked out of their minds after three or four days of rest and no workout. I should add ,parenthetically, that as you view the video of teams advancing to the line, note that all the handlers have long tethers attached to the tow line so that they are able to walk alongside the team and THEREBY avoid stepping on the dogs’ paws. This would just be a disaster if a dog was taken out of the competition with a silly incident with a handler.
What’s the sensation? These fifty to sixty-five pound pullers are incredibly strong and literally tow the handlers to the start line WHILST the musher stays off the brake tines with hardened tips specially designed to especially dig in on glare ice surfaces.
ROGER LEE
Roger Lee, Iditarod Competitor and biological engineer with US AF, with Bruce Lee, our Insider Analyst
Roger Lee, Rookie musher from Birkenhea, Wirral (England), goes out number 10 from Pikes Landing. Bruce Lee and he exchange trail information, wondering if they have a common great great grandfather. Roger Lee is carrying a package (contents not disclosed untill arrival) to the famous Honea mushing family of Ruby, Alaska.
Early MOrning Ambience highlighted with Ice Sculptures
Who did these? They’re gorgeous, overlooking the Pike’s Landing slip onto the Chena River.
ice sculpture of sled dogs installed near the Pikes slip to the chena river
a volunteer on the slip leading to the chena river, just a hundred yards from the start line
The Trail
Just talked to Zac Steer, race co-ordinator and right hand functionary of the Race Marshal Mark Nordman, gave me a report of the trail and supplied a photo of the machines (known as “sleds” in the world of the snow machine extremists.)
Eleven sleds and operators completed the trail from Fairbanks to Manley Hot Springs yesterday, Sunday. These are no ordinary enthusiasts. They laugh at snow and apparently found the deep snow and skepticism (which allowed they would flounder to Manley) a wonderful diversion. With thirty below temperatures last night, what two days ago was conidered a classic nightmare trail is now a smooth by way, with numerous turnouts for passing and rest. See here a photo supplied by Zac to demonstrate the specially outfitted machines. Note the carrot top Iditarod lathe which will populate the trail by the thousands. It’s hard to lose the trail—-in my opinion—and even harder at night when the reflective lathe light up like vegas even with the dimmest head lamp.
Incidentaly, to answer your question, the headlamps mushers now use are unbelievable LED creations, lighting up the trail like landing lights on a commericial jet. I haven’t seen this year’s iterations, but I guarantee the latest technology will be utilized.
trail breaker double wide with attendant carriers for lathe and equipment
The Details of Start MOrning
Mushers, many of whom are hoping for the run of a lifetime, were anonymous last night, and largely located at locations away from the confusion of Pikes Landing. They have been instructed to arrive at the musher parking lot—about 300 yards from the start–between 6am and 9am. At 7:00am I was informed by a handler that no one had arrived. “They will all be piling in at 7:30 am ,” commented an eve’s dropper.
Even the nine am arrivals will have plenty of time to snack and water their team as first out Ryan Redington (Wasilla, Ak veteran) departs at 11 AM.
The 2015 Iditarod, which also started in Fairbanks, experienced such gridlock at the start that the radio stations are advising fans to consider viewing the Iditarod pack at select viewpoints along the trail.
Trail breakers have departed Manley, exiting on a long five-mile Manley Slough that communicates to the Tanana River and an approximate 60 mile run to the village of Tanana situated on the north bank of the Yukon River. To put it in perspective , the Tanana River, a tributary of the might YUKE, is a great river by itself. Tugs and barges leave Nenana after break-up in early May and wind their way downstream on the Tanana for 250 miles to the mouth at the Yukon. This requires special skill as the Tanana winds and twists, forming and dissolving sandbars, with ever changing channels.
Because of this, locals are reluctant to travel on the Tanana as the river undermines a sand bar beneath the ice and can overnight create open water. Putting a trail on the Tanana in the fall time would be DICEY. As the snow accumulates over the winter and the ice finally establishes itself, the project of putting in a trail is overwhelming for the individual user. However, the trail breaker team is well equipped and will re-establish a one time trail that was punched in by the IRON DOG (snow machine)race several weeks ago.
Anectdotally, the Tanana River can be a source of amusement. Because it is so convoluted, bending and arching in wide curves, often concluding in dead end sloughs, and exposed and therefore often hammered by winds that create a windstorm of dust, blowing sand, and snow, across mile or two mile wide bed some adventurers on dog teams have been completely turned around. In one instance, I remember that casual village chatter reported that two dog teams were moving down the Tanana in direction of the Yukon. In a small village of 300 souls, you cannot hide even in the great expanse. Several days later, the chatter reported that the teams had somehow become disoriented and were now heading back upstream on another channel to Manley, thinking they were still enroute to the Yukon.
The Tanana is an exposed morass of drift piles, threads of channels converging and splitting, characterized by what seems constant wind.
The Trail to NEnana and Manley
All reports now good, the trailbreakers established new trail on top of the old winter trail, apparently able to see the old trail in afternoon sunlight. Should be good traveling.
Here is the rule. Never travel faster than the physiolgical threshold. Dallas Seavey , the master of this strategy, et al have teams that are motivated and could blister the trail to Nenana and Manley, but they will constrain team speed and preserve power. Fuel requirements will jump from plus or minus 2000 cal to levels approaching 10,000 on the race trail. The trick is to walk not run, and get there first.
