We are just minutes away from a departure to Kaltag, but hopefully enough time to describe the checkpoint.

Bright sun bathes resting dogs.  Side by side, Iditarod champs Dallas Seavey, Jeff king, Mitch Seavey teams rest on their straw beds.  Veterinarians make regular rounds from the dogs, back to the checkpoint, and back again as another team arrives. 

A penetrating wind reminds us that it’s still winter on the Yukon.  Aaron Burmeister, who has a good thermometer on his sled, reported -30F on the river bed—plus the wind chill.   Still, mushers are wary of driving their dogs in the afternoon sun, as if it’s too hot in the sun.In truth, most mushers recognize the natural biorhythm of dogs and humans too. The careful musher always skews the schedule to the turning of light at early morning around the sunrise and evening to either side of sunset.  To be avoided—noon and midnight, which are the dark holes of the animal world.  

Seeing Jeff King in the yard, I am always interested in his latest innovations.  He told me that the dogs came off the 24 at Ruby with real enthusiasm, surging at times to 11mph and more.  For a little while he thought it was great driving a hot rod, “I realized, whoa, wait a minute.  What am I doing?”  He slowed the dogs to an easy speed under 10.  To do that he fills up his caboose sled with a couple of dogs.  Instead of standing on his drag, he continues to rotate dogs to the comfort of his caboose, where the passenger dog curls up.  “Not only do they get a rest, they don’t have to work.”  He then puts his leaders back into rotation, enjoying the luxury of alert hard driving leaders.  And, as an added benefit, the passenger dog gets snacks while riding.  Usually the snacks are gone by the end of the run.

What about the team dogs, do they get a rotation?  Well, sometimes.  “Some of the dogs are infantry.  they just get to work in the middle of the team and follow the leader.”  Some of the dogs in the team have actually ridden and rested for 150 miles—-and the race is barely half done.

Interestingly, I notice that Nicolas Petit is kind of a mini-me-Jeff.  The more I look at the set up of both mushers, the more I realize that Nicolas Petit, newly appearing on the musher scene, has taken Jeff as his tutor.  Petit is on a budget and built his infrastructer at less cost, but he has a cooker seat just like Jeff.  He also has a dragger sled exactly like Jeff.  Instead of a custom built dog box he just went and bought an air kennel.  For practical purposes, however, it’s the same

In many ways, he feeds the same way, making sure to feed gallons of wet food.   When I asked  vets about the teams, a number said that the Petit team was remarkably hydrated—maybe the best in the yard.

When I asked Petit about his kennel he told me he had practiced all winter loading in the kennel  As Jeff, Petit’s dogs willingly jump into the kennel.  He also rotates leaders and if he sees a dog needing it, jumps that dog in the kennel along with ride treats.

I mentioned the subject of hydration to Curtis Erhart, race judge in Galena, and also an accomplished sprint musher he commented, “I was involved in a study of sprint dogs.”  In a thirty mile race, researchers discovered that sprint dogs working at an intense level (around 20 miles an hour) in relatively warm weather .would actually lose about four pounds—and almost all of it was water!  Of course, hydration is just another part of the race strategy.

Petit told me he likes to rest his little leader Beamer, and then rotate her refreshed back to the front of the team.  While we talked he was throwing his team chicken thighs, which they devoured.   He confided that he had scored on some out of date rib eye steaks and his dogs liked them also.

Petit sled on top, King on bottom.  Both have similar equipment but the innovation is King’s

On to Kaltag.  We have just heard that Sonny and Martin are almost to the next Yukon checkpoint.